Arthur Noll responds in the dialogue started yesterday:
Bill, I’m not sure why you say that I stress materialism too much. My understanding of things does not diminish the importance of belonging, of love. I see these as material forces, the result of biochemical activity in the brain, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant. I start off my observations about the needed structure of society with the point that we are interdependent, we live as a single organism, and die without each other. We need to love each other as much as we love ourselves, because others are basically an extension of our bodies.
You are also actually agreeing with me about the importance of people sharing fundamental beliefs, when you say that in the face of stress people will come together, and put aside their racial and cultural differences in the common belief that cooperation and win-win situations are the most important things. I don’t see this happening, but I wouldn’t be unhappy if I were wrong and it did. Basically, my actions at the moment are the same for either way it works out. I am trying to get people to join me in working together, to have a sustainable society. Such a society that doesn’t have the weakness of win-lose relationships. It doesn’t exploit natural resources, doesn’t use up things faster than they renew. It lives as a single body in the extent of it’s cooperation. I’ve been looking for people to join me in this for about 10 years. I’ve been rejected over and over. People will say that they want to live in harmony with nature, they often talk a great line about love and cooperation, but basically they are mostly hypocrites. They have no intention of actually making such deep changes in their lives.
If the situation continues as it has, and only a few sincere people are found, and the rest are full of denial about the importance of such actions, and would rather blame other groups for their problems, continue with their endless battles for material wealth and power at the expense of each other and nature, then it means we have to take some different actions, from those we would take if everyone agreed to live in balance with each other and nature. If someone is threatening to commit suicide by pouring out gasoline and burning down the house we are both in, if I can’t persuade them to stop, and I don’t want to join in this, it is better that I get out of the house.
I read in the paper recently of a way in which the current “war”, could grow to such dimensions of suicide. Many of the people of Pakistan view Osama bin Laden as a hero. Their government is officially helping us to catch him, though. What if there was a coup, and the present government was removed? Pakistan is a nuclear nation…
If people are going to come together, they need to start doing it now. But that is certainly not happening in many, many places.