But I see it more like connected to our affective side: a need for frameworks, for certainties, for a determined world, which is reassuring. The unknown renders insecure and scares, religions and ideologies bring explanations, comfort, a feeling of well being. Also a need of dreams to motivate us to a "better future"- like the communist society for marxists, or the heaven for the christian or muslim faithful.
i couldn't agree more with this part. convention is soothing...all the way to madness...not always, but often enough to create a breed that values nonconformity for its own sake, an opposite extreme.
all humans respond to narratives, especially new ones, especially ones that can keep a flicker of hope alive to those in despair. this vulnerability has been turned into a cash cow by religions, huddle together, muddle through...
a better future is more likely if we become seriously more realistic, this is a truism i know, but it's still true. for that we may need to achieve a level of spiritual security that enables us to better use that organ to which you make reference.
from what i understand from your posts, i believe you would agree, is that so? to give up fantasy we need realities that don't encourage escapism so much. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
If we become seriously more realistic -- learn to recognize in ourselves when the affective need is kicking in, and learn to detach and see what that leads to. Religion and ideology are approached affectively , even when we don't realize it. We feel right or left even as we pretend to be rational. Subjectivism, hot-blooded-ness, affective response, are all human. I even wonder if getting sucked into this isn't built-in?...because the idea would be to be able to recognize the phenomenon and be able to play the devil advocate for a second (critical thinking, by using the aforementioned organ).
As to realities that encourage escapism, you know, from stories of ships caught in storm, I always retained the image of the captain washed by the waves yet still there. It's all a matter of point of view. In the most dire situation, escapism can be turned into heroic activism - and used to change those realities.
thanks V, though i wonder, do you mean dreaming of the heroic captain was escapism for you?
talking of pragmatism, here's something you might like... Insurgent American » Blog Archive » Politics is Food is Politics
The argument from the archaic left, i.e., that the Food Underground is individualistic voluntarism, has copped to the idea that all practical, local palliatives are somehow ineffective. This is a deeply fallacious argument. It means we still see the world exclusively through our left-to-right, linear, and purely ideological continuum. We still see politics as the persuasion of the word, and our deeds being limited to either symbolic expressions of resistance or aiming some mythical "mass blow" (a military metaphor, which implies military organization and discipline). Support our Program, and we will win Political Power, and change the Policies, and all will be well.
this is the top social priority, i believe... the whole article is wonderful. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
Thanks for the link, I'll try to read it later.
