10-06-2019, 11:11 AM
(10-05-2019, 11:26 AM)Ldr Wrote:(09-29-2019, 08:15 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: The Saeculum is troublesome, but I can imagine far worse, as in a society that goes off in a way that becomes increasingly inhuman and destructive over time. Those of us who live reasonably-long lives get to see everything.
It's not the society. It's the humans who create and sustain the society. The society does not sustain itself, this is a pure fantasy, and a pretty dangerous one. This is also the biggest flaw of the social dynamic theory that the Strauss-Howe generational theory heavily relies on. It's foolish to think that one knows who societal phenomenon are created, if one doesn't even understand his own motives. And we don't, there is not a single human being on this planet who truly understands his own psyche. If there is someone, please tell me who it is.
Do people create the society or does the society take over the role? The generational mechanism may itself prevent ossification of a culture and class relationships and keep things from getting hopeless.
Quote:This is why I never believed in the reasoning of the Strauss-Howe generational theory. I never take commonly repeated truths as truths, since if everybody seems to agree on something but no one can prove it, the explanations are probably false. There may be a grain of truth in all the explanations, which makes them sound appealing and thus socially acceptable explanations, but they are not the root cause. (This is the reason why I never believe in the explanations that pollution and chemical cause the decreasing testosterone and sperm levels, which have been observed for decades now. Testosterone levels have been low during past era's, this is nothing new, so the explanations are on very shaky ground, and nobody can show any real proof that the explanations are correct. Pollution and chemicals are the witches of the 21st century, a nice tale that everyone can believe in and point their finger at. A scapegoat)
Experiences can shatter myths, and some things that are shown true by experience can be the foundation of deeper knowledge. Consider that one of the first things that ancient civilizations were good at doing was building. Carpenters and stonemasons learned from mistakes, often fatal for themselves (construction accidents) or others (building collapses) some basic realities about the material world Three legs makes a stable tripod and two legs needs some support to prevent an easy fall. Two nails are enough to keep an object fixed to another, and one is inadequate for keeping something in position. Another is record-keeping, which is the source of writing and arithmetic. Euclid used such knowledge as the foundation of mathematics up to algebra, and created a system of logical reasoning useful to this day. Example: Abraham Lincoln wanted to know the mathematical basis of reality, so he borrowed Euclid's Elements from a library. He took it seriously.
Quote:People don't even understand what empathy is at its roots, but they still use the word repeatedly. And how could they, since the science isn't settled yet. Science is just scratching the surface of the human psyche, but humans think they understand societal events and how they are formed. This is an illusion, and I think the generational dynamics fall into this category of an illusion.
Sociopaths completely lack empathy or (as sadists) relish its antithesis. Narcissistic people have little and seem fine with that themselves so long as others toe the line, which is good for them living off others' productivity as managers and impresarios.
Human kindness keeps a society from spiraling off into a world in which every person is predator or prey. Knowledge of the human psyche has such severe limits that science cannot reduce its complexity. Great literature remains relevant in understanding such. Neither psychology nor psychiatry can explain everything. Truth be told, we are nasty predators by nature, about on par with our alleged Best Friend, the dog. Most animals with the cunning, power, speed, agility, strength, voracity, keen senses, sharp teeth, sharp claws, and great bite force are supremely dangerous. The dog is simply more predictable than animals similarly lethal such as bears and Big Cats. Dogs are good reason to not be a burglar. They are just above us in the food chain.
Human behavior is the wildest and most unpredictable in the world. Psychiatry and psychology cannot explain everything, and even Freud turned to literature to get much of the reality that he expressed about human behavior. We used to rely heavily upon theologians to explain things... but to get the fullest understanding of human nature one needs to rely upon literature. To this date, if there were one person that I would rely upon for understanding of the non-physical world it would be Shakespeare. More even than Freud.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.