Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Progress Versus the Resignation of the Traditionalist School


Great frustration has much to do with the doctrine of resignation to fate seen in the revival of the Traditionalist School now popular in the far right. In effect they give up on the possibility of progress and are highly negative about the Western adventure of science and evolution. Nietzsche and Raymond Cattell wrote about how early Christianity made pity and resignation their way to deal with the great frustrations of the middle-east of the time. This seems to be a more eastern than western way of dealing with life.

In the West we don't reject progress in that way, we look forward to the adventure of evolution, even to our evolution to Godhood, which is almost the opposite of resignation and pity. For example, it seems that the more courageous wing of sociobiological studies is finding that the societies that endure and don't destroy themselves somehow mold genetics toward a reduction of the genetic lag between IQ's, and in the way people have or have not emotional control. These frustrations can lead to revolutions, or to the philosophies of resignation and pity. This assumes, backed by more and more research, that there is strong genetic component to IQ and to emotional control.  It's time to stop blocking this knowledge.

Looking further ahead toward our future evolution, we will either change consciously or unconscionably and it seems far better regarding the rise and fall of societies to consciously try to moderate this process than to have it unconscionably moderate us. This should be thought of as compassionate in preventing the suffering of a dying society. Hardin and Cattell called this “discriminating altruism.” The Faustian spirit of the West doesn't resign its fate to hopeless cycles---most seriously, we may not evolve to real Godhood if we do.  The God-Within, the Father-Within of Tradition needs to be included but transformed into the real Godhood we evolve to in the cosmos.

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