Delusion of Universality
Alexander Liss
We, humans are creatures limited in all
respects. Every time we forget it, we fall into a delusion, which is often
dangerous.
Hence, we need a safeguard, which prevents
falling into such a delusion and, when it happens nevertheless, returning us
back to sanity.
One would expect that there are many ways
to build such safeguard. However, our sad history shows that this is not true.
Even with a valid safeguard in place, we find ways to fall into this delusion.
Most likely, the cause of this problem is
in the way our mind works.
We have built-in fundamental images of
beginning-birth, protected initial development in an "egg" and
caretakers-parents. All cultural images are built on top of these images. When
these images are not addressed explicitly, images of a universal Super Being
emerge spontaneously on a personal and on a social level. These spontaneous
images get quickly spoiled and lead to detachment from reality.
Sometimes,
this Super Being is associated with one's own mind (one imagines that one's own
mind is capable to understand everything), or with a mind of humanity (the same
superpower, only on the scale of humanity and not one's own mind), or with
one's whole being or societies whole being.
Different
ways of avoiding this issue have tried.
Materialists
declared matter existing forever without beginning or end and they immediately
turned around and treated some theory as an absolute.
Communists
treated actions of humanity as something universal and final and fell into
treating a person as a Super Being.
All
this sad experience shows, that it is impossible to
leave these fundamental images unattended.
However,
the way there were attended through the ages are often as bad.
A
traditional way was a cynical one, where a Super Being was introduced in
conjunction with governance. The Super Being could be one or distributed. One
Super Being did not mean monotheism; usually it was a manifestation of a
centralized governing and it was used briefly. Roman emperors used this
tradition with a forced cult of the emperor.
This
created stable social structures, where masses had a well-structured imagery of
a Super Being and rulers had a related, but more flexible, less structured,
esoteric imagery.
Hordes
of "servants" of a Super Being place themselves between a Super Being
and a person and claim some properties of the Super Being. Desires of a person
to acquire some powers of the Super Being through cleverly found tricks, lead
to claiming some control over the Super Being. Claims of these two groups merge
in a delusional system reinforced with increasingly elaborate rituals.
Hence,
improper explicit handling of these fundamental images is not better than not
handling them. It also leads to delusion only of another form.
Theoretically,
it is possible to create a mind discipline, which guards from pitfalls caused
by these fundamental images. However, it should be a discipline requiring a lot
of efforts; hence it can't be deployed on a scale of a society. This is not
very useful; because when one removes oneself from society, this already
introduces internal imbalances. What is needed is a safeguard, which an entire
society can deploy.
The
requirements for such safeguard are complex.
It
can't be only mental, because desires, feeling could drive a person into a
pitfall.
It
should rely on an image of a Supreme Being, which reflects the image of
beginning, caretaker, but it should protect from creating a distributed Supreme
Being and from interjection of a "servant" between a person and the
Supreme Being and it should prevent attempts to acquire any control over the
Supreme Being. This is not because such "servant" or such control is
possible, but because they are symptoms of delusion.
This
image of the Supreme Being should be coordinated with knowledge in a specific
way. It cannot be detached from the knowledge (such detachment renders entire
safeguard useless) and the Supreme Being cannot be knowable in any of its
aspects (because knowledge is control).
All
this description is an external description from the point of view of one, who
creates a new culture. However, the safeguard should be explicitly described
from a point of view of a person, who relies on the image of the Supreme Being
in perception of about everything - an internal point of view.
Amazingly,
the monotheism, which was introduced as a new culture - Jewish culture,
succeeded in creation of such safeguard. Many modifications were introduced
since then, some of them lost this safeguard. Jewish culture still maintains
this safeguard.