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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 24 - Page 3 |
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PRAXIS NOW
Darkness of
the psyche The Hermit's Message
Way of Theosis Psychological method Prayer of the heart
praxis studies
Introductory studies
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More than information If man is truly a
'learning animal,' mankind’s specialisation is in adaptability or
intelligence, not simply communication. Then the possibility that awaits
those of mankind who wish to follow it up is of a different form of
awareness and intelligence. But these are ‘early days’ in evolutionary
terms, and it seems almost as if this innate intelligence is not yet
established in a stable way. As a potentially co-operative species, for
example, we do not yet co-operate to form the new adaptability correctly
in the young, while effective co-operation most often occurs only in
mature individuals when they come under certain kinds of pressure. The
worst concentration camps of the Second World War provided a number of
examples of this, some of whom become well-known for the way they
withstood the pressures and became better able to serve. But pressure
alone does not necessarily release in individuals the flexibility innate
in them. Something else is necessary, and this depends on an element in
the nature of human specialisation which is different from other kinds of
specialisation. This difference is highly significant to our understanding
of our humanity: paradoxically, humans specialise in being non-specialist.
The individual human psyche can be adapted in such a way that individuals
can develop greater (or at least more effectively deployed) intelligence
than normal, as well as sophisticated control over their behaviour. They
then become more flexible than other animals, instead of less, and more
able to deal with a changing world.
The flexibility of
the ‘non-specialising specialisation’ has a moral quality which manifests
clearly only where the faculties of the individual are fully developed and
on the way to becoming mature.
Another factor, identified by the historian Toynbee, is that instinctive responses are predictable and more obviously law-conforming, while the actions of the normally undeveloped intelligence, when they begin to function properly, are unpredictable so that they appear not to be subject to law. An important part of what I described as the human specialisation is the ability to share information as part of a way of marshalling a species-response to change. This process includes the transmission not only of knowledge, but also of responses – including those responses which, when learned, keep us alert and able to handle change. To say this is the same as saying that it is cultural, and has to be formed and refined culturally, particularly in education. The unformed human psyche, if it does not receive this shaping or cultural formation, possesses only instinctive resources with which to solve the problems of life, and many of the instinctive resources normal to other animals are weakened or lacking in the human to allow growth of the new faculty. If the new faculty is not properly formed, it operates by re-iterating the information by which it was received and abortively attempting to act-out that information directly and without understanding. This, instead of producing the awakening response, simply forms habits of attempting actions in a form that is ineffective. The same information which, transmitted correctly, is capable of wakening the individual to a reality, when taken wrongly is generally found to be inadequate to meet the needs of the individual and the demands made on him or her by others. |
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