Anthropologists have long known that the only thing undeveloped in “primitive” peoples is their technology. Their human interactions are as sophisticated as those of “civilized” societies. They make the same value distinctions that have been important to human communities of…
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The route of Corridor H has been decided, and progress is on its way to the Potomac Highlands and central West Virginia. We are cutting a new swath into the 21st century. Or I should say “they” are cutting a…
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Nations large and small say high-sounding words about themselves, and then find reasons for not putting the words into practice. Our former enemy, the Soviet Union, spoke of liberty and justice for all, just as we do. Even in South…
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In spite of a couple hard storms, we had many warm days during the winter. In February, for three successive Sundays, I drove to Seneca Rocks to enjoy some unseasonably good weather. The first time, when I arrived at the…
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One of the most exciting classes I took in college was Psych 101, in which I was introduced to the ideas of B.F. Skinner. In a nutshell, Skinner believed that individuals do not create their own lives through free choices, but are created by their culture and its system of punishments and rewards.
For the first time in my life, I saw the obvious truth that had I been reared by different parents or in a different culture, I would have become a different person. Even something I thought of as precious as my religion was more or less trained into me. I wasn’t as free as I imagined.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Abraham Maslow were important thinkers in the tradition of radical individualism upon which our country was founded. They both understood that it isn’t a conditioned, rote (i.e. brainwashed) good citizenship but rather individual peak experiences that bring people most fully into the brotherhood and sisterhood of human life.
These peak experiences can come from either end of the emotional spectrum, from sorrow or joy, from a great loss or a great gain, whatever awakens us out of the mesmerism of daily life and reconnects us with the strangeness and vulnerability of our existence.
Maslow, who coined the expression, had his first “peak experience” when he held his firstborn child. Ironically, although I hadn’t heard of Maslow at the time, so did I—21 years ago this winter, when my son was born.