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Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay By-Months By-Years By-Words Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One This-essay is a7812151.htm which is available at the web-site www.essayz.com. See more notes at the bottom. ========================================================== %TRANSCEND TWO CULTURES DICHOTOMY DOMINATION SYSTEM 781215 This was the 4th of a series of closely related and significant essays which are available at the following 4 locations: a7604061.htm and a7607261.htm and a7702172.htm and a7812151.htm. The following paper was written with considerable assistance from an anonymous student, upon an invitation from Bernard Feld, Editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, when he read a copy of the essay "FIVE CULTURES DICHOTOMY" and urged that an expanded version of that essay be written for possible publication. He chose not to publish the expanded essay, perhaps because it hit too close to home for him as one of the inner circle of Atomic Scientists in the Manhattan Project which built the first few atomic bombs. Look at the end of this essay for more notes on how this essay came to be written and how it was received. ========================================================== In the paper a "*" indicates that there is a footnote at the end of the paper, keyed to the word just before the "*". Transcending the Two Cultures Dichotomy C.P. Snow pointed to two tips of an iceberg in his now famous lecture on the "Two Cultures" dichotomy. He sought to call attention to the implications of the dichotomy as it affects relationships between the rich and poor nations. The lecture is more commonly remembered for the attention it focused upon the lack of dialogue between the scientific/engineering culture and the liter- ary/artistic culture. Snow's analysis emphasized the subject matter specialization within the various discip- lines. The two tips of the iceberg correspond to the subject matter of professional scientists/engineers on the one hand and writers/artists on the other. The dic- hotomy runs much deeper than distinctions in subject matter, however, and it will take something quite different than competency with a comprehensive range of subject matter to promote the healing of the dichotomy. The structure and extent of the dichotomy is still hidden below the troubled waters of the world's cultures. The practical implications are greater in today's world of balanced terror and resource starvation than when Snow gave his lecture. On the personal level profound subjective implications of the dichotomy affect the quality of human lives and intimate relationships. There is work to be done in two areas. We need to encourage our governments at all levels to fund study of the dichotomy and of the conflicts which the dichotomy occasions--funding which is commensurate with our funding of the poles of the dichotomy. At the same time we need to facilitate personal growth in ways which transcend the dichotomy. Doing both will help us trace and begin to eliminate the origins of the violence which is so characteristic of our modern world. The essence of the two-cultures dichotomy originates in the perspective from which we view it and the language in terms of which we describe it. Our perspective and language depend upon which pole of the dichotomy dominates us. Thus, to each of us the dichotomy depends upon the ways in which it has affected us.* We who seek to understand the dichotomy are trying to understand the process by which the dichotomy has led us to understand everything---including the dichotomy. We cannot transcend the dichotomy until we understand it; and we cannot understand it until we transcend it. We are tied in knots.* We need to recognize the central role which our exclusivity plays in creating and maintaining the collusions which occasion our double-bind.* We cannot understand and transcend the two cultures dichotomy because of the exclusivity in our ways of understanding and relating. The dichotomy is a manifestation of our differing exclusive ways of understanding and relating to each other and to our environment. Differences in our intellectual and affective subcultures block our mutual awareness and mutual understanding.* Yet, we cannot understand what blocks our understanding---because the same blocks our understanding of that very blockage process. We need the help of people whose understanding is not similarly blocked---even though they may not be able to perceive or understand what is blocking our understanding, and may not be aware that our understanding is blocked as it is. Given this state of affairs, we are obliged to clutch at glimmers of insights which transcend the blockage---by disavowing exclusivity to the best of our present ability. A central feature of the dichotomy is the lack of dialogue between ourselves and others who are essentially different with respect to the dichotomy. Snow illustrated this in many ways in his lecture. It seems natural to expect that the transcendence of the dichotomy will involve our taking steps which facilitate the restoration of dialogue; i.e. reconciliation.* Reconciliation is not likely to occur until the restoration of dialogue is valued more highly than anything else which might undermine dialogue between different people. That is to say, the facilitation of dialogue will be the ultimate concern of those who meaningfully help us to transcend the dichotomy.* It is not enough that there be communication between us in the sense of transmission of information back and forth. There must be meaningful personal dialogue which involves mutuality with regards to respect, vulnerability, and political power.* The dichotomy cannot be transcended by efforts which are dominated by either pole of the dichotomy. Because of the limitations imposed upon us by conventional meanings assigned to words, it is difficult to point to the structure of the dichotomy. For this reason we turn to an allegory. We wish to emphasize that what follows is an allegory, not a fairy tale. There are correspondences between each element of the allegory and situations of everyday life. Many readers may be reluctant to perceive those correspondences and so find it difficult to understand the allegory. We regret the pain which the images in our allegory may cause for some, but believe that facing those images will be better in the long run than continued participation in comfortable collusions. Our allegory is just one perspective of the dichotomy stated in a particular language. We hope that this statement will encourage those who have a different perspective/language to share their view of the dichotomy in their own language. Upon looking south, down a fertile valley, we see steep overhanging cliffs in the East and West. The people who choose to live on the high plateaus above the cliffs suffer an arid climate compared to the climate enjoyed by those who are willing to live in the shadows of the cliffs. The plateau-people are, however, dominated by their exclusive principles and convictions. Exclusivity is what most clearly distinguishes the plateau-people from the valley-people. Plateau-people are exclusive with respect to concepts, emotions, values, and people they are willing to affirm. The plateau-people collect into elite groups. In contrast the valley-people would unconditionally welcome plateau-people as visitors and/or settlers. Yet, the valley is sparsely populated because the plateau-people cannot tolerate inclusivity--and so exclude themselves from the valley, limiting themselves to elitist activities upon the dry plateaus. Next to exclusivity a preoccupation with manipulative understanding, techniques, and technologies tends to distinguish the plateau-people from the valley-people. The plateau-people are so preoccupied with techniques that their preoccupation inhibits love's power to humanely direct their use of techniques; their techniques rule them. The valley- people are competent in the use of techniques when and where techniques are appropriate means of manifesting love. Thus, the plateau-people's lives are emotionally dry---barren of many fruits of love's affections. Here we find the roots of the violence that characterizes plateau-people's lives. The plateau- people's inhibition of affection occasions frustrations which are expressed in violence of many forms.* Violence is the violation of an integrity. The form of the violence depends upon the kind of integrity being violated: physical, biological, ecological, sexual, emotional, psychological, psychic, intellectual, philosophical, religious, spiritual; individual, familial, neighborhood, school, organizational, professional, corporate, cultural; county, state, federal, national, global; etc. The plateau-people's exclusivity creates many long-term problems by occasioning violence in its many forms. Some of the plateau-people try to solve the problems occasioned by their exclusivity, but they seek only technical solutions---in keeping with their exclusive orientation. The plateau-people expect that intensive scientific research and technological developments on the part of specialists will resolve the problems created by over- specialization. They do not understand that some problems have no technical solutions.* The consequences of violence cannot be healed by technical solutions, even though some temporary repairs and rebuilding may be accomplished. Technical solutions do not free people to be in meaningful dialogue nor do they motivate dialogue. Exclusively technical solutions perpetuate the alienation which is the root of the problems. The concerned plateau-people tend to try to cope with the dichotomy in terms of the exclusive point of view of their plateaus. Some of them try to build a bridge anchored only on their own plateau---and reaching across to the opposite plateau without support from the valley below or from the opposite plateau. Others try to build suspension bridges anchored only on the two plateaus, but without support from the valley below. Bridge building satisfies their technical instincts and provides a way to get from one technical plateau to the other without traveling in the valley---but such bridge building presumes that the problem of the dichotomy, and consequently the resolution of the dichotomy, is essentially technical in nature. Bridges between the two plateaus are of little use because they do not help heal the dichotomy. Bridge travelers reduce their opportunities for the valley dialogues which are essential to transcending the dichotomy. The plateau-people's persistent problems originate in their undervaluing of unconditionally open channels of dialogue. They are so oriented to manipulating objects, ideas, relationships, and equations that they carry their manipulative inclinations into human relationships---and so have developed sophisticated techniques for human manipulation. In a perverse way the plateau- people recognize how essential continued dialogue is to humanity, perceiving the silent terror occasioned by just the vague threat of excommunication. The plateau- people use many techniques of excommunication to ensure what they regard as proper behavior. The techniques, both formal and informal, are of many kinds: religious excommunication, academic flunking, cliques, blacklisting, accusations of immorality, gossip, commitment to mental institutions, imprisonment; and exclusive clubs, churches, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods. Such manipulation usually focuses upon behavioral standards which inhibit dialogue between conformists and non-conformists. The plateau-people as excommunicators are rarely aware that their excommunications are mutual in effect. Cutting off dialogue cuts off communication both ways, for the excommunicated cannot accept the risk of being candid in the presence of their excommunicators. In addition, excommunicators' activities have a "chilling effect" upon their own communications, because to be fully open with each other will make them vulnerable to implicit accusations of failing to support the group's collusions. The excommunicators are usually unaware of the double- bind aspect of their situation and so the technique of excommunication conceals its own futility; the plateau-people continue to use excommunication---thinking it to be an effective technique for promoting good behavior. Thus everyone keeps secrets from each other because there is little trust. The plateau-people often feel that the problems they see originate in the lack of values and/or inadequate dedication to high values on the part of themselves and others. The plateau-people highly value many idealistic principles and convictions. They seek to make their world be a realization of a world of ideal forms.* In reality, the plateau-people's problems originate in the way in which their ultimate concerns operate to undermine personal integrity. They have fabricated idealistic idols, and have sacrificed to those idols their ability to be in dialogue. They have sacrificed the most precious offering which they could make to their gods. Their resultant inability to be in dialogue has undermined their integrity and occasioned their many persistent problems-- problems which at heart are personal relationship problems. The plateau-people's problems can be resolved only through holistic perceptions and coping behavior. The plateau-people need the courage to be their unique selves with integrity, even if with fear.* They, however, pride themselves upon their specialized language, knowledge, techniques, and procedures. Conformity in perception, thought, and action is often an implicit requirement for acceptance in their specialties. As specialists they do not value the ability to be in dialogue with people who are essentially different---who have not specialized exclusively or have specialized in a different mode of perception or subject matter. The specialists tend to disdain those who have not specialized exclusively, or who do not value their own particular techniques and manipulative abilities ultimately. Thus the plateau- people do not value holistic people with integrity. The people upon the two plateaus differ from each other more in their modes of approach to various subject matter, than in subject matter itself. It is not the case that persons with a scientific/engineering orientation are on the Western plateau-of-objectivity and that persons with a literary/artistic orientation are on the Eastern plateau-of-subjectivity. On each plateau you can find specialists in virtually all areas of human affairs - - - although not in like numbers on each plateau. There are some surprises in where particular specialists are found. The people on the Western plateau-of-objectivity tend to specialize in coping objectively with objects, people, perceptions, and thoughts; usually being insensitive to feelings. They tend toward being: analytic/ synthetic, objective, systematic, manipulative, quantitative, calculative, theoretical/utilitarian, skeptical, disciplined, impersonal, serious, authoritarian. Their coping mechanisms, life-styles, and moods are often objective in essence and are means to objective ends, such as objective technologies. Such people tend to be at home in and dominate certain professions. Even so, it is sometimes misleading to associate too closely those professions with the Western plateau-of-objectivity. There is not a simple one-to-one correspondence which will hold up under close examination. The people on the Eastern plateau-of-subjectivity tend to specialize in coping subjectively with objects, people, perceptions, and thoughts while being sensitive to feelings. They tend toward being: spontaneous, sympathetic, qualitative., trusting, experiential, hopeful, personal, humorous, intuitive, intimate, emotive, affectionate, sensuous, sexual, instinctive, and vulnerable. They tend to specialize their being in ways which exclude acceptance of objective techniques and technologies.* The nature of subjective techniques and/or technologies is such that they are rarely regarded as being technological; however, we here use the terms to point to coping mechanisms, life-style, and moods which have a subjective essence, and are seen as exclusive ends which become idolatrous. Such subjective technologies are often not apparent to exclusively objectively-oriented people, just as idolatrous objective technologies are not attractive to exclusively subjectively-oriented people. The people on the two plateaus are alike in being exclusive and oriented toward techniques for coping, but disdain each other because of the contrasting foci of their technologies. The plateau- people also disdain the valley-people because the valley-people are not exclusive--they do not compulsively maintain high standards of technical excellence. The plateau-people thus excommunicate themselves from people on the complementary plateau, and from the people of integrity on the valley floor. The plateau-people value their respective specialties so highly and so exclusively that they excommunicate even their closest associates if they dare to question the idolatrous worship of their specialty. Such excommunications maintain the specialists' collusions.* The few plateau-people who do dare to question the idolatrous worship are excommunicated and find themselves in a bind: they are aliens in their homeland and fear descent into the shadows of the valley--because tradition teaches that the valley is a place of meaningless death.* The valley is the place of the meaningful death of exclusivity. It is a place of acceptance of ultimate mystery which the plateau-people can never banish, regardless of how much they repress it. The plateau-cultures do not provide exemplary role-models of how to descend into the valley---to be in sympathetic dialogue with the valley- people and possibly to cross over to the opposite side to be in dialogue with the people on the complementary plateau. Thus, excommunicants on each plateau stare across the unknown and feared valley, and try to copy in their own way the behavior of those whom they see, without ever intimately sharing in their lives. Exclusivity maintains alienation between differing people. It is tragic that the valley, which is the natural meeting place, continues to separate the people on the complementary plateaus. It is not the valley which is the agent of separation, however; it is exclusivity which maintains the five different cultures: 1) The dominant exclusive objective culture on the Western plateau, 2) The dominant exclusive/subjective culture on the Eastern plateau, 3) The excommunicant subculture living on the Western plateau, but as a counter-culture trying to copy the subjective behavior on the other plateau, yet doing so in an objective way, 4) The excommunicant subculture living on the Eastern plateau, but as a counter- culture trying to copy the objective behavior on the other plateau, yet doing so in a subjective way, and 5) The non-dominant inclusive subjective objective valley- culture which with integrity incarnates both objectivity and subjectivity in the service of love.* Each of the four plateau-cultures perceives only two cultures---because the valley-culture and the dominant culture on the complementary plateau appear to all plateau-people like the excommunicants on the two plateaus. Only the members of the valley culture can clearly perceive the full range of cultural differences---and the misunderstandings originating therein. The valley-people understand the five cultures because they value subjectivity and objectivity situationally, granting neither a dominant role.* The valley-people are not compulsively or ultimately concerned with techniques or technology. They most highly value their dedication to openness, with the resultant free-flow of objective subjective perceptions and visions of how to manifest love. Valley-people visit the plateaus as suffering servants, and appear there as excommunicants.* Most of the people on a plateau do not distinguish between the valley-people who appear on their plateau and the excommunicants trapped on their plateau. The plateau-people's ability to be in dialogue is so blocked by their exclusivity that they cannot be intimate enough with others to perceive such differences. The valley-people are free to travel the gentle slopes of ambiguity and vulnerability, slopes which indirectly connect the valley floor to the plateaus--- providing an alternative way by which to avoid the catastrophic over-hang between the valley and the plateau.* The direct routes are far too steep and risky for any but the most experienced travelers. The gentle slopes of ambiguity and vulnerability are taboo to the exclusive plateau-people who exclude themselves from the garden on the valley floor. In the valley-garden the ability to be in dialogue and the freedom to be in dialogue with essentially different people are the ultimate values, and thus the focus of ultimate concern. Inclusivity is the rule, rather than exclusivity. Most important are the laws and instincts of Love which promote dialogue in the I-Thou mode.* The valley-people with generosity and receptivity share their perceptions, vision, and desires in dialogues which deepen their mutual awareness and mutual understanding of each other and their environment. Their love abounds, uniting unlike people with love, power, and justice.* Their relationships transcend the possibility of logical analysis.* The objective plateau-people are uninformed about and/or indifferent to the valley-people, whom they dismiss as unsophisticated. They regard themselves as having progressed beyond the concerns of the valley-people---through accelerating progress in science, objective technology, and resource consumption. Objective plateau-people devise many technological means of transmitting information, but they do not distinguish between transmitting information on the one hand, and personally meaningful dialogue on the other. Such plateau-people are imprisoned in their exclusive orientation toward analysis---always seeing the whole as the sum of its interacting parts. Their exclusively analytic orientation blinds them to how parts are often the creatures of the whole which transcends the interacting parts. Perceptive people residing on the subjective plateau may be able to articulate similar statements of concern about the contrast between-their associates and the valley-people. The exclusivity of all plateau-people inhibits their understanding by preventing them from making use of categories which transcend the central presuppositions of their specialty---they cannot be in dialogue with valley-people who incarnate such categories.* The state of alienation which is thus maintained by exclusivity is in religious terms called "sin" and occasions what religious people call "sins".* The plateau-people maintain the alienation of the five cultures by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.* Their knowledge of good and evil promotes a dedication to exclusivity and techniques which excommunicate those who threaten this dedication. Ambiguity and vulnerability are repressed by those who practice exclusivity. One of the greatest of human tragedies (in the Greek sense) is that most institutional religious leaders tend to live on one of the two plateaus, and have exclusive inclinations, rather than inclusive ones. They forget that Love is the Power that facilitates dialogue; God = Love. They pay lip service to Love, and practice exclusivity. In their eyes only the most highly qualified can be "saved". Only the "good" will be admitted to an exclusive heaven which is the ultimate reward for a life of conformity on earth. Too often institutional religious leaders have feasted upon the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and with Adam and Eve they have exiled themselves to one of the dry plateaus where they try to solve problems via exclusive techniques.* According to the insights of their own most ancient stories their efforts are futile. The alienation within the five cultures will continue until there is a shaking of the foundations of the plateau-people and they disavow both their exclusive values and the excommunication techniques for serving the demands of those values.* Reconciliation of plateau- people with each other and with those who are different will involve disavowing the specific kind of excommunication which the plateau-people have traditionally practiced in trying to manipulate others into conformity with high standards of achievement. As the plateau-people begin to recognize and learn from the valley-people in their midst, a new age can dawn, an age in which the dichotomy will heal---and technology will serve Love, rather than inhibit love.* Such an age of self-renewal and new beings will not dawn until the plateau-people start to feel secure in letting go of their definitions of good and evil, and of other methods of classifying people into excommunicated and yet-to-be-excommunicated groups. Only as they learn to let go of exclusivity and to embrace love will they become free to perceive their situation clearly. Their exclusivity imprisons them in a can't win double-bind. Plateau-people can't learn about the perceptions, visions, understandings, and feelings of essentially different people without abandoning their exclusivity; they can't abandon their exclusivity without dethroning their gods. Their gods are their specialties which presume to demand ultimate concern. Plateau-people have no transcendent criteria in terms of which to evaluate their situation without bias. The final judgment will be seen in how well what they represent survives in a revolutionary environment which they helped to create. Will their exclusivity make them adaptable? Will they survive in competition with inclusive others---who through intimate dialogue form strong close-kit communities of essentially different unique individuals? The two cultures dichotomy will not be transcended by exclusive specialists engaged in sophisticated objective or subjective research. It is being transcended by children of all ages who will continue to value dialogue with all kinds of people more than they will value any creation of men or women.* An important contribution which we can make to transcending the two cultures dichotomy is to encourage people in their developmental stages and in their passages between them to value the ability to be in dialogue with essentially different people--not permitting such dialogue to be undermined by any other value.* If love must have a reason, let the reason be love.* ================================================ References are keyed sequentially to the final word of the sentence which ends with an asterisk. The material referred to relates in a broad way to the realities dealt with by the asterisked sentence and perhaps sentences immediately adjacent. The references are not offered as authoritative support for what has been said herein, but rather as suggestions for consideration by the reader. dichotomy* C.P. Snow, The Two Cultures: and a Second Look (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1964). us.* Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, 1976>. See also Otto A. Bird, Cultures in Conflict, An Essay in the Philosophy of the Humanities (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976). knots.* R.D. Laing, Knots (New York: Random House, 1972). double-bind.* R.D. Laing, Self and Others,(New York: Pantheon Books, 1969). See chapter 8 on collusions---games played by two or more people whereby they deceive themselves. understanding.* Hall, Beyond Culture. reconciliation.* A number of organized groups are active in reconciliation efforts; e.g., The Fellowship of Reconciliation and the American Friends Service Committee. The insights of people in such groups will probably be relevant to transcending the dichotomy. dichotomy* Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3 vol. (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1951- 63). Consult the index under "ultimate concern". power.* Paul Tillich, Love, Power and Justice (New York: Oxford University Press: 1954). forms.* James W. Prescott, "Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists vol. 31, no. 9 (November-1975), pp 10-20. solutions.* Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science 162 (December 13, 1968) 1242-1248. forms.* The origins of this may be traced back to Plato's valuing of the world of ideal forms. fear.* Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 199l). See also Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (New Haven, CO.: Yale University Press, 1952). technologies.* Theodore Roszak, Making of a Counter Culture (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1969). collusions.* See above under double-bind. death.* Consider the image of "the valley of the shadow of death" in Psalm 23. it.* Tillich, Systematic Theology. Consult the index under "mystery. love.* In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13. therein.* Hall, Beyond Culture. It is only in the world of our allegory that people are so clearly separated from each other. In the geographic world we are all intermingled and often do not recognize which allegorical plateau we and others are living on, or who are the valley people. role.* Joseph Fletcher, Situation Ethics: The New Morality (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1966).-- See also Harvey Cox., The Situation Ethics Debate (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1968 excommunicants.* In the Bible, Isaiah 53. Plateau.* E.C. Zeeman, "Catastrophe Theory," Scientific American vol. 234, no. 30 (April 1976), pp. 65- 83. See also cover story by John H. Douglas, "The Two Cultures, Twenty Years Later," Science News 111 (February 19, 1977): 122-124. (One of the authors first developed the image of the two plateaus and valley in a short essay written April 6, 1976 and distributeded informally in an expanded version in late 1976.) mode.* Martin Buber, I and Thou (New York: Scribner, 1958). justice.* Tillich, Love, Power and Justice analysis.* Joseph C. Pearce, Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Challenging Constructs of Mind and Reality (New York: Pocket Books, 1973) and Exploring the the Crack in the Cosmic Egg: Split Minds and Meta-Realities (New York: Pocket Books, 1975). Some interesting analyses of human transactions may be found in the following trilogy of books: Eric Berne, Games People Play (New York: Grove Press, 1964), What Do You Say After You've Said Hello? (New York: Grove Press, 1972), and Thomas Harris' I'm OK---You're OK (New York: Harper & Row 1969). categories.* The interplay of nature and nurture may be relevant to the dichotomy. Our nurture through the passages of our lives may at each passage be congruent with or non-congruent with our hereditary nature. Incongruities between our heredity nature and our environmental nurture may obscure just which plateau is "home". evil.* Early Hebrew myth recorded in the Bible in Genesis, Chapter 3. Note that it was the knowledge of good and evil which occasioned alienation and was forbidden in anticipation of that alienation. Often the myth is interpreted in a contradictory manner--- as calling for unquestioned obedience of some authority that forbids certain behavior as being evil, and approves other behavior as being good; i.e., providing the knowledge of good and evil. techniques.* Excommunication is self-imposed and the natural consequence of the adoption of the exclusive implications of the knowledge of good and evil. Excommunication is not imposed as a punishment by a superior power. values.* Paul Tillich, Shaking of the Foundations (New York Scribner 1948). See also George S. Hammond, "The Value System in the Scientific Subculture, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 701. 32, no. 10 (December 1976) pp 36-40. love.* Paul Tillich, The New Being (New York: Scribner 1955). See also John W. Gardner, Self- Renewal; The Individual and the Innovative Society (New York: Harper & Row, 1963). women.* "Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people; but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and went away." Matthew 19: 13-15 (RSV). value.* Gail Sheehy, Passages (New York Dutton, 1976). love.* J. Bristol, W. Brown, Jr., and D. Jones, Jr., "Love Me for a Reason," as sung by the Osmonds on a 1974 MGM Records, Inc. release. ========================================================== ========================================================== The Context of Writing the Above Paper The above paper was written over a period of many weeks with much encouragement and assistance from an autonomous student colleague upon the encouragement of Dr. Bernard Feld, one of the "Atomic Scientists" who visited Coe College to give an invited lecture about the threats of Nuclear War. At a meal shared with Dr. Feld by another physicist faculty member, the student colleague and the author --- an initial version of the above essay was shared with Dr. Feld. As the Editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists he encouraged the writing of a more extended version of the short-essay. You may see at a7604061.htm
the initial brief Version of the FIVE CULTURES essay. Other related essays are at a7607261.htm and a7702172.htm. There was an explicit suggestion that an extended version of the initial essay might be published in the Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists. However, the above version was returned to the authors with a brief note that it did not seem appropriate. Dr. Feld had published a much more controversial article in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (against other's advice) about the correlation between the repression of human sexuality and the level of violence in human cultures. The later rejection was puzzling! See the article: "Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence" by James W. Prescott in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 31, no. 9 (November-1975), pp 10- 20. You may find a reference to it in the Bibliography Prescott reported a significant correlation between high levels of cultural violence and the repression of body pleasures. After the above extended essay was rejected by Dr. Feld, the authors consulted a perceptive Paraprofessional Assistant within the Coe College Physics Department. After having read the above essay and the note from Dr. Feld; and having reflected upon them for some days, her comment to the authors was: "You did not leave him any place to hide." That was probably a tacit reference to the book "No Place to Hide" by Hershy, regarding the victims of the American Atomic Bomb which Dr. Feld had played very significant roles in creating, and which was exploded over Heroshima in an attempt to end the War between Japan and the USA by killing a major fraction of all the civilians in that large city, contrary to the the conception of the nature of "Just-Wars" in traditional Christian Ethics. On a separate occasion in a private conversaion Dr. Feld confessed that they, the Atomic Scientists, had not talked about the human suffering which the actual use of an atomic bomb would cause; they talked about how an atomic bomb would level buildings. In retrospect they were agast at the suffering which they had helped to make be within the reach of military and political leaders. On yet another occasion Dr. Feld, when at Coe, asked for the use of a phone in a private setting. An unused faculty office near by was opened and the phone made available. He explained that he was going to call in an editorial to accompany his instructions to staff to set "The Atomic Clock" on the cover of the forthcoming issues of "The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists" closer toward "Mindnight" --- to signify how close to Nuclear War the world had come, because of the recent failure of the "Salt Talks" on nuclear disarmament. For more information on "The Atomic Clock" examine the top of the web page of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================
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