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Page 2 Homo Concedo & Homo Diligentia

Page 3 The "Civilized Human Condition"

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Page 5 Self- Development Techniques

Page 6 Why-Can-Do Booster

Page 7 Psychological Reversal

Page 8 Smash Your Illusions

Page 9 Escape the Matrix

Page 10 Suggested Strategies

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The "Civilized Human Condition"

Question: Is there a shortcut I can take, so I don't have to read all the stuff on this page and watch all the videos?

Answer: Yes. Check out Tony Parsons: The Open Secret. However, it may also be appropriate to acquire more knowledge and skills.

Undoubtedly, many people regard civilization as a good thing. They may even be proud to think of themselves as "civilized." If this applies to you, please check out our Primitivism page. You could also Google "primitivism" and "anarchist primitivism."

Contents

Political Observation #1: Some People are Waking Up to the Nature of Coercive Political Institutions

Political Observation #2: It May Become Possible to Develop and Utilize Technology to Escape (at least in some respects) from the Clutches of Coercive Political Systems

Political Observation #3: Most Citizens, when Listening to a Political "Expert" or "Authority," Shut Down the Most Important Part of their Brains

Political Observation #4: Most Citizens Have a Primitive, Animal-Like "Pecking Order Bully Program" in their Brains

Political Observation #5: Most Citizens Have a Low Capacity for Recognizing "Big Evils"; and a High Capacity to Deny "Big Evils"

Political Observation #6: Most Citizens Suffer from a "Captive Mentality"

Political Observation #7: Most Citizens are Captives of their Language and Culture

Government Rule #1: Citizens are Government Slaves

Government Rule #2: Government Owns the Fruits of the Labor of Its Slaves

Government Rule #3: Government Ultimately Owns All Property

Government Rule #4: Government Owns the Bodies of Its Slaves

Government Rule #5: Government Owns the Minds of Its Slaves

Government Rule #6: Government is Largely Owned and Controlled by a "Corporate/Financial Elite"

Government Rule #7: Government (and its Financial Elite Owners) Systematically Debase National Currencies through Inflation -- Excessively Printing Paper Money -- Stealing Part of the Value of the Money Held by Its Citizens

Government Rule #8: Government (and the Pharmaceutical/Doctor Elite) Use Fake Science to Operate as Drug Pushers of Harmful Prescription Drugs; Government also Deals "Illegal" Drugs

Government Rule #9: Government (and and the Media Elite Owners) Use the Media to Mislead, Indoctrinate, and Dumb Down Their Citizens

Government Rule #10: Government Organizes Affairs so Millions of Dumbed Down Citizens Become Dependent on Government Handouts -- Dependent Citizens Who Support Government so They Can Continue Receiving Handouts

Government Rule #11: Government Operates Protection Rackets

Government Rule #12: Government Performs Certain Useful Functions, but also Uses Them as a Smokescreen to Hide Its "Big Evils"

Government Rule #13: The Real Government "Constitution": Anything Goes that We Can Get away with...

Government Rule #14: Government Uses Violence as Its Central Organizing Principle

Government Rule #15: What Government Does Best is Kill People; the "Corporate/Financial Elite" Profits Hugely from War; "War is the Health of the State"

Should Human "Civilization" be Regarded as a Dark Age?

Howard Bloom's Lucifer Principle

Freud on Crowds

Domestic Mammals

Human Domestication

The Machine in Our Heads

Should Human "Civilization" be Regarded as a Dark Age?

Civilization could be regarded as a Dark Age of human history, as depicted in the book Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior by Lee McIntyre -- brief excerpts:

• "Famine, largely for political reasons."
• "Tyranny...largely a result of cruelty and indifference."
• "Sexual assault."
• "Child prostitution."
• "Modern slavery."
• "Congo's civil war."
• "Systematic rape."
• "Terrorism."
• "Genocide in Rwanda."
• "Sudan's civil war."
• "6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust."
• "Korean "comfort women"."
• "Rape of Nanking."
• "School and workplace shootings."
• "Prison rape."
• "Serialkillings."
• "World Trade Center... demolished by terrorists."
• "How can we be so cruel to one another? Why are such things allowed to happen?"
• "Such atrocities continue largely because we tolerate them or because those of us who will not tolerate them do not know where to turn for answers. Can anything be done to stop such modern evils? What are the causal forces behind them?"
• "Much of today's social scientific inquiry does not even seek to address the pressing social problems of our day."
• "Aren't the evils we suffer at our own hands pretty much the same as those we have been inflicting on one another through the ages? Will we ever be able to make any progress? Should we simply give up?"
• "Ignorance and indifference are the two biggest obstacles to changing our fate."
• "We are currently ignorant of the true nature of the causal forces behind riots, deoressions, strikes, and wars."
• "We do not understand the nature of science and how it can be applied to the study of human affairs."
• "We are also afraid of what we may find out about ourselves if we look too closely."

According to R.J. Rummel, DEMOCIDE = MURDER BY GOVERNMENT: "Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government [262,000,000 from 1900 to 1999], if all these bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5', then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century."

If you add Rummel's number for the people who died in combat to his 262 million number, you get over 300 million! Isn't "civilization" wonderful?

"All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." -- Voltaire

In Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior, Lee McIntyre writes: "How can we be so cruel to one another? Why are such things allowed to happen? ...But the worst thing to realize is that such atrocities continue largely because we tolerate them or because those of us who will not tolerate them do not know where to turn for answers. Can anything be done to stop such modern evils? What are the causal forces behind them?"

Howard Bloom's Lucifer Principle

For individuals to rise above our "Current Dark Age," it may be necessary to identify -- in addition to Bloom's "triad of human evil" (pecking order, memes, and superorganisms) -- more "Causal Forces." What if Bloom has only scratched the surface? The following books may identify more than Bloom has recognized:

• The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
  
• The Psychology of War : Comprehending Its Mystique and Its Madness by Lawrence LeShan
  
• The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War by David Livingstone Smith
  
• The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan
  
• The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions by P.D. MacLean
  
• Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind by Gary Marcus
  
• The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God by David J. Linden
  
• Dinosaur Brains: Dealing with All Those Impossible People at Workby Albert J. Bernstein
  
• Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence by Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham
  
• Man: The Fallen Ape by Branko Bokun
  
• The Crazy Ape by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Maybe a "Network of Weavers of Freeorder" -- see The Explorers Foundation ("The Explorers Foundation exists to build a world fit for explorers and to fit ourselves to inhabit such a world.") -- to attempt to move humanity out of its "Current Dark Age" -- to take practical steps to "fashion a world where violence ceases to be" (Bloom).

The following are extracts from Bloom's The Lucifer Principle [with some comments added]:

• ...Daniel Goleman, paraphrasing Nietzsche, says, "Madness... is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups." [emphasis added] [This is a most important identification. Groups and superorganisms tend to be crazy... a little or a lot! See also Freud on Crowds.]
  
• The ultimate evils are the mass murders that occur in revolutions and war, the large-scale savageries that arise when one agglomeration of humans tries to dominate another: the deeds of the social group.
  
• ...[H]ow we, without the slightest sense of what the long-term results of our miniscule actions may be, contribute to the social organism's ponderous and sometimes earth shattering deeds. ...[H]ow, in our preoccupations with sex, our sometimes suicidal commitment to ideas, religions, and trivial details of cultural style, we become the unconscious creators of the social organism's exploits.
  
• ...[H]umans are driven by many of the same instincts as our primate relatives.
  
• Toward those beyond their tiny circle, they radiated only hatred. And they treated those they despised with remorseless brutality.
  
• The reptile brain still sits inside our skull like the pit at the center of a peach. It is a vigorous participant in our mental affairs, pumping its primitive, instinctual orders to us at all hours of the day and night... The thinking human, no matter how exalted his sentiments, was still listening to the voices of a demanding reptile and a chattering ancient mammal. Both were speaking to him from the depths of his own skull.
  
• Darwin saw competition taking place at several levels, including that which occurs between individuals and that which occurs between gropus. When discussing ants, he acknowledged that evolution could easily induce individuals to sacrifice their self-interest to that of the larger social unit. In his later writings, he proposed that a similar process occurs among human beings.
  
• ...[P]redators almost invariably go for a herd animal that is acting differently from the rest.
  
• Like the sponge cells and the slime mold amoebas, you and I are parts of a vast population whose pooled efforts move some larger creature on its path through life. Like the sponge cells, we cannot live in total separation from the human clump. We are components of a superorganism.
  
• Remove the sponge cell from the sponge, prevent it from finding its way back to its brethern, and it dies.
  
• There are innumerable causes for frustration in human life. But the inability to fulfill one's potential is way up there on the list... Frustration... breeds rage.
  
• Leaders like Orville Faubus [governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967] and Fidel Castro have skillfully manipulated a few basic rules of human nature: that every tribe regards outsiders as fair game; that every society gives permission to hate; that each culture dresses the demon of its hatred in the garb of righteousness; and that the man who channels this hatred can rouse the suprorganism and lead it around by the nose.
  
• Memes stretch their tendrils through the fabric of each human brain, driving us to coagulate in the cooperative masses of family, tribe, and nation. And memes -- working together in theories, worldviews, or cultures -- can make a superorganism very hungry.
  
• If you can convince enough people of your worldview, no matter how wrong you are, you're right! The real significance of a meme is its power to pull together a superorganism.
  
• Why are humans drawn to ideas like filings to a magnet? Why do memes have the power to create, elevate, pacify, and kill?
  
• Control is extremely powerful stuf... Contol, in humans and rats, energizes the mind. A lack of control can cripple mental powers.
  
• This belief in magic is one clue to our need for memes. Religious and scientific schemes -- clusters of guesswork that sometimes seem like a madman's dreams -- offer the feeling of control, an indispensable fuel for the physiological powerhouses of life.
  
• ...[M]odern doctors sell the illusion of control. [See Beware Medical Scams -- Take Control of Your Health.]
  
• The memes of magic, medicine, medieval Christianity, and modern fundamentalism offer an illusion that duplicates the health-giving force that saved a rat in a cage from harm. They hold out the illusion of power over the shocks and pains of life. [Does this also apply to the memes of politics?]
  
• Our cultures... are our collective fantasies about the worlds we cannot see [emphasis added]. They are tapestries of memes.
  
• Humans grab at ideas [memes] because ideas knit them together in groups of people who agree with them. They provide the comfort of companionship and mutual aid. That's one way memes seduce humans into their power.
  
• The pecking order can determine whether you live or die.
  
• The struggle for position in a pecking order is not restricted to individuals. It also hits social groups... -- the pecking order of superoganisms.
  
• A web of memes justifies the subjugation of those on the bottom, upholds the power of those on top... It sanctifies the pecking order.
  
• Never be complacent about barbarians.
  
• Stripped of their moral disguises, the slogans of freedom, peace, and justice are often weapons that those attempting to achieve hierarchical superiority use to stuff the rest of us into the lower ranks of the pecking order.

Freud on Crowds

In Carl Rogers on Personal Power, the author quotes from Sigmund Freud's Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego:

"A group is extraordinarily credulous and open to influence. It has no critical faculty... Anyone who wishes to produce an effect upon it needs no logical adjustment to his arguments; he must paint in the most forcible colors, he must exaggerate, and he must repeat the same thing again and again... It respects force and can only be slightly influenced by kindness, which it regards merely as a form of weakness... It wants to be ruled and oppressed, and to fear its masters... And finally, groups have never thirsted after truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced by what is untrue as by what is true. They have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two... A group is an obedient herd, which could never live without a master. It has such a thirst for obedience that it submits instinctively to anyone who appoints himself as its master."

Domestic Mammals

by Wolf Herre & Manfred Rohrs

(Reproduced from the original.)

(The following is an excerpt from the long essay "Animals in Captivity" published in the outstanding 5 volume Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals. It is an illuminating description of the mental and behavioral deterioration caused by domestication. The below chart shows decrease in brain size for domesticated species).

There is a close correlation between brain changes and behavioral changes in domestic animals. It has been primarily gregarious wild species that have been domesticated.  In captivity, social behavior patterns changed.  Many social structures that have the effect of preserving the species in the wild lose their purpose in captivity.  Indeed, in view of high-density living conditions, social structures are disadvantageous for contact of domestic animals among themselves and with humans. This can be demonstrated in wolves and domestic dogs. Wolves form packs and the behavior patterns of individual members vary widely. There are powerful, successful fighters whose alertness and powers of observation are quite poor.  In other members, these capabilities are well-developed, but "fighting spirit," power, and agility are lacking.  The cooperation of the differently skilled animals is important for successful predation by the pack.  In domestic dogs, animals with minimal aggressiveness and alertness predominate.

In the wolf pack, a hierarchy is in effect and is repeatedly contested. Wolves assume their positions in a hierarchy only for a certain period.  In a group of poodles, the hierarchy is remarkably stable for a very long period.  Once a hierarchy is established, poodles and other domestic dogs submit to it over the long term. This makes them that much more suitable for domestic life and for human contact.

Wolves (that is, the wild species) are characterized by powerful, well-coordinated movements. Their actions appear to be very finely tuned, and they are much more mobile than domestic dogs.  Poodles, on the other hand, have lost the fluid movements of the wolves in their forms of locomotion, particularly when trotting and galloping. They also do not show the very tense orientation posture of the wolves.  In addition, they lack the "observation jump," for which considerable physical control is required. Furthermore, certain positions of individual body parts that serve the purpose of social communication in wolves have been lost or reduced in dogs. Poodles show less than half the expressive social behavior of wolves, and what they have retained is performed in weaker form.

The same is true of play behavior. The very expressive running games of wolves are present in poodles only to a small extent. In the play of wolves, components of the hunting drive mature separately and are not coordinated until later. The triggering mechanisms of some of these behavior patterns mature very early. Such behavior patterns are observed to begin just as early in poodles, but many of them which occur first in isolation do not become further differentiated later. Adult poodles behave essentially like young wolves. The power and strength of attacks are much greater in wolves than in poodles.  While a poodle attacks strange dogs only in its own territory, the dislike for strangers to the pack is much stronger in wolves, particularly during the rut.  An increase in aggressive behavior has not been observed in poodles during specific seasons or when females are in heat. In this respect as well, their behavior resembles that of young wolves who have not yet reached sexual maturity.

Striking differences are also found in feeding habits.  Wolves are decidedly social at the feeding site; juveniles and nursing mothers with high food requirements have priority.  Males take part in raising the young by feeding them.  This is not the case with male poodles.  They are quite aggressive at the feeding place. If there are juveniles in a group, wolves show a protective guarding behavior, while poodles in such a situation show no change in behavior patterns.

Differences are also found between the wild ancestor and the domestic form in intraspecific communication.  Both genetic factors and learning processes play a role here. Wolves, as well as other ancestor species, have a highly differentiated communication repertoire consisting of a variety of gestures and sounds.  Different combinations of the individual elements have different meanings. In close interaction, expressive gestures and soft, high notes are significant; in communicating over distances, body postures, a variety of howls, and sometimes barking are used.  In communication among domestic dogs, the gestures are less variable and less differentiated. Barking dominates the vocalization repertoire, even at close range.  Barking is usually just an expression of emotion.  Barking can be exaggerated, particularly in contact with humans, but it arouses one's attention.  Domestic dogs only rarely howl.  It is clear that wolves and domestic dogs are capable of the same vocalizations, but these capabilities are used differently.  Nervous control mechanisms and not differences in vocal organs are responsible for the preferred vocalizations.  Animals resulting from interbreeding of poodles and wolves produced peculiar mixed sounds and also showed different reactions to sounds and gestures.

Observation of differences between wild species and domestic forms is of interest in considerations of intraspecific communication systems in mammals, including humans.  It shows that, for the extent and meaning of communication within species of higher vertebrates, the production of sounds must be in harmony with the processing of messages transmitted and received by the central nervous system.  This is also true of gestures.  Hereditary factors that control the individual elements are independent of one another.  Species-specific units have been developed in the course of evolution.  Mammals are capable of memory and planned actions, and it is entirely justified to describe the intraspecific communication systems of mammals as species-specific "languages."  In captivity, intraspecific communication is reduced.  The individuals of a species of domestic animal no longer have much information to communicate. The relationship to humans has become the highest priority.  Behavior patterns, too, show how rapidly adaptation and selection can bring about far-reaching changes in populations. This state of affairs can be demonstrated with many other domestication-related behavioral characteristics.

Pigs are a further example of behavioral changes. Remarkable differences in behavior also exist between domestic pigs and wild boar.  In domestic pigs, the typical group structure of the wild ancestors is dissolved, the mobility drive is reduced, the flight behavior is less pronounced, and the flight distance is much smaller.  Wild boars are very aggressive and attack opponents even in groups; subduing this aggressive drive was an important prerequisite for domestication. Similarly, many elements in the search for food are no longer present in domestic pigs; predation, in particular, is very rarely observed. Wild boars hunt insect larvae, frogs, reptiles, rodents, hares, and even fawns. Fights among rival boars are not as fierce as in the wild.  Female domestic pigs lack the varied behavior patterns of nest building shown by female wild boars.

We will now attempt to bring the behavioral changes in domestic animals into some sort of order.  First, we shall describe some behavior patterns that have been reduced or completely lost in domestic animals.  Even in laboratory rats, one finds a strong decrease in overall activity, warning behavior, flight, and defensive actions, as compared to Norway rats. While Norway rats utter a characteristic cry when danger is near, this cry has been lost in laboratory rats. In the wild, male guanacos warn their family groups of danger with a high-pitched whinny, whereupon the group takes flight and the male follows, often attempting to divert the enemy.  Such behavior has never been observed in the llamas or alpacas which are kept under very free conditions in South America.  In general, it can probably be said that flight distances are considerably reduced in domestic animals and that flight activity has decreased greatly. In some domestic animals, flight behavior has been almost completely eliminated through artificial selection.

Aggressiveness can also be greatly subdued in many domestic animals.  Caged Norway rats kill mice put into their cages with high regularity; in laboratory rats, this is the exception.  If one puts two wild rats in a cage and administers electroshock, the animals fight unusually fiercely.  Laboratory rats under the same conditions, on the other hand, attempt to flee.  Humans have obviously valued subdued aggression from the beginning, since large, aggressive domestic animals are difficult to handle.

Behavior patterns dealing with acquisition of food can also be subdued or disappear in domestic animals.  The ferret, dog, and cat are domestic predators that normally display hunting behavior less frequently than their wild forms.  This may be related to the simple fact that these animals are fed by people.  Some domestic dogs and cats never catch, kill, or eat prey, even when it is offered to them.  In other cases, some of the hunting actions are absent.  For example, there are domestic cats that still catch and kill prey but do not eat it; others no longer catch and kill prey, but will eat dead prey.  In some domestic dogs, the last vestiges of predation behavior are gone; the chain of action stops at the pointing or setting stage.

The ability to catch prey need not always be lost in domestic pigs, by the way.  There are exceptions that show us that certain behavior patterns can develop separately from one another. For example, hunting pigs were raised from the eleventh to the fifteenth century in Hampshire, England.  One of these animals named achieved great fame. This hunting pig was far superior to many hunting dogs: it could track, set, and retrieve all game.

In domestic animals that subsist exclusively on grass and other plants, the search for feeding and grazing sites and the defense of these sites is absent in captivity.  However, recent research shows that, in these animals as well, behavioral changes in food selection are remarkable.  While many wild forms require certain food plants and can carefully select them from a rich food supply, domestic animals no longer have these food selection skills, even when they are given the freedom to choose.

On the other hand, exaggeration of behavior patterns may also occur in domestic animals. For example, the feeding drive is frequently considerably intensified.  Individual aspects of the hunting behavior of predatory animals may increase significantly.  Some domestic cats, for example, catch the same mouse repeatedly without killing it.  Others regularly carry killed prey into their nest or house.  Dogs can also be pronounced "rat biters." In some domestic dogs, the aggressive drive is not reduced, but is in fact elevated; they attack animals that a wolf would never attack.

There are exaggerations above all in the reproductive behavior of domestic animals.  Domestic animals generally reach sexual maturity earlier than wild animals; the number of litters and number of offspring are increased.  Sexual activity is greatly increased.  Exaggerations of behavior patterns may even lead to changed postures in domestic animals. In intimidation displays, the wolf moves its tail from its usual hanging position to a slightly curled, erect position over its back.  In some dogs, this intimidation posture of the tail has become a permanent feature.  A very inhibited wolf carries its tail between its legs, which can also be a permanent posture in domestic dogs.  These permanent postures can in no way be interpreted as an expression of permanent intimidation or permanent inhibition, however.

According to Konrad Lorenz, behavior patterns that originally coexisted in the wild can become separated in captivity.  When domestic dogs interrupt the hunting behavior after pointing, this is a disintegration of behavior patterns that belong together. The process of pair formation and monogamy described in wolves is not observed in domestic dogs.  Another group of behavioral changes in domestic animals, according to Lorenz, are changes in the area of triggering mechanisms, in which key stimuli release innate behavior patterns.  In domestic animals, the threshold for the innate triggering mechanisms may be raised or lowered, and certain actions can be triggered by substitute stimuli.  In other words, many domestic animals perform actions on completely wrong objects.  Substitute objects, such as balls of wool, stones, and sticks, are used by juvenile cats and dogs in play, but also by adults carrying out hunting behavior.  Sexual actions are also triggered by in domestic animals by very approximate key stimuli.  It is therefore possible to trigger domestic boars and bulls to engage in mating behavior using very simple dummies--a procedure used in artificial insemination.

Human Domestication

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings." -- William Shakespeare

"We didn't choose these beliefs [Mamma's beliefs, Daddy's beliefs, society's beliefs, and religion's beliefs] and we may have rebelled against them, but we were not strong enough to win the rebellion. The result is surrender to the beliefs with our agreement. I call this process the domestication of humans... The domestication is so strong that at a certain point in our life we no longer need anyone to domesticate us... We are so well trained that we are our own domesticator. We are an autodomesticaed animal... Our personal power is dissipated by all the agreements we have created, and the result is that we feel powerless. ...[W]e have many agreements that make us suffer, that make us fail in life." -- Don Miguel Ruiz

The science-fiction book Voyage from Yesteryear by James P. Hogan is about children of human origin who were raised on the planet Chiron by computers and robots. These children were not taught anything "peculiar or unique to human culture" [mainly religion and politics] -- what Hogan calls "hatreds and prejudices [that humans] were programmed in at an early age." Identifying all the things Chironian children were not taught, may help you understand three related phenomena: "Capture-Bonding," "Human Domestication," and "Selective Blindness." See Voyage from Yesteryear on Wikipedia.

Selective Blindness

At an early age, practically all human children undergo a kind of "snapping of the mind" -- a form of "capture-bonding," also called the "Stockholm syndrome," and involving "human domestication," as well as "selective blindness." It involves subjecting yourself and submitting to "subjective social agreement," particularly in the areas of religion and politics.

If you study the theories of early human child development -- according to Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, etc. -- you'll find references to a "sensory stage" during which infants learn to primarily use their senses to discern reality. This stage also has an "oral component" in that young children put objects in their mouths in order to learn more about them.

The process of human domestication involves a kind of "snapping of the mind" during which young children gradually shift from primarily using their senses to discern reality to primarily using "subjective social agreement" to distort reality -- particularly in the areas of politics and religion. During this "snapping" the abilty of prasctically all humans to use their senses to discern reality is reduced. They particularly lose much of their sensory ability in the areas of politics and religion. They basically come to believe religious and political lies told to them by parents, teachers, preachers, politicians, journalists, TV, newspapers, etc. (See Steve Taylor's "Perceptual Sleep" on Page 4.)

Some psychologists have used the term "socialization without reflection" -- to describe the recipients or victims of socialization accepting on faith what they're told by their "socializers." This is central to human domestication.

"Human infants are born without any culture. They must be transformed by their parents, teachers, and others into cultural and socially adept animals. The general process of acquiring culture is referred to as socialization... During socialization, we learn the language of the culture we are born into as well as the roles we are to play in life. For instance, girls learn how to be daughters, sisters, friends, wives, and mothers. In addition, they learn about the occupational roles that their society has in store for them. We also learn and usually adopt our culture's norms... through the socialization process. Norms are the conceptions of appropriate and expected behavior that are held by most members of the society. While socialization refers to the general process of acquiring culture, anthropologists use the term enculturation... for the process of being socialized to a particular culture." -- Socialization.

The first chapter of The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz describes aspects of "the domestication of humans":

"Humans are dreaming all the time... The dream of the planet includes all of society's rules, its beliefs, its laws, its religions, its different cultures and ways to be, its governments, schools, social events, and holidays... We are living in a dream of hell... It is as if we live in the middle of a fog that doesn't let us see any further than our own nose." [emphasis added] -- Don Miguel Ruiz

Note that all the items mentioned above by Ruiz are "things" that would not have been taught to Chironian children -- anything "peculiar or unique to human culture" (mainly religion and politics).

"Children are domesticated the same way that we domesticate a dog, a cat, or any other animal. In order to teach a dog we punish the dog and we give it rewards. We train our children whom we love so much the same way we train any domesticated animal: with a system of punishment and reward... [W]e start pretending to be what we are not, just to please others, just to be good enough for someone else... We pretend to be what we are not because we are afraid of being rejected. The fear of being rejected becomes the fear of not being good enough... We become a copy of Mamma's beliefs, Daddy's beliefs, society's beliefs, and religion's belief... All our normal tendcies are lost in the process of domestication." -- Don Miguel Ruiz

The word "nonsense" (non-sense) may be important. If you can't perceive something with your physical senses, you may want to suspect that it could be nonsense. Consider the nouns used in religion and politics. Do these stand for objects you can perceive with your physical senses? Can you put the "objects" in your mouth to find out more about them?

It's most important to understand that people can be changed dramatically by being "placed in a situation." This is demonstrated very well in the "Power Of The Situation" video above.

From "Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War":

"Consider the mysterious behavior of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City in 2003 or that of Patty Hearst when she was abducted in 1974. In both cases the victims ["captees"] bonded to their captors and resisted leaving them. The evolutionary origin of this psychological trait, known as the Stockholm syndrome (or more descriptively as capture-bonding), almost certainly comes from millions of years of evolutionary selection where our ancestors -- usually our female ancestors -- were being violently captured from one tribe by another. Those who had the psychological traits (ultimately gene-based brain mechanisms) to socially reorient after a few days (i.e., bond) to their captors often became our ancestors and passed on the trait. Those who didn't have this trait all too often became breakfast. (Or were just killed.)

Being captured was a relatively common event among our ancestors if their history is anything like the recent history of the few remaining primitive tribes. In some of those tribes (Yanomamö, for instance) practically everyone in the tribe is descended from a captive within the last three generations. Perhaps as high as one in ten of our ancestors were abducted and incorporated into the tribe that captured them. Once you understand the evolutionary origin of this trait and its critical nature in genetic survival and reproduction in the ancestral human environment, related mysterious human psychological traits fall into place. Battered-wife syndrome is an example of activating the capture-bonding psychological mechanism, as are military basic training, fraternity bonding by hazing, and sex practices such as sadism/masochism or bondage/discipline."

From Wikipedia/"Capture-bonding":

"There are strong biological reasons to expect that war and abductions (capture) were typical of human prehistory at least back to the time our ancestors escaped predation (at least to the taming of fire and perhaps as far back as chipped rocks). An extreme selective genetic filter was applied to a significant fraction of each generation. If this is correct, then the psychological traits behind capture-bonding should be expected to be nearly universal."

To what degree are most "modern humans" effectively more or less "helpless captives" of coercive political systems and other "captor-systems?" To what degree do those in positions of "captor-power" depend on the helplessness of their "citizen/subject-captives?" To what extent is it a "survival instinct" for "helpless captives" to blind themselves to their helpless submission to their captors? How else could they worship "megacaptors" like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Mussolini?

According to Andre Bacard in Hunger for Power: Who Rules the World and How:

"It is hard to overstate how deeply many followers conform to their leaders. The passion to obey is every bit as intense as the hunger to command. When Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died, millions of Russians rushed into the streets and cried. Persons whose families had been sent to Siberian labor camps mourned the mass murderer who fomented their nightmares. These rank-and-file citizens deluded themselves that Stalin was innocent of all wrongdoing, that his orders were misinterpreted by zealous subordinates (like themselves)...

In 1838, according to Jean Paulhan, Barbados island staged a strange revolt. About two hundred slaves had recently been emancipated by the Proclamations of March. These freed citizens begged their former master, Glenelg, to return them to bondage. An Anabaptist minister, the spokesman for the group, read aloud a list of grievances. Glenelg, either because he was scrupulous or because he feared government officials, refused to be swayed. Consequently, the former slaves massacred him and his family. The Russian and Barbados followers could face a known, though terrible, leader easier than they could confront an unknown, leaderless life."

"When Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died, millions of Russians rushed into the streets and cried. Persons whose families had been sent to Siberian labor camps mourned the mass murderer who fomented their nightmares." What do you make of this? "I calculate that Stalin murdered about 43,000,000 citizens and foreigners" -- R.J. Rummel -- see also DEMOCIDE = MURDER BY GOVERNMENT.

Consider the possibility that the capture-bonding phemomenon is so powerful that its victims can blind themselves to the most horrible atrocities. So they develop "Selective Blindness." How many "Americans" are aware of their "slave-status" in relation to the people in what they call "our Government?" How may of them are aware that their "political masters" operate in accordance with the "15 Government rules?" How many of them love their "political captors? "Selective Blindness!"

The section on Domestic Mammals indicates that in some cases animal domestication results in smaller brains and lost skills. What if human domestication has similar consequences, producing "subhumans" with reduced brainpower and abject stupidity in the areas of religion and politics?

Note the phrases "derangement of reason" and "identification with the aggressor" (capture-bonfing) in the section below.

The Machine in Our Heads

by Glenn Parton

(Reproduced from the original.)

(Originally published in Green Anarchist, Summer 1997, pp. 16-17) 

Introduction

The environmental crisis consists of the deterioration and outright destruction of micro and macro ecosystems worldwide, entailing the elimination of countless numbers of wild creatures from the air, land, and sea, with many species being pushed to the brink of extinction, and into extinction. People who passively allow this to happen, not to mention those who actively promote it for economic or other reasons, are already a good distance down the road to insanity. Most people do not see, understand, or care very much about this catastrophe of the planet because they are overwhelmingly preoccupied with grave psychological problems. The environmental crisis is rooted in the psychological crisis of the modern individual. This makes the search for an eco-psychology crucial; we must understand better what terrible thing is happening to the modern human mind, why it is happening, and what can be done about it. 

Deep Thinking 

The solution to the global environmental crisis we face today depends far less on the dissemination of new information than it does on the re-emergence into consciousness of old ideas. Primitive ideas or tribal ideas, kinship, solidarity, community, direct democracy, diversity, harmony with nature provide the framework or foundation of any rational or sane society. Today, these primal ideas, gifts of our ancestral heritage, are blocked from entering consciousness. The vast majority of modern people cannot see the basic truths that our ancient ancestors knew and that we must know again, about living within the balance of nature. We are lost in endless political debates, scientific research, and compromises because what is self-evident to the primitive mind has been forgotten. 

For hundreds of thousands of years, until the beginning of civilization about 10,000 years ago, humans lived in tribal societies, which produced tribal consciousness a set of workable ideas or guiding principles concerning living together successfully on a diverse and healthy planet. The invasion of civilization into one tribal locale after another, around the globe, has been so swift and deadly that we may speak of the trauma of civilization. Because tribal peoples were unprepared and unable to deal with the onslaught of civilization, tribal consciousness was driven underground, becoming something forbidden and dangerous. Conquered peoples became afraid to think and act according to the old ways, on pain of death. There is much fear that lies at the origin of civilization. 

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny that is to say, the development of the individual is an abbreviated repetition of the development of the species. In childhood, a modern person travels an enormous distance between stone-age primitive creature and responsible contemporary citizen. When confronted with the awesome power of civilization whose first representatives are parents, teachers, priests (and, later on, police officers, legislators and bosses) the child faces, psychologically, the same situation as its tribal ancestors, namely, conform to the dictates of civilization or die. The helplessness of childhood makes the threat of bodily harm or loss of love, which is used by the parents and others to enforce civilized morality and civilized education, a traumatic experience. The developing little person becomes afraid to express its own tribal nature. There is much fear that lies at the bottom of becoming a civilized adult.

When the child becomes aware of ideas and impulses that oppose the dictates of civilization, s/he experiences anxiety, which is the signal for danger. It is not the insights and urges themselves that the child fears, but rather the reaction to them on the part of those in charge. Since the child cannot escape from those who control its life, s/he runs away from dangerous thoughts and feelings. In other words, the child institutes repression of its primitive self. Tribal ideas are now isolated, cut off from awareness, and unable to properly influence the future course of events. 

The trauma or inescapable terror of civilization is responsible for the derangement of reason. That inner dialogue in the human mind that is the hallmark of self-consciousness has ceased, because the depth-dimension of reflective thought, which is the primitive mind, has been silenced. Modern people no longer hear their own primal voice, and without interaction between new ideas and old ideas, the demands of the individual and the demands of the tribe (and species), there is no deep thinking. On the contrary, when reason is cut off at the roots, it becomes shallow, unable to determine what is of true value in life. 

The passage of tribal ideas from the oldest and deepest layer of the mind into individual consciousness is part of the natural, normal functioning of the human mind. Deep thinking is not the result of education; it is innate, our birthright as Homo sapiens. What civilization has done is to disrupt the free flow of ideas in the human mind by shutting down the primitive mind through traumatic socialization. In such a situation, cut off from the time-tested and proven ideas of prehistory, reason becomes one-dimensional, and is unable to solve the problems of modern life. No amount of new information can replace tribal wisdom, which provides the foundation for any good and decent life.

None of what has been said here denies the concept of progress, but it means that genuine progress is the outcome of deep mental dialogue in which new ideas are accepted or rejected by reference to that great complex of old ideas that have been perfected and passed down from one generation to the next generation over many millennia. In other words, genuine progress builds on basic truth. This is not idealization of primitive culture, but conscious recognition of its solid, intelligent achievements. Because civilization repudiates primitive, basic truth, we have no frame of reference for a good and decent life. What we call progress in the modern world is the aimless and reckless rampage of lost individuals. When one is lost, it is necessary to go back to the place where one had one's bearings, and start anew from there. 

The False Self 

We have internalized our masters, which is a well-known psychological response to trauma. When faced with overwhelming terror, the human mind splits, with part of itself modeling itself after the oppressor. This is an act of appeasement: "Look," the mind says in effect, "I am like you, so do not harm me." As a result of the civilizing process, together with this psychological defense mechanism known as "identification with the aggressor", we now hear the alien voices of the various representatives of civilization in our heads. Because of these alien ego-identifications we no longer hear our own tribal/primal voice. In order for deep thinking to commence again in the human mind, it is necessary to break down these internal authorities, overcome the resistances, that prevent tribal ideas from coming to consciousness. The modern problem is not simply that we do not listen to primal ideas, but rather that primal ideas are unable to come to consciousness at all, because of the internal counterforces, or ego-alien identifications, that contradict and overpower them. 

These ego-alien identifications, built up over the course of a lifetime, cohere and form a distinct, circumscribed personality, or false self, that represents and enforces the rules and regulations of civilization. This false self is observable in the frozen facial expressions, stereotypic gestures, and unexamined behavioral patterns of the general public. This false self determines much of our everyday lives, so that we are seldom the origin of our actions. We lapse into the false self at the first sign of danger, under stress, or simply because it is the path of least resistance. In this unthinking mode of social role playing, we internally reproduce our own oppression. 

Trauma is a necessary part of civilizing someone, because a natural, maturing individual will not otherwise accept the ideals of civilization. These ideals - hierarchy, property, the State, for example - are so contrary to our tribal nature that they must be forcibly thrust into the human mind. This causes the mind to rupture, to divide its territory that is, to surrender a part of itself to the invading enemy. For this reason, the false self is never really integrated into the human mind, but instead occupies the mind, as a foreign body, standing apart from and above normal/healthy mental life. 

The Original Self 

Beneath the false self, there still lives the original identity of the person. This original self is older than, and other than, the foreign personality that has been imposed upon it. This original self or primitive ego is the person one was in childhood before the mind was ruptured by the trauma of civilization and the person one still is at the core of one's personal identity. This original self is closely connected to the oldest layer of the psyche. It is an individually differentiated portion of the primitive mind the first, personal organization of the primitive mind. As such, it has direct access to primal wisdom, an internally directed perceptivity, that permits the entry into consciousness, as well as the passage into activity, of tribal ideas. 

In civilization, this original self is caught in the middle of a war between the status quo false self and the uprising of the tribal self. Even when an individual succeeds in holding its own personal identity, refusing to slip into the false self, the primal voice may remain unheard, smothered by the false self. As a distinct, circumscribed personality, the false self achieves a counter-will of its own that is always operational in the sick mind, at least in terms of repressing tribal ideas. Tribal ideas threaten civilization, so they cannot pass through the censorship of the false self, which functions specifically to ward off all serious challenges to civilization. 

Furthermore, the false self tends to become more autonomous and extensive, owing to improved forms of social control and manipulation of consciousness in the modern world advertising, for example. Once the mind is broken, the false self, backed by the relentless power of civilization, takes over our lives. The original or primary self has become autistic, or severely withdrawn from active engagement with social reality. However, there remains some awareness, at least sometimes, of our primary identity beneath the false self, and so there is hope for lifting the repressions set down most effectively in childhood on primitive mental processes.

The True Self 

Through identification, which is a normal psychological basis of personality development, the original identity of the person is stretched into something more and greater, on its path to the true self. This process of identification becomes pathological only when the continuity of the personality is not preserved, i.e. when there is a splitting in two of the mind, giving rise to a new psychic structure, a false self. This rupture of the mind is unfortunately precisely what occurs through compulsory training and education of contemporary civilized human beings. In contrast, the development of the natural and sane human mind does not entail any sharp delimitations between its various stages and functions. The true self is a continuation and culmination of the original self; it develops out of the original self, just as the original self develops out of the tribal self. In sum, psychical reality consists of the tribal self, together with the original self, and the dynamic interplay between them is responsible for the development of the true self. The true self is something that unfolds/progresses. Traumatic civilization has not eliminated the original self, but it has stopped the flow of tribal ideas into consciousness, which arrests or distorts the higher/maturer development of the personality. In order to resume deep thinking in the human mind, so that we can become our true self, it is necessary to push back and ultimately dissolve civilization, internally and externally. 

The Message 

The sadness of the modern age is that the public needs to be reminded of "unchangeable human needs." This truth is not something to be imposed upon them, but something to be evoked within them. The fact is that people do not feel satisfied in the roles assigned to them by civilization. There is a widespread feeling that one's true identity or potential is not being fulfilled, but unfortunately there is no awareness of the tribal self except among a small minority of individuals. Once the message of a tribal self is re-introduced into public consciousness, it may lie dormant in the minds of individuals for a long time, but it is never entirely forgotten again, as it was in childhood. This message is the catalyst for an intellectual awakening among the population, accompanied by the feeling that something old and familiar has been uncovered.

The power of this message to move an individual is due to the psychological fact that, although repression shuts down deep thinking, tribal ideas continue to push for entrance into consciousness. The mind seeks always to integrate all its ideas into one comprehensible whole. Whatever is part of the repressed unconscious is trying to penetrate into consciousness. When an individual gets the idea of a tribal self from an external source, via the message, it takes hold deep down. The message appeals to the conscious mind, tugs at it, rings true because it touches and stirs the repressed truth that is striving to break into awareness. For this reason, the triumph of civilization over the tribal self is never secure, so there must be a constant bombardment of lies and distortions from the representatives of civilization. 

Whether or not an individual awakens to the message of a tribal self depends on the mental condition of one's personal life. Crisis can open a person to ideas that would otherwise be shunned or rejected. A desperate or confused person seeking help may accept the notion of a tribal self intellectually, because it makes sense of one's life-history; but this is not yet to grasp tribal ideas from within, the result of deep mental dialogue. Intellectual awareness of one's tribal self, via the message, is the first prerequisite of a sane person, but it is not enough, not the same thing as hearing one's own primal voice. Each individual must validate or prove, for itself, the message or theory of a tribal self. 

The Journey Outward 

What is required in order to hear one's own primal voice and resume deep thinking is a journey outward by the original self, which is a matter of fighting to live according to fundamental ideas that one recognizes as good and right, a tribal ideal. This is the path of a warrior because civilization without (laws, institutions, and technologies) and within (the false self) is organized against it. It takes inner resolve and courage to go against civilization, outwardly or inwardly. The path of a tribal warrior in the modern world has nothing to do with picking up a spear or wearing a loin cloth; rather, it involves committing to, and standing up for the great ideas of prehistory: face-to-face democracy, rivers and streams as drinking places, respect for wildlife, etc. These ideas do not require more data, arguments, congresses or conferences because they are the irrefutable elements of original knowledge. The warrior stands on the unshakable foundation of basic truth, and the vicious lies of civilization that the Earth is property, or that the common good results from each person maximizing its own self-interest, for example are dismissed as the meaningless babble of the ignorant.

The psychodynamics of the cure consists in overcoming our fear of deep thinking by strengthening the original ego, through everyday practice, to the point that it no longer turns away from its own subversive ideas. We are afraid to think deeply or critically, due to the horror of the past. It is safer not to think about tribal ideas, and spare oneself the painful memories of punishment (and the attacks of anxiety) that are associated with the recall of these ideas. The childhood fear that one will be murdered or grossly harmed for primitive thinking lives on.
 
The child settles for an unsatisfactory adaptation to social reality namely, repression of its tribal self because it is unable to deal with the threatening menace of civilization in any other way. However, adults are no longer in the helpless position of childhood; it is no longer necessary to give up the struggle with civilization. There is plenty of opportunity in our everyday lives to question and refuse humiliating and debilitating authority. What matters, for now, is not that we win this or that battle with external reality, but that we stay true to tribal ideas in the face of civilization, and integrate them into the conduct or character of our lives. This is what slowly brings about a radical change in the personality. 

The path of a warrior is that of upholding a tribal ideal with the therapeutic aim of bringing a strengthened ego into direct and open communication with the tribal mind, which dissolves the false self (and its punishment mechanism). 

The personal journey of loosening the grip of the false self by strengthening the primary self is certainly not by itself going to bring about the overthrow of civilization; but it is the subjective precondition for building an environmental movement that will achieve this end. The public is firmly in the grip of the false self, which means that a revolution is definitely not on the agenda. The influencing machine of civilization is in our heads, and we must defeat it there first; for it is not to be expected that people brutally held down (for 10,000 years) by counter-revolutionary forces will revolt until the psychological groundwork of liberation has been adequately prepared. After enough of us have done the hard inner work of self-restoration, that is, re-claimed enough of our sanity, then we will come together in tribal units and smash civilization.

Crossroads 

Human unhappiness within civilization is widespread and growing. People feel increasingly empty, anxious, depressed, and angry. Everyone is seeking an answer to serious mental problems. The Chinese ideogram for crisis combines the sign of "danger" with that of "opportunity." This is exactly where we are in history, at the crossroads between two radically different futures. On the one hand, there is the danger of insanity, and on the other hand, the opportunity for a return of tribalism. 

The Path to Insanity 

Basic, vital needs or tribal needs are not being satisfied in civilization, and this produces frustration, which in turn activates aggression. As civilization "progresses" toward global interlock among new technological forms, we are removed farther and farther from the simple and basic joys of life, sitting in a shaft of sunlight, conversing around a fire, food-sharing, walking, the blue sky overhead, and so frustration and aggression also progress. More and more of a person's concern and compassion for others and the natural world are withdrawing, and re-focusing on the self, in order to neutralize the growing frustration and anger within. This is the psychological explanation for the culture of selfishness that is underway everywhere in the modern world the first step on the road to insanity. 

The second step, which is now on the horizon, is megalomania, a severe pathological state of consciousness in which the steady withdrawal of love from others and nature gives rise to the deluded mental condition of exalted self-importance. The megalomaniac feels more and more powerful, euphoric, and in control of things (due to an abnormally inflated self-love), while in reality s/he is becoming more and more isolated, impotent, and out of control (due to an excessive loss of love for others and nature). This pathological condition of megalomania is fueled by inner hatred, which is desperately seeking pacification by consuming more and more of a person's available love, but it fails entirely to deal with the root-cause of our mental illness, namely, unmet primitive needs. 

If people cannot access the tribal ideas that inform them of basic needs, then they cannot find the proper targetnamely, civilizationfor their frustration and aggression. As a result, rage is trapped in our minds and bodies and is destined to reach heights that are psychologically unbearable for any individual, which leads to madness. Insanity, the third and final stage of civilization, occurs when the original self becomes a tortured prisoner within the walls of its own fears, frustrations, and hostility. It is now extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reach and influence the original self with any rational message.

The Path to Sanity 

Civilization has enslaved us in the chains of dependency, isolation, and artificiality. All that we have suffered in civilization still exists in our minds for nothing vanishes from the human mind and it is accumulating into rage. The mechanism that civilization employs in order to prevent this rage from discharging itself against its source namely, civilization is the establishment of a dictatorship in our heads, a false self, that re-directs this rage toward the citizen in the form of self-blame. According to the false self, each individual is to blame for its own misery. The false self gets the energy it needs to punish and enslave us from our own blind frustration and aggression. Without conscious commitment to a tribal ideal, a firm hold on basic truth, by which to evaluate, condemn, and go against civilization, a person is at the mercy of its own mounting disappointment and aggression that the false self is designed to turn inward. 

The tribal ideal is a staff for strengthening the original self and fighting off the false self. By upholding a tribal ideal, sometimes through the spoken word, sometimes through action, and sometimes through silence, we build self-respect on a solid foundation; for at the core of our being we are still fiercely independent, intelligent creatures, with strong affective ties to small human groups and large natural/wild places. 

The importance of this self-respect as a prime motivator of human nature can hardly be overstated; it may enable an individual to defy civilization, even in the face of the hatred of the whole modern world. When an individual acquires fundamental self-respect, then s/he will be made a fool no longer, and all the blows of civilization are nothing but the battle scars of a proud warrior. Civilization is powerless against it, because a person who has re-claimed fundamental self-respect cares nothing about the laws and standards of civilization. 

This self-respect leads to genuine self-love, the second and decisive step on the path to sanity, for self-love (and happiness in large measure) consists in becoming one's own ideal again, as in childhood. This self-love eventually overflows and becomes love for others and for external nature. Concern for life on Earth is the result of a surplus of love, or as Nietzsche put it, "abundance in oneself the over-great fullness of life the feeling of plenitude and increased energy." In other words, caring for life on Earth flows from an unbroken and expanding primary and healthy narcissism. Without this caring that flows from self-love, science and ethics will preach in vain for the preservation of biological diversity, ecological integrity, and real wilderness. 

The megalomaniac or pathological narcissist has no love for others or for nature, because s/he needs all available psychic energy, and even more, in order to stave off a false self that is becoming more demanding and brutal. In megalomania, the backward flow of love, away from others and nature and toward the self, is a defensive reaction to the underlying reality of intensifying personal hurt and hatred: the original self is becoming weaker, and the false self stronger, because the gross injury to the psyche of the human being, by the trauma of civilization, festers. 

Identification with the tribal ideal is the antidote to the massive narcissistic wounds inflicted on us by civilization, and it threatens civilization with disintegration because it goes to the source of our injury and begins to heal it. The third and final stage of the making of a revolutionary or eco-radical occurs when an individual, after arduous intellectual praxis, either remembers or intuits basic truth. The individual now hears its own primal voice, which rises up from within as an unstoppable conscious drive to assist fellow creatures and to make a positive contribution to the planet. 

In sum, the path to sanity begins with the awareness of a tribal self. A personal commitment to this ideal builds self-respect, which in turn builds self-love. This self-love eventually overflows to take in others and nature. At last, individuals are psychologically secure and strong enough to enter into cooperative associations with one another in favor of a mass movement aimed at re-establishing small human villages, embedded in a healthy/wild landscape. 

Conclusion 

When the final crisis of civilization comes in the 21st Century, the present system will do whatever is necessary to perpetuate itself. People who are in the stranglehold of the false self will support whatever the system does, including the exploitation and destruction of National Parks, Designated Wilderness Areas, and The Wildlands Project (whatever it achieves). Unless people possess an assured, sane psychological core, everything else is in jeopardy. The personal pursuit of sanity is, or will shortly become, the overriding issue for the vast majority of people, and toward this end, each person, isolated and fearful in modern society, must be armed with an ideal or vision of what s/he would like to be and should be. There is nothing better to offer people than a tribal ideal. It is, then, up to each person to do the difficult psychological work of personal liberation that must precede real change. This personal task of healing the mind can be and must be accomplished, to a decisive point, in modern-day circumstances.

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