Peter E. Pflaum - Golden Globe - The Synergy Network
http://www.wiredbrain.net/  pflaump@wiredbrain.com

     CHOICE

     A first and critical choice, is between existentialism and
platonic idealists. People believe in chance or in order. This
primary attitude becomes the internalized systematic theme of
their lives. Choices are made, even if people, and cultures are
not aware of doing so. One can believe there is no central
purpose in life and a person's past controls their future. They
feel dependent, and what happens to them is deter mined by fate
and forces outside themselves.  Other feel there is a rational
meaning in existence guided by FAITH, BIOLOGICAL principles,
PHYSICAL judgment, or OBJECTIVE wisdom.  When people become aware
of who they are - including their place in the general scheme of
life - they can achieve independence.  When a person knows how to
control life, within the limits of human nature, they view
themselves as subjects not objects. 

     Some value issues are perplexing and cause divisions among
people when they become very political.  It is in some people's
interest to enhance the differences. Euthanasia, abortion, school
prayer, cultural diversity, property rights, and individualism
are hard issues.  It can make one believe that all issues are
limited by the interest and concerns of solely personal values
and viewpoints. This is true of some issues but not all there is
to the matter.  If there is a "right" way do we need to be
tolerant of "wrong"?

     Social science, in the imitation of physical sciences tries
to be "value-free."  Because some issues are difficult and some
rational approaches try to control for unproven opinions, does
not mean that all value issues are complex or all thinking has to
be value-free. There are areas of agreement and room for
differences.

     Every culture and society, social scientists, people of the
political right and of the left, Chinese and Greek, all religious
believers and nonreligious skeptics, all can agree on the
necessity of certain common virtues, such as; - Hard work and
responsibility - diligence and forthright ness - clarity of
purpose and the social worth of others - cleanness, honest, the
responsibilities of parents and neighbors, etc.  Social success
depends on having proscribed cultural standards and norms. An
individ ual's well being depends on the groups success.  Only
thieves and con-men will disagree. We cannot live in a society of
thieves and con- men. The chart shows many common elements of all
cultures. These common elements are biological.  People are all
within a range of size, intelligence, visual abilities, and they
all behave within certain patterns.  All languages and customs
have common elements because we share a common biology. 

     There is an extreme form of individualism where the greed
and selfishness of the "master builders" benefit the whole
society. (Ayn Rand) The idea of the `invisible hand' can be taken
to simplistic extremes.  There is a proper selfishness, one
should belief in your self-worth, one needs a firm belief in ones
powers and capacities, people should have a love of freedom and
independence. We all can respect the rights of man. 

     There is also clearly an extreme form of collectivism.  In
this ideology the person is only a subject.  People owe
everything to higher authority and exist only for the society.  

     Extreme capitalism or the law of the jungle does not work
and never has.  Communism clearly does not work.  We all depend
on the web-of-life and our social system.  Synergy requires
"good" character. Trust and sharing requires values beyond the
self. The true individual is also the good citizen. Live is a
balancing act. The biology of the brain drives us toward the
evolution of effective behaviors and "right" answers. 

     The model of "right" behavior is preeminent in the role of
parents. Children require long period of care and good parents
produce a good child that make for a good society. Bad parents
produce problems for everyone. We must care for others and be
cared for.  If people believe that "anything" goes, in just doing
it, and ideas as `long as it works for me it OK', `different
stokes for differed folks', and other selfish beliefs, society
itself will not work.  If people believe that values are just
relative and situational then the keystone of the social
structure falls.  

     Specific fixed, universal, immutable, unchanging principles
cannot be proven or disproved. It's a choice between beliefs. I
chose to be on the side of the ages and angels. (Also biology)
The beliefs in principles arise out of practical experience and
the nature of society over thousands of years. Successful living
and a functional society depend on wise customs and beliefs. 
Everyone has civic duties and responsibilities. If people despoil
the public parks, we all are the poorer. When growth is greater
than the caring capacity, everyone is worse off. Knowledge is the
cure for ignorance, example the guide to excellence. 

     Central principles organize all the other activity within
the common myths and traditions of the people.  The hard
decisions are made simpler, the crooked path is made straighter. 
Central values are critical to all education and learning. 
Tradition is the wisdom and experience of the past. Somethings
change but not everything.

     The value free position believes the world was made by
chance. Natural forces formed the planet and life evolved by the
random mixing of chemicals.  These random events can be
reproduced in the laboratories to create organic compounds, the
building blocks of simple organisms.  Over millions of years
humanoid species developed more complex abilities.  Homo-sapiens
developed a complex brain with facilities in language and the
ability to make speech.  Language allowed other skills to be
shared.  With writing, information was stored, the dead could
inform the living. Cultural synergy means the sum is greater then
the parts. Human groups vaulted ahead by cooperation and the use
of knowledge stored in cultural traditions, folkways, customs,
and technology.  People can learn from each other and from
knowledge gained in the past. Other species require biological,
genetic change to increase their capacities. Human can change
through cultural technology.  Biology does not change. Technology
has physical and behavioral limits. Industrial societies have
pushed but cannot remove the heredity limits and ignore human
nature.

     Information is not limited by physical perception. We know
about things we cannot see, feel, hear or test, but only know
indirectly by their effects. Black holes, the strong and weak
forces that make the universe possible, the atoms themselves are
illusions that create the impression of a solid material world. 
Scientific and social materialism no longer dominates certain
doctrines.  Logical positivism has faded.  Existentialism has
passed its prime.  Modern physics rejects the machine like model
for an almost mystic one. Time is finite, there clearly was a
beginning in the big bang. There is direction to matter and
energy.   Psychobiology is beginning to understand the limits of
behavior.

     Choice is a critical act in a successful and a happy life.
If one choice is clearly distractive and the other helpful,
productive, and moral,  why is there still an issue?  The hubris
of science and technology discounted the belief in universal and
fixed principle. Civilization believed it had little to learn
from the past. We forgot Socrates, oriental culture, and wise men
had no rating.  Commercialism became the new religion.  The poor
and ignorant remain poor and mired in superstition and false
beliefs. In the last hundred years we should have learned a
certain respect for our best cultural traditions and folkways. If
we believe there is a truth beyond our own percep tion then we
can seek something that is unknown to us. What the truth is
exactly, is another question. The point here is that there is
such a thing as universal principles. Something exists beyond the
common experience and perception of everyday life.