Keith Hudson wrote:
[snip]
> If Marx were writing today he would have realised that hierarchy is deeply
> embedded in human nature and there will always be a yearning for
> recognition and power -- whether in politics, science, commerce and so on.
[snip]
If Marx was alive today, and if he looked hard enough, he would
find that some persons who have studied childrearing have indeed
found that "man makes himself on the basis of conditions he has
not made", i.e., that "human nature" is for the most part a cultural
artifact (or, if the word is understood in an entirely
un-honorific way: "accomplishment").
I would urge anyone who thinks that hierarchy is embedded in
the bedrock substance of persons to read such books as
Frederick LeBoyer's _Birth Without Violence_, and Lloyd deMause's
_The History of Childhood_. As Heinz Kohut pointedly
put it: That something occurs frequently or even ubiquitously
does not mean that it is normal, let alone that it is healthy.
Hierarchy is deeply embedded in the kinds of personalities which
traditional childrearing in most societies (including ours)
shapes. As far as a yearning for recognition is concerned,
there is one, but the kind of recognition most persons mostly
seek is a "sublimation" (i.e., aim-deflected mutilation) of
a very different kind of desire for recognition, which Hegel,
in the little known story of the gentleman and his butler in
his _Phenomenology_ -- hierarchical childrearing makes
people be much more fascinated by the story of the master and slave! --,
a different form of *mutual* recognition which Hegel described
in the story of the gentleman and his butler, as: "God
appearing in the midst of those who know themselves in the form
of pure knowledge". The root of *this* kind of desire for
recognition was specified by Kohut as:
the mother whose face lights up at the sight of her child
--in open delectation and celebration, not discipline and manipulation.
The renaissance Madonna and Child paintings in which Mary
*offers* a small animal or thing for her child's free
exploration and judgment, remain powerful images of this
insight, albeit, *alienated* onto the alien destiny of a Messiah
instead of being *integrated* into the daily life of Everyman
(every woman, every child...).
"Human nature" is neither fully human (reflectively self-accountable), nor
fully natural (entirely devoid of meaning). It's that
intermediate state between the two in which most of
us are stuck so badly that we don't even know there is anything
going on. As the title of Alice Miller's book has it:
_Thou Shalt Not Be Aware_
A truly *human nature* remains for us to accomplish in our
future. It would be a social world in which every person
and every thing each person ever encounters would always
and infinitely deeply respond nurturingly to the individual's
needs and desires (a non-mythological "reenchantment" of the
world). There is a real mission for technological
workers here, should they -- as the tape in Mission
Impossible always said to Mr. Phelps -- "choose to accept it".
+\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
