Brad and Ray - you are onto a fertile topic that needs further exploration,
and perhaps a lot of discussion. For myself, the middle of the pyramid is
frustrating - frustrating in the extreme. I can look upwards and see the
corruption, the lack of discipline or organization, the greed, and the
utter lack by so-called leaders of a sense that things could be better for
all. I see strange and ugly personalities - those who abandoned others to
advance their own fortunes, at the expense of others, at the expense of the
environment, and at the expense of the long term future. Looking
downwards, I see the disgraceful sad state of those caught up in poverty,
lack of education, the unemployed, the underemployed, the mis-employed, and
more. At my own level in the pyramid, I see others equally frustrated - we
talk and we struggle to keep our level in the great game of life, but we
are without significant resources, without encouragement from each other
because we have been divided and conquered, without support from the top
and bottom, and the result is that we become frustrated. We know that much
can and must be done, some of us spend years trying to provide human
services, to educate others, to plant trees or engage in all sorts of
positive directions, but given the lack of leadership from the upper
levels, and our own lack of resources, and our need to make a living, we
cannot make much of an impact in the long-term direction of our societies
and communities, in changing the systems that appear to be governing us, or
even in defining exactly what it is that we should and could be doing to
make the world a better place.
Perhaps we need to look to each other, recognize that the upper levels are
never going to get their act together in any meaningful way, and that the
bottom levels are hurting so much that they cannot act, then begin to put
together a middle level answer to the frustrating conditions that we live
under. Reject the top and we lose our jobs and incomes, but certainly, we
do not have to follow their corruption and idiocy. Perhaps we can design
and develop some meaningful answers to the problems that pervade our
communities, and try to go it alone, i.e., without looking for any help
from the top. They are unable to grasp the enormity of the issues and
devoid of the personality characteristics needed to get humans into a
meaningful future.
That is my $.02 cents worth - maybe with enough 2 cent contributions, we
can build a better world. bob gregory
At 07:45 15/03/2000 +1100, Brad Hanson wrote:
>I couldn't agree more, Ray. Perhaps that makes me a major hypocrite, given
>that my job is selling business degrees, but we live in a society that has
>lost its soul. And, yes, we ignore the lessons of history and the
>fundamental truths in great works of art because their study is
>contra-indicated by the economic rationalist prescription. In this lies
>the seeds of future calamity.
>
>I would take your argument further here, Ray. I believe we in the West
>suffer from a power-elite whose rapaciousness is unparalleled, with a few
>historical exceptions. In many ways, I perceive the people who run my
>country, Australia, as behaving much like the Russian aristocracy and
>captains of industry prior to 1905. Short-term thinking, the "bean
>counter's" view of the universe, reigns supreme. On an above-median salary
>myself, I should add that I by no means absolve myself in this respect,
>though I am certainly no millionaire.
>
>I should add further that I do not blame individuals. As you say, the huge
>salaries are a symptom of underlying insecurity. It is my belief that this
>insecurity transcends the simple economic sphere. To me, this "always a
>bit more" (at the expense of the post-industrial peasantry) mentality is
>symptomatic of a more essential emptiness. The prevailing religious
>paradigms have failed utterly. We have religious leaders running around
>supporting pathetically unsustainable, ecologically catastrophic, moral
>strictures and a medieval anthropomorphic apprehension of Higher
>Intelligence that would actually be hilariously funny were its consequences
>so tragic.
>
>Hence we have a power elite who walk through life, like Charles Foster Kate
>in Orson Welles classic movie, feeling desperately empty amidst their
>riches and seeking, through hedonism, to ease the deep underlying
>meaninglessness of their existence. And yes, the still-born replacement
>religion in which the "great God Science" held the key to our future died,
>in utero, when some of the horrendous byproducts of these advances became
>manifest.
>
>That's my $0.02 worth, anyway.
>
>
>Brad
>
>
>
>At 12:23 PM 3/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>Not a new scenario. Just read the Greeks. But we have killed
>>our eyes and ears by shutting down the memory that the great
>>works of art teach us. Reduced to a profession for the purpose
>>of "making" a living, a job, we have lost our souls. That is the
>>root of the evil. Some will say, REH's at it again. And I am,
>>these people are by and large Americans who have overcome their
>>fear of security with huge salaries and now worry about losing it.
>>
>>None of them have the courage to do much more than whine.
>>Religion has failed, science is a gun but the soul comes from
>>true sight, connection through love, an intelligent heart and knowing
>>the great gifts of the past well enough to project forward to the
>>seventh generation. The only thing I can see that Europe has
>>given us is their great art, otherwise its genocide and funeral
>>industries.
>>
>>REH
>>
>
>
Pacific Means Peace
Robert J. Gregory
School of Psychology
Massey University
Palmerston North, NEW ZEALAND
Phone 64 6 350-5799 extension 2053
FAX 64 6 350-5673
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
