23 Social Principles of Diverse Thinking
We live in a Social Diverse which is a part of a bigger Diverse.
A “Diverse” is a cosmos filled with difference and variety which is in constant change and evolution. Galaxies, solar systems, living things, Human cultures, individuals, multiple perception and our complex brains are all expressions of this grand diversity.
A “Universe” is a phenomenon that is united by similarity and commonality; in a Universe all is the same and thus subject to strict control. For some time we have believed in a Universe, and this misperception has led to an aversion toward diversity, individuality and creativity, and to the formation of authoritarian systems of thought, social organization and global relationships.
When we apply the idea of a Diverse to our social realm we end up with quite a large list of issues, here are a number of these topics below:
The Social Diverse
We live in a Social Diverse though some will deny this. When we do not respect the principles of a Social Diverse as some anti-diverse people do, then we have problems, we have suffering.
The principles of social diversity demand that we respect difference, appreciate difference, learn from difference, use difference, and promote difference. Multiculturalism is a natural behavior in a Social Diverse. Equality is a fundamental premise of this condition. And action to create equality is an exigent call upon all. The citizen in a diverse democracy is ever alert and vigilant.
Our first proscription in a manifold world is bigotry – No racism, no ethnic and national discrimination, no misogyny, no anti-Semitism. no exclusion on the basis of
disability, appearance, sexual orientation, age, social strata etc. NO prejudice in any form is acceptable.
The list of bigotries is endless -- we cannot list them all but we are against them ALL, and this even includes the new forms that ill minds will create in the future.
We extend bigotry to mistreating individuals with different sub-cultural behaviors and lifestyles, this too is not acceptable. Glass ceilings, poverty, unequal pay, bad schools, lack of services, double agendas and so on, all of these things result from anti-diverse behaviors and are not acceptable to civilized Human beings.
Bigotry and prejudice is a process. We can call this “casteing” in the sense of creating castes. We must be aware of all forms of casteing, those direct and obvious, and those that are subtle and indirect, and lurk in gray areas where the immoral like to inhabit.
Casting is a process that locks people out. The opposite of casteing is the process that brings people within. Remedying the effects of inequality takes place through action, through programs to help people. If we have inequality but we are taking no action against it, then we are sustaining it. Discrimination is a process, anti-discrimination is the opposite process.
Declarations of equality when some are still suffering the political, psychological, cultural and economic effects of bigotry are false pronouncements and false sentiments. The damage must be fixed before we can say such things. Some may hide behind high principles of “liberty”, but we must judge these trees by their fruit, and we can see that they do not care and their fruit is rotten and putrid. Attitudes of blame the victim are wrong. Setting lower expectations for downtrodden groups is also very wrong.
Along with these principles is the practice of social combination. Through life experience we have the fundamental unifier of common experience. When we bring many different people together in a joint effort we can build affinity and sincerity, sympathy and empathy. When people can live together, work together, and socialize together then they can change their views. Principles and worldviews are not enough, we need the actual physical experience of sustained mutual contact, then we can learn to get along, and work for a common goal.
These integrating experiences do not eradicate difference or diversity at all. They sustain difference. But they actually teach two opposite things at the same time. First is appreciation of difference, the second is the recognition of commonality with all other Human beings. This duality provides the trick that binds us together in an unbreakable bond.
The Free and Healthy Individual
The Free Individual is the ultimate expression of the Diverse. We are primarily individuals, this is the nature of our existence in the world; this is the world’s way of manifesting diversity in the Human race. The Human goal is to become a “healthy individual”.
Individuality is a fact of social life; we cannot and should not try to suppress it. We exist as individuals, we sense, perceive, feel, think and act as individuals. We are part of a whole but we are mainly individual in our behaviors.
At the same time we live in a culture that suppresses individuality, that is, healthy individuality, in many different ways. In one way we are becoming extreme individualists or even “bodyists” driven by selfishness, narcissism, self absorption. This is not healthy individualism at all.
In other ways we are alienated and disconnected, we alone and vulnerable. This condition leads to extreme individuality on the part of some but it also can lead to groupism.
Consumerism and marketing and media and entertainment foster a group think where we join a marketing demographic and buy into some image and be part of some troupe.
This is odd because this behavior is the exact opposite of egotism and yet these exist side by side, two extremes as severe twins.
And some of us are both at once -- group think in some ways, narcissist in others. And certainly our groups are elite and condescending, and our narcissism is easily punctured by the latest trend that makes us un-cool and obsolete. Upon the initial condition of alienation and disconnection, behavior moves in different directions.
Enter entertainment, it provides us with substitute myths and role models. We become lost and confused; we try to act like other people, at least fictional people. As a result we cannot discover our true identities. And identity is essential for a true individual, identity is self-conscious individuality. Individuality without self identity is blind.
Add another condition: We lack emotional training, we get little from parents or school or media or work; this leaves us vulnerable to marketing and entertainment.
Add another new condition: The Internet, this amplifies on alienation with electronic relationships that lack intimacy and trust. As we communicate more in an electronic world our direct Human-to-Human relationships are declining.
This can lead to more alienation and more group think too. Dependency evolves as individuals find they are lost on a hostile sea, they search for respite and salvation. They become dependent on other individuals and institutions. Group think grows as people join sectarian and hostile subcultures, political parties serve the same purpose too.
Also, we find individuals developing relationships with concepts or things such as technology or strange philosophies. And we find people who simply categorize themselves as mountain bikers or hikers and so on, because they have given up on people and have selected activity more rewarding. And we understand why they do this.
And we do not have to discuss mass depression, the use of prescription drugs, addictions of all sorts. All of this follows from the original conditions of our society.
Healthy Individuality is beset in this age with many counter forces -- extreme individuality, alienation, group think, myth substitution, emotional ignorance, identity confusion and shallow electronic relationships, extra-Human relationships, dependency and more.
But healthy individuality is the only path out our pain and confusion. The healthy individual is the only entity that can fix our culture, the unhealthy one cannot. And a government cannot form individuality either. The task is then to create the healthy individual in all the ways that we can. The strong, dignified, moral, striving and creative individual is our goal.
The Socially Minded Individual
The Socially minded individual is a connected person without alienation or selfishness.
Individuality without sociality is unhealthy; it leads to many problems of emotional behavior and also to a society of stress. We also know now from history that too much sociality is not good either. What we are then seeking is the right balance for ourselves as individuals and for society as a whole. We are looking for the social individualist.
In the main we will be individuals, that is our natural and physical manifestation in this world. We are supported by many institutions of sociality from education to government, all are essential to a healthy individual.
In a modern culture the general error tends toward the narcissistic, that we get lost in self absorption. So the general task is to stay clear on your relation to other people and society as a whole -- to uphold their need to be diverse and individual and creative, to have compassion for their sufferings, to see the unity of your soul with all souls, to grasp that your individuality has elements within it of other people, and that you are contributing to the formation of other personalities in your lifetime.
A diverse perspective would say that you cannot be the whole of society because you are an individual, a part, and this is good and joyful and creative. But at the same time we must understand that you must represent the whole too! This reversal of thinking is key to a harmonious culture. In your mind the whole must be understood and maintained. So the two forces, one of individuality and the other of sociality, affect each other, aid each other, they work together to create a society of cooperation and caring. These two contradictory forces reflect the truth of the world, thus when working together they will uphold our world. Diversity and commonality are the twin pillars of a community.
An Economy of Diverse Values
The present economy of capitalism is a system of one value: Money and Profit. It is driven by subjective Human emotions that reflect this objective mono-value: Avarice and Selfishness.
In a Social Diverse, the myopia of one value would end, and an economy of diverse values would open up. Metrics would express these new values as measureable operating targets for a company or an economy overall. These might include: standard measures of efficiency, raw production and consumer data, product quality, innovation, environmental management, charity, community relations, customer relations, employee relations and reward, equity, family support, community service, marketing and advertising ethics, planetary cooperation and aid, measures of long-term investment, raising product standards and many more things
In this business and financial arrangement, the notion of diversity would extend diverse forms of ownership and a diverse open market. Further consumers, investors and communities would form their own organizations to work with industry, in this way the economy would be socially diverse and interlocked.
A Culture of Multiple Values
We want a culture of multiple values not simply economic or political values or something else just as narrow. Multiple values reflect social diversity and reflect the diversity of needs of an individual. And to achieve a culture with multiple values we need to create multiple powers, that is, many institutions each defending its value. In this way we can end the domination of a mono-value culture and create checks and balances.
Democracy
Democracy is the whole Social Diverse running the whole Social Diverse. Democracy in this condition is managed directly by its citizens and not through politicians as “representatives”
Directness
Directness is a major theme of life in a Diverse. This refers to the need of an individual to learn about the complexity of the world through direct experience, direct knowledge and direct participation. In this way we are in control of our lives, we can directly manage our lives and directly conduct relationships with institutions and other people.
Global Diversity
The planet is a Diverse of nations. When we accept this then we can end hostility and war. We can aid and cooperate and bring harmony. We can appreciate cultural differences and learn from each other. We can be helpful and patient with those at different levels of development. We can create global institutions by consensus and not by force.
Communication and Media
Communication in this epoch is actually “de-communication”. Big media does not allow access or two way communication. We are awash with media vertigo, distraction, sensationalism, decline of standards and general nonsense. Communication is the first activity in a whole; it connects the whole with information and ideas. Without communication no relationships can be built. And this is what we see rising in our world.
The internet which is the great hope of the individual is now beset with contradictions. We are bringing our alienation and sectarianism into the internet. At the same time the rise of electronic relationships endangers the more fundamental tactile relationship of face-to-face contact. Fear, hostility, lack of trust, categorization abound. The battle for the internet must be won. The internet represents the first time in Human history that the individual has been able to self publish, this a leap in democracy never seen before. We cannot let this great advance be swamped by alienation or the importing of bad behavior from corporate media.
Entertainment and Art
Entertainment is a whole. It unites relief and education into one overall process. Relief without education is trivial, and education that is not entertaining is painful and boring. Today the general trend is the trivial.
A second problem with modern entertainment is its tendency to undermine the formation of personal myth. Each individual must in life find his or her own personal myth. While entertainment could do a great service in helping us find our myths, it instead chooses to substitute the useless or harmful myths of entertainment stories for our own personal ones.
Another issue with entertainment is its current skill at turning everything into theatre – reality shows and its parallel, theatrical reality, are turning of everyday life into an absurd show. The relationship of theatre and the serious are now out of balance.
Education
A whole Human being requires a whole curriculum. Education once was many things in a village. Today education is a narrow thing that stresses mathematics and grammar but in fact fails at even that. So we do not know really what education’s real purpose is. It seems to be a confused and lost institution.
To create a whole Human being, to bring in wave after wave of new young citizens we should think differently. What we require is a new curriculum, new targets and new measures.
New stresses would include emotion, psychology, self identity, morality, creativity, critical thinking, true analytic thinking, language and communication. Math, grammar and writing will continue as important themes but the approach is failing and must be rethought.
Family
The family is in crisis, a new extended family is needed to help mom and dad with burdening tasks. We need to find for children more parents, uncles and aunts, so that they get more love and support. If we create a diversity of parents we can teach the young more about diversity and individuality. Also, if we create a new extended family, we can give mother and father the freedom to pursue their own identities and be creative.
Nature
Nature and Humanity are a whole. Co-Genio is the notion of a parallel evolution of Human and Nature, the parallel creativities of both entities. Co-genio aims for a harmony of Human and Nature though we can never say this relationship is without problems, there are fundamental conflicts. The foot print no matter how small will exist; the Human race will have the perpetual problem of “big feet”.
The Human "Home" is a Diverse home that includes the Human-made world of our culture, but also our natural environment, this too is our Home. This home is a whole, a Diverse Whole composed of Humanity and Nature.
And this Home reflects that Humans are both of Nature and at the same time are not of Nature, that is, of Ex-nature. There is a side to us that drives us further into culture, science, religion, technology, art and more in an eternal evolution. We must accept this is a fundamental feature of our character, and try to harmonize our Ex-nature with our natural traits, and to thus harmonize Human with Greater Nature.
We do not know where evolution will take our Ex-natures but we can be sure that we will always have some essential grounding in Nature, for we cannot exist outside of Nature or the Cosmos.
Mythology
A mythology is a big story, the biggest of stories, a complete story that addresses many issues -- our goals, behaviors, personalities and nature, our strategies, our powers and talismans, our mentors and helpers and allies, our enemies, our inner battles, our moral codes, our views of creation, our views of life, proportion and place, our social vision and more.
Science and history are only chapters in a mythology. A myth rises above all because it is about living life. It is highly personal and yet must be social too. Myth is neither fiction nor nonfiction, neither science nor fantasy, neither religion or empirical fact, neither dream nor immediate reality. Myth is a collection of many things. It can be very complex but in the end it is very simple because it is about living life as a Human being.
Myth is a whole, the whole of the beliefs of a people, the whole of the self beliefs of an individual.
Rituals
What is a ritual? A ritual is an act or event that rebinds you, that is, reconnects you to something important that you have lost touch with. Rituals rebind you with the community, with Nature, with individual people, with yourself, with higher goals and values and so on. A ritual is a fundamental tool to recreate a whole. In the course of everyday living we lose our way, we become one-sided and myopic and disconnected, ritual brings us out of this state.
Civilization
Civilization is by definition diverse. We can measure a civilization by its diversity. When all of this diversity is connected and coordinated into a whole, then we have something transcendent, then we have difference and common purpose, individuality and overall cultural unity. This can lead to the achievement of great things and being “civilized”.
Two Kinds of Strategy – Spatial Diversity and Temporal Diversity
Spatial diversity refers to differences that are not across time, but are in the same time, they are contemporaneous. So we have two fundamental philosophic forms of diversity: temporal and spatial. Evolution stresses temporal diversity by definition. Tending to spatial diversity leads to caring for what presently exists and accepting things as they are. Focusing on temporal diversity or evolution means to not accept things as they are. From these two kinds of diverse thinking come two kinds of ethics. Those concerned with evolution are struggling to replace some obsolete system or behavior and thus to castigate some social group, rightly or not rightly. Those who are concerned with spatial diversity are concerned with caring for and uniting an entire ‘family’, culture, nation, rightly or wrongly. The two views have differences about the issue of exclusion. But the ethics of spatial and temporal diversity can be harmonized. The widest number of people can be united toward some great evolutionary leap, in this way the best aspects of each approach is used.
Time
Time is a whole but in the modern world we break it up. We separate past from the present and future, by creating a state of constant amnesia. This state is created by media dizziness and by obsession with the new and now. We lose touch with the past; we forget it quickly as we focus on the immediate. Without remembering the past we cannot learn and make plans for the future. We get stuck in a series of moments but cannot find the continuity that runs through all moments; these are the greater issues of life.
Another time issue has to do with parallel evolutions. Individuals and nations are at varying stages of evolution, some at higher and other at lower phases. The danger is that those at the higher stage can take advantage of those at the lower one. This is called “simultry”, an attempt to exploit the differences in simultaneous evolution.
The Forbiddens
A culture climbs up to the next rung in the moral ladder, new "forbiddens" are written. What are the new forbiddens for our day and age? When you say something is not forbidden and that under some circumstance it may be necessary or acceptable, you are not pushing moral evolution, you are being “practical”. Anyone can be practical; struggling for a new ethic is the critical issue. Evolution and development are primary themes of a Diverse. In the case of ethics we break into new stages of behavior; our forbiddens demarcate a different and new stage of a codex.
The Evolutionary Good
The battle of good and evil evolves from stage to stage without end, one cannot be complacent; each generation has its tasks. The good evolves and we evolve with it.
Civos
A Civos is the act of civilizing or a civilizing event in Human history, Civos evolves endlessly. We advance one Civos at a time.
Social Creativity
While creativity is ultimately individual, groups of people and even whole societies may require an overall strategy and method to manage creativity. Social Creativity protects the integrity of the individual creator, and at the same time manages a group creative process to achieve common ends. A kind of chaos might be an important principle of social creativity, creativity in individuals must be unleashed, an atmosphere of free thinking built, then the force of this rich and diverse creativity can be utilized. Social Creativity unites personal creativities into a whole to achieve a common good.
The Whole and the Part
The force of diversity or differentiation creates distinct entities, these include individuals and social groups, and many entities that later become parts of a whole.
Differentiation creates the vast variety of the cosmos. It creates individuals, multiple perception, creativity, the multicultural and much more. It creates values and sciences and methods of all sorts.
A Diverse Whole gathers up all of these elements and coordinates them, unites them into a great whole, a whole that is flexible and open and in constant development.
Undifferentiation is the opposite process to differentiation, it stresses things like organization, commonality, models, logic etc. Undifferentiation works with differentiation to create a whole, though undifferentiation is in the main a secondary force in the world. Diversity is the primary force, that is why the wholes we create become Diverse Wholes, otherwise they would be rigid and hierarchical.
At times, undifferentiation may be primary or in some respect in some specific problem, but overall it retreats to its natural secondary position.
History and personal development can present us with two kinds of situations. In one we are faced with too much differentiation, in this case we need to reduce the extremes and coordinate a whole to end the chaos and war.
In another condition, we find there is not enough differentiation. Here we must reduce organization and commonality to free up difference, to free up the individual, to free up the parts.
Negative differentiation creates these two kinds of situations. It creates the rigid condition because sometimes too much differentiation can lead to a reaction of control, or forces in the situation will seize power and try to create an authoritarian culture.
Positive differentiation is the method of keeping an evolving individual or society in balance, that is keeping the differentiation from getting extreme and keeping the undifferentiation from leading to seizure and control.
Shell Culture can create some complications in trying to fix a problem in nation. A Shell Culture is a special situation where public values and actual practice diverge; this creates a circumstance where we have two social behaviors in contradiction to each other. One is professed by a system; the other is actually the preferred and fundamental way. Another Shell contradiction would be between two opposing behaviors where each is very extreme, both evolving from an initial shell-thinking contradiction.
For example, we have in the US both extreme individuality and group-think co-existing. Extreme individuality is normal individuality gone wild. At the same time we have group-think created by marketing, entertainment, politics and consumerism. How can this be? It is odd but they do work together, we find individuals a little of both. In cases like this, the strategy of change must be complex. And it is hard to say which is the primary focus in a given situation; only experience really tells us.
One more point about wholes and differentiation. When we get in a condition of too much differentiation, we can rely on a state of mind called the Subsume. This mindset is oriented toward wholes, it thinks in terms of merging and submerging, confusion and fusion, connections and unities. It is the exact opposite of the method that stresses distinction and separateness. When we see too much differentiation like alienation and strife, we long for the whole. We want to return to a time when there was a genuine whole. The Subsume state of mind communicates to us the feelings and perceptions of this time.
The Subsume is also a physical state because differentiation actually begins from specific origin points. Modern social differentiation began with the tribal Subsume long ago. Life began in some yet undetermined Subsume early in our planet’s history. All existence began in the Subsume of the Big Bang. There are other examples of this Subsume idea.
In any case, the relation of the whole and the part is essential to understand our Social Diverse.
Cage Innoye
Published by Axxiad news