The mind does not like tension. If you have two opposing thoughts in your mind and you must act then you must convince yourself that one of those thoughts is correct. Even if both of them factually make sense, you have to figure out what you’re going to do. Once you figure out what you're going to do to you align your thoughts to match your action because it causes tension to hold the other thoughts.
If you smoke cigarettes, every individual knows that smoking cigarettes is not a positive factor to your overall health, but they also believe that smoking that cigarette gives them some sort of reward, some sort of pleasure. If your action is to smoke a cigarette, then your thoughts must align with these actions or there will be a strong sense of tension in your mind. In order to feel comfortable, something has to be to done to these opposing thoughts. They can either be ignored, accepted, outweighed, or...
Moving on is coming to terms with these thoughts. Letting something go, a habit, a loss, missed opportunity means letting the thoughts about that action go. The action is over. The moment is complete. Every moment in life is extremely short lived, in terms of time infinitesimally small, but that's the only moment you are in. However, our thoughts keep the past a part of us. We store these ideas in our mind, these beliefs. As you grow, you strongly hold onto some of these beliefs and inevitably have to let go of some of these beliefs. Many things you feel or are experiencing may go against beliefs you had while growing up, and your values can change over time.
Our behavior, just like all the other animals in the world, is a result of the interaction of genes and environment. Personally, I believe genes affect our physical structure and development capabilities. Nutrition which is definitely associated with development could be greatly affected by the environment. Expected height could probably be determined by examining genes alone. However, if the individual is put in an environment where he cannot access food, it's hard to believe he'll have the minimum nutrition requirements to sustain maximum development. For humans, it's clear that our traits and behaviors can be attributed to the interaction of genes and environment.
As most animals do, we try to adapt and make the most of our environment.
However, no other animal on this planet has such a complex lifestyle, as humans do. We believe this is due to our superior intelligence. As Descartes says, "I think, therefore I am." Our sense of self, our mind, and our intelligence sets us apart from most of the animal kingdom. Being these intelligent beings with the ability to make complex tools and artificially affect our environment, we have developed extremely complex societies and cultures. As every animal is affected by their environment, our environment is the culture that we live in.
We were all ingrained with cultural beliefs. Culture is a set of beliefs, ideas and actions that are passed on from generation to generation. Culture helps bring meaning to all these physical objects that surround us. Every group, every civilization goes through cultural evolution. Evolution of our culture could be compared to biological evolution. In the animal world nearly all of animal behavior and structure could be explained using only biological evolution. However, humans are greatly affected by the structure around us. Unlike, evolution by natural selection, cultural evolution has become a rapid process in which some of the aspects, humans can be more aware of it. As more tools and artificial environmental adaptions were created, human life became more and more complex. With these complex tools and changes in environment, specific ideas, and beliefs become associated with it. These belief systems, passed on from generation to generation, are associated with ritualistic behaviors, a specific language and values.
Is America the most developed country in the world? Are we on the cusp of progress?
As an American, we believe that we live in a high class, developed country. As generations passed, more basic, less developed cultures either were killed, died out or adapted. Earlier civilization were not as advanced as we are, they did not have the knowledge that we have today. (continue reading)
Most people who would agree with this would have somewhat of an understanding of cultural evolution and understand some of the processes involved. Most inevitably ethnocentric people would describe that evolution is leading a species to a better form. This is because we believe that we are at the pinnacle of "progress" as we continually develop our developed society. But evolution has no end goal or destination. Evolution simply explains how animals adapt to the changing environment. While we shape the environment with our complex tools and structures guided by our beliefs and ideas, the environment forms us. Evolution is not an A causes B relationship. Both A and B affect each other.
Each individual does not choose their initial environment. And this initial environment greatly affects the individual. We are born into a specific context. However the world is currently at it's own status quo, or equilibrium. At the current moment, this is the situation that we live in. Many humans search for universal answers, but we live a very particular, unique, finite life. Although the world does not have to be this way, this is the way the world is.
Most individuals accept the world the way it is. They don't ask questions, they don't ask why. We allow our cultural contexts to give our behavior and the physical world around us meaning. As humans we need routine and rituals. We easily judge "less developed" countries as having ritualistic behavior and our ethnocentric bias doesn't allow us to see it in our environment.
Think about all the things you did today. Why did you do them?
As humans we talk about television shows, and the TV has become such an important part of our lives. But there are people living in this world that do not know what a television is. TV does not exist in their environment, yet they still live and have the capacity for happiness.
We do not realize how important language is. We think in a particular language. Most Americans think in English, but English is not even the most wide spread language in the world. As humans sometimes we think the people around us don't understand our thoughts, but other people living in this world literally can not understand your thoughts. Our thoughts are very controlled and limited by our language. Concepts are based upon the situation that you live in.
W.I. Thomas said, "If man defines the situations as real, then it is real in it's consequences."
As humans we surrender to the structures around us and accept our culture. We know we can't change the world, so we take care of ourselves. We adapt to our environment and figure out the best way to benefit individually.
How long can these selfish attitudes last? When will we look towards the long term and do more than minimize short term tension?
If you smoke cigarettes, every individual knows that smoking cigarettes is not a positive factor to your overall health, but they also believe that smoking that cigarette gives them some sort of reward, some sort of pleasure. If your action is to smoke a cigarette, then your thoughts must align with these actions or there will be a strong sense of tension in your mind. In order to feel comfortable, something has to be to done to these opposing thoughts. They can either be ignored, accepted, outweighed, or...
Moving on is coming to terms with these thoughts. Letting something go, a habit, a loss, missed opportunity means letting the thoughts about that action go. The action is over. The moment is complete. Every moment in life is extremely short lived, in terms of time infinitesimally small, but that's the only moment you are in. However, our thoughts keep the past a part of us. We store these ideas in our mind, these beliefs. As you grow, you strongly hold onto some of these beliefs and inevitably have to let go of some of these beliefs. Many things you feel or are experiencing may go against beliefs you had while growing up, and your values can change over time.
Our behavior, just like all the other animals in the world, is a result of the interaction of genes and environment. Personally, I believe genes affect our physical structure and development capabilities. Nutrition which is definitely associated with development could be greatly affected by the environment. Expected height could probably be determined by examining genes alone. However, if the individual is put in an environment where he cannot access food, it's hard to believe he'll have the minimum nutrition requirements to sustain maximum development. For humans, it's clear that our traits and behaviors can be attributed to the interaction of genes and environment.
As most animals do, we try to adapt and make the most of our environment.
However, no other animal on this planet has such a complex lifestyle, as humans do. We believe this is due to our superior intelligence. As Descartes says, "I think, therefore I am." Our sense of self, our mind, and our intelligence sets us apart from most of the animal kingdom. Being these intelligent beings with the ability to make complex tools and artificially affect our environment, we have developed extremely complex societies and cultures. As every animal is affected by their environment, our environment is the culture that we live in.
We were all ingrained with cultural beliefs. Culture is a set of beliefs, ideas and actions that are passed on from generation to generation. Culture helps bring meaning to all these physical objects that surround us. Every group, every civilization goes through cultural evolution. Evolution of our culture could be compared to biological evolution. In the animal world nearly all of animal behavior and structure could be explained using only biological evolution. However, humans are greatly affected by the structure around us. Unlike, evolution by natural selection, cultural evolution has become a rapid process in which some of the aspects, humans can be more aware of it. As more tools and artificial environmental adaptions were created, human life became more and more complex. With these complex tools and changes in environment, specific ideas, and beliefs become associated with it. These belief systems, passed on from generation to generation, are associated with ritualistic behaviors, a specific language and values.
Is America the most developed country in the world? Are we on the cusp of progress?
As an American, we believe that we live in a high class, developed country. As generations passed, more basic, less developed cultures either were killed, died out or adapted. Earlier civilization were not as advanced as we are, they did not have the knowledge that we have today. (continue reading)
Most people who would agree with this would have somewhat of an understanding of cultural evolution and understand some of the processes involved. Most inevitably ethnocentric people would describe that evolution is leading a species to a better form. This is because we believe that we are at the pinnacle of "progress" as we continually develop our developed society. But evolution has no end goal or destination. Evolution simply explains how animals adapt to the changing environment. While we shape the environment with our complex tools and structures guided by our beliefs and ideas, the environment forms us. Evolution is not an A causes B relationship. Both A and B affect each other.
Each individual does not choose their initial environment. And this initial environment greatly affects the individual. We are born into a specific context. However the world is currently at it's own status quo, or equilibrium. At the current moment, this is the situation that we live in. Many humans search for universal answers, but we live a very particular, unique, finite life. Although the world does not have to be this way, this is the way the world is.
Most individuals accept the world the way it is. They don't ask questions, they don't ask why. We allow our cultural contexts to give our behavior and the physical world around us meaning. As humans we need routine and rituals. We easily judge "less developed" countries as having ritualistic behavior and our ethnocentric bias doesn't allow us to see it in our environment.
Think about all the things you did today. Why did you do them?
As humans we talk about television shows, and the TV has become such an important part of our lives. But there are people living in this world that do not know what a television is. TV does not exist in their environment, yet they still live and have the capacity for happiness.
We do not realize how important language is. We think in a particular language. Most Americans think in English, but English is not even the most wide spread language in the world. As humans sometimes we think the people around us don't understand our thoughts, but other people living in this world literally can not understand your thoughts. Our thoughts are very controlled and limited by our language. Concepts are based upon the situation that you live in.
W.I. Thomas said, "If man defines the situations as real, then it is real in it's consequences."
As humans we surrender to the structures around us and accept our culture. We know we can't change the world, so we take care of ourselves. We adapt to our environment and figure out the best way to benefit individually.
How long can these selfish attitudes last? When will we look towards the long term and do more than minimize short term tension?
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