Human Consciousness and the Theory of Everything: A Study of Education and Society

All writers take for granted a certain amount of shared assumptions with their intended audience and a set of more basic ideas with other contemporary or future readers. This is an extension of the principle that different individual members of the human species have mental concepts that, through language or another form of communication (including active and passive), they come to regard as part of a collective consciousness. These ideas include what is regarded as true and normal by the larger society or by a subculture such as a religious group.

These assumptions about society, however, are completely individual. Each person believes or understands reality differently and has their own fluid ideas about how things are happening. The idea of a collective consciousness has power, substance even, because of the individuals belief in it.

The educational system is a microcosm, a reflection1 of the larger society that it is part of. White male supremacy is, and always has been, the dominant power structure of American society and non-

Robert Ainslie

White students2 have statistically achieved lower by the standards of the educational system3. The Supreme Court decision to integrate schools, it seemed, could eventually diminish the achievement gap that exists between students of minority races; that schools would be the vehicles of integration in a country of so many diverse cultures. Presently, most inner-city and rural communities still have poor schools and poor people. To some it seems that our education system is failing to deliver on its promise of being the great equalizer. However, others say that individual schools are failing, or perhaps blame the students themselves.

To create a comprehensive solution, on a national, regional or local scale, we must understand where these above ideas come from and what they mean. By the first component, where ideas come from, we mean how a person comes to have one set of ideas instead of any other combination. For our purposes, the second question asks how the epistemologies of each individual collectively constitute the lived reality inside the school system. The metaphor of a mirror can be used to describe this process, since consciousness can be said to construct reality and reality can be said to determine consciousness. In this mirror, there is no certain proof which is the reflection of the other, but we know that mentality and reality reflect each other. Since our goal is
2 3

As a category Grades, test scores, drop out rates etc.

to change the current reality (of the education system), we must change the way we think (about education). Each individual involved4 in the school system having their own distinct epistemology, as valid to them as the next persons, may at times seem erroneous; consensus seems a long way off. However, any change in one individuals realitymentality-matrix, is also a change in everything around them, and so both people and society must be taken into consideration. Therefore, we must strive to move towards clarity in expression, observation, and critical analysis. Since, we can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselvesevery human group is a society of island universessufficiently like one another to permit by the use of symbols [an] inferential understanding. (Huxley, 12-13) 5

We6 begin with language; a discourse has been taking place over the course of many millennia. How did we begin? What is real, what is imagined; what true or false, right or wrong? These most basic questions of human existence are answered individually by each person, and yet many people agree that they believe the same thing(s). There is another element to the discourse, and that is the examination of such beliefs. What is the connection between behavior Involved could potentially include all persons ever and not yet born and everything else that makes up the natural process of the universe. 5 Aldous Huxley - Doors of Perception, pg. 12-13 6 Henceforth, we refers to the author and the different people who would agree with any individual component of this thesis.
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and belief (psychology)? How does a society function (sociology)? What is culture and how does it develop (cultural anthropology)? How are women disenfranchised by patriarchy and what political means can be taken to empower the female in society (feminist philosophy)? How is racial oppression constructed, and how can it be deconstructed (critical race theory).

For reasons that you may already understand, or may come to understand in the future of this discourse, all of these theories apply to education and the problem we are addressing. We are mainly interested in the theory of everything, because every thought in the human consciousness is a reflection of someones reality. For instance, Jonathon Kozol mainly talks about distribution of funds as the reason for the disreputable and dangerous state of many schools across the country.7 As critical race theorists will point out, the distribution of funds in American society is also racially (and in addition socially that is by location) biased.

I believe it to be intrinsically true; however, that race or location could never be the sole cause of the condition of any community or any of the schools inside it. That is to say that any number of people observing the situation could identify causes of any perceived event or

In his book Shame of the Nation, for instance

object. Each would be different, if not even (except slightly) in their language then probably in consciousness.

Metaphor, we then find, is a useful concept for understanding the art of change, since reality is change meaning moment after moment everything in existence transforms in some way, on some level. Because we use these metaphors to understand reality, for instance, asserting the greatness of something8, we sometimes forget the infinitude of occurrences at any one time. We focus only on the certain things that we are concerned with, and often forget that our understanding of what is important changes over time. A person changes over time, physically; after several years, they will have an entirely new body (on a cellular level). Their knowledge, beliefs, living conditions, relationships, attitudes, all will have changed. At what increments and how much is so relative that it is different in every reality-mentality-matrix9. It is even possible to claim that a person had not changed at all, but it is also always possible that anyone else could claim they had.

We are forever present in a moment. The material and intellectual present is the exact way it is because of anything that has happened in Which, of course, is only anything valued as great in our reality-mentality-matrix at the time any such assertion is made. 9 Meaning that it is both individually differentiated between people and perceived uniquely by observers.
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the past. That is to say that we individually could believe (and sometimes explain or conceptualize) that anything in the past has caused it to be how it is. Therefore, I use cause as a metaphor. Say we are looking at ourselves on the page of the present, and we chose any one thing happening on that page. If we are to draw a line from that thing happening to the thing that caused it in the past, then the length of the line will differ according to our perception of the scale of the event. For instance, a line from a student falling over to another person who had pushed them would be shorter than a line from a city destroyed by an atomic bomb to the plane that had dropped it. However, for both of these lines the connections would have to go off of the page (since the past cannot be on the page of the present) which means that that these lines of cause can only continue in our imagination.

For our purposes this means that the cause of the current condition of the school system is simply history. That is to say, simply everything that has been has collectively caused the constitution of what exists. It also means that our experience and understanding of this existence can change as our ideas about it change. We will explain, through practical examples that would take place within the system, this conclusion and a little bit of we have arrived here.

This paper attempts to uncover differing accounts of the way our educational system functions in society. Furthermore it is my goal to create a structured critical analysis of the relationships between the theoretical and experiential epistemologies and realities of individuals, and the cultural and sociological conceptions of groups of people. By examining a body of work that draws on diverse perspectives this type of research presents the opportunity to explore the relationship between the way that an individual conceives of and interacts with the world. Beliefs are expressed in language and symbol, which

correspond to an individuals understanding of reality. Language can seek to describe fiction - a metaphorical truth, that is, an illustrative story that reflects the human condition and the experience of the individual. Furthermore language can be seen as an expression of conceptual ideals in an essentialized form of conceived reality.

I have established for myself, and the reader what I call an open framework. This means that my research consists of my life experience, including critical observation, active community involvement, political participation and spiritual mediation as well as academic reading. From the starting point that each human experience is subjective I chose to use the language of many equally unique lenses to establish a broader context of what reality can be to different people. This is all based on what I find to be true and logical

in the statements of authors relative to my understanding of reality. Through the juxtaposition of complementary and sometimes contrasting ideas an open framework is created that allows the reader to enter in a conversation between their subjective reality, the reflections of the respective realities of authors that I reference and my own conceptual standpoint.

My intention is to present not an overarching solution (in and of itself) or consensus but simply to work towards clarity in constructing our own structural understandings of what is happening in our society by the creative pairing of analytical lenses to engender originality. This approach makes use of perspectives that are relatively different in order to eschew information that we can use to confirm, explain, and consider our own experience and observation and the arguments being made. Regarding many outlooks as worth examining as a reflection of perceived reality also allows more flexibility (the argument for the desirability of flexibility will be delivered henceforth) in understanding what education in our society can be or could become. In other words, if we match up ideas that work well together (that doesnt mean they have to be the same) we will be better able to work towards solutions that make sense for our society as individual agents of change working together.

The ability to be flexible, to not have to settle on a rigid set of rules in a society that is always changing, is invaluable. In a global world where every situation is implicitly multicultural (every situation with multiple people(s) is multicultural, to the extent that the different individuals bring their own understanding of culture, but to the extent that people believe they share a common culture this will be true as long as they believe it is) this flexibility allows us to approach clarity in understanding and communicating about why we think things are as they are and how we can improve them. Different viewpoints may not seem to fit perfectly at first but given this and granted that they can still produce a benefit to all once this confluence occurs. This is a basic rule of math (and specifically economics) called comparative advantage.

Now this is not to say that every pairing of unconventional ideas will result in improvement. We can never be sure of the long term outcome of things put-in-motion now, however I believe that we have a better chance of achieving personal freedom and community improvement by using ideas that can get support because people are conceptually invested in them and they come from the ground up, in a manner of speaking.

Can solutions come from the academy? No, the academy is an active research body, it participates in and discusses (and discourses on) the affairs of the society at large. A solution is only a real solution if it actually works. That means a solution that is working (in actuality) not simply one that is proven to work (in the academy). Any solution or system that works in one situation may work again in another situation in a similar context. However, the admission of any variant factor could result in failure of a repeat.

Repeat is being used metaphorically here, since technically speaking a repeat is an impossibility. What we mean by repeat is simply what any one individual (or more) conceives of as a repeat using their own qualifiers, even though another person may be aware of any number of factors in the situation that differentiate it from previous occasions. Again factor is being used metaphorically as well because we see all things as having a potential relationship, as well as real relationships (in my opinion potential relationships having more substantial reality to them than real relationships - which are only based on what people think), the latter being the dynamic interaction perceived by an individual. A potential relationship is inherent in being part of the process of things-that-are-happening. So the factors that one person ascribes to a resulting failure or success of an applied theory are the real relationships they observe. What we mean by a repeat is we

are focusing on certain specific set of stimuli to be the same (meaning having a relatively close degree of sameness that we can conceive of as same despite degrees of difference that could be observed); changes that are not seen as part of the process are taken for granted.

A theory is simply a prediction of what could be possible based on an individuals understanding of how things happen and have happened. Our historiography and deductive reasoning are imperfect. We dont have the ability, therefore, to predict with definitive accuracy if a solution will succeed in a perpetually, and rapidly increasingly, changing context. A solution can only be proven if working (or rather proven in working), facilitated by the interactions of individual people through an actualization of ideas.

We present here different models of causal relationships discussed by individuals with different identities and cultural perspectives. The differences in understanding are not attributed to any specific qualifying factor, but the potential relationship is taken into consideration and these factors are an implied part of the conversation (due to individual interpretation). Since this paper makes use directly of the written word as a reflection of the personal

perception of a shared lived reality, I will begin by speaking in generalities about language using examples from my research.

First of all let us begin to speak of cause as it applies to the aforementioned disciplines. According to the general theory, each analysis is subjective and important to understand because it is a reality in some peoples r-m-m10.

For instance, the author of Social Foundations of Education11 commented of a student that He recognizes that a person from any class may be responsible for the acceptable or non-acceptable deed. Upper-middle-class children were the first to show evidence of this particular stage of development, perhaps because of their higher intelligence and perhaps because of the security their class position affords them.12

This analysis displays that the author is, according to the definition put forth in Moral Politics (Lakoff, 65)13, a conservative (who believes in absolute morals). Furthermore, the author of Social Foundations was using his own interpretation of a particular methodology he had From henceforth I abbreviate reality mentality matrix as r-m-m 11 citation missing 12 Citation missing 245 13 Lakoff, George. Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberal Dont. (1996) 65
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learned to analyze and deconstruct the behavior of students. The American context also implies that the mentality expressed in these observations is a reflection of the dominant power structure, and we will explore why by discussing the relation of these observations with those of research that focuses on race and gender and respectively identifies related causes.

Many contemporary researchers choose to see the institutions of race, gender and class to be interdependent, correspondent or otherwise related. The specific relationship is a metaphor, a construction of consciousness, unique in each individual. The statement perhaps because of the security their class position affords them is a simple mirror image of the perceived status quo. When discussing neutrality we will examine the way in which stereotypes and expectations are normalized through belief.

The author also speaks of his assessment of the social groups higher intelligence. The main character in Rodrigos Seventh Chronicle 14 says that its part of the idea of perfectionismone mode of thought15 being always and forever better than another Enlightenment thought and politics imply exclusion.(Delgado, 142)16 The idea of Delgado, Richard. Rodrigos Seventh Chronicle: Race, Democracy and the State from The Rodrigo Chronicles (1995) 142 15 one culture or mode of thought he says. Ibid 142 16 Ibid 142
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absolute quantifiable intellectual capacity is analogous to the absolute moralism expressed in Social Foundations. This does not mean that one is necessarily a requisite for or an implication of the other; rather, for our purposes, that the authors moral values and educational theory are both reflections of the dominant power structure expressed in his own r-m-m.

The author of Social Foundations continues, In the first and fourth grades, boys show closer agreement with adults in their rating of pictures [on a basis of class] than do girls.17 The focus of the author here seems to be the development of class consciousness between genders. This focus reveals primarily that class stereotypes are important to the authors understanding of society. Since class is only one subjective lens for analysis, and also a social construction like race and gender, it is not static. This theory focuses on the existing structure and capability to comfortably identify an individuals current position in it. However, both context and circumstance are constantly changing; this analysis implies that the currently perceived power structure will stay in place. The authors political belief is reflected by the focus of his observation.

17

Social Foundations of Education - citation missing 245

The observations of feminist authors reflect their individual politics which inherently assume that sexist oppression is the product of the perceived power structure; furthermore, that feminism, like critical race theory, is a politics of action towards liberation. This liberation ideology implies a necessity in change of perceived and lived reality that would alter the existing power structure. These authors also have their own educational theories, as related to this political attitude as the observer decides they are, since both are components of an ever changing r-m-m. The lens of feminism is both a product and a content of a [focused]18 consciousness. (Bartky, 23) The division of people into two distinct and inelastic gender groups, boys show closer agreementthan girls19, in order to ascribe differentiated qualities is at once natural and inherently sexist.

In the arena of academic writing as in the outside world our language often signifies a division of antithetical dualistic categories. Dichotomy is the longest standing human tradition. Weve always had two brains, two hands, two feet, two genders - its easy to see how a division into opposing pairs became a useful standard way of thinking. Often, this The author uses the word raised, I substitute focus because I think the author means to say that this altered way of apprehending one self is a product of the shift in the selection and interpretation of stimulus (which is parallel to a shift in r-m-m of the feminist philosopher). Bartky, Sandra Lee. Toward a Phenomenology of Feminist Consciousness from Feminism and Philosophy (1977) 23 19 Social Foundations citation missing
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duality is restrictive and too limited to deal with the deep-rooted yet essential problems that result in much confusion over the complex historical connections of an issue such as racism. For instance, the Black-White Paradigm suggests that you have to be either more Black than White or more White than Black in your experience, when in truth everyone has their own subjective and unique racialization through society. Education can be a tool for liberation or a tool for oppression; for Black Americans, it has usually been a tool for oppression. (Gallucci, Anthony 1)20 Anthony Gallucci uses this quote from The Effects of Educational Tracking on the Social Mobility for African Americans in the paper Edukation, which discusses the static nature of racial inequity referring to the practice of denying African Americans the access to quality education and educational tracks that lead to upward social movement within the existing structure. Not to imply that African Americans simply want access to an educational tracking structure that continues to misplace people into social classes based on a superficial and ethnocentric categorization of race, gender and sexual orientation. Only that access to the higher tracks could nurture students of all complexions into possibly becoming active, aware, critical and transformative people. The duality in this statement is that access to the higher tracks is, in the context, related to becoming active, aware, critical and transformative Gallucci, Anthony. Edukation: The Social Tracking of African Americans Via Education Ithaca College: Education and Society. (2008) 1
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people, (Gallucci, 2)21 and that these traits are not as intrinsic to individual growth as they are a product of an environment.

Duality is still useful to understand, however, as another metaphorical truth. By this, I mean it is important to understand because it is so much a part of the human way of thinking that it has a powerful resonance in reality. Sex is the most profound traditional dichotomy. As a cultural construct, it is another either-or paradigm that characterizes an individuals experience as at once of themselves and part of a group. At the same time some people believe in cultural standards of what a member of one sex should be - an ideal. Sexism as a dominant global force is the power hierarchy of the male in-group excluding and exploiting woman. It is intentional and as a conservative force it is also a reflection of learned bias. Saturation of images and ideas about what being female or male means, which represent historical power structures, shape ideas about reality that line up with how we perceive these institutions in our own personal experience.

An immediate and deeply resonant example is the presence of a sexist mind frame in language. The orthodox phrasing of gendered pairs, with the male first, is a cultural statement. Its meaning is contextual

21

Ibid 2

and subjective but it is always an example of male primacy, a signifier of its dominance. Whether or not one takes it to literally mean that women are lesser than men, it is a confirmation of the sexist attitude that pervades the collective consciousness and maintains a residual image of the power structure, (which is the justification for its own existence).

The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing asks if it is possible to emancipate our mentality by ridding our language from unconscious semantic bias" and "traditional male oriented language"? What standard English usage says about males, for example, is that they are the species. What it says about females is that they are a subspecies. The standard language reflects the mindset that keep the sexist hierarchy in place as the status quo. What makes this language standard in the context is its widespread perceived authority and natural process of duplication due to saturation. It is also standard because it is recognized as such by the reader, whether or not the author conceived of it as such. At a deep level, perceived linguistic changes, i.e. - what is noticeable, perhaps peculiar, to the individual, signal widespread changes...closer to the surface they are exasperating. (Miller, ?)22 This exasperation echoes the confusion experienced by some people as their reality changes and they cant or Miller, Casey and Kate Swift. Handbook for Nonsexist Writing page numbers unavailable
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wont reconcile previous expectations with their current awareness level. I myself have experienced a sense of exhaustion around the whole project of identity (Millner, 541)23 it being so open to interpretation and me being easily overwhelmed with the permutation of options for explanation. Deliberation, no matter how trivial, exacts a cost in psychic energy, of which we have only a finite amount (Wright, 76)24, (being the amount we believe we possess). Yet, it is only once we know who we are...that we will be able to tell what we should do (Millner, 543)25 so well, then, who we?, is the determinant question ... of every conceivable discussion of ... the ability of ... marginalized groups to muster the political power to reject the homogenizing identity imposed by the invocation of we Americans. (Walters, 350)26 By extension it is the question of who we would like to be together and how our positions in society fit into the patterns of history.

But besides being exhausting, depending only on categorical identities stifles creative thinking that can supersede the oppressive system which concepts of race, class and gender are bound into. Even if you thought by understanding identity as performative, contingent, Millner, Michael. Post-Post Identity. American Quarterly 57.2 (2005) 541 24 Wright, Karen. Dare To Be Yourself. Psychology Today 41.3 (2008) 76 25 Millner, Michael. Post-Post Identity. 543 26 Walters, Tim. The Question of Culture (and Anarchy). MLN 112.3 (1997) 350
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and cultural rather than physical, biological and genetic, you were avoiding the problems of essentialism (its ahistoricsm, inalterability, and legacy of racism [and other forms of oppression])27 the subject position is central28 and the question of who we are (the essentializing question) is still always prior to the question of what we perform(Millner, 542, 547, 543)29. Assumptions and subconscious biases we have make up the system of thinking and active participation that preserves the distribution of power through similar trends. Racism, for instance, is built into the American way of thinking and acting and as long as we are operating within that traditional framework, which is an extension of enlightenment philosophy, our value system is inherently geared toward Western, and White culture (which encompasses male hierarchy and hetereonormativity).

Through the emergence of mutable self

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individuals are able to

transcend traditional limits and develop seemingly unexpected and unpredicted approaches to old problems (current problems that metaphorically stem from historical roots of a deep reaching ideology).

Millner, Michael. Post-Post Identity. 542 Ibid 547 29 Ibid 543 30 Orrange, Robert M. The Emerging Mutable Self: Gender Dynamics and Creative Adaptations in Defining Work, Family and the Future. Social Forces 82.1 (2003)
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If history is the chain of events-the causal, determinist replication of a world in which everything is predictable (or would be, if you had enough information) and the magic of total freedom is impossible-and our revolutionary myths refer to that other, supernatural world, the one that our dreams and desires describe (a world that manifests itself only through transcendent music and similar miracles: phenomena that evoke beauty and meaning without being rationally explicable)-then what we are really looking for are loopholes out of history and into that other world. Such loopholes appear every once in a while; the greatest of our myths, of course, is that we can somehow pass their event horizon to escape forever from history into the ahistorical space of freedom, (Nadia, 171)31

says Nadia in days of War Nights of Love, a book about alternative counter-conservative thinking and ad-busting the supremist...

The primary campaign...is here upon us in action, thought and premise.32 Everything we do is a part of the series of human interactions, including the receptive aspects of thinking, learning and absorbing engrained cultural patterns of imposed social relationships, which lead to corresponding action. Every conscious decision and Nadia. Days of War Nights of Love. (2001) 171 Buck-65 (Canadian Bluegrass-Folk-Hop Artist) Precipitation
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natural reaction becomes our campaign for the world which we are collectively (humanity as a component of a whole natural system operating in unison) creating. A movement is an historical force: an attempt to act within the chain of events to shift its direction. Such efforts have succeeded in the past, but such success is not what we want. What we want is something that, by its very nature, has never happened before: to break the chain of events that binds us, to bring history to an end, so that an entirely new world can begin. For this to be possible, well need perfect convergence of ahistorical forces. (Nadia, 172)33

However, without understanding history first, this is all just anarchomystical academic nonsense,34 and visions of collective, cultural politics like those offered...are in the end more spiritual than political, more intuitive than deliberative, more mystical than logical. (Millner, 550)35 After all, if we are repeating cycles of oppression through unconscious bias that is a natural part of our behaving in and viewing society, trying to disregard the rules before deconstructing them creates a fantasy of real freedom. Escapism may indeed make us unknowing agents of the structure that exists to maintain the ideology and practice that Whiteness is the dominant and intellectually
33 34 35

Nadia. Days of War Nights of Love. (2001) 172 Ibid Millner, Michael. Post-Post Identity. 550

superior racial complexion of America, which has supported the practice of racism or the maintenance of racist ideas since the countrys inception. (Gallucci, 3)36 A critical race theory analysis of Whiteness as Property explains how subordination of Blacks and Native Americans37 through a racialized conception of property implemented by force and ratified by law provided the ideological basis for slavery and conquest. (Harris, 1715)38 The American power structure, then, is founded in violent subjugation and extermination. The history of America is racism: a polymorphous agent of death39 corresponding to the corporate legal institution codifying the extreme deprivations of liberty already existing in social practice40

Racism is the system of thought and action that says that people with power get more opportunities and more desirable outcomes, and White people have more power than anyone else. A long healthy life and access to beneficial social institutions such as good educational programs are among these desirable outcomes. The idea of Whiteness as Property is that racism is the legally realized tradition of making these things a part of being White. The right to white Gallucci, Anthony. Edukation: The Social Tracking of African Americans Via Education Ithaca College: Education and Society. (2008) 3 37 Harris, C. Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review 106.8 (1993) 1715 38 Ibid 1715 39 Harris, Leonard. Racism: Key Concepts in Critical Theory. (1999) 437 40 Harris, C. Whiteness as Property. 1718
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identity as embraced by the law - is property if by property one means all of a persons legal rights. (Harris, 1726) property is nothing but the basis of expectation...in tangible and intangible things that are valued and protected by the law. (Harris, 1729) To escape the BlackWhite Paradigm it is also useful to understand the historical context of how Whiteness has been defined (and how its mainstream definition changes in a world of the emerging mutable self and post-post identity) to reconcile multicultural, class and gender politics. Beyond slavery and Black subordination, we can start to put together a framework of understanding how all types of oppression are manifestations of the same underlying social roots. Racism and sexism are both forms of economic exploitation which offer material and psychological rewards to [one group] that has the power and the will to dominate or eliminate another ... group that it defines as inherently different from itself in ways justifying the treatment it receives.41 They embody the principal of exploitation in classism, the excluded masses suffering more negative consequences and receiving less benefit from their own work than the privileged in-group. In short all forms of oppression can be seen as a denial of property rights in the context of an affluent society.

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Citation (148? 21st Century?)

The institution of property is inherently exclusive, because it means I have, you do not. So even an argument against racism or sexism based on the denial of property-rights (including the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness42), is an argument supporting their underlying conceptual basis. In this sense the argument that AfricanAmericans should have equal access to and presence in higher tracks of education supports the existing education system in abstract. This is the same American education system which is shaped by a standardized conservative value system of scientifically proven and culturally accepted concepts of best, right and intelligence. These are aspects of the society reflected in the educational world where students learn their identities and ranked status and learn to participate in the work and consumption market of global domination.

In Edukation, Anthony argues that tracking continues to misplace people into social classes based on superficial and ethnocentric categorization of race, gender and sexual orientation (Gallucci, 2)43. I would say not that people are wrongly put into classes which keep them from being free, transformative people but that the very idea of a system of social classes imposes on that freedom. Realistic approaches are a sign of our faith in the overarching system in place. Declaration of Independence Gallucci, Anthony. Edukation: The Social Tracking of African Americans Via Education Ithaca College: Education and Society. (2008) 2
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This faith is a manifestation of the presence of the conservative myth of normality.

So the essential struggle towards clarity is between understanding who we are because of the system, and what that means about what we can do to change the system. Who we are because of the system, includes our beliefs about its own nature. Jane E. Humble says The System is a vast, organic entity that includes everything within its boundaries, even the recluses who flee from it and the terrorists who die fighting it. To fight it is always to fight it from within, for it creates and molds us, even when it directs us against itself. To claim to be outside it for even an instant, living as we do in a world that is made up almost entirely of human constructs (whether physical, social or philosophical) is worse than madness - it is misplaced fanaticism. (Humble, 128)44 I find this statement to be biased by the idea that systems of oppression and violence are the largest superstructure. In fact, the system of racism, for example is only part of the process of human existence, yet it manifests a myth of dominance that has actual ramifications.

In the reality that many Americans live in, property rights, identity, and systems of oppression are interconnectedly very important to a

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Jane E. Humble. Days of War Nights of Love. 128

persons ability to translate desires and expectations into actualities. Yet, when uncontaminated by outsiders, primitive hunters seemed to enjoy good health and long lives, while they had the good sense to maintain their wants at levels that could be fully and continuously satisfied without jeopardizing their environment. One researcher even suggests that this was, after all, the original affluent society. (Bodley, 22)45

We live in a market-driven society whose members are dependant on it. Our very desires are a part of this system. The restriction of freedoms exists not only because people are denied access to material and non-material tools and technologies but because their will to act and sense of satisfaction in acting are contingent upon their membership in society. If we look at the development of civilization, it is clear that the majority of people have less autonomy as larger social structures have brought rapid social change and greatly increased wealth for some persons while denying it to others. At the same time, it weakened traditional mechanisms of social control and led to frustrations due to inequities in wealth distribution. (Bodley, 173)46 "Competitive human relationships depend on and perpetuate a feeling of impoverishment in the individual, a scarcity economics of the soul: for in the status quo she is unable to do what she wants, and at the John H. Bodley. Cultural Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems. (197?) 22 46 Ibid 173
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same time she must feel this helplessness and poverty of life to be willing to play instead the loser's game of power. To assuage this feeling impoverishment, the individual seeks-more than mere physical possessions, which are just a means to this end- identity, the consolation for lack of freedom (if "I can't," a least "I am..."). Identity as a concept, works in terms of contrast: one "is" a fill-in-the-blank, as opposed to the "others", who are not . . . thus, to the desperate lost soul of modern society, nothing is more precious than opponents, people to despise, so he can reassure himself of his own worth: as faithful patron of brand X ideology, for example. The young "activist, though heretofore unaware of it, has quite a stake in maintaining the alienation of others, and it should not be surprising when he acts superior, threatening, et. in order to maintain the distance between himself and the 'normal' people." (Nera, 134)47

There is no conclusion, a politics of immediacy and authenticity means that a struggle continues and no permanent practical solutions can be found. This is a process of constant negotiation. We will continue to strive for clarity in understanding our own conscious reflection of reality.

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Nera, Stella. Days of War Nights of Love. 134

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