The Many and Needs
May. 25th, 2019 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusWhat do the οἱ πολλοί want in a belief system or way of conducting social affairs? Certainly nothing that requires much in the way of mental effort. They either seek out clear instructions from some kind of above, or they want to be serenaded with sweet, empty sayings that validate their prejudices and LCD-consensus-dictated groupthink opinions on what is and isn't reality.
And thus, for the would-be prophet, or seer, or philosopher, or even humble teacher: is the age-old struggle of proclaiming Truth vs. providing a sturdy glue that works against the natural (as in "state of nature") force we could call social entropy; Plato called this glue "the Noble Lie." In more plain-speak we simply know this as a consistent narrative that provides direction for the weakest link and reduces the number of annoying questions to a bare minimum. In the even older days, those members of the tribe who had no business questioning, implicitly knew their place as one who does not poke at things beyond their natural grasp; without effort it was acknowledged that there was a designated social strata properly equipped to deal with the aforementioned questions on life. Aristocratic and Timocratic man understands this timeless principle with little difficulty. With Oligarchic man (that mental state of insolence known as Vaishya ascendancy), the old wisdom starts getting called into question by the ignorant and licentious, and things like rationalism, sophistry, cynicism and nihilism start creeping their way to the forefront of popular opinion. The past 500 years of our current Western civilization have been almost completely defined by those ways of thinking, speaking, and doing. When the societal decline hits its quickening phase, Democratic man rears his ugly head, gathers together in a frenzied mob, starts taking a sledgehammer to anything and everything above its collective level of virtue, beauty, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and anything else of a higher, more noble nature than its own unrepentant baseness; in the spirit of fanatical envy, the mob brings bane unto the upright mortals of this world.
So we can see that the mob requires order, structure, guidance, and most importantly a higher example to follow. Left to their own devices, the mob will pursue its "needs" in an anarchic zombie state: food, comfort, sex, excitement, distractions, material riches, illusory "power" gains, and whatnot. And little known to each cog within the mob, all these things provide only temporary (and again, illusory) pleasure, and of course just end up binding each one to the wheel of suffering; which is the seemingly-endless repetition of mistakes and thus retardation of the spiritual evolution process. In actuality, Spirit is hierarchical (not an any kind of egocentric sense); and it's certainly the DUTY of those who have cultivated spiritual merit to guide those are behind them. Right-hierarchy is true compassion, solidarity, and love for life.
So what might the οἱ πολλοί desire in doctrines?
1. Assistance with addressing life's troubles, or at least what they perceive those troubles to be.
2. Structure/order/predictability
3. A Good Story to make the above palatable to whatever state of consciousness they currently dwell in. Thanks, Tyrion Lannister for help on this third item.
And thus, for the would-be prophet, or seer, or philosopher, or even humble teacher: is the age-old struggle of proclaiming Truth vs. providing a sturdy glue that works against the natural (as in "state of nature") force we could call social entropy; Plato called this glue "the Noble Lie." In more plain-speak we simply know this as a consistent narrative that provides direction for the weakest link and reduces the number of annoying questions to a bare minimum. In the even older days, those members of the tribe who had no business questioning, implicitly knew their place as one who does not poke at things beyond their natural grasp; without effort it was acknowledged that there was a designated social strata properly equipped to deal with the aforementioned questions on life. Aristocratic and Timocratic man understands this timeless principle with little difficulty. With Oligarchic man (that mental state of insolence known as Vaishya ascendancy), the old wisdom starts getting called into question by the ignorant and licentious, and things like rationalism, sophistry, cynicism and nihilism start creeping their way to the forefront of popular opinion. The past 500 years of our current Western civilization have been almost completely defined by those ways of thinking, speaking, and doing. When the societal decline hits its quickening phase, Democratic man rears his ugly head, gathers together in a frenzied mob, starts taking a sledgehammer to anything and everything above its collective level of virtue, beauty, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and anything else of a higher, more noble nature than its own unrepentant baseness; in the spirit of fanatical envy, the mob brings bane unto the upright mortals of this world.
So we can see that the mob requires order, structure, guidance, and most importantly a higher example to follow. Left to their own devices, the mob will pursue its "needs" in an anarchic zombie state: food, comfort, sex, excitement, distractions, material riches, illusory "power" gains, and whatnot. And little known to each cog within the mob, all these things provide only temporary (and again, illusory) pleasure, and of course just end up binding each one to the wheel of suffering; which is the seemingly-endless repetition of mistakes and thus retardation of the spiritual evolution process. In actuality, Spirit is hierarchical (not an any kind of egocentric sense); and it's certainly the DUTY of those who have cultivated spiritual merit to guide those are behind them. Right-hierarchy is true compassion, solidarity, and love for life.
So what might the οἱ πολλοί desire in doctrines?
1. Assistance with addressing life's troubles, or at least what they perceive those troubles to be.
2. Structure/order/predictability
3. A Good Story to make the above palatable to whatever state of consciousness they currently dwell in. Thanks, Tyrion Lannister for help on this third item.
