The project of consciousness movement has been to make the unconscious   
   conscious. It has been to examine the influences that one has had and discard   
   what is invalid. I have had many influences, many of them vastly conflicting   
   with one another; and I have    
   been doing a lot to examine them, partly by myself and partly with the efforts   
   of others.   
      
   I have known any number of people who did not like it where they came from,   
   but still kept many of their attitudes. When I was 18 I had feelings for a   
   woman named Louise. She came from the South, but she did not like many things   
   about the South. They    
   however remained within her. I loved the part of herself that was her and   
   hated what came from the South. She has since then done a lot by way of   
   examining her influences, and now we are best friends.   
      
   This brings me to a different topic, and that is adaptation to society. Many   
   of the same people who militate against government power are insisting that   
   people adapt to social norms. My response to that is based on political   
   science. A rule that is not    
   official is one that is not subject to accountability, check and balance, and   
   that as such has nothing to keep it from becoming tyrannical. I would respect   
   an official law, I would not respect a law that is unofficial, nor would I   
   recommend that others    
   do either. If you want your norms to be binding, pass a law toward that effect.   
      
   My parents did a lot by way of assimilating into America, and both of them are   
   quite comfortable. I instead did my own thing. My life has not been as   
   comfortable as theirs, but I have done more to contribute to culture and   
   thought. I have translated five    
   books of classical Russian poetry into English. America benefits both from   
   people like them and people like me.   
      
   Should immigrants, as some say, assimilate? Doing so denies America all sorts   
   of useful input. Nothing is owed to guys from Middle East who come to America   
   and teach men in disadvantaged communities to be bastards; but much is in fact   
   owed to people who    
   bring into America valuable things from abroad. Americans eat at Chinese   
   restaurants, drive Japanese cars, employ Hindu programmers, view movies made   
   by Jews, follow sports played by black people. All of these people contribute   
   much more to America than    
   they would have if they had simply assimilated.   
      
   It is of course legitimate to demand that people follow actual laws. It is in   
   no way legitimate to demand that people follow laws that are unofficial. Once   
   again, a rule that is unofficial is not subject to checks, balance and   
   accountability. This means    
   that it has nothing to keep it from becoming tyrannical. And tyranny is not   
   what America is meant to be about.   
      
   Once again, I would follow a rule that is official. I would not follow a rule   
   that is unofficial, nor would I recommend that anyone else do either.   
      
   It is most certainly valid to understand where others are coming from; and I   
   have done much work toward that effect, mainly at the encouragement of people   
   whose views I respected. What is not legitimate is imposing on people   
   unofficial codes of conduct.    
   If you want your social norms to be binding, pass a law. Subject it to checks,   
   balance and accountability. Do not create a hidden totalitarianism in a nation   
   that is intended to be free.   
      
   Probably the best thing to have come out of consciousness movement has been   
   the process of seeing such influences and making them conscious. That way one   
   knows what influences one has had and can separate the grain from the chaff.   
   Most of what one finds    
   there is partly true. Most influences are right in some ways and wrong in   
   others. The first step however is seeing them; at which point one can decide   
   which influence is right and about what.   
      
   IN my generation, where everyone has been exposed to all sorts of conflicting   
   influences, this process is necessary. We have been living in the world in   
   which everyone influences one another in all sorts of directions. When Scott   
   Lasch said that my    
   generation was at sea, what he was seeing is an inevitable effect of   
   democracy. Everyone will influence one another. The solution is not to prevent   
   a mix; it is for people to see every influence for what it is and keep what is   
   right while discarding what    
   is wrong with each.   
      
   When I left the corporate world at age 24, I was accused of leaving reality.   
   What I did instead was work on my mind to get rid of things that I had not   
   chosen to be there in order to replace them with more informed choice. That of   
   course got me labeled    
   by any number of people as crazy or irresponsible. In fact it was highly   
   responsible. I was making the unconscious conscious in order that I could make   
   more informed choice.   
      
   Of course the consciousness movement – and its outgrowth the New Age –   
   made any number of errors of their own. They decided that people's beliefs are   
   the only factor in shaping their reality. That is very transparently false.   
   Their situation is owed    
   partly to them, and partly to all sorts of other factors, both ones human and   
   ones non-human. They did not create the Sun or the Earth, and they did not   
   create America.   
      
   When an adaptation or a mindset considers itself to be reality and nothing   
   else to be reality, this error is one natural. They say instead that people   
   make their reality. The problem in both cases is what people consider reality   
   to be. A mindset or an    
   adaptation is real enough, but in no way is it the whole of reality. Reality   
   also includes the Sun, the Universe, the Earth, the oceans and the air, and   
   other civilizations. Garbage in garbage out, as the computer programmers say.   
   You create a false    
   definition of reality, others may buy into that definition and see reality as   
   such as the problem. The solution is not to side with either error, but to   
   have a more complete view as to what reality is.   
      
   Reality as such of course is highly complex; and it includes all sorts of   
   factors. I cannot accept the claims of materialist fundamentalists because I   
   and any number of others – including people with strong academic and   
   professional credentials –    
   have had very real spiritual experiences. Nor can I accept the idea that   
   people make their reality; it is obviously incorrect. I do not know at this   
   time how to reconcile what we know from science with the experiences that   
   people have had and continue to    
   have. I do however know that both sides – the one that says that   
   spirituality is for loonies and the one that says that people make their   
   reality – are wrong.   
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)