SIXTH WAY OF WISDOM -- C Arthur M. Jackson
Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006
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CHINESE CULTURE .
The Chinese culture achieved an awesome stability lasting thousands of years. It brought a unique degree of culture, peace, and well being to a gigantic geographical realm. It made discoveries and had a level of understanding rare at that time. However, that stability was purchased at a fantastic price. It excluded empirical science as well as democratic institutions that would allow the social and individual development necessary to produce Enlightened Persons, or build an Enlightened Community. They contributed key elements to the effort of developing a Science of Ethics, but they like every other society, by itself, could never have produced it until they departed their historical path.
Although, the above societies and all the others not mentioned brought important contributions to the modern world to increase the likelihood that Enlightened Persons and Enlightened Communities will be produced, their demise was assured. The only question was how they would go and when. The foregoing discussion could be extended till it included every religion, philosophy, and society up to this time. They all have lacked in numerous essential ways the necessary tools required to provide a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning to their citizens. However, they all aided in giving us knowledge. So, it is only by pooling all of our experiences, knowledge, and understanding and thereby dramatically altering each society that any society has the chance to become an Enlightened Community.
By considering Nazi Germany or Stalin's "Communist" Soviet Union the picture can be clarified. Hitler and Stalin developed Systems based on brute force and psychological knowledge. They utilized the individuals' alpha male and "us vs. them" propensities in the least desirable ways possible. Murder, torture, intimidation, terror, isolation -- the Doctrine of Fear at its worst -- were used to perpetuate a society of oppression. There are some who fear that these methods really might be successful in stopping human progress, viz. George Orwell (NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR).[35] I believe the opposite. These techniques cannot stabilize a society that shows itself to be deficient by using them. This type of society is even more subject to change than a free democratic one. Within a broader context democracy is the “wisdom” propensity’s discovery for countering the raw “tribal” propensity of dominance/submission. It provides a way to involve everyone in the process of governance and make revolution unnecessary. A democratic society has inherent stability like a gyroscope because it provides a way to cope with changing times and incorporate "revolutionary" leaders to focus their energy in positive directions to improve their society without destroying it.
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It seems clear to me that humanity is moving toward a goal. (See Chapter One, "Humanity's Goal Can Now Be Seen.")[36] Since the evolution of the language ability upset the hunter-gatherer genetic stability the species has been moving toward a new equilibrium. For Modern Humans history does not repeat itself except in those areas controlled by our "tribal" propensities. A close study of history -- at least in my mind -- shows, dimly, the outline of the goal toward which Modern Humans (who evolved 30,000 to 60,000 years ago) have always moved. Through times of war and times of peace, whether led by ignorant tyrants or enlightened kings, whether under the domain of "God" or controlled by evil forces, during times of wide-spread empires or the chaos following their demise, our species has been moving toward a universal civilization containing all members of the species, in which all persons are recognized as having equal value and all are able to develop to their maximum capacity, where each person achieves a Sustainable Belief that their LIfe Has Meaning.
As this Way of Wisdom is developed it will undoubtedly be divided into hundreds if not thousands of specific behaviors arranged with interconnecting branches and hierarchies so that true guidance will be provided to help any person who desires achieve a Sustainable Belief that their Life Has Meaning.
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GO ON TO SEVENTH WAY OF WISDOM 1. YOU'RE NOT WHAT I EXPECTED: Love After The Romance Has Ended, Polly Young-Eisendrath, p. 135, Fromm, New York, 1997.
2. A GUIDE TO RATIONAL LIVING, Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, Wilshire Book Co., No. Hollywood, 1997.
3. THREE MINUTE THERAPY: Change Your Thinking Change Your Live, Michael R. Edelstein with David Ramsay Steele, Glenbridge, Aurora, CO, 1997.
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4. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, p. 9A, San Jose, California, Friday, 22 September, 1989.
5. VOLUME II, Chapter 20, "Health, Medicine, and a Science of Ethics."
6. VOLUME II, Chapter 19, "The Knowledge Bank and an Enlightened Community."
7. THE PROMISE OF SLEEP, William C. Dement, Delacorte Press, New York, 1999.
8. VOLUME II, Chapter 27, "'Will Power' and Free Choice."
9. FIFTH WAY OF WISDOM: Strive to make the best choices possible.
10. "THOU SHALL NOT BE AWARE," Alice Miller,
11. A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOANALYSIS, Sigmund Freud, p. 333, Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, NY, 1943.
12. TAKE OFF YOUR MASK, p. 47, Pyramid Books, New York, 1957.
13. VOLUME II, Chapter 1, "Levels of Membership in a Wisdom Group."
14. Of course before good mental health can be achieved it will be necessary to define it. I would say that good mental health is equivalent to a sustainable belief that one's life has meaning.
15. Freud, op. cit., p. 439.
16. Freud, op. cit., p. 467.
17. STOP FORGETTING, Bruno Furst, Garden City Books, New York, 1949. Plus, the many other writings that are available on this topic.
18. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR IN MUSIC, Aaron Copland, p. 27, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1939.
19. MUSIC, THE BRAIN, AND ECSTASY; Robert Jourdain, Avon Books, New York, 1997.
20. William Morrow, New York, 1991.
21. VOLUME II, Chapter 31, "Art and a Science of Ethics."
22. IN SEARCH OF INTIMACY, Carin Rubenstein and Phillip Shaver, Delacorte Press, New York, 1982. VOLUME II, Chapter 5-A includes an in-depth analysis of this important book that provides a priceless resource on the importance of intimacy as it relates to the quality of life including physical health.
23. COLOUR OF LOVE, John Lee, New Press, Toronto, 1973. Provides the organizing structure for VOLUME II, Chapter 7, "Romantic Love and a Science of Ethics." It's research and ideas are drawn on to develop a model for affiliative love.
24. Rubenstein & Shaver, op. cit., p. 3.
25. Dr. James Prescott's article "Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence," examines the importance of nurturing touch. THE BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, p. 10-20, Nov. 1975.
26. Chapter Two, "Organzing for an Enlightened Community Made up of Enlightened Persons -- It all starts with a single person."
27. VOLUME II, Chapter 34, "Work and a Science of Ethics."
28. VOLUME II, Chapter 24.A., "What We Can Learn from the Study of Folk Religions, and Other World-Views."
29. THE CULTURE OF PAIN, David B. Morris, p. 161, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1991.
30. Morris, ibid., p. 163.
31. Morris, ibid., p. 162.
32. RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY, John Dewey, p. 13, Beacon, Boston, 1948.
33. UNCOMMON SENSE, Alan Cromer, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.
34. Dewey, op. cit., p. 17.
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