Thursday 23 August 2007

Pic of the day: Each new generation has to take on anew the task of becoming human... but at least we don't start from scratch.

Body, mind, human

As I mentioned briefly in my previous grey entry, the task for each of us is to become truly human. This entry represents a change in terminology. In the past I have used "human" as an insult, more or less, implying that a few superhumans have risen above the mentally unwashed masses. But you could just as well say that our goal at this stage in history is to become truly human, and that those who fail to reach this remain somehow subhuman. It is a more demanding perspective, and more confronting. We shall see which terminology I stick with, but for today I think this is the best.

If the fossil and DNA record are to be believed, our species has been pretty much the same biologically for at least 120 000 years, most likely 200 000, quite possibly longer (though our last common ancestor goes no further back at least). But Eve and her tribe were a sorry sight by today's standards. The highest technology was the common hand axe, which had seen very little improvement over the past million years. It was essentially made by cracking open stones of certain minerals that produced sharp edges: Flint and obsidian being the most common. By doing this in a certain way, you got several good flakes with one rounded and one sharp edge. These could be used as tools or weapons as the need be. They lasted quite a while before becoming too dull, at which point you replaced them by splitting the stone again. Once one stone was used up, you found another one.

By all signs, their culture did not range far ahead of their technology, quite possibly the opposite. There is no sign of art. Trade and specialization of crafts seems entirely absent, except some division of labor between the sexes. (A division that follows naturally from the obvious problems with hunting down fleet-footed animals if you are pregnant or nursing a baby.) Life was nasty, brutish and short, and then you were eaten by hyenas. Burial seems to have been sporadic, though Neanderthals did it at times near the end of their reign.

Around 90 000 years ago, we find the first signs of body decoration, in East Africa. Over the next tens of thousands of years, other signs of modern thought show up: Trade, as axe stones show up far from their natural origin. Specialization, as refined tools show up that must have required a master craftsman who spent time perfecting his tools. The first decorative patterns are found now, scratched into stone. Inventions such as harpoons and nets pop up. And then, some 60 000 years ago, humanity sweeps across the earth. 40 000 years ago, ritual burial was the rule, and cave paintings made in Ice Age Europe still impress us today with their beauty and conveyed energy, leaping out at us filled with human spirit. Carvings of fat women (the ultimate in beauty, as my readers must know by now) abound, and the first flutes are found among remnants of tools and weapons that were as elegant as they were practical. Sewing needles show that clothes were a natural part of life, at least outside the tropics. These guys may not have been Plato and Mozart, but they were certainly as human as many among us today. The door was open. But even now, not all go through it.

***

We have had a human body for 200 000 years, and the human mind has been around for more than 40 000, probably 60 000. But to integrate the two into a true human is still the task today. We have the support of a civilization, and our culture is highly refined compared to anything that went before. The benefits of true humanity are plain to see. But it is still a hard, even painful task to take on for each of us.

If we fail to integrate the mind into the body, we remain essentially apes. Christian readers may be familiar with the word "carnal". A carnal person is one who is driven by basic instincts. Hungry? Eat! Angry? Hit! Horny? F*ck! Life for these people would have been simple, except that circumstances (usually in the form of other people) come between them and their gratification. This is a source of constant frustration and conflict. These human apes are able to talk (though you can often pick them out by their speech patterns pretty quickly). They are just not able to think beyond the animal level. Nor do they see any value in doing so. The body and its pleasures are all that is real to them. As I once heard a seemingly sane woman say on radio: "I don't have a body. I am a body."

Obviously there is a sliding scale here. It is impossible to live free in a civilized society unless you have integrated some mind. This is especially obvious with the males, who tend to have the most antisocial instincts. This is why I say only half in jest: "A woman who cannot resist temptation gets fat. A man gets jailed." Our higher sex drive and aggressive tendencies will soon bring us into conflict if we don't restrain ourselves. And only a mind can do that. Otherwise we have to be restrained by others; in our age that would be law enforcement.

The integration of mind into the body is a process that starts in childhood. If you have a healthy brain and good role models, you can "download" a healthy mind blueprint (for lack of a better word) from them, and grow into it quickly and rather painlessly. Even so, for most of us it takes some time to mature into a true human, one who naturally knows Truth and Beauty and Virtue and chooses them. To be personal for a moment, I have to say that the process is still ongoing as I quickly approach 50. I am not sure there is an upper limit that most of us will reach in a lifetime. But it should be obvious to all whether or not we have begun on this path.

***

Unfortunately there is a different risk as well. If we begin to inhabit the mind but fail to integrate the body, we risk overshooting (in a manner of speaking). In this case, we imagine too much and do too little. In young people, this often takes the form of idealism. We want to be larger than life, better than life. We identify with the ideals without doing the fact checking in our own lives. We hear or read about great ideas, whether religion or philosophy or politics, and it sets our mind on fire. We want to change the world, without fully knowing it. The bad idealist requires sacrifices of others but not of himself. In the extreme cases, the sacrifice is life itself: Both communists and fascists honestly believe it is necessary to kill those who oppose the Great Idea. Religious extremists, from the Aztec priests to present-day Taliban, agree that human sacrifice is acceptable for the common good.

Not all idealists go that far. Some simply demand that you give over half your money to the state, which will then use it for The Common Good. This is moderate enough that many people concede to it, as long as others do the same. Or that you give a tenth of your income to the church, plus a noticeable sum at every weekly meeting; it quickly adds up. The money goes to the Greater Glory of God, of course. You'd think that God would be economically independent at His age, but evidently a lot of people let themselves convince otherwise. So far it has proved harder to fleece people for the rainforests and such, unless you go through the government with it. You can't just bully people into making sacrifices for the environment, but the project is in progress, so we shall see. So far it has been mostly talk, though.

The "good" idealist makes sacrifices himself. This person is on the verge of true humanity. If you make sacrifices for what you believe in, and don't use this to put pressure on others, you have become a truly integrated person. Congratulations! But if you still try to reduce other people's freedom to your own lower level, you still have a way left to go.

The person who fails to "anchor" his mind will tend to drift off, but the direction varies. To me the socialists are the most obvious. There are a lot of them these days, having grand ideas that would never work in practice. If they had integrated their mind in their body, and keenly observed human nature in themselves and others, they would know that their ideas were off. But they love their ideas so much that they prefer to ignore the inconvenient truths. This is certainly not limited to socialists, though they may have it organized better than most and have a heavy presence in higher education. But you find the same in New Age, where people hold the most fantastic ideas. They can create their own reality; they get important messages from the dead or from aliens; they have found the Secret of unlimited wealth, health and love.

Even my fellow Christians are not immune to this flapping of wings. Here in Norway we call it "glory theology", the belief that if you only have faith you will never get sick, never lack money, and generally sail through life. If you have problems, it must be because you lack the faith to claim your right as a Christian. Never mind that the prophets and apostles were persecuted and most came to a sticky end. Never mind that Jesus made it abundantly clear that life in the world wouldn't be easy.

***

But if you integrate body and mind, a wonderful view opens. If you have downloaded a sound mind, from your parents or other good people, or even from good books, then you should honestly observe yourself. Correcting your flaws is secondary; I would even think it may be almost automatic. The hard part is to observe ourselves honestly. By nature we make excuses, we make exceptions for ourselves. "The others made me do it" being the first and foremost, the Goliath of excuses. "I had to hit him because he said I was stupid." "The idiot in the car in front of me suddenly braked." "She was wearing too short skirts." "A talking reptile told me to eat the apple." There is no end to excuses. We keep making excuses the same way spiders make threads, out of their own substance. To cut through these is difficult, painful, and most of us can only do it intermittently. (That's the fancy word for "off and on", isn't it?) But every time we practice it, we come a little closer.

The map and the terrain start to overlap. Blurry at first, but we can recognize where we are. Oh happy day! This is where we run off and tell everyone about our enlightenment instead of quietly continuing to observe ourselves and the timeless Truth, Beauty and Virtue to which we aspire. But if all goes well, we return. A sure sign of being on the right path is looking at ourselves ten or even five years ago and thinking "man, I was stupid". Well, I was. I certainly had my glimmers, some of which still impress me, but there were also so many things I did not know. In fact, I did not even know that I did not know. This is the blessed ignorance that the Hindus call "Maya", the mother of illusions. It lets us always believe that we know almost everything, even though we know almost nothing. Even if we know theoretically that we are just playing on the shore of the ocean of knowledge, we don't feel that way. If we did, I think we would break. So don't worry about that. As long as you have been an idiot in the fairly recent past, things are looking good!

Robert W. Godwin writes about a "sexual tension" between our present self and our possible future self, our highest aspiration. I am not sure I would use those words, but there is an attraction. C.S. Lewis portrays the perfected human as a being you would be tempted to worship, glorious and godlike. Again, I don't know if this vision is for everyone. If we see the difference as too great, we might give up hope. But we need to know, in heart and soul, that being truly human is not a small thing. It should inspire awe and a sense of responsibility, somewhat like being heir to a throne. We should not have come so far, on the back of a thousand struggling generations, only to fail now.