|
Subscribe to our newsletter and you'll continuously
be informed about our new books, series and journals.
You can customize this e-mail newsletter to your particular
needs and interests.
Newsletters include special discount codes.
To subscribe or change existing preferences press the subscribe button
|
|
|
|
|
Values, Violence, and Our Future.
ACQUAVIVA, Gary J.
Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA, 2000, IX, 208 pp.
|
Series:
Value Inquiry Book Series 91
Hartman Institute Axiology Studies
This book identifies the character of human predators who violate others or themselves. The contagion of violence infects values that affect behavior. But we may call upon the intrinsic values of love, compassion, and creativity to oppose such violence. The book boldly argues for a renewal of the spiritual energy that gave rise to civilization.
CONTENTS
Rem B. EDWARDS: Editorial Foreword
ONE Distinguishing Good from Evil
TWO Pop-Culture: Marketing Violence Globally
THREE The Absence of Humility and Its Affect on Character
FOUR Enlightened Egoists as Careful Users
FIVE Hypersensitivity to Criticism: A Symptom of Violence
SIX Control Is Power
SEVEN Who Are More Violent: Men or Women?
EIGHT Intrinsic Value and Love as Amor
NINE In Touch with Eternity
TEN Experiencing Interconnectedness
ELEVEN Our Future: A New Millennium
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
Index
EDITORIAL FOREWORD
To one extent or another, social groups and individuals have always been violent, especially to those perceived to be outsiders. In this volume, Gary J. Acquaviva, a former student of Robert S. Hartman, brings his knowledge and skills as an axiologist to the analysis of violence and alternatives to it. He describes a contemporary world in which technological developments and business interests encourage, amplify, and profit from violence, a world dominated by great masses of infantile, self-centered egoists to whom all other persons are outsiders who have no intrinsic worth.
In our world, television and other media market vicarious violence as entertainment in such quantities that it overflows into the real world. According to Acquaviva, “With today’s mind-shaping technology, dehumanization can be accomplished more quickly and efficiently” (p.17) Dehumanization occurs, says Acquaviva, when people are desensitized to intrinsic worth, their own and that of other people. Insensitivity to the intrinsic worth of individual human beings is the taproot from which violence emerges and grows. Its more immediate causes are also its self-perpetuating effects - socially pervasive egoism, sensualistic hedonism, callousness, vulgarity in words and deeds, the glorification of the vices as virtues, religious intolerance, bigotry of all descriptions, and so on. Our pop culture exalts as heroes and role models those who conspicuously act out the traditional seven cardinal vices or sins - pride, anger, gluttony, lust, covetousness, envy, and sloth or laziness.
Acquaviva develops a careful and detailed analysis of the complex psychology and value commitments of egoists, one of the richest ever developed. As he indicates, egoists come in many varieties and may center their selfishness on a number of different value-objects. Some are unaware of their own egoistic values and some are very aware. Naïve egoists are overtly egotistic and engage in ineffective and self-defeating selfish behaviors. Enlightened egoists, who are conniving and deceptive about their selfishness, pretend in public to be virtuous, caring, and altruistic in order to manipulate others more efficiently. They are careful users, deceivers, and exploiters of others, as Acquaviva explains. Even enlightened egoists come in many varieties. Some are and others are not sensitive to the needs, desires, and feelings of the people they violate and exploit. Sensitive egoists use their intrinsic capacities to exploit others.
The specific value-objects to which egoists are devoted also vary immensely. Not all egoists are sensualistic hedonists. Some identify themselves and their self-worth with their private self-images, others with their reputations or public images. Both types are hypersensitive to criticism and develop elaborate behavioral and psychological mechanisms to protect these images.
Egoists may also be introverts or extroverts, but they are always control freaks who highly value power over others. When they lose control, violence often erupts.
Surprising to most of us, women are just as prone to egoism and predatory violence as are men. In that respect, they are our equals! And they ought to be equals with men in many other respects, Acquaviva contends. Men, women, and children may be and often are victims of violence; and individuals, whether male or female, who do not directly inflict violence are often accomplices to it.
Acquaviva also devotes considerable attention to alternatives and antidotes to violence. Pop culture does not celebrate humility, kindness, and compassion. Virtuous persons are no longer popular as role models; but they should be; they must be if civilized societies are to exist and flourish.
“The ideal,” says Acquaviva, “is for people to value one another intrinsically” (p. 120). This involves both recognizing that all people are inherently valuable ends in themselves, and fully identifying ourselves with them so that the differences between us cease to matter. The intrinsic valuation of intrinsic values is the ultimate way to overcome egoism and the violation of others that frequently issues from it. Intrinsic identification with a value-object can and does take many forms, such as intrinsic love, deep friendship, altruism, empathy, compassion, creativity, interconnection, awareness, sensitivity, adventure, and so on.
Many obstacles to living intrinsically stand in the way, but many trends may make it easier in the future. To get the relevant details, read this book!
Rem B. Edwards
Associate Editor, Value Inquiry Book Series
R. S. Hartman Institute for Formal and Applied Axiology
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
EXCERPT:
One
DISTINGUISHING GOOD FROM EVIL
Violence is spread globally like a contagious disease from individual to individual, and then it becomes inculcated into values that affect behavior. In today’s popular culture the value of violence is passed from generation to generation. In some societies, violence is expected and accepted as a way of life. Inventive, violent individuals disguise themselves as sensitive or nonviolent and prey on the naïve and unsuspecting. These masked violators confuse and discourage others who then voice cynicism about the future of humanity. Such negativity must be balanced with a broader outlook on life. This essay is not pessimistic about our future. Below the surface of today’s turbulent waters, a positive undercurrent flows. This same force gave birth to civilization, religion, the arts, and other creative and compassionate activities. In the future it will once again surface to become more effective when education replaces inculcation. As more individuals participate sincerely in these activities, they will increase their innate sensitivities and more closely be in touch with eternity. To insure this, the illusions and fantasies initiated by egoists who deceive to violate others must be disclosed. They represent a serious danger to others, and revealing their disguises is of the greatest importance. While they have always existed, and most likely always will, the problem today is one of imbalance. Declaring war on all associated with violence, and striving to deny them their existence are not practical. How can we live in the presence of evil individuals and the violence they initiate? Whether one is an atheist, an agnostic, or devoutly religious, living in a violent world is a practical problem that cannot be avoided. Judgments must be made! Perhaps the most ignored request Jesus asks of Christians is to not judge others. He said:
Judge not and ye shall not be judged; condemn not and ye shall not be condemned.1
1. Judge Not?
Is it possible to live and not to judge liars, murderers, terrorists, thieves, rapists, and the like? To live we must make judgments, and yet we are asked not to judge. This appears to be a paradox and presents us with a problem! Many persons have intense desires and fears, and are quick to judge others. But the quote above is not ambiguous or vague, and it does not represent a parable. It is an imperative statement clearly telling those who claim to follow the Christian religion not to judge or condemn others. Very little variation is found in the meaning of the word “judge.” It means to pass judgment, or to evaluate, or to criticize. “Condemn,” also means to pass judgment, to pronounce to be wrong, or to disapprove. We are not asked but rather are told to refrain from passing judgment on others. It is implied that we are not qualified to pass final judgment on others.
Yet, we must make decisions and judgments about others in order to live. Human predators who habitually violate others present a risk, and when they enter into our lives we must act to protect ourselves. Some predators initiate violence; others actively assist them; and others are aware, and passively do nothing to prevent it. Complicitors are often called enablers today, for they allow violence to occur and enable those who do. They are perpetrators, accomplices and complicitors. All are interconnected and share responsibility for different forms of violence that exist in the world today. Some choose to violate others physically and visibly: this is crude violence. Others are more deceitful and shrewd. They choose to violate others in ways that are not immediately noticeable, but have a detrimental effect on the vitality of others in less obvious ways: this is subtle violence. Today individuals have the choice to live or not to live by violence. Those who choose to live by nonviolence are forced to make judgments to avoid, restrain, or contain violators in order to preserve their life styles. By making value judgments that identify violators, we are not assuming a superior position. As Erich Fromm explains, “A judgment that a person is destructive, greedy, jealous, envious is not different from a physician’s statement about a dysfunction of the heart or lungs.”2 Ethically identifying those who lie as liars, those who steal as thieves, or those who kill as murderers is not passing final religious judgment on them, and so the paradox of judgment is solved.
Correct identification of the behavior of individuals is an important step in diagnosing their basic character without condemning their existence, and it cannot be done in a superficial way. Like inexperienced physicians who fail to diagnose subtle symptoms of illnesses correctly, some individuals do not see these less conspicuous patterns of behavior that identify those who choose to violate others subtly, and there are many varieties. The key - as those who violate others subtly know - is in controlling the attention of the victims. This is the reason why popular culture and the media are so influential today and will be in our future. Persons who own the sources of information and entertainment have the ability to control the attention of the general public. When attention is diverted from subtle forms of violence, individuals fail to protect themselves and put themselves or others they love at risk. Why? What prevents them from acting in their best interest? One obstacle is their failure to value intrinsically, and another is their unawareness of danger from those violators who are deceitful and subtle. Unveiling some of the many masks of violence is a primary goal of this book. To love, create, and appreciate life fully requires that we value intrinsically. To do this, we are obligated to develop our abilities to discern between values symbolic of good and values symbolic of evil. Like train tracks that appear to go on endlessly, these parallel themes represent the quintessential confrontation of good versus evil. We may judge and condemn the actions of violent persons, but we cannot expect a world without them.
2. Love Your Enemies?
Not only are we asked not to condemn evil but, we are told that God permits evil to persist. Thus, crusades against all those who live by violating others are fruitless. In the book of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying:
God maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.3
In other words, the Creator does not prevent the presence of evil in the world but, to the contrary, provides “water” so it may continue to exist. Why? Is evil meant to challenge those who choose to live good lives?
The complete quote begins with Jesus’ saying: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”4 Once again, the message is direct and unambiguous. It is obviously far easier for people to love those who return love than to love those who lie, deceive, torture, persecute or do harm to them. This is one of the most important teachings of Jesus, and one of the most difficult imperatives to follow It is found in many other great religions, but Jesus’ words are more direct.
How are we to “love our enemies?” Certainly, we are not asked to love the violence they do to others! An ancient saying from the Buddhist religion affirms that “My enemy is my own best friend.” Our enemies are to be loved as teachers of evil. In whatever form they may appear, crude or subtle, they challenge us to learn and grow spiritually. Whether or not we choose to accept or reject this challenge is a decision that each of us must make alone. We must learn to recognize teachers of evil and not hate or resent them, as some do. To accept the presence of evil is one thing, but it is another to be able to identify evil in others. A fundamental point of this essay is to guide others, particularly young persons, to identify unethical individuals who choose to live by violating others either subtly or crudely. We must become aware of the varieties of violators in the world, avoid them, and focus our energy on valuing life intrinsically.
As Robert S. Hartman wrote in Freedom to Live, “We need desperately to develop our sensitivity to evil...for we cannot overcome that which we don’t know.”5
3. Developing a Sensitivity to Evil
Hartman directs us to develop our sensitivity to evil, and along with it we must improve our awareness of evil. The two are different. We can develop an awareness of evil and violence from book knowledge, but indirect, vicarious knowledge does not enhance our sensitivity. How do we develop sensitivity to real evil and violence? Claims are made today that viewing vicarious violence on television and movies conditions individuals to be insensitive to it. By continuously experiencing images of violence in the media, movies, and television we are inculcated to expect its occurrence: repetition dulls the senses. As a result of conditioned expectation the shock value diminishes. The line between fantasy and reality also diminishes for the news media also report on violence in our societies and the world continuously. The news media thrive on reporting brutal acts of violence such as terrorists’ bombings and brutal murders. To claim that we have all become insensitive to violence is presumptuous. More accurately, we have been conditioned to expect violence and evil in the world. Imagine how naïve we would be if we were conditioned not to expect it. After all, the sun and rain fall upon both good and evil equally. Evil and violence have always been a part of human history, and much evidence indicates that they will be in our future.
The many masks of violence worn by individuals are profiled here from true stories, anecdotes, novels and movies to better identify them. As philosopher Rem B. Edwards once said emphatically, “Make it come alive!” And, with those words constantly in my thoughts, I have tried to do just that. But, a significant difference exists between vicarious experiences and lived-experiences. There is no better teacher than personal experience. Reading books on ethics, psychology, criminology, and philosophy does not adequately prepare us to deal with clever enlightened egoists.
To develop our sensitivities we need to have them fully stimulated. Flight simulators have been successfully used to train pilots to become familiar with flying planes, but this does not qualify them to fly. Just as no substitutes for life’s experiences exist, no substitutes for flight time are adequate. Becoming a licensed pilot is a step by step procedure. The process begins with reading books and taking written tests, moves to hours of practice in a flight simulator, and then to learning to fly with a flight trainer sitting next to you in the cockpit. Finally, would-be pilots log several hundred hours of flight time, actually flying a plane. Practicing take-offs and landings are most important. Where life is at greatest risk more practice is required. Only after a great deal of lived-experience does a person become a licensed pilot.
Living does not require a license, a flight simulator, or a teacher by your side to guide you. The world has radically changed in the twentieth century, and our technology offers us new instruments to use. Perhaps, in the near future, virtual reality games will better imitate life and stimulate our senses to greater degrees. Such games contrast sharply with experiences in which audiences vicariously indulge. They simply sit, experience the sights and sounds of movies or television, and become indirectly stimulated. In virtual reality games the players participate in ways similar to those of a student pilot in a flight simulator. In place of an artificial cockpit, scenarios from whatever game is being played are vicariously experienced.
Virtual reality games can be created to imitate lived-experience where value judgments must be made. These games could teach children how to identify the value characteristics of violent individuals. Participation in such games will enhance their senses and stimulate them to greater and greater degrees. But a significant element missing from games that exists in real life: risks to health, life, loved ones, or possessions. Risks stimulate the sensitivities! No substitute for flight time is adequate, and no substitute for experiences in life is satisfactory. Virtual reality games may imitate life, but they will never replace it. Nevertheless, they represent an important, new technological tool that could teach children an awareness of characteristics that profile unethical, violent individuals. Just as individuals training to be pilots learn to avoid dangerous situations, children may learn to identify and avoid unethical egoists. Both may acquire indirect knowledge and some awareness, but true sensitivity to evil is only developed through confrontation in lived-experience.
4. Make the Words Come Alive!
In answer to Edwards’s request to “Make it come alive,” the value habits of violent individuals are not only described, but to give them life they are portrayed in characters from stories, movies and more. I identify them as F-types because their character becomes hardened and inflexible like fossils, as do their habits of disvaluing and violating others. Like books describing poisonous snakes, the descriptions of F-types will identify them by the habits of disvaluing that guide their actions. In books, often the descriptions that identify poisonous snakes are very subtle. Some poisonous snakes are more noticeable, such as rattlesnakes. Others, like copperheads, blend in deceptively with the ground cover. Rattlesnakes are like noisy burglars, like naïve con men who reveal their intentions. But copperheads are quiet and give no warning before they strike. One bit me on the lower back of my right leg, and I had to go to an emergency room. Once bitten, extreme caution is practical. When able to identify poisonous snakes, it is wise to avoid them.
Though I had learned to identify copperheads, unfortunately I didn’t see the one that bit me. I was unaware of it because my sensitivity was not fully developed. Our habits of attention greatly determine what we perceive within the circumstances of our lives, and often they prevent us from seeing things. When in the mountains, woods, or fields on warm days, my eyes habitually survey the surrounding ground for possible snakes, for I assume they may be present. In these natural environments I have heightened attentiveness. But, when bitten by the copperhead, I was standing next to my car in town. I had failed to see the snake because I did not associate its presence with the circumstances. Habits of association are circumstantial and often include assumptions or pre-judgments. In my example, I assumed the circumstances excluded any risk from snakes being present. The snake was present but I failed to see it because of a predisposition - a belief.
Cultures in all parts of the world have developed around a variety of assumptions. But, one prejudgment that prevails among nearly all concerns the roles of men and women. It is the idea that men are aggressive and violent, and women are passive and nonviolent. This predisposition is a prejudice that affects the attitudes and values of all individuals. It is one of many beliefs that become inculcated in habits of valuing which often “blind” individuals, and prevent them from clearly perceiving the truth. We must become more aware of our own habits of valuing and those of others, and expand our sensitivity to them to reveal what they conceal. We must learn to value intrinsically those who choose to deceive and violate others. Perhaps shocking, and more directly said:
We must learn to appreciate the evil in the world.
But this does not mean that we must endorse evil or associate with it. Good people predisposed to nonviolence often fail to develop the sensitivity needed to recognize evil, partly because of the circumstances of their lives. They do not value it, and this makes them “blind” to those who choose to live by violence – until they are violated by them. To assess evil means to recognize it like a doctor diagnoses the symptoms of a disease, but it does not mean to condone it. A correct diagnosis is of utmost importance, and symptoms are valuable to forewarn us, so that we may take corrective actions. Some are fortunate enough to live in safe circumstances and avoid being violated - others are not. While living the horrors of Hitler’s death camp in Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel pondered over why God would allow such atrocities to occur. He could only conclude that it is beyond our human comprehension and that we must have faith. In his Memoirs, he wrote: “What tormented and revolted me in the physical and moral (or immoral) environment of the camp was the power of evil and its contagiousness.”6
|
|
|
Tijnmuiden 7
1046 AK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T: +31-20-611 48 21
F: +31-20-447 29 79
248 East 44th Street - 2nd floor
New York, NY 10017
USA
T: 1-800-225-3998
F: 1-800-853-3881
Toll-free in the USA
info@rodopi.nl
|
|
|
