Humankind Advancing, Vol.7, No.1

January, 1996

Theme: Celebration of the Human Mind

Potentially infinite desire finds itself within a woven fabric of finite energy. This condition holds at every level of reality. The mollusc in the sand of the ocean, the bacteria in the rotting redwood tree in the forest, the tornado in the wind currents of the summer drought, the black hole in the center of the galaxy -- each exists with demands in a world tight with constraints on the very energies necessary to satisfy these demands (pp.54/55). (Continued below)

Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry
The Universe Story

Recognition of laws and limitations in the structure of reality opens the mind for discovery of solutions that are invisible otherwise.

E.E.

Humans were not built to fly, and biological selection has for eons steered us toward an exclusively terrestrial existence. Yet we started to dream of soaring, and eventually we found ways to break the bonds of gravity and realized that dream.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Consciousness for the 21st Century

(Continued from above) Working within these structured communities and their many imposed limitations, the universe brings forth both its violence and its creativity. These obstacles, these boundaries, and these limitations are essential for the journey of the universe itself. (P.55).

The obstacles -- both physical and psychic -- that contemporary humans experience can indeed be demolished or denied for another generation, enabling us to continue with our destruction. Some of this will certainly take place as those on the hunt for material gains exhaust their inventiveness searching for ways to pretend the universe can be fooled. But another orientation is possible. We might come to see in the very constraints themselves the presence of a future sublime beauty, struggling to emerge (p.57). (Swimme & Berry; The Universe Story)

* * * * *
We must learn to live between the extremes of poverty and excess. (P147).

The hallmark of a balanced simplicity is that our lives become clearer, more direct, less pretentious, and less complicated. We are then empowered by our material circumstances rather than enfeebled or distracted. Excess in either direction -- too much or too little -- is complicating. If we are totally absorbed in the struggle for subsistence or, conversely, if we are totally absorbed in the struggle to accumulate, then our capacity to participate wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in life is diminished (p.148).

Duane Elgin
Voluntary Simplicity

The impact of Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, came to my attention through the Newsletter of the Association of Objectivist Businessmen, sent to me by one of my subscribers.¹ Through this paper I learned for the first time that the striving for wealth is perceived as a holy pursuit, a pursuit of immense benefit to our world, and that greed is believed to be its most effective motor. Values, such as hard work, initiative, intelligence, pride in accomplishment, etc., are also promoted, but pale in the light of the former.

Atlas Shrugged is a work of fiction, superbly written and of such suspense that it is hard to put the book down, though it contains 1075 pages! Its philosophy is expressed through the context in which the actions occur, through the fate of the actors, but also through their words, including long speeches. The world cannot understand, Ayn Rand believes, that unrestricted freedom of the genius in a few rare persons would lead to inimaginable progress, and that restrictions of any kind (such as paying taxes) kill that progress in the bud.

In her story, the most capable persons in the country -- all heroes of epic proportions -- go on strike, and the entire civilization disintegrates. Not only do they refuse to work on their breathtaking inventions, take low-paying menial jobs instead or disappear into a hidden valley in the California rockys (which contains a large dollar sign, made of gold and placed on a pedestal like an altar), they first actually destroy their multi-billion dollar mines and factories, burn their oil wells, and attack and sink ships with reliefs for destitute countries. Nothing, but nothing must go to anyone in need! --

I had read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, and was thus acquainted with her philosophy, but I was unprepared for the extremism that saturated Atlas Shrugged. In some respects the book reminded me of the most obstinate claims of religious fanatics. Government is the ultimate evil. Its ability to extract money from the rich "at the point of a gun" is demonstrated by the description of an attempt to force one of the heroes to publicly state that he would cooperate with the government, while an actual gun is pressed against his chest. Of course, he refuses and is subjected to torture. Again and again he is told that he would be placed at the head of the Economy Department, that he would have full freedom to dominate and rule everything, but that his demand to abolish all income taxes could not be granted for political reasons. He declines and would have been tortured to death, would his friends not have liberated him. All compromise is contemptible.

Why does this book have such an influence? Is it because psychology is used with the greatest skill? The most admirable qualities, such as honesty, capability, and effort to the point of self-torture, are tightly interwoven with greed, contempt, and hatred of the misfortunate and those who want to help them, the "looters," as they are called. Selfish attitudes are thus elevated, while the highest human motives are vilified. Global consciousness and concern, for instance, are intertwined with hypocrisy, deceit, and cringing cowardice so tightly as to make both kinds of motivations indistinguishable. Every single argument ever used in this Quarterly is found in Atlas Shrugged -- tainted and degraded.

It is very difficult under these circumstances to remain objective, but I will try. I, too, admire objectivity. -- But is it objective to describe inventions leading to a higher quality of life for everyone as a glorious pursuit when powered by greed, but as a detestable undertaking when motivated by the wish to benefit humankind? Is it objective to teach that greed always and only leads to utopia (one of the chapter headings is called "The Utopia of Greed") and never to corruption, weapons trade, drug smuggling, and the destruction of the minds of young children -- not to speak of our biosphere? Is it objective to maintain that love and compassion for our fellow-beings are not rooted in human nature itself, but forced upon our civilization by an oppressive moral code? How could our species with its long childhood-stage ever have developed without these values?

Yet the book contains valuable lessons underneath dogmatic extremism. Is it a realistic goal that all wealth on earth should be divided equally? Persons of outstanding capability, who have sacrificed every minute of their lives in the pursuit of an invention so new and daring that it is perceived as impossible by others, who have pushed on through decades of disappointments and ridicule, relying on no-one but themselves -- and who, at the zenith of their achievements, in the sight of even grander visions, are forced to give up their hopes in order to subsidize and encourage lethargic dependency -- must they not feel chained to an ever more demanding humanity like to an immense weight that threatens to drown them?

Thus, in part I agree with Ayn Rand, but only after qualities destroying us are carefully untangled from those desirable for our future. -- Among the latter are her admiration of outstanding individuals, "born only once on earth every hundred years," though we differ on what makes them outstanding. -- For me, such persons combine extraordinary qualities, both of the mind and of the heart.

The main lesson I learned from the book is that everything can be achieved, if enough skill and effort is expended. "Objectivism" can be surpassed. A truly realistic assessment of our world acknowledges not only the existence, but the overwhelming importance, of subjective experience. It discovers that greed and a sense of accomplishment are not synonymous, but rather independent of each other -- perhaps even incompatible.

Since Atlas Shrugged was written, our world has changed. Our life support system is in danger, and ruthless competition will become lethal. Our knowledge has increased, specialization has become unavoidable, and cooperation essential. The promotion of unconditional selfishness as foundation for a rational system of values is a luxury we cannot anymore afford.

¹) Her impact was even greater than I had assumed. A biography (The Passion of Ayn Rand, by B. Branden, 1986), which I read shortly before this issue was completed, reports that until that date alone twenty million copies of her books had been sold. Ayn Rand's philosophy had "forever altered American thought" through a "powerful and still accelerating influence on the culture in which we live," not only through books, articles, and lectures, but also through movies, television, etc. After she wrote her "Screen Guide for Americans" (around 1947) all attacks on businessmen as villains disappeared from the screen. She was most successful with young people "still in the process of being formed and selecting the values and concepts that would guide their lives." During her last public appearance she received a standing ovation by an audience of more than four thousand people from all areas of the U.S.A. and other parts of the world -- business men, bankers, financial consultants, entrepreneurs, investors, industrialists, economists, mutual-fund managers, and others in the financial world -- many of whom had read her books when young and were shaped by her thinking.

Marvin Cetron
Trends That Will Affect America's Future

Another Letters to the Editor. 

Capitalism with a Conscience. One of my subscribers, who gave me permission to quote him only under the condition that his positive opinion of capitalism comes through, invented for his attitude the definition "Capitalism with a Conscience." -- That attitude shines through in his unpublished manuscript Stages of Mind, from which he quoted in his letter of January 4, 1994. He wrote:

"You also have a formidable task of overcoming overconsumption. I call your attention to the passage of my book again (page III-85):

`Capitalism has the ubiquituousness of water trying to find its lowest possible level...With capitalism goods and services spread into all kinds of hidden cracks, crevasses, and corners where there is the slightest potential for profit. This, I think, is the grand beneficial attribute of capitalism. 

However, capitalism as implemented in the twentieth century, makes an unreasonable and unrealistic assumption...that economic prosperity requires constant expansion of the entire system (growth). That is, more goods and services must be provided constantly to ever-growing markets, which requires a constant population growth and/or the acquisition of buying power by peoples who never had it before. In order to keep the system growing, more and more resources must be consumed to make the goods for the ever-growing markets and more and more energy must be expended to make them, to distribute them, and to collect and dispose of the waste. I think you can see where the process leads -- to elephantiasis...twentieth century economics is like an aging star whose expansion will shortly be followed by a mighty stellar-wrecking implosion.'

And once more from my book (page III-89):

`The absence of political leaders, erstwhile statesmen, and the leaders of the economic infrastructure from the coalition to preserve the planet is more than notable, and in some minds, verges on the criminal. After all, what are leaders for, if not to initiate appropriate measures in times of peril?' "

Raymond Schiller
Fort Lee, NY, U.S.A.

The major credit for providing the science of thinking with a "heart" and a conscience belongs to neuroscientist R.W. Sperry, who discovered the crucial importance of right-hemisphere thought.

A discussion of

From the editor's preface: "During the compilation of this volume we were deeply saddened to hear that Roger Sperry had died of a heart attack in Pasadena, California, on April 17, 1994. Despite a disease that robbed him of mobility for many years, Professor Sperry remained intellectually active until his last days, concentrating in his later work on the relationship between mind and consciousness and ethical values....We are more than pleased to have the opportunity to reprint this eloquent account... from a man who made titanic contributions to neurobiology."

Though he shares many of this movement's sentiments, he always differentiated his views carefully from its more exaggerated claims, especially those inconsistent with science. In the latter part of this article, he selects the views of the influential catholic monk, Father Thomas Berry, for comparison and contrast.

First he presents a long list of view points both of them hold in common: the need of a more directed evolution; a non-dualist perception of the sacred, founded in the cosmology of science and leading to a new ethic (exploitation and spoiling of our earth, as well as species extinction, become immoral); replacement of traditional materialistic science with a more holistic perception including subjective experience; integration of science and the humanities through a unifying world view; the understanding that global problems originate largely from inadequate past mind-sets (both in science and religion); that human-centered priorities have to give way to biocentric ones; and that a new natural and neutral ethic has the potential to be acceptable to a large variety of ethnic, cultural and national communities.

On the other hand, there are important differences between Sperry's views and those of Father Berry: Berry's panpsychism, the belief that everything must have a spiritual component beside its material one to explain ascent toward spirituality, is replaced by Sperry's insight into the nature of emergence. Sperry specifically explains that "although our new mentalist paradigm in behavioral science infuses a new subjectivity into the scientific worldview, this does not extend to entities without brains." Further, evolution, in Berry's view, is directed by governing forces from the start, while Sperry sees these forces as "developed in graduated stages as evolution proceeds." Moreover, Berry does not mention over- population as damaging, while for Sperry it is one of the most outstanding dangers. While both reject the priming of human mind-sets for expectation of endless material growth, regardless of its effect on nature, Sperry recognizes that technology otherwise can be "part of the advance in the evolving quality of existence, something that gives added meaning and higher dimensions to the human venture." Among his dreams are space travel leading to human survival after our planet's death, control over the aging process, and other yet unimagined wonders. "Utopia," he says, "is tomorrow's technology, combined with and adapted to the population levels of centuries past."

Another difference of Sperry's perception and that of most New-Agers, including Berry, is their excessive stress on "interconnectedness" and "communion," based on subatomic realities. Subatomic particles, however, are very different from individuals, who acquired new emergent properties with every level of their construction during the process of evolution. Normal interdependence, yes; subatomic dissolution of individuality, No. -- While fully embracing the need to provide a moral basis for environmentalism, Sperry dissociates himself explicitly from more extreme New-Age beliefs. -- "Our new acceptance in science of consciousness and subjectivity, the mental, cognitive, or spiritual," he says, "does not -- as is frequently inferred -- open the doors of science to the supernatural, the mystical, the paranormal, the occult, the otherworldly -- or, in short, to any form of unembodied mind or spirit. The strength and promise of the new macromental [downward causation] outlook is just the opposite -- that is, in taking our ultimate guideline beliefs and resultant social values out of the realm of the supernatural and otherworldly uncertainties and grounding them in a more realistic realm of knowledge and truth, consistent with science and empiric verification."

Discussion of

These authors recognize that meaning cannot be found in the vast immensities of space, nor in the minute details of atomic particles, and yet it is not absent from our world. It resides in the middle range where consciousness and purpose have evolved from stellar dust. -- It is our capacity to think and feel that provides our lives with meaning.

The unique value of the book lies in that insight. Clifford N. Matthews, professor of chemistry, has conducted research in cosmochemistry and the origin of life, and teaches cosmic evolution. (In his contribution to Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends he stresses the importance of imperfect symmetries in the cosmos. Without errors in DNA reproduction, for instance, we would not have progressed beyond the stage of anaerobic bacteria.) -- Roy Abraham Varghese is co-founder of two high-technology companies in the U.S.A., journalist, organizer of several international conferences on science, philosophy, and religion, etc. and co-editor (with Henry Margenau) of the book Cosmos, Bios, Theos.

A discussion of

The author draws attention to the accountability of science for the results of its achievements. Like Sperry, he insists that the chasm between science and morals must be bridged. Regarding the perpetual striving for greatness both of the individual and of society, Bugliarello, a prominent scientist and technological expert, maintains that "for the first time there is through science the opportunity to offer, not to selected groups but to humankind as a whole, a new vision of greatness based on a new vision of the future of man. We scientists and engineers have the potential, if willing to reach boldly beyond the comforting fastness of science's traditional domain, to prevent today's squandering of human talent in the pursuit of a globally unsustainable consumerism. We have the potential to stimulate a new vision and a new philosophy of the law to better deal with the modifications of our biological nature, with our responsibilities to the rest of the universe as well as with the role of the human-made in our lives.

(Emphasis mine.) And we have the potential, if united in our purpose, to move governments and religions to address the questions of the limits to population growth and of global responses to war, poverty, disease, and ignorance; in this can lie the ultimate greatness of science and of our species." (Pp.116-117)

George Bugliarello, past-President and present Chancellor of the Polytechnic University in New York, has a broad background in science and engineering and a wide experience in local, national, and international organizations. He is a prolific author of professional papers and books and founder and editor of the international journal Technology in Society.

New material conditions will arise in which workers will form their own associations, under their own control and for their own purposes, and from this will come a classless society in which men will become as angels and the state will wither away.

Karl Marx

If you ask me how to set sail in the storm of claim and counterclaim, of fact and lie and theory, of warning and prophecy and judgment and exhortation, I do have a bit of advice that I earnestly believe in, which can be summarized in the one-word injunction, Doubt (p.423).

Melvin Konner
The Tangled Wing

Shepherd is right when he believes that "appeal to the mass of modern man" is dependent upon promises of unlimited material abundance and unlimited freedom. That fact reveals the nature and magnitude of the obstacles confronting responsible persons who promote restraint. -- The utopien position presented in Kun's book acts like a Fata Morgana, which irresistably attracts desert travelers dying of thirst. Even for persons taught to think critically, it is difficult not to succomb to the lure of its arguments; for the uncritical mind it is impossible.

To discard inhibiting baggage from the mind is certainly a prerequisit for innovation, and yet, the demand to discard "the need of the mechanical paraphernalia of conventional science" [that is, thorough research] would result only in empty fantasy. Fantasies guided humanity for thousands of years, until the restriction and funneling of these fantasies through rigorous experiments launched the meteoric rise of science several hundred years ago. -- Critical thinking and scientific rigor have led not only to the survival of far more human beings on earth than ever before, but to an unprecedented rise of their quality of existence wherever it has been practised.

Incidentally, one of the results of critical thought is the conviction that consciousness cannot exist in separation from the living brain. The establishment of a "link with higher consciousness" -- if that consciousness is perceived as existing independently of brain activity -- is thus a conception that would lead us back to the Middle Ages rather than produce the projected leaps ahead.

Most easily rejected is the contention that preoccupation with higher things depends upon complete fulfilment of all material wants and desires. Material desires can never be fulfilled. Even if a person would possess the entire earth, unhappiness would result from being deprived of the rest of the universe.

To mentally advance, we cannot wait for all material desires to be satisfied, and we cannot discard the restrictions of critical thinking. In fact, the elimination of critical thought would be one of the greatest disasters imaginable. -- The quality of our future is dependent on education for critical thinking. E.E.

We must choose and choose soon, either for or against the further evolution of the human spirit. It is for us, in the generation that turns the corner of the millenium, to apply whatever knowledge we have, in all humility but with all due speed, and try to learn more as quickly as possible. It is for us, much more than for any previous generation, to become serious about the human future, and to make choices that will be weighed not in a decade or a century but in the balances of geological time (p.436).

Melvin Konner
The Tangled Wing

The Right Livelihood Award for 1992 has gone to [among others]: Dr. Zaffrullah Chowdhury of Bangladesh and his People's Health Center, Gonoshasthaya, Kendra. For 20 years Dr. Chowdhury has been developing this grassroots health service. Among his programs have been an emphasis on women's health and development, and the manufacture of high-quality low-cost drugs. (P.14)

Source: TRANET, Nov. 1992. Box 567, Rangeley, ME 04970, U.S.A.

Acknowledgments: 

I wish to thank Dr. Brian Swimme for his permission to use quotes and excerpts from The Universe Story.