Brian Blackwell
Senior Member
- Mar 10, 2018
- 994
- 129
- 45
- Banned
- #1
Human nature is often cited as justification for political views. All along the political spectrum, the belief that human nature is characterized by a tendency toward selfishness and immorality is prevalent. In fact, it’s often presented as the primary reason why government is necessary at all.
However, to attribute any such specific qualities to human nature is to stop the investigation short of its object. The particular expressions of human nature are not human nature itself; and conditions are a major factor to consider when evaluating both personal and social behaviors.
I submit that human nature can be defined by two broad characteristics: free will, and adaptability.
Man’s adaptability is rooted in his evolved intellectual and creative prowess. These left-brained and right-brained modalities, when working in unison, allow him to devise novel, effective solutions. But adaptability, like all things, exists as a polarity. The dark side of adaptability is programmability – a vulnerability to manipulation.
With a deep understanding of psychology, a manipulator can use man’s adaptability to control him. A good example of this is trauma-based mind control. Through torture, an individual’s adaptability can be leveraged to direct them toward a particular behavioral pattern. On a more subtle level, fear programming can be employed as a stimulus to garner the desired response to a suggested solution. This “problem-reaction-solution” strategy is often used by politicians to elicit support for a particular agenda.
Culture is the most effective tool for purposefully directing man’s adaptability. The following passage from Jermey Locke’s book, The End of All Evil, explains how culture can be used to engineer a society:
“Cultures limit the choices available to people by creating arbitrary rules for your life, and enforcing them with peer pressure. Crushing the spirit of people allows culture to gain their obedience.
…[Model citizens] are rewarded by society for being easily molded by culture. The powers of authority and compulsion in all walks of life will always reward the model citizens with tokens of nobility and will always punish those who fail to meet the standards of servitude with humiliation and ridicule. Such is the creation of a culture. Such is the making of slaves.”
So where does this leave free will? By the above commentary, one would be left suspecting that free will does not exist at all. However, the expression of free will resides in the ability to decide where to place one’s attention.
Attention has been described as “spiritual (or mental) currency”. We “pay” attention to get something in return. What we get depends on where we spend it. If we spend attention on fear-inducing aspects of our world (such as what’s largely offered by mass media’s worldview poisoning), we are more susceptible to the problem-reaction-solution manipulation. If we instead recognize the undesirable realities of our world, but quickly shift our focus toward knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and the solutions thus derived, we are using our free will to beneficial effect.
As described in my thread How emotion affects our political views , the thoughts we focus upon will determine our emotional state, and our emotional state will guide our actions. It behooves us to be as prudent and frugal with attention as we are with our dollars. More so, in fact, as the expression of our human nature (given a particular set of conditions) will be a reflection of this expenditure.
Thanks for checking in, and for taking some time to consider this all-important topic.
However, to attribute any such specific qualities to human nature is to stop the investigation short of its object. The particular expressions of human nature are not human nature itself; and conditions are a major factor to consider when evaluating both personal and social behaviors.
I submit that human nature can be defined by two broad characteristics: free will, and adaptability.
Man’s adaptability is rooted in his evolved intellectual and creative prowess. These left-brained and right-brained modalities, when working in unison, allow him to devise novel, effective solutions. But adaptability, like all things, exists as a polarity. The dark side of adaptability is programmability – a vulnerability to manipulation.
With a deep understanding of psychology, a manipulator can use man’s adaptability to control him. A good example of this is trauma-based mind control. Through torture, an individual’s adaptability can be leveraged to direct them toward a particular behavioral pattern. On a more subtle level, fear programming can be employed as a stimulus to garner the desired response to a suggested solution. This “problem-reaction-solution” strategy is often used by politicians to elicit support for a particular agenda.
Culture is the most effective tool for purposefully directing man’s adaptability. The following passage from Jermey Locke’s book, The End of All Evil, explains how culture can be used to engineer a society:
“Cultures limit the choices available to people by creating arbitrary rules for your life, and enforcing them with peer pressure. Crushing the spirit of people allows culture to gain their obedience.
…[Model citizens] are rewarded by society for being easily molded by culture. The powers of authority and compulsion in all walks of life will always reward the model citizens with tokens of nobility and will always punish those who fail to meet the standards of servitude with humiliation and ridicule. Such is the creation of a culture. Such is the making of slaves.”
So where does this leave free will? By the above commentary, one would be left suspecting that free will does not exist at all. However, the expression of free will resides in the ability to decide where to place one’s attention.
Attention has been described as “spiritual (or mental) currency”. We “pay” attention to get something in return. What we get depends on where we spend it. If we spend attention on fear-inducing aspects of our world (such as what’s largely offered by mass media’s worldview poisoning), we are more susceptible to the problem-reaction-solution manipulation. If we instead recognize the undesirable realities of our world, but quickly shift our focus toward knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and the solutions thus derived, we are using our free will to beneficial effect.
As described in my thread How emotion affects our political views , the thoughts we focus upon will determine our emotional state, and our emotional state will guide our actions. It behooves us to be as prudent and frugal with attention as we are with our dollars. More so, in fact, as the expression of our human nature (given a particular set of conditions) will be a reflection of this expenditure.
Thanks for checking in, and for taking some time to consider this all-important topic.
