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There are two other principles whose relationship requires clarification in order to enrich our understanding of the hypothesis. Progress, as the focal point of that hypothesis, shares a unique relationship with dissatisfaction. If we define this relationship further our meditation on the object will yield further insights regarding progressive engagement with reality. Just as competition and cooperation, in the shared relationship they have to motivation, illuminate the structure of social life, understanding progress and its relationship to dissatisfaction is essential to the accumulation of a worldview that is progressive. Whereas competition and cooperation are adversarial principles the relationship that progress has with dissatisfaction is more linear, progress deriving from dissatisfaction. As we have been meditating upon the object, nurturing our desires, aligning that with the intuitive urge, we see that dissatisfaction is the consequence of frustrated desires, the inability to manifest those hypotheses that haunt our consciousnesses. Progress results from trusting one’s initial desires, urges or hypotheses more readily than the reality that opposesit. Progressive thinking takes account of reality’s inertia using it advantageously to satisfy the research.
The principle of progress depends upon the idea of improvement. Progressive thinking is thought pointed toward enhancement and that type of thought is born in dissatisfaction. In other words, those who acknowledge the existence of a problem find their hope in progressive thinking for it is driven by faith in insight and that optimism defines us as creatures in contrast to all others. Most likely the initial instinct to use tools was born of frustration, of anger, of desire; all feelings marginalized by our corrupt society. However those feelings are the buildup of a belief about the innate value of the self whereby we force our intuition into such a tight space that it explodes like fuel into a cylinder driving an act of divine insight. Men and women devoted to this type of thinking are excited by challenges because they know that working toward human progress is working in alliance with our divine nature, whatever that is.
In what way human progress is posed against the elements we call technology.
In what way human progress is posed against corruption we call spirituality.
In what way human progress is posed against fear we call religion.
In every way that human beings exhibit progress, an enhanced relationship with nature, they are doing so as a result of an initial dissatisfaction. Early humans were dissatisfied with the cold and mastered fire. Early humans were dissatisfied with hunting and gathering and developed farming. Later on, dissatisfied with anarchy, developed law. Dissatisfied with the law, man developed the divine law that gave birth to philosophy and so on. The development of clothing, rocket ships, particle accelerators, movie theaters, hot-chocolate, swords, plows, writing, music, bricks, anthropology, science, gene-splicing, mail-service, plumbing, games, etc.; all of these find their roots in some form of dissatisfaction or frustration. A good analogy to this can be found in traffic construction. Having developed a system of traffic lights to manage the relationships of cars in traffic some intersections are without lights, usually those not busy enough to warrant the cost, as it is only those intersections that are heavily used that need management. However, sometimes a development of homes increases the use of a once unused intersection and that intersection becomes dangerous. Very often that intersection is not deemed dangerous until an accident occurs, until the frustration becomes acute, even though citizens have expressed concern beforehand. When I see a traffic light I wonder what the cost was. When I look at human progress I see it as the reward for millennia of dissatisfied effort pointed toward the improvement of the human condition. In that way I see my own dissatisfaction with society as the hope of tomorrow’s progress. New populations are crowding the intersections of ideals and principles and these junctions have become dangerous. A new management system is needed.
Many believe that developing new forms of social progress would work against variety and freedom. That is true. Most moments of evolution lead to a momentary mastery of resources, a momentary unification of lifestyle and outlook, a momentary reduction in social variety. This momentary collapse of tradition is a way of relaxing the community spirit in preparation for new insights and the creation of new myths and modes of celebration. This unity will cost us some of our cherished traditions. There is no way around it. However, these traditions and cultures are for the most part regressive tendencies; they have no direct connection with resources and therefore are not only competitive and tribal, they are a lie that eats away at the spiritual truth residing in every human being. They are desperate attempts to give meaning to a threatened existence. They are out of alignment with the progress that takes place in the human heart, which does so with or without acknowledgement. They are symbolic of a historical connection to resources. True tribalism and cultural diversity will occur, true variety and freedom, only when we connect those traditions and cycles to the regional, communal relationships within the social network of trade and sharing of resources. In this way we give these traditions meaning, for symbolism only functions when it connects somehow with reality. For this to happen will require a principle of unification, a shared response to the primary focus of our communal dissatisfaction, if there is one. The previous section, The Description of the Problem, is posed as the primary point of contention.
There are others, of course, that proclaim that life for a human being is just, that it is ok, that it is adequate. They will assert that a man or woman fixed on criticizing the social structure is a pessimist, a person engaged in ingratitude for the blessings of human ingenuity. These people are like members of a tribe having harvested the crops of spring declaring that no planting need be done in the fall. They have no foresight and no understanding of the joy of participating in humanity’s greatest tradition, that of progress. Most importantly these people have no desire, they are satisfied by life and beings so they will never have an original thought. In a profound way they are intellectually lazy. Most often they are so because they have been isolated, sub-consciously, as I mentioned in Alienation of the Thinker, and they are frightened to engage with society in any way but that of a subordinate begging for mercy. Do not give into this kind of apathy. Happiness and optimistic living is perfectly suited for parallel existence with an intense desire for progress. What could be more optimistic than the belief that what lies ahead is better than what lies behind and furthermore is dependent upon my participation? What could be more bolstering to the spirit, more full of the human spirit of hope?
The Allegory of the Lion
Six men were sitting around a fire, keeping warm in the late evening under the stars of an African sky. They were lamenting together the loss of their wives. Five of the men lost their wives to a lion that had been terrorizing the village. A few of the women were dragged away in their sleep, one was pounced upon while gathering wood and the other two were chased down and eaten in the prairie. All of this had happened in the last few weeks. The one man whose wife was still alive sat contemplating the sadness of his brothers. As they sobbed and sobbed and cursed the lion his feelings were a mixture of sadness, fear and a desperate desire to protect his own wife. That desire grew with each wave of group sadness and anger. In a fit of anger and compassion for his brothers he rose and proclaimed that something had to be done, that this was unacceptable! The other men looked at him as if he were crazy. “What could possibly be done?” the faces seemed to say. They are dead, the lion is hungry, we are to go on as best we can and hope for the antelope to return. The man with a living wife sat down confused by his outburst. He was momentarily convinced that something could be done to stop the loss. The men returned to telling stories of their loved ones trying to console one another all the while keeping their eyes to the darkness while the man with a living wife sat wondering why he would feel this way, somewhat ashamed of his desire to keep his wife, his life and the security of the tribe. He recalled the time some man from a neighboring tribe attempted to steal his bride while she was gathering berries. He heard her scream and he darted to her and found a man twice his size dragging his wife by her feet. In his anger he confronted the man standing defiantly in his shadow. He told the man that if he attempted to take his wife he might be victorious but he would sustain heavy injuries. He pitted his desire against his foe and his foe ran off. That day his anger had saved his wife. Upon remembering this instant he pushed the shame he felt at wanting to protect his wife. He knew somewhere deep inside, because of that day, that he could face any threat, and that he should do so to protect his family and his tribe. He stood again and the five mourning men looked at him in disbelief. “We shall kill the lion!” he declared. The men began wailing at his insensitivity. Their sobbing said to him, “We are the victims of the jungle and the jungle could not be changed.” The man with a living wife understood their sadness and left the group to their grief.
The next day the man with the living wife awoke early gathering his share quickly leaving half of the day for his project. He set to gathering long straight sticks the ends of which he shaved down into sharp points. He did this into the night. The next day he awoke and did the same thing until early afternoon. Once he had gathered enough sticks, turning them into spears, he began burying them in a perimeter around the village, tying them firmly with vine. He wrapped the entire village with spears, spaces large enough for a human to pass through but too small for a lion to do so without injury. At one end of the village he left an opening and at the opening he began digging. As he was digging into the night the men and women gathered around, by now impressed by hiseffort. One of the five men from the fire knelt down telling the man with a living wife that he had gone to look at his new perimeter and was faced by the lion on the other side. He was struck motionless with terror but as the lion approached he felt the sharp point on his shoulder and jumped back in fear. The man was so happy that his life was spared that he jumped in the hole and began digging, not knowing what the hole was going to be used for, knowing only that the man with a living wife had saved his life from the lion. Together those two men, one having lost his wife and the other trying to protect his, dug a hole so large that they needed to be lifted out by rope. At the bottom of that hole they buried the remaining spearheads pointing up. That night, knowing that the lion was now hungry, they covered the large hole with thatches and gently placed on top of it a piece of zebra meat found on the prairie. Around the meat was placed little gourds with beads inside, to sound off if anything fell into the hole. As soon as everybody laid down to sleep the whole village heard a sound that they would celebrate and imitate for years to come. They rushed with torches to the opening and looked down at a dead lion.
The man with a living wife was made king and his wife the queen and they lived a long lion free life. The man with a living wife was dissatisfied with the ways of the jungle and set himself to master it. How can we turn our dissatisfactions into tales of victory?
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