Information and comments on the essay:
When you say “WE,” just who do you mean?
From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee
Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks
Read or download this essay as a PDF file at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKQUdLaXZwZVF5aDg/edit?usp=sharing#fundamentalism #authoritarianism #human #development #integral
 |
| Chum For Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters |
When you say “WE,” just who do you mean?
Family is always, obviously, “WE.” But stopping there just
puts too many limits on the culture that we can achieve. If WE is only family,
you need a strict father or tribal chief to enforce order and to lead YOUR
cousins on plundering raids against OTHER families or tribes.
If your WE is too small, you have to always arm yourselves
and be vigilant to protect your life and property against the next small group
that defines “US” as just “OUR family” or “OUR tribe.”
Without broader
cooperation, life just becomes too hard and too dangerous and it often becomes
necessary to attack other families or tribes to survive. Our philosophy
becomes, “If we do not stand for ourselves, first, foremost, and always, we
stand to fall.” If WE is too small, it is moral to take what YOU can from THEM
because OUR needs are more important to US because survival is always the
highest value.
