Here it is again.
Harry
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Selma,
The past is gone, the future is out there somewhere. Surely, all we can do is live in the present. We can remember the past and visualize a future, but that's all.
If 'being in the moment' means more than this, I would like to know.
Is it suggested that "commodification of human beings" did not exist in the Feudal system? And indeed not throughout human history. Never in socialist situations, nor any of these mixtures we now endure?
The problem with being anti-capitalist - which I am - is that it is so easy to blame things on capitalism as if that mixture is solely responsible. Unfortunately, if capitalism is successfully removed, what will take its place? What system will replace it that will not undertake the commodification of human beings?
Harry
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Selma wrote:
Hi Brian, Have you read any of Erich Fromm? or Gregory Bateson? Dorothy Lee's book *Freedom and Culture* deals directly with the effect of the various concepts of being and time, etc as to the way they affect people's lives; she is especially good at spelling out the relationship between language and behavior. Fromm, as I'm sure you know, deals with the way capitalism leads to the commodification of human beings, an idea that has come up on this list from time to time. He deals with it directly in *To Have or To Be* and with its consequences in much of his other work, especially *Escape From Freedom* and *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*.Yes, Einstein did point out to us that time and space are artifacts of human thinking. He also was very clear that his most profound ideas derived from mystical experiences and dreams. I don't know what other evidence one would need to have to acknowledge that 'being in the moment' can be of value in the advancement of rational understanding of the universe. Herbert Maslow writes about the importance of mystical experiences in *The Psychology of Being* and Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi in his books about being in the 'flow' of work, etc. enhances and enriches life. So yes, there are some very serious people who have dealt with the way the mind/body split and the assumptions of the scientific method have been limiting and at the same time acknowledge the benefits that have been the result of that split. The problem is that when that split and the ideas that emanate from it are applied to the way we deal with ourselves and others as human beings, we become objects, we deal with ourselves and others as objects and our lives and experiences become fragmented and are at the root of why so many of us feel isolated and alienated and have to turn to power and violence in order to feel fulfilled. These things have also been pointed out eloquently and in great detail by thinkers such as David Bohm, David Peat, John Briggs and others. Selma
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
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