Let me see if I understand your argument correctly. It seems to me you are
arguing that if force and violence and greed and other such forces have
beenable to prevail in the past then they must always prevail.
Please correct me if I have misinterpreted your argument.
The fact about culture that makes hope possible is that, as opposed to
biologically determined behaviors which can only change over many
generations, culture can change much more quickly. Therefore, I believe that
if enough of us are able to think about what kind of a world we want for
our(collective) descendents we can work toward creating the conditions that
might at least tend in the direction of cultural values that are more
synergistic.
Selma
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christoph Reuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: synergistic societies (was Re: Name Dropping)
> Selma Singer wrote:
> > Ruth Benedict's work supplied evidence that societies range
> > on a continuum of those that pit individuals against each other to
societies
> > that support structures that insure that both individuals and groups are
> > satisfied most fully by supporting each other; that working in one's own
> > interests is, at one and the same time, working in the interests of the
> > group and of others; in such societies when an individual works in
her/his
> > own best interests, s/he simultaneously works in the best interests of
the
> > group and vice versa.
> >
> > The problem, of course, is that, the societies Benedict described that
have
> > structures like this were quite small and homogeneous and we don't know
how
> > to create those social structures in modern societies. I know some may
say
> > that it may not be possible to do that.
> >
> > However, what those studies show is that it is possible for humans to
have
> > societies like this. If human competitive and destructive behavior were
> > instinctive and biologically determined, those kinds of societies would
not
> > be possible and they did exist as Benedict showed. She called them
> > synergistic societies.
>
> It is just that synergistic societies DID exist, or DO they still exist ?
> IIRC, they only DID exist, before getting destroyed by the other type of
> societies ("those that pit individuals against each other"). What does
> this say about human (d)evolution ? Perhaps the synergistic societies
> went extinct and today we're left with only "dog eat dog" societies ?
> (I'm not only thinking of ancient cultures that were destroyed by
> invasions -- I'm also thinking of e.g. the Swiss synergistic society
> that has been slowly destroyed in the past decades by U$ (non)cultural
> influences...)
>
> Chris
>
>
