[Neurons] Meta Reflection #45

[meta]

L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections #45

October 8, 2007   

(From Geneva, Switzerland)





TRANSCENDING CULTURE #6





In thinking about this subject of transcending culture, what is the opposite? What if we do not? What happens then?

The opposite of transcending culture is enculturation. The culture gets inside of us so that we are cultivated in mind, emotion, body, habits, perceptions, etc. by the cultural standards and values. And to be enculturated is to make a good adjustment to the culture that we are in. If the culture is a business culture, we then become a good company man (or woman). If it is a religious culture, we are a loyal member. If it is a racial, ethnic, or other kind of culture, we are well-adjusted to the demands, requirements, and nature of that culture.

This, in itself, is neither a good nor a bad thing. It all depends. It depends on the content of the culture to which we are being cultivated. Is the culture healthy or is it sick? Is it life and growth enhancing or denying? So we have to ask the questions, "Adjusted to what? To Nazis, criminals, delinquents, drug addicts? Popular with whom? Admired by whom? Thought a well-adjusted man in Hitler's Nazi culture may fit in, create no waves, be accepted, curry no disfavor -most of us would not view that as a good thing.

Culture is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand we cannot be human without it, on the other, we may lose our humanity by over-conformity to it. And it is precisely because the "instincts" that we do have are so weak that makes it so that they can easily be overwhelmed by culture. And it is power to overwhelm us that makes our cultures dangerous. An uncritical attitude about culture, a attitude that says, "My culture- right or wrong!", that urges unquestioning loyalty, that requires us to identify with it and make it part of our identity invites us to give far too much meaning and too much power to it. And that will create a leashing of one from one's full range of potentials.

In terms of self-actualization, this means that "normality" and "conventionality" can be the things that interfere with our highest development. We can become too dependent on our culture for defining us. We can become too dependent on our culture for our beliefs, understandings, decisions, etc.

Given that Maslow defined a good society as one that gives its members the greatest possibility for becoming sound and self-actualizing human beings (1970, p. 255), a society or culture is sick to the extent that it prevents such. This means that we can examine a culture in terms of the psycho-pathogenic forces within it- forces that invite sickness. And what is "sickness" at the cultural level?

If what makes us "sick" individually, and what reduces our self-actualization, are such things as a predominance of danger, threat, attack, destructiveness, selfishness, coldness, conflict, humiliation, injustice, disrespect, racism, cruelty, etc., then the more these are present in a culture, the more that culture is sick and that culture creates sickness. Now given that, what does this say about so many of the things in our daily lives? What does it say about television, movies, urban areas in the inner cities, the daily news, the tabloid journals, etc.?

And as we look at that list, the things that undermine our self-actualization and make a culture sick are the very things that frustrate a healthy and appropriate satisfying of our basic human needs. Danger, threat and attack prevent the fulfillment of our survival and safety needs. Selfishness, coldness, conflict, etc. frustrate a healthy satisfying of our social needs for companionship, love, affection, etc. Humiliation, injustice, cruelty, disrespect, prejudice, ethnocentricism, etc. prevent the fulfillment of our self-regard needs.

Also way cultures become sick is that we give distorted meaning and/or exaggerated meanings to our lower needs. This create interferences and can even sabotage self-actualization-frustrate our full growth and development as people within a culture. And so the culture itself does not grow and mature, but remain at a primitive level of funcioning. When we attribute distorting meanings to our nature as human beings, we create invite the basic need to become neurotic. And when this becomes "instituted" in a culture via education, entertainment, news, etc., the culture becomes neurotic.

What are examples of neurotic cultures that we need to transcend? 

The culture of violence and aggression

The culture of glorification of the body as if our body defines us and our worth

The culture of greed and luxury as if such is the purpose of life

The culture of chauvinism, racism, prejudice, etc.

The bottom line is that any and every "culture" is just a man-made construct of beliefs, decisions, ethics, and understandings that have created a traditional way of life. As such they are the old maps and understandings of the fallible people who went before us. So, as old maps, they need to be re-examined from time to time for their appropriateness and relevance for today. They also need to be constantly updated so that we don't unconsciously perpetuate misbeliefs or beliefs about things that are no longer relevant. In this, "traditions" should not be valued or given importance just because they are traditions. That means nothing more than they have ben around for a long time and we are familiar with them.

Like the beliefs and mental maps of children, cultural maturity requires that we out-grow the childish thinking and believing and grow up to a full development of what's possible for human communities.

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3 weeks and counting down ---

Join us for the Meta-Coaching Modules in Sydney Australia

---  Oct. 23-25, 2007  --- Module II:  Coaching Genius (or APG)
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2007 Schedule 

8) Nov. 20-22, Lisbon, Portugal. EvoluiTech Formacao e consultoria. Amalia Duarte, aduarte at evoluitech.pt 

9) Nov. 23-24, London, England, NLP Conference. Jo Hogg, Director, jo at nlpconference.co.uk. Three hour workshop: Actualizing Your Highest and Best.

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If you or your organization would like to sponsor the Ultimate Self-Actualization Workshop, contact me. I'm looking to present it as far and wide as possible.

2008

1) April 4-7, Portland OR. sponsored by Apositiva, Rich Aanrich and Cat Wilson (www.apositivechange.com rich at apositivechange.com). (503) 525-0595. 

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This training will be delivered in English and simultaneously translated to French. 80% of the participants in 2007 spoke both English and French; with 20% speaking only French and 10% speaking only English. Come and enjoy a taste and feel of Europe in Montreal as you self-actualize.


L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
Neuro-Semantics Ltd., Executive Director
ISNS - International Society of Neuro-Semantics
P.O. Box 8
Clifton, Colorado, 81520 USA
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www.meta-coaching.org
www.self-actualizing.org 

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