Institution for
Authority Research
Two Roads: Didactic or Dialectic and their praxis
To obey or to circumvent?—that is the question.
by Dean Gotcher -
December 17, 2008
See the whole article here
“. . .we will
inevitably find ourselves moving toward the chosen goal, and
probably thinking that we ourselves desired it. …it appears
that some form of completely controlled society … is
coming.” Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person
Two books, Eros
and Civilization, by Herbert Marcuse and Life against
Death, by Norman O. Brown, are known as the bibles of the
60's. They go into great detail explaining the theory and
practice of sensitivity training. Both men sought to justify
the synthesis of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, i.e.
socio-psychology. For example, Freud, according to Marcuse, saw
the same relationship between the individual and society as did
Marx. Marx wrote:
“It is not
individualism that fulfills the individual, on the
contrary it destroys him.....” Source: Phil Worts
presentation on COPS.
Freud, wrote:
“Individual psychology is thus in itself group psychology ...
the individual ... is an archaic identity with the species.”
“This archaic heritage bridges the ‘gap between individual and
mass psychology.’” (Freud, Moses and Monotheism in Marcuse) ...
Since it is built upon Marx and Freud, socio-psychology
propagandized their secular conviction, religiously....
At the heart of the profession of socio-psychology is the
conquest of religion (objectification—any authority above
man, demanding trust and obedience).... Karl Marx wrote:
“Religion
is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a
heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It
is the opium of the people.”
“The critique of
religion is the prerequisite of every critique.”
“The critique of
religion ends with the categorical imperative to overthrow
all conditions in which man is a debased, enslaved,
neglected, contemptible being.”
“The
critique of religion ends in the doctrine that man is the
supreme being for man;”
In his book, The
Future of an Illusion, Freud "...praised science and
scientific reason as the great liberating antagonist of religion.”
(Marcuse)
“Sense
experience must be the basis of all science.
Science is only genuine science when it proceeds from sense
experience, in the two forms of sense perception and
sensuous need, that is, only when it proceeds from Nature.”
...
Abraham Maslow
Maslow on Management:
“Neither
the Bible nor the prophets – neither Freud nor research –
neither the revelations of God nor man – can take precedence
over my own direct experience. Experience is, for me, the
highest authority.”
The best place to go
to understanding the dialectical process is Genesis 3:1-6.
Sensitivity training is the Garden in Eden experience, the
dialectical imagination, in praxis. Both authors, Marcuse
and Brown, testify to the use of this diabolical praxis in the
garden in Eden:
“If the guilt
accumulated in the civilized domination of man by man can
ever be redeemed by freedom [freedom from a patriarchal
family and a patriarchal God], then the ‘original sin’ must
be committed again: ‘We must again eat from the tree of
knowledge in order to fall back into the state of
innocence.” (Marcuse)
“To experience
Freud is to partake a second time of the forbidden fruit;
and this book cannot without sinning communicate that
experience to the reader." (Brown)
That was the message
of Pullman's "Golden Compass" also. See
The upside-down world of the "Golden
Compass" -- Where Bad is Good, and God is banned
and
The mystical science of the Golden Compass
Erick Fromm, in his
book You Shall Be As Gods, wrote:
“In the process
of history man gives birth to himself. He becomes what he
potentially is, and he attains what the serpent—the symbol
of wisdom and rebellion—promised, and what the patriarchal,
jealous God of Adam did not wish: that man would become like
God himself.” (p. 123)
God flooded the
world with water because of this praxis. This praxis is back.
It is even in the church (the Apostate church). God's
judgment is coming again, but this time it will be by fire....
Marcuse wrote Eros and Civilization to legitimize Freud's
dream of an un-repressed civilization, a civilization no
longer under Godly restraint, no longer under "domination," a
condition Marx labeled as repression, alienation, and
reification, caused by the "opiate," religion....
Fromm was a member of the
The Institute of Social Research, a Marxist organization
which came to the United States of America in the early 30's
(read their history up to the 50's in Martin Jay's book
The Dialectical Immagination). He wrote his book, Escape
from Freedom, about the German people's unwillingness to
continue on into what is called by some today "group think."
When they had rejected believing in a God above they, keeping
the same patriarchal paradigm in place, replaced him with a man
[Hitler] below, replacing a spiritual patriarch with a temporal
patriarch, and "escaped" their "freedom" from a patriarchal
paradigm, they refused to do a "paradigm shift." It is in an
environment of chaos, confusion, and aloneness people have to be
helped out of their patriarchal (fascist) paradigm, of course
they must be helped by those who praxis the diabolical
dialectical process. He wrote:
“We are
proud that in his conduct of life man has become free from
external authorities, which tell him what to do and what not
to do.”
“Man is free
from all ties binding him to spiritual authorities, but this
very freedom leaves him alone and anxious, overwhelms him
with a feeling of his own individual insignificance and
powerlessness.” Erich Fromm Escape from Freedom
“Freud, Hegel,
and Nietzsche are, like Marx, compelled to postulate
external domination and its assertion by force in order to
explain repression.... Therefore the question confronting
mankind is the abolition of repression – in traditional
Christian language, the resurrection of the body. The
resurrection of the body is a social project.” Brown Life
against Death
The Dialectic
According to the teachings of methodology in
social sciences, the acquisition of one kind of knowledge
springs from the dialectical relationship between new
information (stimulus) and the total of already existing
knowledge; the incorporation, that is, of new knowledge
results from the intellectual clash of the new with the old....
Karl Marx defined the dialectical process: “In the eyes of
dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for all times,
nothing is absolute or sacred.”
Marx, according to
the Marxist, Antonio
Gramsci, truth is to be found in "a moment in
correct praxis [in the "group hug," consensus
experience]." Therefore, all is uncertainty. To
arrive at any sense of order for the moment, an inductive
analysis of the situation must be conducted. Any act of
deductive reasoning, any evaluation of the current situation
from an a priori, any statement of certainty, any
truth which causes group division, must be treated as an opinion,
or else domination, repression, and objectification continues to
exist. Absolute truth must be treated as a theory, as an
opinion, [“The scientific study of ideology can only be made on
the basis of theory (treat every truth as an opinion).” (Adorno)
[In contrast]...a
theory, "group think," and opinion must be treated
with respect as a fact, otherwise the group can
not "think," it can not innovate, it can not change.
Ironically this very thinking would negate its own self,
something liberals have a difficulty understanding. Anytime you
bring a liberal to an absolute truth, they always accuse you of
being argumentative and not worth listening to.... Their ears
are trained to listen for compromise, compromise which
makes everyone "feel" good (dialectical praxis). They have
been re-educated (term used for brainwashed in Communist
countries) on how to listen for the truth which divides
(didactic praxis), and on how to
neutralize, marginalize and eradicate those who praxis it.
They are listening to "mother earth" below while a believer is
listening to God above.
Martin Luther King Jr. explained the dialectic this way: “The
philosopher Hegel said that truth is found neither in the thesis
nor the antithesis, but in an emerging synthesis which
reconciles the two.” Strength to Love.
Absolute truth
is always formal, not swayed by feelings. It is always
logical. It may not make sense in the moment, but at the end of
the day or life, with all evidence present, it will make
sense....
The issue was not to
disobey God or parent, which would simply leave God and the
parent in a position of authority and the guilty conscience
intact, it was necessary to both negate the authority figure
(praxis patricide) as well as to negate the conscience
(treat all ideals as theory), making the authority figure and
his commands immaterial (non-sense...) and therefore
irrelevant in the light of the changing times, the "felt"
needs of the moment.
In the UN document,
Tensions That Cause War, there is presented the case for
informal, face to face meetings, where it is known that all who
represent their country automatically sacrifice their nation's
sovereignty for the representatives personal "felt" needs of the
moment. Thus the nation's sovereignty is negated in the
informal, face to face praxis. This environment is
treasonous to a patriarchal paradigm. "Evil company corrupts
good morals." Evil is no longer defined by standards above a man
but now is found in man's behavior toward man.
Any standard which
divides man, i.e. any standard above man, any standard
above "we think" is perceived as evil. "Human evil is an
acquired or reactive kind of response to bad treatment ...
[having to obey God or parent against one's carnal desires]. At
least this is what the Third Force psychologists generally agree
upon." [Abraham Maslow Maslow on Management Negation]....
If the praxis of synthesis—consensus—can be "justified"
in the moment, the praxis of antithesis—obedience/disobedience—is
"circumvented."
The key to
the dialectic's success is the praxis of "circumvention"—"Bypassing
the traditional channels of top-down decision making
..." Irvin Laszlo A Strategy for the Future: The Systems
Approach to World Order
This is a common
practice (praxis) used by parents today, who, instead of
chastening their child when their child seeks (lusts) after
things forbidden, redirect their child's energy, leaving
Eros in place, simply redirecting it to some "useful" or at
least "harmless" outcome. The children then learn that as long
as Eros is rational or practical it is acceptable behavior, that
an emerging synthesis (discursive reason with self and others)
of one's desire for Eros and the "moral" implications toward
others. What is good and what is evil in the group's (the
village's) eyes, through consensus, is where "truth" is
actualized.
..."the bypassing...
top-down decision making" is Satan's paradigm in the Garden in
Eden. ... It is clear to see the cause of the problems of our
culture, including the "contemporary" Church. It is the road,
the pathway of pleasure (group approval—the dopamine moment)
it has chosen. It has chosen the pathway of questioning
authority (evaluating authority's commands, God's word,
through group feelings: how others feel, and what they think
about God and his word) while seeking to maintain personal
Eros and actualize the pleasure of group approval. It has
rejected the pathway of righteousness found in God and his word
alone.
"Thou shalt have
no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3
"Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other name
[Jesus Christ of Nazareth] under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12 (Obedience to
authority, Agape, endurance and suffering)
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." Hebrews 12:11.
"For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken
me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
(Jeremiah 2:13
"But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead: ... For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our
conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with
fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our
conversation in the world," 2 Corinthians 1:9, 12
Some of my sources: All scriptures from
the King James Authorized Bible (which labels me as
a traditionalist.)
(Adorno)
Theodor Adorno The Authoritarian Personality
(Bronner) Stephen Eric Bronner
Of Critical
Theory and Its Theorists
(Brown) Norman O. Brown
Life Against Death
James Coleman
The Adolescent
Society
Erich Fromm
Escape from Freedom
(Marcuse) Herbert Marcuse
Eros and Civilization,
1955
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher
2007
http://authorityresearch.com/2007-08%20%20Didactic%20or%20Dialectic%20and%20their%20praxis-to%20obey%20or%20circumvent.htm