In creating a "perfect world" paradigm to act as an ideal foundation upon which to build, some of the most important issues we need to deal with are the origin, nature, and extent of "social dysfunction" and what can be done about "social dysfunction" and "cultural delusion."
As Frederick Mann, founder of the Build Freedom website, observed: 'Many people want a better world and some are working in various projects to this end. I propose that the more "socially functional" we become, and the less we suffer from "cultural delusion," the better are our chances of actually creating a better world.'
In comprehending an 'ideal', it's essential to know what 'reality is'... For the ideal is that which aligns with and is in accord with reality... Thus, while it might seem contradictory... "Idealism is the first idea that should be trashed, the assumption that simply anything is possible. We cannot grasp the fallacy of this notion unless we gain some understanding of fundamental existence, that the parts and pieces fit together and relate only in certain ways and under certain conditions. We need to have a general understanding of how systems develop and why. We come to understand what cannot exist WHEN we gain an recognition of the nature of what does exist.... There is virtually no forum for reality and truth in ours, or any other culture. Not in our media. Not in our institutions. Not among ourselves. Only marginally within science. However, the Internet has the potential for changing this... The Internet's potential for placing unfiltered knowledge in the hands of the individual is frightening to any authoritarian officia.... The people do have a right to know, a natural right to know, the truth, about anything that impinges upon their own lives. They need to know the realities, and the principles of those realities. If they don't understand the realities, they can't accept the realities.... The people have a right to know because of a need to adjust and make corrections... If the nature of a problem is not understood, one cannot formulate a solution. The need is for real knowledge... If an individual, or a society of individuals, does not understand the causes and effects of their environment, they cannot make corrections or repairs....The people do not have a right to intrude into areas that pertain only to an individual or a voluntary group of individuals... Paraphrasing Will Rogers, "The right to swing one's arm ends at the other fella's nose." .... are observations made by Everett E. Allie in his book entitled THE ORIGIN OF SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION: The Pathology of Cultural Delusion.
The entire text of this book is now on the Internet at http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/origin/contents.shtml. and an e-mail attachment version in MS Word is available by emaling free@libertycrusade.com IN subject line type: Send Allie Book.
The book's dedication & a few quotes sum up the "goal"....
I would think the unthinkable and speak the unspeakable,
Not because I am such a brave or clever fellow,
But because there can be no human progress
Without stepping beyond one's cultural norms and imperatives. -- EEA
This work completes the discovery of fundamental physics principles and opens the door of possibility for humanity's next great leap forward, the shedding of cultural delusion, ignorance and superstition, to become a truly intelligent life form....
All aspects of physics; mass, charge, gravity, force, energy, thermodynamics, etc., can be addressed by working with a referent unit common to all matter. The universe becomes understandable in the absence of myth and magic. Hall's discoveries have implications that undercut the very foundations of most human thought, upon which humanity continues to operate and which provides the conceptual foundations and misdirection of our institutions. It displays the very roots of social dysfunction, as well as the parameters of reality....
For the first time, the nature of life and human problems are addressed from the standpoint of a general understanding the nature of existence.
The portrayal of humanity and human problems from this perspective moves the reader beyond opinion and the pronouncements of special interest groups, government, religion and other cultural institutions, providing an objective basis for understanding the common pathogens of human cultures.
The human condition displayed in the absence of cultural dogma becomes understandable and provides the potential to dissolve the cultural delusions that hold humanity in a condition of endless conflict, the inevitable results of high levels of ignorance and superstition within populations. These are insights having the potential to dissolve cultural delusions, reduce ethnic conflict and stimulate humanity's next great advance.....
In short, this book contains the essentials that genus Homo will be required to recognize, accept and build upon, if the destruction of our Earth habitat, and the degeneration of our species is to be averted. This, however, is not to imply that we have all the answers, nor that we will not have to make modifications and adjustments as new and increasingly accurate knowledge becomes available. We do, however, now have a methodology and a firm foundation to build upon. ....
Delusion-ignorance syndromes constitute the single greatest problem facing humanity, having plagued thehuman species throughout recorded history. They are directly or indirectly responsible for virtually all human conflict and humanity's inability to make fundamental progress in the area of its problems. ...
Some individuals have learned to make corrections, often painful ones, in spite of emotional drives and cultural pressure to the contrary. However, humanity has not been effective at making corrections as groups or as societies. Individuals who are able or willing to track factual reality are too few in number to press for changes within our institutions.
Individuals who are tracking objective evidence, such as in good science and in technology, make necessary corrections and can make routine progress toward understanding and accepting reality. However, our institutions have foundation premises born of ancient ignorance and superstition. Regardless of the progress they make, these systems maintain fundamental ideas that generate misdirection and hold humanity bound and helpless in the throes of institutionalized dementia.
We have looked to our corrupt governing institutions for leadership and directions, without understanding that, in their present forms, this is not possible. Their operational premises, and the beliefs of their minions, not recognizing and completely ignorant of the nature of existence, make our institutions the least likely source of direction...
The stance of our Criminal Justice System is completely authoritarian, its tactics of force and punishment are directed toward the destruction of the human spirit; toward the dehumanization of the individual upon which it feeds. This system has no motivation toward the establishment of internal social controls. It does not recognize such control as being possible or desirable. Within our official systems, social control simply means behavior suppressed or imposed by force. Government's motivation and premise structure positions it 180 degrees out of sync with nature and social functionality.
The limits, beyond which our present systems can no longer contain criminality, have already been exceeded. Already, the control of criminality outstrips government's ability to contain it.
Punishment is not only the object of our authoritarian systems, but is an inherent characteristic of any authoritarian system. Authoritarianism, being fundamentally unjust, carries the seeds of criminality. Given the slightest encouragement, the seed sprouts and proliferates. Our failed systems reinforce the premise structures which leads to criminal behavior in the first place. Many of our extant subsystems also thrive on crime and punishment.
Anyone who has spent a day behind bars will have it indelibly etched in memory. Anyone who has spent time, in terms of years, will never fully recover. It systematically undermines the individual, slowly destroying any hope or vision of personal worthiness and one's propensity toward positive accomplishment.
There is an abundance of research into punishment as a deterrent to crime, all of it indicating a fundamental ineffectiveness. The threat of punishment works as a deterrent only if it exists as a clear and present danger or if the impetus toward a particular criminal activity is relatively weak.
The best one can hope for, under such a system, is psychological transference, where the criminal embraces the oppressor, in which case the individual is still pathologically damaged, having abandoned self in favor of the tautologistic beliefs of the oppressor, becoming an additional oppressor. Either as a criminal or a born-again echo of the system, this individual will still be detrimental to the society, and the species.
Just how effective punishment really is, can be seen all about us. It can be seen in the rate of recidivism among released prisoners and the growing savagery of our children. It can be seen in the ever-growing black markets for any commodity or service that has been codified as illegal. It can be seen in the almost unilateral mistrust, if not open hatred for our courts and any form of police power. It can be seen in the growing anger of the people....
In the process of diseasing and criminalizing the society, the system will dehumanize and institutionalize millions, destroying human functionality instead of nurturing it. Either way, the system will be creating increased dependency and irrationality....
.... for a society to remain stable and to have any hope of being a self-correcting system, it must be able to rid itself of highly damaging criminality, either by modifying behavior or by extermination. Either of these courses finds paralyzing resistance within our present systems...
The reality is that a human life will have exactly the value, or purpose, that its owner gives it, nothing more, nothing less.
Bear with me while I repeat that. The individual's life will have no more meaning than the individual gives it. If one is to have purpose and meaning and get something out of living, those are values and achievements that only the individual can generate. No one or no thing, can do it for him, or her, and no entity can make the case be otherwise.
Now, one can accept the cause of another, with a wide range of fulfillment, but that, too, is the individual's choice. The true believer or the slave has little choice, with commensurate fulfillment.....
Before one can get something out of life, one has to put something into it, enough work and involvement to grow and achieve some satisfaction from one's activities. Before one can enjoy living, one must have a feeling of growing and accomplishing, doing something worthwhile. Such an individual is not going to be excessively drinking or doing drugs, simply because it will make them feel like they are wasting time. They will be too jealous of their time to have time for the meaningless....
A human life is worthwhile only if the individual makes it worthwhile. The parasites of the culture would have us believe that a life is precious for no reason. They would have us love what is not lovable, respect that which is not respectable and cherish that which has no discernible value. If we do this, then we will support them! This line of reasoning is a large part of what has brought us to our present human condition. Those who wake up and recognize this fact are soon moving in other directions. They no longer have problems with addiction.
Nature's principles do not require the recognition, acceptance or approval of any 'authority'. They are just there, free to use or ignore by anyone aware of them. This book represents the first faltering step toward addressing human problems exclusively in the light of the factual nature of existence. In no way should this be construed as a final statement, but as a still poorly focused snap-shot of our species at a critical point in its development...
....there is a growing ground-swell of popular resistance to authoritarian and centralized governing systems, the most keenly felt of human oppressors. There is a growing global awareness that these gigantic systems are increasingly generating most of the problems. Yet, as increasing numbers of people struggle desperately to throw off the weight of such systems, groping blindly toward freedom, they are oblivious to what is required to create governing systems capable of self-correction or the changes that must take place within themselves. They are also oblivious to other parasitical systems which lay waiting to ensnare them....
A large segment of officialdom depends upon high levels of criminality for its continued existence. Large numbers of workers within The Criminal 'Justice' System not only depend upon crime for their livelihood and careers, but for personal gratification as well. The criminal becomes an outlet for a myriad of personal frustrations, prejudices, hatreds and delusions.
Our criminal justice system generates criminality within government. Increasingly, official criminal behavior is brought to bear on the public. Nor are there any mandates within the system for effectiveness in reducing crime, nor for addressing the real problems of crime or the criminal, within or outside of government.
Our criminal justice system, along with other authoritarian punitive entities, including relevant legislative bodies and state and local policing agencies, constitutes the most dangerous and destructive systems of governmental dysfunction within this society.
These systems represent the greatest pools of false premise structure within the society. Virtually all of our baser fantasies come together here and are given the power of law to directly and physically degrade the lives of people and the stability of the society....
We refuse to recognize that our premises and practices don't work and that authoritarian governing cannot be effective as the solution to our problems, especially that of crime. We refuse to recognize that the only truly effective means of dealing with crime is to replace the beliefs of the criminal with factual knowledge, thus providing a basis for internal control.
Indeed, they have little awareness of what constitutes true freedom, but they have a growing sense of needing it. They recognize only that their institutional systems are decreasingly effective while growing more oppressive. There is a growing urgency to escape. Unfortunately, due to delusional premise structures, the awareness that something is wrong cannot provide insight into what is needed....
For governments to be effective and self correcting, they must operate on reality principles, not the authoritarian principle, public opinion or cultural traditions. There must be, and its subjects must recognize, objectively valid reasons for any mandate.
Under present premises and practices, real problems remain unaddressed and the pathological side effects escalate. You cannot fool Mother Nature and you cannot solve problems through idealized, emotionally based or arbitrary procedures, even though the procedures reflect popular support...
As Frederick Mann, founder of the Build Freedom website, observed: 'Many people want a better world and some are working in various projects to this end. I propose that the more "socially functional" we become, and the less we suffer from "cultural delusion," the better are our chances of actually creating a better world.'
Another author who has researched related issues is John F. Schumaker. Two of his books are particularly relevant:
'Wings of Illusion' by John F. Schumaker...
Check Amazon.com for his books, cost & ordering info.