Sunday, June 10, 2018

Stages of Maturity

This essay is about the potential for maturity of human consciousness or at least one way of thinking about it. In my view it is an hierarchical development; one cannot progress to the next stage of development until maturation of the underlying stage at which point former stages are retained, integrated and continue in coexistence.

If Mama Ain't Happy...

Sistine Madonna, Raphael
We are all conceived and subsequently born into the Matriarchy. This can be thought of with a very personal, human example. In the womb we were wholly dependent to the point of near total physical inseparability from mother. It takes some time for things to change after birth. Infants remain completely dependent upon the mother or a caretaker in her place. A lack of attendance of mere seconds can mean death for the newly born. The infant likewise totally identifies with the mother; separation means pain. Even a small measure of independence is hard won and takes years of development. Toddlers making the first forays into social contact with other children will typically run underneath and physically wrap themselves around the mother at the slightest surprise or discomfort.

In a greater, universal sense we can think of the Matriarchy as Mother Nature. She is always with us and positively determines most of our existence. Limitations and constraints are imposed on us by nature "out there": gravity, weather, pathology, sources of nourishment e.g. Likewise from within there is unquestionably an underlying biological imperative that largely determines how we will grow and age physically and over which, often to our chagrin, we can consciously exercise at best a limited influence. None of this is what an independent minded person wants to hear, yet it gets worse; our mind is not capable of as much independence or rationality as we might like to think. Our fears, desires, attractions and revulsions certainly motivate us, sometimes drag us by the nose, and will even possess us. Much of the justification and reasoning for our actions comes after the fact, it's the caboose at the end of a train that we're not conducting. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that we're not 100% determined by the Matriarchy; we may not be a complete blank slate but it may very well be that we're the blankest slate out there.

Father Knows Best

Jupiter and Thetis, Jean Auguste Dominique
In the course of growing up we learn to speak, play games, adopt familial and local customs, align our behaviour in accordance with social norms or the laws of the state and perhaps even take on a religious belief. This process of enculturation allows us a measure of independence and a sense of  group identity as we learn, integrate and replicate the behavioural patterns of our society. This is the Patriarchy, Jupiter in charge that is to say Zeus Pater, the pattern-bringer, the Great Father. This of course is the literal meaning of my own given name, 'Patrick' and I sometimes have viewed myself as at least a vessel for the transmission of culture. I've always had an inherent propensity for quickly learning and interanalising ordered systems: languages (human and computational), arithmetic and geometry, logic, dogma and philosophy. When I was younger I thought this ability to learn and repeat was evidence of perhaps my intelligence, certainly my independence; after all, I understood and could do things many other people could not. Yet, I came to eventually understand that I hardly had an original thought of my own. I was essentially a receptive avatar of ideas that I had not generated.

Human beings distinguish themselves from other social animals by the extreme preoccupation we have and the steps we'll take to mitigate the harshness of Mother Nature. Our clothing, medicinal and agricultural traditions all arose as a means to order or pattern the world physically so as to temper the aforementioned often devastating effects of weather, disease and famine. Music, art, drama, myth, religion, poetry, religion, law and philosophy are among the articulated efforts taken by civilisation to order the world at a psychological level whereas craft, architecture and science are examples of disciplines undertaken to order the world physically and to make sense of it psychologically simultaneously. It is incorrect to think of the Patriarchy as 'rule by men'. Whether you are male or female, if you participate in the transmission of culture, if you pass on anything that could be considered uniquely human, you are an active participant in the Patriarchy much the same as the mere fact of being alive and led in part by your unconscious desires indicate you are under the sway of the Matriarchy. The Matriarchy and Patriarchy can thus be seen as archetypal states of development that both men and women typically fully participate in; furthermore, they are a precondition for further maturation towards greater autonomy.

I Can Do It Myself!

The last couple of centuries have witnessed the rise of mass production and industrialisation of the necessities of life: food, clothes, shelter and medicine. Although this arose first in England and other liberal democracies, the same processes were implemented through a variety of political systems including dictatorships and various iterations of socialism and communism. Today almost anywhere on the globe individuals have been made wholly passive and dependent on either the state or corporate entities. Despite persisting disagreement of political viewpoint there has been almost complete standarisation of the global marketplace and its goods. The idea of the individual, small community or even sovereign nation being able to provide the physical necessities of existence for themselves at this point in time seems unrealistic, if not outright absurd or even suspect.

I'm of the opinion that cutting off the possibility of Autarky, physical self-sufficiency and independence, from the individual or small community is a catastrophic mistake. The infrastructure of civilisation has been reduced to massive integrated systems of politics, economy, education and production that are too big to succeed. They lack the adaptability that only exists at the level of the individual. Humans generate solutions by acting in the world physically, reinforcing those actions with rational justifications in retrospect. As such, when independent autonomy of action becomes severely constrained or bureaucratically forbidden there remains no physical path to step outside; we're at critical risk of suffocating the adaptive mechanism of free will that generates culture to begin with.

The mask of Greek drama was the false face,
the persona worn by the actors
for, 'per' the sound, 'sona'.

Presently there still remains the possibility to think and feel for oneself even as one's autonomy of action for greater independence and self reliance is severely restricted. For example, we don't have to remain creatures of instinct, rather we can reflect on our actions, examine our motivations, acknowledge and accept ourselves as we manifest both physically and emotionally. Essentially, we can be honest first and foremost with ourselves. Additionally, we also have the capacity to step outside  and reflect upon aspects of our culture whether it be our language group, religion, ethnicity, education, political affiliation etc. This is more than simply switching from identification with one ideology to another but truly separating, if but temporarily and partially, from the preformed, ready to acquire ideologies that we might use to define us to ourselves and others. This process of maturation towards individuality can be daunting, frightening and even psychologically destabilising, deadly in fact for the self image we have generated for ourselves or present to others. All of the assumptions and axioms by which we navigate life can be upended in a moment. It is little wonder many if not most persons shrink back from this stage of development.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Although progress towards individuality is necessary for significant maturation, it need not end there. After all, we're not separate from nature, it's not something 'out there', rather it is 'in here', we are nature as it were. Neither is culture something that we want to permanently withdraw from. We are social creatures and despite the fact that many cultural institutions are corrupt, oppress us and attempt to conscript us as avatars of various ideologies, they often provide a measure of safety, support and space for development of the individual.

The Wheel of Dharma
The ultimate stage for the mature individual is transcendence, the voluntary acceptance of life with all of its pain and suffering. It also includes reintegration into the culture but as an individual operating at a higher level of conscious awareness willing to voluntarily take on the responsibility to update, redeem and transform society for the benefit of others.

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Contributed by Patrick Webb