Levels of Identification and Synergy
Ilya Shambat
humanity to develop: Human beings themselves, the family or the ethnic
group, humanity, and life. In all human beings will be found an
orientation, in various degrees, to all of the preceding. Some will
tend more toward one or the other orientation, and degree of
participation in each will vary among individuals and during the
lifetime of each individual. And each orientation will favor more of
its orientation while seeking to exclude others.
The more atomized levels will see the more general levels as betrayal
or illusion. The more general levels will see the more atomized levels
as short-sighted, selfish, primitive or ignorant. The tribe or the
country does not like people to identify with humanity or with life,
any more than it wants them to identify with themselves or their
families. The family orientation does not want people to identify with
the more atomized level - the self - or the more general levels -
nation, humanity or life - at the expense of itself. Similarly,
humanity-orientation and life-orientation do not want people to
identify with their nations, their ethnic groups, their families or
themselves at the expense of humanity and of life.
The people who have identified with the more atomized levels at the
expense of the more general ones are usually detested, except of
course by the members of the more atomized levels themselves of which
they are a part. Hitler and Genghis Khan, who identified with their
ethnicities and used their ethnicities to conquer and slaughter
millions of people of other ethnicities, are hated by most people
around the world - with the exception of course of the ethnocentrists
at home who think that they were great leaders and people who hate the
same people that Hitler or Genghis Khan wanted to destroy. English and
Spanish imperialists, whose crimes equaled those of Hitler and far
exceeded those of Genghis Khan, are hated by people of the broader
identification as much as by people they conquered, but the hatred of
them is muffled in countries that owe a large part of their existence
to them. The leaders who favor themselves, their friends, their
families, their states, the businesses allied with them, or their
ethnic groups, at the expense of the countries that they lead, are
known as corrupt. That is because they pilfer the more generalized
entity to serve a more atomized entity, instead of serving the entity
that they are entrusted to lead.
Depending upon which level of identification is in vogue, are made
judgments as to which orientations are better and for what reason.
Thus, when ethicity-orientation or family-orientation is in vogue, the
national orientation is seen as statism or oppression. When
nationalism is in vogue, the humanity-orientation (internationalism)
or the life-orientation (environmentalism) are seen as craziness or as
treason; the self-orientation or family-orientation or group-
orientation, as selfishness or as sin. When humanity-orientation is in
vogue, the more atomized levels (national orientation, ethnic
orientation, family orientation and self orientation) are seen as
divisive, destructive, short-sighted and irrational, whereas life-
orientation is seen as betrayal of one's own kind. Humanity-
orientation itself, in its turn, is seen as incomplete, arrogant and
anthropocentric from the perspective of identification with life. The
more general levels engulf the more atomized ones and extend them.
From the position of the more general level, the more atomized levels
are seen as primitive and destructive; yet their presence is not
likely to go away.
What is of some interest is that the more general levels actually go
back to a prior stage in the development process. First there was
life; then there was humanity; then there was the ethnicity; then the
family; then the person. Looking outward toward general
identifications actually carries one into man's evolutionary past. But
it is a past that is inextricable from what man is today.
Among different peoples there is an identification that they foster.
Thus, many Jewish people identify with the destiny of humanity as much
as they do with Jewish people; tribal people identify with life and
nature as much as they do with their own tribes; and populations in
America that identify with America as much as they do with their own
region in America. And of course there are people in all of these
groups, and others, who identify wth themselves or their blood lines
as much as or more than they do with nation or with humanity or with
life.
In addition to the biological levels of identification, come also
artificial, man-made levels of identification. For example, there is
no natural reason why men should identify with other men more than
they should with women, or see it their duty before other men to
control and beat down their wives and their daughters; yet this
artificial identification takes place through manipulation of
predespositions that are common to men. Similarly, there is no natural
reason why a European person living in Europe and a descendant of
European people living in America should see each other as enemies;
this artificial identification takes place as a result of divergent
evolution of both places, with their different history creating
different and in many respects hostile ways of life. Similarly we see
identification with religions, identification with political systems
and ideologies, identification with philosophies, identification with
economical systems, and identification with cultures and ways of life.
While none of these are biologically based, they become a large part
of people's identifications through thought, conviction, generational
transmission and coercion, and form identification that are frequently
as strong as or stronger than those that are of biological origin.
All levels of identification can be applied either constructively or
destructively. Destructive uses of general levels include, but are not
limited to: Destruction of people's individuality in the name of
family, community, ethnicity, nation, psychology or religion; severing
of loving interpersonal bonds between people in the name of all these
or other levels; prosecution of commerce or science or technology or
art or personal freedom in the name of the country or its "values";
cultural, social, economic, political and religious oppression; and
religions abusing, murdering and sabotaging all that is life and all
levels of life in order to bring about an artificial Armageddon.
Destructive uses of the more atomized levels include, but are not
limited to: Destruction of the planet for sake of national interest or
humanity's material well-being; sabotaging of international
cooperation on crucial matters for the sake of national or communal
interest; all that is known as racism and ethnocentrism; communities
and families effectively taking away from their members the rights
afforded to them by the nation, committing and covering up crimes
against them, controlling their lives and denying to nation, to
humanity and to life what they have to give.
Identification levels can work together as well. One benefits life,
humanity and one's nation by finding ways to provide for humanity's
energy and water requirements in a way that is environmentally less
obtrusive than present technologies. One benefits self, family and
more general levels by doing meaningful, inventive, productive,
creative or knowledge-producing
work. In optimum, is seen the levels feeding into each other for
benefit of each level and of the totality. And in this, is finally
found a thinking that has the capacity to produce a livable future.
Life is not one of its components against all others. Life is all of
its pieces working in unity. A tree is not the roots or the trunk or
the branches or the leaves; it is all of these things at once. Nor is
the tree the branch eating the leaves, the trunk tearing off the
branches, or the leaves killing the trunk; it is all of the tree's
components working together. And what needs to happen at all levels of
human activity, as it happens in tree of life, is minimax optimization
among the levels, arriving at maximization of constructive interaction
among them and minimization of destruction done by all levels to one
another.
This has to start through replacing warring dualism with integrational
approach to dualities. It is not nature or civilization, worker or
businessman, intelligence or compassion, women or men, spirit or
physicality, ideal or reality, technology or naturality, nation or
humanity, government or private sector; it is all of these things at
once that make life. In all cases, as we have seen, there is capacity
both for conflict and for cooperation. The activities of thought, and
the activities of policy and interaction, should be directed toward
maximizing positive cooperation among the levels and minimizing
violence, abuse and destructiveness between them.
The model I have is that of minimax optimization through synergy
within the framework of check and balance. Check and balance, as was
first applied on a meaningful scale by American Constitution, means
that no level is allowed to become totalitarian and abuse all others.
Synergy means putting together the intelligence and work at all levels
to create favorable outcomes. And minimax optimization means achieving
scenarios that optimize the benefit while minimizing the wrong.
Through this thinking, and through this mechanism, it is possible to
create a livable long-term future that has a chance at lasting
sustainability and lasting peace. To honor nature and keep it
producing and living - to honor humanity's requirement for livable
future for those now living and many generations to come - to honor
distinctness of ways of life among cultures and of personhood among
individuals - will put in place the checks and balances against the
abuses among the levels, while allowing the levels to synergize toward
common good.
And then life can grow, blossom, and produce its greatest ever
accomplishments, long-term benefit and life and liberty through
thought and action that is affirmative to the truth of humankind.
Day Brown
> Through this thinking, and through this mechanism, it is possible to
> create a livable long-term future that has a chance at lasting
> sustainability and lasting peace.
that. Joseph Campbell closed his forward to archeologist Gimbutas' "The
Language of the Goddess" with:
"The message here is of an actual age of peace and harmony with the
creative energies of Nature, which for a spell of some 4000 pre-historic
years, anteceded the 5000 of what James Joyce termed the "nightmare" (of
contending tribal and national interests) from which it is certainly
time for this planet to wake." [his parens]
Cosmologies resemble power structures; in this case, women ran things.
But women dont need to control the bodies of men to be sure their
progeny are theirs. They dont need to acquire status symbols in order to
get laid. The result is a free egalitarian culture.
They dont have marriage. Men who do not own women do not fight over
them, so there is peace. The women used herbal birth control, so the
population was stable and the resource base never abused, so the
fertility of the land was never damaged nor did they ever clearcut.
Imagine the problem a demagogue would have trying to rile up a mob or an
army claiming that HE speaks in HER name.
It all worked pretty well until virulent STDs evolved; so men turned to
weapons to control women, hoping to reduce the problem. But now, as we
see with nukes and WMD, there are no safe weapons, and they cant even
protect their own asses much less ours. But witches have figured out how
to have safe sex, and I've seen that work.
Ilya Shambat
> On 05/15/2010 07:35 AM, Ilya Shambat wrote:> Through this thinking, and through this mechanism, it is possible to
> > create a livable long-term future that has a chance at lasting
> > sustainability and lasting peace.
>
> If that's what you want, read up on the people who been there and done
> that. Joseph Campbell closed his forward to archeologist Gimbutas' "The
> Language of the Goddess" with:
>
> "The message here is of an actual age of peace and harmony with the
> creative energies of Nature, which for a spell of some 4000 pre-historic
> years, anteceded the 5000 of what James Joyce termed the "nightmare" (of
> contending tribal and national interests) from which it is certainly
> time for this planet to wake." [his parens]
I am not certain that this is factual. How do you know that this
actually took place, and exactly where?
> Cosmologies resemble power structures; in this case, women ran things.
> But women dont need to control the bodies of men to be sure their
> progeny are theirs. They dont need to acquire status symbols in order to
> get laid. The result is a free egalitarian culture.
>
> They dont have marriage. Men who do not own women do not fight over
> them, so there is peace. The women used herbal birth control, so the
> population was stable and the resource base never abused, so the
> fertility of the land was never damaged nor did they ever clearcut.
>
> Imagine the problem a demagogue would have trying to rile up a mob or an
> army claiming that HE speaks in HER name.
There is one tribe that does fit this model. It's in China, and
Chinese authorities have preserved it as an ethnographic relic. People
keep coming there to do tourism to see such a thing in action.
> It all worked pretty well until virulent STDs evolved; so men turned to
> weapons to control women, hoping to reduce the problem.
But wait a second now. Humanity in ancient times was very much
dispersed, and populations had little contact with one another. The
folks in Africa had no contact for example with folks in the American
continent. So how would a trend like this have spread among
populations that were dispersed and not in contact with one anotehr?
Day Brown
>> "The message here is of an actual age of peace and harmony with the
>> creative energies of Nature, which for a spell of some 4000 pre-historic
>> years, anteceded the 5000 of what James Joyce termed the "nightmare" (of
>> contending tribal and national interests) from which it is certainly
>> time for this planet to wake." [his parens]
>
> I am not certain that this is factual. How do you know that this
> actually took place, and exactly where?
floodplains of the rivers that empty into the West End of the Black Sea
that dendochronology says were occupied from 8000-4000 BC- that show no
sign of warfare. No warrior graves. No iconography of war.
Goodison & Morris, on the fly leaf of "Ancient Goddesses" mention the
controversy and set out to dig into a virgin tel specifically looking
for a general layer of burnt rubble or some other such sign of war. They
did not find any going down thru 4000 years of occupation layers.
>> Imagine the problem a demagogue would have trying to rile up a mob or an
>> army claiming that HE speaks in HER name.
>
> There is one tribe that does fit this model. It's in China, and
> Chinese authorities have preserved it as an ethnographic relic. People
> keep coming there to do tourism to see such a thing in action.
I've read of the Musuo, and just checked again a few days ago. I also
read of other young women in China wanting to move there to offer sexual
services in a community that does not demonize them for it. I can see
however, that these immigrants mite bring in other problems, such as
their own deviant psychological makeup.
When I lived in New Orleans, I knew some whores who looked at it as a
good business model, and fully understood what they were doing; but
others who were highly neurotic and acting in this way out of some form
of rebellion against Catholic or some other draconian dogma. The Musuo
dont need this kind of nut case.
>> It all worked pretty well until virulent STDs evolved; so men turned to
>> weapons to control women, hoping to reduce the problem.
>
> But wait a second now. Humanity in ancient times was very much
> dispersed, and populations had little contact with one another. The
> folks in Africa had no contact for example with folks in the American
> continent. So how would a trend like this have spread among
> populations that were dispersed and not in contact with one anotehr?
With civilization came long distance trade. Roman ships went all the way
to India. The Silk Road went all the way to China. Before then, travel
was so difficult and slow that a victim either died of disease or got
over it by the time of arrival to a new community.
There's a record of a Roman wife who fucked 365 men in 24 hours to set a
record I think still stands. Which she would not have done were there an
STD risk. but not many decades later, there are graffiti at Pompeii
about what appears to be a dude who has gonorrhea. which killed women
far more often because the infection was internal.
Syphilis leaves characteristic lesions on the bones; thus, an English
medieval monastic graveyard, where 70% of the skeletons shows this has
another record. But in the remote Transylvanian villages where witches
were still in charge, the rate is more like 1%. Of course, there, the
men were not Christian, and would willingly have showed any sore on the
genitals to the healthcare provider- the witch. This early form was not
at all deadly, and after the initial infectious phase, was no problem.
Ilya Shambat
> On 05/18/2010 05:29 AM, Ilya Shambat wrote:>> "The message here is of an actual age of peace and harmony with the
> >> creative energies of Nature, which for a spell of some 4000 pre-historic
> >> years, anteceded the 5000 of what James Joyce termed the "nightmare" (of
> >> contending tribal and national interests) from which it is certainly
> >> time for this planet to wake." [his parens]
>
> > I am not certain that this is factual. How do you know that this
> > actually took place, and exactly where?
>
> Lotsa people found it incredible. But there are hundreds of tels on the
> floodplains of the rivers that empty into the West End of the Black Sea
> that dendochronology says were occupied from 8000-4000 BC- that show no
> sign of warfare. No warrior graves. No iconography of war.
>
> Goodison & Morris, on the fly leaf of "Ancient Goddesses" mention the
> controversy and set out to dig into a virgin tel specifically looking
> for a general layer of burnt rubble or some other such sign of war. They
> did not find any going down thru 4000 years of occupation layers.
So this proves that those people were peaceful. But where is the proof
that they were matriarchial or believed in the Goddess?
> >> Imagine the problem a demagogue would have trying to rile up a mob or an
> >> army claiming that HE speaks in HER name.
>
> > There is one tribe that does fit this model. It's in China, and
> > Chinese authorities have preserved it as an ethnographic relic. People
> > keep coming there to do tourism to see such a thing in action.
>
> I've read of the Musuo, and just checked again a few days ago. I also
> read of other young women in China wanting to move there to offer sexual
> services in a community that does not demonize them for it. I can see
> however, that these immigrants mite bring in other problems, such as
> their own deviant psychological makeup.
>
> When I lived in New Orleans, I knew some whores who looked at it as a
> good business model, and fully understood what they were doing; but
> others who were highly neurotic and acting in this way out of some form
> of rebellion against Catholic or some other draconian dogma. The Musuo
> dont need this kind of nut case.
They probably wouldn't find them as much, given how few people in
China are Catholic. On the other hand the women you talked about can
be dangerous if they decide they want to "right their ways" and
conform to the draconian dogma against which they are rebelling (or
another draconian dogma, such as neo-Puritan feminism or born-again
Christian) and then make it their mission to destroy the culture in
which they have been practicing their rebellion.
> >> It all worked pretty well until virulent STDs evolved; so men turned to
> >> weapons to control women, hoping to reduce the problem.
>
> > But wait a second now. Humanity in ancient times was very much
> > dispersed, and populations had little contact with one another. The
> > folks in Africa had no contact for example with folks in the American
> > continent. So how would a trend like this have spread among
> > populations that were dispersed and not in contact with one anotehr?
>
> With civilization came long distance trade. Roman ships went all the way
> to India. The Silk Road went all the way to China. Before then, travel
> was so difficult and slow that a victim either died of disease or got
> over it by the time of arrival to a new community.
All right, but who made contact with American natives? Or were they
immune from this trend?
> Syphilis leaves characteristic lesions on the bones; thus, an English
> medieval monastic graveyard, where 70% of the skeletons shows this has
> another record. But in the remote Transylvanian villages where witches
> were still in charge, the rate is more like 1%. Of course, there, the
> men were not Christian, and would willingly have showed any sore on the
> genitals to the healthcare provider- the witch. This early form was not
> at all deadly, and after the initial infectious phase, was no problem.
It is interesting that "pagani" was the Latin word for the village
people. Of course now it is the country folk that are most likely to
be fundamentalist Christian.
Day Brown
>> Goodison& Morris, on the fly leaf of "Ancient Goddesses" mention the
>> controversy and set out to dig into a virgin tel specifically looking
>> for a general layer of burnt rubble or some other such sign of war. They
>> did not find any going down thru 4000 years of occupation layers.
>
> So this proves that those people were peaceful. But where is the proof
> that they were matriarchial or believed in the Goddess?
human figures- that were remarkably well rendered- which show us women
in postures of authority, but no such men. Then, there's the etymology.
Such as the fact that the name for the Goddess in Ireland was "Danu".
But the name for the goddess in India was "Danu". Both of which trace
back to the Mammoth bone long houses found along the _DON_ river that
left us some of the earliest pagan idols- all female.
Then too, there's enthroned figure of similarly fat lady found at Catal
Hoyuk, 5000 BP, which Gimbutas show us, often posted on the net.
http://barclay1720.tripod.com/hist/paleo/neovenus.htm
scroll down a little.
Delight, determine, divine, deity, are just some of the English words,
and similar sets can be found in Greek or Roman that trace back to
"Dee-os" or deus. The '-os' being a female suffix. also seen in the term
'goddess' itself.
Cosmologies resemble the power structures that support them; since
warrior elites took over, the cosmology has had an alpha male concept of
the divine. but innumerable sources, even the Torah, reveal the spin put
on terms that were formerly female.
In Search of the Indo-Europeans by Mallory says there's only one
original term for authority:"raj". As in region, regina, regulate,
arrange, regime, with similar sounding words in Sanskrit, Latin, Greek.
But he finds it meant a "female tribal leader of great wisdom and mana."
A 'raj' is a witch. And -she- wants to worship a goddess.
>> When I lived in New Orleans, I knew some whores who looked at it as a
>> good business model, and fully understood what they were doing; but
>> others who were highly neurotic and acting in this way out of some form
>> of rebellion against Catholic or some other draconian dogma. The Musuo
>> dont need this kind of nut case.
>
> They probably wouldn't find them as much, given how few people in
> China are Catholic. On the other hand the women you talked about can
> be dangerous if they decide they want to "right their ways" and
> conform to the draconian dogma against which they are rebelling (or
> another draconian dogma, such as neo-Puritan feminism or born-again
> Christian) and then make it their mission to destroy the culture in
> which they have been practicing their rebellion.
There are a lotta crazy angry bitches around who talk about a loving
goddess to worship, but will screw you over soon as you bend down. I
dont see tho where they imposed the same degree of draconian rule in the
history I know of. But Greek myth shows us lotsa women who really knew
how to manipulate the system to get what they want.
>> With civilization came long distance trade. Roman ships went all the way
>> to India. The Silk Road went all the way to China. Before then, travel
>> was so difficult and slow that a victim either died of disease or got
>> over it by the time of arrival to a new community.
>
> All right, but who made contact with American natives? Or were they
> immune from this trend?
I recently read DNA shows there were two different strains of syphilis
in the new and old worlds, and the trouble only really got bad when the
two hybridized. Course, even at that, syphilitic psychosis only sets in
in the mid-late 40's, but which time, most men were dead anyway.
>> Syphilis leaves characteristic lesions on the bones; thus, an English
>> medieval monastic graveyard, where 70% of the skeletons shows this has
>> another record. But in the remote Transylvanian villages where witches
>> were still in charge, the rate is more like 1%. Of course, there, the
>> men were not Christian, and would willingly have showed any sore on the
>> genitals to the healthcare provider- the witch. This early form was not
>> at all deadly, and after the initial infectious phase, was no problem.
>
> It is interesting that "pagani" was the Latin word for the village
> people. Of course now it is the country folk that are most likely to
> be fundamentalist Christian.
I think that changed in my neck of Ozark woods. I've been passing out
the fliers posted at http://daybrown.org as part of a marijuana reform
process. In Clinton AR, only Walmart gave me any flack about it. ALL the
other businesses looked at it and took some to pass out to customers.
The only other business was a country store run by a crabby bitch. I
left fliers under the wiper of cars in church parking lots. two times
someone looked at the flier then let me carry on. None of the Christians
gave me any hassle.
I note there's lotsa closed churches around, and few of the church
parking lots were very full. Online, I read of church bankruptcies. Not
just Catholic.
Then too, the fastest growing Census bureau demographic is the "x-urb",
people who've retired and moved out to rural areas where its cheaper to
live. Lots are upscale and not very Christian.