We have devalued our belonging to people and place as our allegiance to paternal sources has grown. These allegiances include political parties, corporations and interest groups. We trust in these paternal sources, particularly as represented by corporate media and think tanks, while skeptical of human nature. This reverses where the “innocent until proven guilty” focus should lie. Restoring cultural balance requires us to become paternal skeptics.
Becoming a paternal skeptic means the burden of proof lies with scholars and not our own experiences for forming our beliefs. If a political party or news talk host is scaring you about security when all your local experience indicates you are secure, you should not let the fear they peddle rule you. If a corporation or think tank champions greed as natural and good, when all your local experience indicates integrity and relationships are more important, you should not let the vanity they peddle rule you. If an interest group or religion champions dogma placing the ends above the desirable means your experience confirms as important, you should not let the cynicism they peddle rule you.
In each case an extraordinary burden of proof should be placed on the gatekeepers, the “best and the brightest,” the scholars, the large, anonymous paternal organizations that profess to know what is best for humanity. For humanity is amazingly diverse, and a one-size-fits-all paternal messenger should be met with immediate and staunch skepticism.
Ah, but this implies humanity should be assumed “innocent until proven guilty” by some paternal source, and is there not plenty of evidence to condemn us? Actually, there is very little evidence for what humanity is like apart from paternal systems in western culture. Since the Enlightenment we have operated under the assumption that humans are naturally bad, and even democracies should be structured within the paternal umbrella of nation states. So to become paternal skeptics, to place the burden of proof on gatekeepers and scholars rather than on grassroots humanity requires a new view of our inherent natures, which will be the topic for the last entry in this series.
Tags: Corporate Media, Decentralized Harmony, Middle Class Culture
