--All positive change in human behavior is the result of an increase in awareness, whether you’re talking
about recovering from substance abuse, abandoning self-destructive patterns, ending racism and bigotry,
or ending an oligarchic empire. Once the underlying sources of an unwholesome behavior dynamic have
been sufficiently perceived, there’s a movement from dysfunction to health.--
agree with caitlin's title, that the dominant structure uses propaganda and covers up their use of it.
but she's slipping into the hipster belief that intellectualizing is the solution, as if we just need to try
harder. however, this belief sustains the dominant by blaming subdominants as slackers/unwashed/
stupid/etc. yep, this is dilemmatic, especially since so many therapists push awareness/
perception/positivist notions and, well, how else do we address oppression and and all?
caitlin might just back-off notions like "ALL..is the result of an increase of awareness", as ALL indicates
PERFECT, which it aint. research and practice indicates that awareness is not really required for 'positive
change', as change often occurs without awareness... for example, propaganda itself primarily functions
at a subconscious (unaware) level. so, toss the awareness-is-ALL notion to the side.
caitlin closes the above by referring to "movement from dysfunction to health", which is a better
conceptualization/focal point. this refers to the human capacity to heal itself or reorient towards health.
but, this does not require 'awareness' or 'perception' as much as it does to 'doing'. it's the doing of
things in the real world (or even in the mind) that encourages movement from dysfunction to health.
it's the doing of 'good', not the intellectualizing of 'good', that is most significant.
easier said than done. |
