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Keeping Up with the Jones

April 7, 2010 in Dogma, Essays, Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Nature by Genruk | No comments

Is there some compelling force with draws us in to keep up with our neighbors? Is it all about pride and ego, or might there be a force of human nature that is in part responsible for such a laughable race to have the best lawn on the block? There is in fact one facet of man’s social nature which can fuel such a phenomenon.

Man’s social nature makes him want to belong, to fit in, and to have social worth within his immediate community. As such, one behavior which can serve as a direct manner to express his social worth is by showing both his similitude and worth by not only having a boat in his driveway, but by having the most expensive boat possible. The boat becomes a symbol that he not only belongs to his community of nautical neighbors, but is also a status symbol of his relative worth in his community. If the social nature of man is exemplified by the desire to be seen in the best possible light, such a symbol becomes a badge that confers both membership and status within the neighbor’s community.

Of course, there is more than a little pride involved here, but that meticulous lawn, Lexus SUV, and sea-worthy status symbol in the driveway can be just the ticket for an invitation to the next neighborhood BBQ, where the neighborhood clan can all revel in their latest exploits. Keeping up with the Jones might be a straight forward expression of man’s social nature after all.

Genruk

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Tags: Evolutionary Psychology, Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology, Social

The Power of the Common Ancestor

April 6, 2010 in Philosophy, Psychology, Social Nature by Genruk | No comments

The overall contention of Bad Natured is that men are by nature suspicious if not aggressive to unfamiliar men. In fact, men are by nature xenophobic and this notion has been demonstrated throughout the history of mankind. Only fairy tale logic will prove otherwise. But men are intelligent as well as opportunistic, and as such the benefits that abound from alliance formation between groups have allowed the ever wary stranger to benefit from occasionally befriending the stranger. Does such a notion not negate the overall contention of Bad Natured, that strangers must always remain antagonistic?

At first the notion of alliance formation between potentially competing groups would seem nigh impossible if men are to be viewed as truly xenophobic, but there exists a truly magnificent facet of man that can trick his very nature into allowing such an impossibility to in fact exist. The cohesive forces of family relations are used here as a social glue which can be extended to strangers to make them seem less strange, more trustworthy, and hence less spooky. Such a trick is employed by use of the creation myth that dictates that all of the peoples involved have actually arisen from a common ancestor. Such a myth takes the members of the opposing groups and ties them together through contrived familial relations. Instead of strangers, they are long lost members of the family, and as such the psychological distance created by man’s inherent xenophobia are circumvented, allowing for strangers to embrace their mythologic kin. Even in America, boiling pot of multitudes of differing races, we have the distant notion of the common ancestor tied to our ever divine founding fathers. Of course, such a tactic has its limitations, which have been more than exceeded in this overly populated world of ours, but this notion can at least be seen to be the basis for the hierarchies and alliances that have come to define the ever complicated world of the modern man.

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Tags: culture, Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology, Social

The Triad of Discontent

April 2, 2010 in Discontent, Essays, Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Nature by Genruk | No comments

Man is at continual odds with his culture, his sense of self, and his innate systems of behaviors. Culture’s function is in part to create standard codes of conduct which creates a social matrix within which he is to function with other humans. Without this matrix, men could not exist within such highly populated societies without engaging in ceaseless violence. His innate inclinations towards violence would constantly pull him into violent altercations with other strange men, for that is his nature. Culture therefore allows for societies to exist in magnitudes that could not occur without policing forces of man’s natural and aggressive behaviors.

Now if men were not so darned self-aware, inclined to introspection, philosophy, and spirituality, to name but a few attributes, his lot would do just fine, for he would not care that his culture and his natural inclinations were at odds with one another. But this is not the case, and instead man is tormented with an inner and an outer sense of self, which becomes combine into essentially a neurotic individual. Man feels some behaviors as naked as the day he was born, but is compelled to believe that these feelings are unnatural and evil. His social nature takes this a step further. Because he wants to be seen in the best light, and because his cohorts all pretend to believe in their inculturations, or rather inculcations, he too pretends to believe that which his society propagates as the correct way to be. Deep down, though, man still feels otherwise, and feels the guilt, cognitive dissonance, and discontent from being at such odds with himself.

Ah, the perpetual plight of man, to never be at ease, pulled in one moment by his natural inclinations, the next minute by his desire to be seen in the most favorable light by those significant to him, only then to be drawn into the facade of how a man should be according to culture, to lastly being sucked into some shenanigan through the power of peer pressure, leaving behind a shell of man whose only repose is chemical relief through endogenous or exogenous addictions such as booze or gambling.

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Tags: culture, Discontent, Human Nature, Inculcation, Philosophy, Psychology, Social

Hierarchy of Men

March 2, 2010 in Dogma, Essays, Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology by Genruk | No comments

One of the most prominent, and misunderstood if not disguised, aspects of man is his hierarchical nature. Western Civilization has convinced itself that all of man should be equal in status such that it has inculcated its members with the specious contention that this is the true nature of man. Nothing could be further from the truth, but to state such a thing is an apostasy so immense that one might as well defecate on the Thanksgiving dinner table. Please excuse such a crass thought, but to think that man is truly an egalitarian creature due to the mind soothing effects of such a convenient notion does man more than a disservice, for its results are deleterious if not catastrophic. There is no getting around the true nature of man, no matter how much he wishes it to be otherwise.

Let us delve further into this issus with an examination of one man’s most noticeable traits, his competitive nature. There is no denying such a contention, but when we go to the next level and contend that man is dominant by nature the notions gets skewed. But even this possibility, that man is dominant by nature cannot be denied. But in taking the next step in this logical sequence in an attempt to come to terms with the hierarchical nature of man, the human creature somehow sidesteps this notion and instead wishes that all of man to be equal in status, at least in the very core of man. Herein lies the problem, because by definition, the trait of dominance creates hierarchies in social creatures, and only fallacious logic can prove otherwise. That man should all be treated as equals can never work because it is in man’s very core to be otherwise. Any and all efforts to contain man’s nature has and will forever fail, leading to discontent at the least and devastation at the worst. It is nigh time to come to terms with the true nature of man such that intelligence and not convenience becomes the basis for policies that are honestly designed to allow man to behave within a society. Any other efforts will come to be the seeds of evil, evil which is born of repression of natural inclinations and which comes to fruition when these repressed feelings come to be expressed in perverted manifestations of these repressed inclinations.

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Tags: Apostasy, culture, Discontent, Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology, Social

The Inculcation Chapter

February 20, 2010 in Bad Natured, Book Update, Philosophy by Genruk | No comments

As I draw closer to finishing up the the chapter on inculcation, it must be admitted that a little trepidation is sneaking in to haunt me as the book proper is coming close to its finish. This last core chapter, which is to be followed up with a summary chapter, has been the most difficult chapter to date. Thankfully, it is turning out better than could be imagined. This chapter includes a comprehensive definition of inculcation as well as the basic founts of cultural inculcation, which of course are the church, the news and the general media, the law, the education system, governmental propaganda, and the unstoppable forces of communication in general. The leveraging forces of inculcation are addressed as well, including legislation, police and the armed forces, as well as the social instincts which serve to control unacceptable behaviors within a community. The use of propaganda and calumny by the government are examined as well, and I have included many historical events where inculcation has been used with drastic effect, such as the Nanking Massacre and the Rwandan Machete Atrocity. My favorite portion of the chapter, though, is found in the contemplations of the Catholic Church’s cohesive forces of inculcation and how they gave rise to the civilization laconically known as The West. The implications of Christian influence in the Occident, and that this influence may be currently waning, is a portentous consideration concerning the future of The West. How will The West fare in the not to distant future? Will it fare at all? From whence will the next phoenix rise? Hopefully subjects such as these and more will be spurred in the reader through the provocations of Bad Natured.

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Tags: Chapters, culture, Inculcation, Social

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