Subject:
Re: more from Johns Hopkins
Date:
Thu, 03 Sep 1998 01:02:11 -0700
From:
"Ray E. Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
References:
1
Jay Hanson wrote:
> IMHO, it's mostly a problem of psychological denial -- with a healthy dose
> of vested interest to lock it in place.
REH:
I agree up to a point.
Jay continues:
>The first step would be for people to admit the problems
>real (even some members of this list won't).
REH:
For one of those who might seem resistant, I would say
that to me the issue is not whether something should be
done but whether there is something to put in the place of
the kinds of work activities that destroy the environment and
stimulate pollution.
I have suggested that the traditional Greek solution is not a
bad one. Begin with developing the perceptions through the
Arts and make work fit the goals of individual and group
psycho-physical development. My cynicism about that has
to do with individuals in power being willing to give up and
negotiate the world that is to come. I suspect there will be
wars over whose favorite image of an ideal future will predominate.
Both the stressed environment and a rise in plagues will likely
provide the tools for tyrants to stress people into nonsensical,
manipulatible directions.
Jay continues:
> The second step would be to admit that the
> consumer society must now end.
REH
As Thomas pointed out, the idea of work is important.
Don't pay people for doing nothing. Pay them for doing
something that is useful in the elevation of human and
individual consciousness. Develop programs for the
changeover and instead of consuming iron, consume
esthetic products that delight and develop.
Jay
> If we could overcome denial, we might have a chance. But I see it as the
> "alcoholic" syndrome: the alcoholic can't overcome denial until he is lying
> in the gutter drowning in his own puke.
REH
If we are addicted to anything, it is the anesthetized physical
and emotional patterning that has been necessary to live the
last 250 years in the West. There have been many strategies
developed to help people survive the Industrial Era.
I meet them in my performance classes. Working with the powerfully
talented, the great exercises of the Western Theater rip the skin
from their eyes and the painful memories from their histories. Most of
them are not mature enough to handle such flooding and leave to go
back to the simplicities of the Auto plant or the computer program, no
matter how gentle or sensitive the teacher.
(But, as you point out, their jobs are going to have to change. Why
can't we be "human" like the Dutch and program job change into
the life pattern as a worthy goal and provide the money for the
training?)
Or they are afraid of specific physical terms that their religions
categorized as "dirty", a taboo strengthened in order to escape
the previous sexual diseases that killed most of Europe. (If you
think teaching ecology is difficult you should try teaching children
a logical and healthy response to their pleasure.)
Although sexuality is suspect, paradoxically it is the only "allowed"
complete human pleasure. The Pleasure Principle, the bodies most
accurate measure of success or failure, teaches the child. Adults
inaccurately classify childish pleasure in growth as "sexual." That
way they can encapsulate the wholeness of pleasure in the fragment
of sexuality and prove that the rest of life is a struggle and should
expect little other than profit.
Even among the former Communists, (good 19th century scientists) this
has been turned to a puritanical rigidity that is almost afraid of the feel
of a lengthening muscle other than a penis. The 19th century model
of healthy work is a contracting muscle pulled to a "toned" hardness.
The penis, on the other hand, is a contradiction to their model of how
work happens in the body. As stated earlier, their model is one of
shortening (contraction) and rigidity with the natural flow of pleasurable
energy through the muscles being hardened like bone. This 19th
century medical "work" model has been discarded in the dance,
Olympic and professional sports worlds because it causes injuries as
tight rigid muscles are easily damaged.
But the puritanical streak in regular science is still abroad in the non sports
and non artistic world and it causes amazing physical problems as people
encounter the real issues of loss of home, identity and money in a new world.
(I would refer you to Nicholas Tinbergen's acceptance speech of the Nobel
Prize when he exhaustingly analyses this in his discussion of human postural
patterns through the Alexander Technique.)
But pleasure is required for many non-polluting professions as an indicator
of growth. The Arts demand it and those who can't break the programming
crash on the rocks of their personal issues. (Note the American President
and his delighted tormentors!)
My point is that the pleasure of human life is the greatest developer and
indicator of growth that we possess. Also it takes great sacrifice and
pain to subdue the human drive for "growth through pleasure." You have
to work hard to ignore the fact that pollution hurts! Your throat gags,
your chest wheezes and yet you go on "IN SPITE OF IT ALL" instead of
saying "What the hell is going on?" "Who the F**k is doing this to me?"
and then going looking for the SOB who would do it to you for simple profit.
Or for JOBS!
Jay finishes:
> Of course, by then it will be too
> late for us (e.g., it takes ~3000 to 12,000 years to develop sufficient
> soil to form productive land).
No, you can do it in far less time if you bring back the
Buffalo Barrens and learn to talk to the plants and the animals.
Stay Strong,
REH
