I have evolved from my role as psychiatrist in part into the role of cultural critic, because I found that part of what has come to be regarded as neurosis is just that some folks take to heart the lessons they\u2019ve been taught or picked up from the ambient culture. It began to dawn on me in my residency 50 years ago and has grown.<\/p>\n
The culture is to some degree crazy, insofar as many parents, teachers, ministers, authorities mouthing ideas that are deeply dubious. Yet part of what compounded this craziness is that it has been culturally taboo to say this out loud. <\/p>\n
In reflecting on humanity\u2019s follies. I am not exempt; I don\u2019t hold myself above the fray. I continue to discover yet more subtle and not-so-subtle things I\u2019ve believed that I\u2019ve come to change my mind about. This is just one aspect of cultural evolution: questioning assumptions.<\/p>\n
A significant percentage of the follies of humanity\u2014and they are legion\u2014involve believing falsities. As Mark Twain said, \u201cIt ain\u2019t the things you don\u2019t know that get you into trouble. It the things you know for sure that just aren\u2019t so!\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are a few examples of the \u201clies we live by\u201d that make trouble:
1. Women should be submissive, obedient. The man should \u201crule the roost.\u201d
2. Religious authorities know the truth. That\u2019s why they\u2019re promoted to their position. Denying their rulings on policy is impudent, and even refusing to believe with sufficient devotion deserves to generate guilt and repentance. Don\u2019t talk to me about consciously doubting anything.
3. The obvious corruption of some\u2014many, in fact\u2014clergy and their minions are exceptions that should not reflect on the goodness of the cultural institution that birthed them. The gross evils generated by the radical strictness of missionaries should be overlooked. Etc. Don\u2019t get me started.
4. Hell is real, worthy of being afraid\u2014very afraid. Fear is the way to live life as a good person.
… and on and on. It could fill many books. <\/p>\n
Please note that it doesn\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t believe any of this! It\u2019s not unlikely that your parents or grandparents did, and we should not underestimate the degree to which fear and inhbition carries over from generation to generation\u2014diluted perhaps, but not absent. There are layers upon layers of slave mentality that need to be cleaned out. They\u2019re sticky. You can tell them in many cases by the echoes of a shiver of anxiety at even doubting what \u201cthey\u201d affirm.
What if there were classes in every school that addressed these unspoken rules?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have evolved from my role as psychiatrist in part into the role of cultural critic, because I found that part of what has come to be regarded as neurosis is just that some folks take to heart the lessons they\u2019ve been taught or picked up from the ambient culture. It began to dawn on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follies","category-literacy","category-spirituality-and-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1727,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}