The Groundwork
Which came first, the seed or the fruit? (Hint: It's a trick question)
In this section we cover the groundwork for our inquiry. Again the main questions of our overall inquiry are: 1) Who are we? 2) How did we become who we are? 3) How do we re+create who we are?
To answer these questions we're going to look at both, how any human society instills it's beliefs in it's members and what beliefs did a particular society instill. In this particular section we will address the how. How does any human society instill it's beliefs in it's members?
Covering the groundwork in this "Earth" means we share a number of tools and techniques that are used throughout this inquiry to help us find answers to these questions: how we might re+create who we are and how we became who we are...
In this section we cover the groundwork for our inquiry. Again the main questions of our overall inquiry are: 1) Who are we? 2) How did we become who we are? 3) How do we re+create who we are?
To answer these questions we're going to look at both, how any human society instills it's beliefs in it's members and what beliefs did a particular society instill. In this particular section we will address the how. How does any human society instill it's beliefs in it's members?
Covering the groundwork in this "Earth" means we share a number of tools and techniques that are used throughout this inquiry to help us find answers to these questions: how we might re+create who we are and how we became who we are...
System, Society, & Core Beliefs
These are the most fundamental concepts to this inquiry. In later sections we look at the connections and interactions between system, society, and core beliefs. For now we'll look at them as separate components. To understand how any human society instills it's beliefs in it's members we must be clear on:
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System: an organization that consists of interrelated and interdependent elements (components, entities, factors, members, parts, etc.), continually influencing one another (directly or indirectly), maintaining their activity and the existence of the system, in order to achieve the goal of the system.
Society: a group involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same principle authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Core Beliefs: a principal principle, proposition, idea, etc, accepted as true; opinion; conviction
the very essence of how one sees the past, present, and future, the world, other beings, and themselves.
- organization: an arrangement into a structured whole
- interrelated and interdependent: two or more things related, connected, and dependent on each other.
- continually influencing: constantly having an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something
Society: a group involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same principle authority and dominant cultural expectations.
- persistent: continuing to exist or endure over a prolonged period
- principle authority: the main influencer, the originator, or creator
- dominant cultural expectations: most powerful or most prevalent beliefs or hopes of a society
Core Beliefs: a principal principle, proposition, idea, etc, accepted as true; opinion; conviction
the very essence of how one sees the past, present, and future, the world, other beings, and themselves.
- principal principle: the first or main fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning
- accepted as true: not necessarily true, but generally believed or recognized to be valid or correct.
- very essence of how one sees: vision, a mental image of what the future will or could be like, often leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which behavior, influenced by expectations, causes those expectations to come true.
Tools, Principles, & Contents
How will we conceptualize the fundamental ideas? The Tools section covers the strategies we use to conceptualize and connect ideas:
- Tree Model
- Ebb & Flow
- Venn Diagram
- Many Paths Principle
- Integral Principle
- Repetitive Principle
- 3-D Principle
- AAA Principle
- Assumptions, Agendas, & Appeal
- Means, Methods, & Manners
- Lifeforms, Lifestyles, & Livelihood
- Language, Customs, & Ideals
- Architecture, Arts, & Achievement
- Identity, Distinction, & Specification
ToolsWhat are core beliefs
and why are they important? |
Guiding PrinciplesHow are core beliefs instilled?
How are core beliefs removed? |
ContentsHow do we identify core beliefs?
How do we create alternate core beliefs? |
Second Warning!!
"The [System] is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room.
You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television.
You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes."
Society and culture are like religion and politics in that they are held to a high degree of importance and that they are embedded so early and so often one never really chooses their religious or political ideals. So the actual process of "choosing" between religious and political ideals is essentially no different than the process of choosing an ice cream flavor. With the exception of a food allergy, there’s often very little objective reason to like chocolate over strawberry, or strawberry over vanilla. And in all the arguments about which is the best flavor, it's easy to ignore the fact that some people simply don’t care for ice cream, and some are lactose intolerant so they can't even eat ice cream at all if they wanted to.
But perhaps we can't compare ice cream to religion and politics because those are such "important and serious matters". And maybe that's true, but the point is that the process of choosing religious and political beliefs is most often dictated not by objective reasoning or careful consideration, but by upbringing, conditioning, and basically what one finds most appealing. No person is immune from this, from choosing things based on their upbringing, conditioning, or what appeals to them, from their society’s propaganda and narratives (not even the writers of this work).
Every person is more readily susceptible to the messages seen and heard throughout their upbringing, to the messages they find appealing, and to the messages aligned with their particular beliefs. Also, every person is subject to the continuous, constant, never ending cultural conditioning of their society. Not a single society in the history of forever, is excluded from conditioning their members to certain beliefs and ways of being. Even without a deliberate program or education, this conditioning happens by default of the groups existence. This conditioning comes at all times, from every angle, and every direction. From friends, family, and associates. From radio, TV, and the internet. From campfires, rituals, and celebrations. From art, music, and literature. From sculpture, architecture, and even the layout of a city, town, or village.
Humans are all products of an environment, and that environment conditions their environ+mental. It constantly and continuously conditions their environ+mental. In turn this environ+mental is a constant and continuous lens or filter through which we see and interpret an environment. We are products of an environment and an environ+mental.
And as a product of an environment, your very own environ+mental, your mind, quietly replays messages, in the background, at all times, on an infinite loop. UNLESS something happens to disrupt this loop. We’re turning up the volume so you can hear it. We're highlighting the messages so you can distinguish it clearly. We're bringing it to the foreground so you can see it. We're adjusting the lenses so you can see it clearly. We're breaking up the loop so you can sense it. We're stopping the loop so you can see and sense something different, and perhaps CHOOSE another path.
It's said that a mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. If you are perfectly content with your life as it is now then there's still time to stop. It's not too late for you to turn back. This is your second warning!
But perhaps we can't compare ice cream to religion and politics because those are such "important and serious matters". And maybe that's true, but the point is that the process of choosing religious and political beliefs is most often dictated not by objective reasoning or careful consideration, but by upbringing, conditioning, and basically what one finds most appealing. No person is immune from this, from choosing things based on their upbringing, conditioning, or what appeals to them, from their society’s propaganda and narratives (not even the writers of this work).
Every person is more readily susceptible to the messages seen and heard throughout their upbringing, to the messages they find appealing, and to the messages aligned with their particular beliefs. Also, every person is subject to the continuous, constant, never ending cultural conditioning of their society. Not a single society in the history of forever, is excluded from conditioning their members to certain beliefs and ways of being. Even without a deliberate program or education, this conditioning happens by default of the groups existence. This conditioning comes at all times, from every angle, and every direction. From friends, family, and associates. From radio, TV, and the internet. From campfires, rituals, and celebrations. From art, music, and literature. From sculpture, architecture, and even the layout of a city, town, or village.
Humans are all products of an environment, and that environment conditions their environ+mental. It constantly and continuously conditions their environ+mental. In turn this environ+mental is a constant and continuous lens or filter through which we see and interpret an environment. We are products of an environment and an environ+mental.
And as a product of an environment, your very own environ+mental, your mind, quietly replays messages, in the background, at all times, on an infinite loop. UNLESS something happens to disrupt this loop. We’re turning up the volume so you can hear it. We're highlighting the messages so you can distinguish it clearly. We're bringing it to the foreground so you can see it. We're adjusting the lenses so you can see it clearly. We're breaking up the loop so you can sense it. We're stopping the loop so you can see and sense something different, and perhaps CHOOSE another path.
It's said that a mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. If you are perfectly content with your life as it is now then there's still time to stop. It's not too late for you to turn back. This is your second warning!
ToolsWhat are core beliefs and
why are they important? |
Guiding PrinciplesHow are core beliefs instilled?
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ContentsHow do we identify core beliefs?
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