The Peripatetic Philosopher shares his new book:

The Ascent of the Working Woman

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© December 26, 2017

THE ASCENT OF THE WORKING WOMAN is not new.  Indeed, it is as old as time, as women have always been the measure of the health and well-being of society, not men.  Women have led without power using their guile to influence men when men were often otherwise occupied to the point of walking off the cliff and into the abyss. 

Women have been forced by social protocol to be mainly obliging listeners and supportive partners to men, who traditionally have held the power.  This has forced women to traditionally assume a passive role to men to realize a significant economic and social advantage.

When women have acquired power, however, and this is increasingly the case, they have been less inclined to “strut their stuff” in mocking imitation of male self-aggrandizement.  Instead, they have been more disposed to husband their resources in the clearly difficult climb to financial equity giving rather than taking credit along the way.   

That said the working woman is as capable of rational thinking and timely decision-making as is the working man, while making no apologies for complementing her thinking with insight from instinct and intuition.  The paradoxical reality of the times is that she finds herself married to the same machine that now dominates the working man. 

Published by Amazon.com/The Kindle Library/e-book: $9.99/paperback: $21.95

The Peripatetic Philosopher ponders:

We are oblivious, but why?

An Exchange

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 28, 2017

A READER WRITES:

I just looked up these facts:

The earth rotates at 1000mph.

The earth moves around the sun at 67,000mph.

The solar system moves through the Milkyway  at 514,000mph.

The galaxy moves through the universe at 483,000mph.

All that speed, and we don’t feel any of it nor are we physically aware. In the same way we are unaware of an infinite number of things that we do not know.  I was driving back to Harbour Island tonight with our grandchildren through downtown Tampa.  I saw all these little people looking small against the towering buildings.  I think we need to spend more time realizing that we are no different from the ants that build their homes.  That we are fragile and just as vulnerable as the dinosaurs or any other living thing.  Instead we create these grandiose notions of being created by a god, but if you don’t believe in the god they have created then you have to die.  How insane all our actions on the world stage appear in the relation to the vast universe where we are a blip.

Klaus

DR. FISHER REPLIES:

Klaus,

This is very interesting, as well as spectacular.  It caused me to be reminded of some three things -- beyond our consciousness -- that I've learned from mythologist Joseph Campbell and archetype Karl Gustave Jung, and beyond.  Forgive me for desiring to build on what you have said as this has both frustrated and exhilarated me in that we are like ants largely clueless but yet imbued with something if not God like, important in its mythic presence as it dictates largely who and what we are and how we behave.  Rather than enlarge upon this, I will reference works that may prove interesting to you, and share them and your startling references with my readers. 

The first has to deal with the interesting parallel between the rhythm of the human heartbeat and that of the universe:

The connection between heart and Universe is better understood when we consider that our heart beats 72 times per minute on average or 4,320 times per hour. It beats 8,640 times in two hours, which is a factor of the 86,400 seconds in a day. Right away, we get the feeling that the heart is connected to time. The heart is also connected to an even larger scale of time. Every 72 years, from our perspective, the fixed stars move by one-degree in a parade of the constellations known as the Precession of the Equinoxes. It takes 25,920 years for the constellations to complete a full circle (72 x 360) also referred to as the Great Year. When we multiply the Great Year (25,920 years) by a factor of the heart (7.2) we arrive at the speed of light (99.82%). The speed of light squared is the fundamental definition of energy according to Einstein. The heart, therefore, is rhythmically connected to both time and space or ‘space time.’ This gives us a better sense of how the heart knows what space time knows. The heart’s connection to space time and beyond is one way to explain how people know a friend is about to call before the phone rings.

The second has to deal with consciousness.

I have touched on this with my comparison of personality (something invented or acquired) with essence (something owned or part of our DNA) which goes to the truth of what you are saying, which is how totally unconscious we are in terms of our behavior in this fishbowl of life in which we struggle:

The heart’s knowing has come under scientific scrutiny. Experiments by Dean Radin demonstrate the heart’s ability to ‘know’ and cause physiological changes ‘before’ a significant event occurs. This is similar to animals taking protective measures ‘before’ an earthquake or a tsunami arrives (I have equated this to the power of intuition and the power of the subtext of life).

If the heart knows an important event is about to happen before it actually happens then our concept of time and space must be reconsidered. It suggests that we live in a holographic universe as physicist David Bohm suggests. It also puts the heart at the center of ‘knowing’ and being connected to an intelligence that lies outside our brain, perhaps in the field of essence.

The realization of our true essence happens when our personality becomes passive and essence becomes active.

It requires a loosening of our grip on what we believe about ourselves: our ego-identity that is tangled up with other’s expectations. Untangling our essence from our personality requires conscious awareness of our conditioned behavior. This is not a simple task as most of our conditioned responses are both habituated and subconscious. Since heart-consciousness is connected to our essence, it can help bring our subconscious patterns to light, thereby helping us integrate and transform them.

Mostly, our latent personalities want to be heard and understood. They are largely the personalities that arise in response to events where an emotion is not fully acknowledged or contradictory impulses are not fully integrated within our conscious and unconscious minds. Unfortunately, because of the unconscious aspect of our personalities, reintegration does not occur by thinking about it logically. It requires a process over time. It is a process that is more like a journey, where the unconscious aspects of ourselves work behind the scenes to create external events that shake our foundation enough to make us question ourselves and our behavior.

The motivators of change work together in a mysterious yet intelligent archetypal fashion. It is as if that part of us that seeks change elicits an energetic pattern that works dynamically in a triangular pattern. The first manifestation of this triad is the “Issue” or the ‘thing’ that is causing us upset or discomfort. The part of us that is experiencing the “Issue” is the personality aspect that was targeted to undergo transformation. The second component is the “Obstacle,” which allows the contradictory personalities that were stirred up in the Issue to interact. The third aspect is the “Action” necessary to bring about transformation (change and growth).  See illustration below.

The mediator between the three dynamics is the heart. If we tap into heart-consciousness we can allow our innate knowing to guide us through the labyrinth of our mind’s contradictory impulses. The heart is available to help us identify cognitively the limiting belief or negative behavior pattern we have habituated. The heart can also guide us to the right action and the new behavioral pattern we need to adopt in order to bring about the change we desire.

How to ask the heart for guidance is easier than we may think. The process of Scalar Heart Connection utilizes synchronicity and consequently is similar in that aspect to the I-Ching. The difference is in how Scalar Heart Connection utilizes number as a matrix of informative statements that identify the specifics of the triad dynamisms. This is accomplished when we tap into trusting our heart and asking our heart to show us a number related to the information we need related to the Issue at hand. The heart will guide us through the Obstacle as well as the Action we need to take to modify the resonance pattern into one that is entirely integrated and connected with what our heart truly desires.

When we connect to heart-consciousness we tap into the wellspring of love. When the spirit of love flows through us unimpeded by repressed emotions and negative thinking, we become a channel for spirit to manifest in the world. As a channel for the spirit of love, what we create and who we are becomes a monument to spirit, standing as a metaphor to what is true and whole within our authentic Self (essence).

Now, the third involves Joseph Campbell's (1904 - 1987) audio/video (and also in print) of THE POWER OF MYTH -- MASKS OF ETERNITY that were conducted with Bill Moyers. 

My reference is specifically to Episode 6, which I find to my delight is available on the Internet.

Campbell, Irish American and born a Roman Catholic, a former track star and an Olympian Gold Medal winner, has been a favorite of mine for years. His THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (1968) traces the archetypal hero -- call it "God" if you like -- through nearly every culture on earth. Campbell is not trying to sell anything but to record everything he has encountered. He expands on this theme in THE MYTHIC IMAGE (1974).

What I have learned is that reason is not enough for us to deal with the eccentricities of life; that as Eric Hoffer pointed out so brilliantly, planet earth is a hostile planet and not conducive to man. Consequently, and Genesis reminds us of this, man has felt he has not only had to conquer this hostile planet but to dominate it and to carve his own image and likeness into its unfeeling stone.

The Triad Dynamism of Archetypes 

If you will forgive me for all this, it is a result of my struggling with how to tell my story of WORK WITHOUT WORKERS as man has -- to my mind -- developed and used his consciousness to the point that he is not only redundant on planet earth but irrelevant. Earth will survive very much without man once only mechanical monsters with the sensitivity of their electronics are all that exists.

Thank you again with apologies for all this.

The Peripatetic Philosopher is working on a new book:

 WORK WITHOUT WORKERS

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 20, 2017

PERSONA

Work was the design of his life with a nineteenth century inescapable perspective as his ancestors came from Europe in that time of crisis while he was born two generations later in the twentieth century.  We bring our geography and psychology with us as well as our culture when we transport our roots to another land. 

This is a story being told by James as he experienced life and work through the twentieth and into the twenty first century.  It is biographical in tone as well as sense as it attempts to show how work has changed dramatically on the shoulders of science and technology while man as worker has failed to be given similar regard or attention. 

It is the story of how one individual encountered, was programmed into a culture and system that became increasingly schizophrenic and ambivalent as its identity and essence became increasingly buried in its hubris, and how he preserved his sanity in such corruption resisting all the way.    

The character of that existence was to be seen, not heard; to react, not challenge; to go with the flow, not resist it; to be obedient to all authority figures, not be disruptive to any; to know his place, not to step beyond it; to go to school and learn by rote mathematics and science, history and geography, English grammar and sentence structure, and think of all this as gospel; to acquire good grades and then go out into life as if educated when in fact he knew nothing and was blind to new experience; to accept the dogma of Christian ethics and morality as absolute, neither to question belief in God nor the divine nature of Jesus as the Son of God; to consider all those of another mind infidels to be avoided; to be a safe hire at work not questioning anything, but doing everything quietly, politely, submissively, punctually and attentively.

This nineteenth century mantra was introduced to him in the aftermath climate of the American Civil War as two other revolutions were stoking up for the next century: the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.  Young people like James were now fodder in the twentieth century for a sleepy nation suddenly embarrassed with its predominant agrarian nature anxious to be seen as a progressive, energetic and industrial society.

His people came from Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century west of Donegal after the potato famine, and from Oslo, Norway, all working class poor. 

In Ireland they were called “shanty Irish” as opposed to “lace curtain Irish,” as they worked on the land or with their hands as maids and servants, laborers and tenant farmers, janitors or bartenders, cab drivers or railroad workers. 

Because of class and circumstance, they acquired little education and were known for their heavy Irish brogue, which once in America identified them as undesirables as soon as they opened their mouths to speak.  This was so largely because their reputation preceded them.  They were known as drinkers and brawlers, ready to fight all comers because they had no other arsenal with which to express their angst and anger.  As stereotypical and erroneous as this description often was, enough Irish immigrants made a practice of so behaving to make it appear as common knowledge. 

Norwegians, in contrast, were less provocative although mainly of a similar class, usually from fishing and farming communities.  Ironically, they were from the same Celtic race but much less pugnacious or given to offense as they were bundled in Lutheranism and Calvinism as opposed to Irish Roman Catholicism.  

Norwegians believed in hard work and conceded that their betters deserved their status by the grace of God.  Consequently, they made a reasonably quiet transition to the new country although they had a language barrier that didn’t exist to the same extent with the Irish who had been forced in Ireland – in order to be employed – to sacrifice their Gallic for British English. 

So, the Irish came to America with a chip on their shoulder with those reaching celebrity status likely to do so with their fists such as John L. Sullivan, the heavyweight boxing champion, whereas Norwegians were content to fight through the language barrier thankful for finding themselves in America content to bring little attention to themselves.

He was born into this common clan with a father of Irish parents and a mother of Irish descent and a Norwegian father, all working class poor, all descendants from mid-nineteenth century immigrants.  His Irish father was the second born son with his Irish mother dying in childbirth with his father taking off never to be seen again.  His mother was the youngest of eight children, three of her siblings being born in the nineteenth century and five in the twentieth. 

It was into this inhospitable climate to which he was born as his birth state, Iowa, was seeing its first and only President of the United States humiliatingly defeated as the Great Depression was roaring, while the new president was quickly introducing the welfare state to the American people that was music to the ears and hearts of his Irish ancestors.  

It was also the time when Germany, a nation with a history as uncertain as that of the United States, was being romanced with the idea of a “master race.”  This was orchestrated by an Austrian, not a German, a corporal in the German army in the twentieth century’s First World War that proved iatrogenic as it solved nothing while throwing the world into chaos opening the door to World War Two.  

The genius of this Viennese Austrian was in an advertising campaign that put this unlikely drifter into the German Chancellery with the dictatorial authority to ultimately unleash the greatest conflagration ever known to man in the Second World War, which subsequently changed everything including the idea of what it was to be a human being.

Since this is about work and the mad rush of science and technology in the scheme of things, it invites comparison to the omniscient medieval Church and the oppressive feudal system.  A society of digital artificial intelligent machines and electronic robots has little room for the worker as an individual who must deal with the fear of being irrelevant or made redundant as a worker. 

This is the story of James who has lived in the shadows of this climate, and has lived long enough to write what he has learned along the way that may help others to survive this onslaught.     

The Peripatetic Philosopher asks:

So You Want to Know About Isaiah Berlin?

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 18, 2017

Since I reference Isaiah Berlin in some of my writing, I have been asked if any of Isaiah Berlin’s books are on Kindle or similar readers.  I don’t know.  All my Berlin books are hard copies or paperbacks, mostly the former.  As you know, once I become interested in an author I kind of go bunkers.  I started reading Berlin some 25 to 30 years ago, first in The New York Review, and then I commenced reading book after book by or about the philosopher of the history of ideas. 

As I’ve told some of my readers, were it not for Henry Hardy, his dedicated editor, we would not have this rich story of his ideas as he was neither a systematic thinker nor a dedicated scholar.  That said he still managed to weave a rather elaborate mosaic of his thinking that has relevance today.  I will list these books in the order that you might consider reading them:

(1)    The Crooked Timber of Humanity.  This is a resume of his “history of ideas” touching on various themes that indicate how we are indebted to 18^th and 19^th century philosophy and how such philosophy still has relevance today.

(2)    Isaiah Berlin, A Life by Michael Ignatieff.  It was published in 1998 after ten years of having regular conversations with Berlin.  My misfortune is that I read it after rather than before reading many other Berlin books.  I read it again recently and got much more out of it than the first time.

(3)    Affirming Letters: 1975-1997.  Again, these letters were edited by Henry Hardy (with the assistance of Mark Pottle), and represent the final volume of a four volume set.  I have not read the previous sets (Flourishing – 1928-1946; Enlightening – 1946-1960; and Building Letters – 1960-1975).  The volume I read was 675 pages, which I suspect is the equivalent of the other volumes.  His last letter was October 23, 1997, and he died November 5, 1997.  He dictated his letters of amazing depth of learning sprinkled with quotes in several languages, and referencing hundreds if not thousands of prominent people with whom he worked and socialized over his long life.  Each page of text had definitive footnotes (of which I read every one), giving the reader a fine sense of the man, his mind and his life.  It was better than a biography, and by chance followed the scope of my own life in a much more minor way.

(4)    Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder.  This again was highly edited by Henry Hardy or it would never have come to fruition.  It was important to me because its authors profiled challenged the rationale and objective positivism of the “Age of the Enlightenment.”

(5)    The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays.  This is a massive work and one I have highlighted in four colors as each page displayed another level of the depth of my ignorance.  Many of his shorter works are profiled here, but in abbreviated form if you enjoy Berlin, and I do, you will enjoy this just dessert.

(6)    The Roots of Romanticism.  The crush of the “Age of the Enlightenment” is still quite apparent in this 21^st century, and less so the “Age of the Romanticism,” which introduced us to the power of poetry, prose, art, architecture and commentary as frozen music.  This was the age of Goethe, Sartre, Camus and Nietzsche among others where objective reality was leavened with subjective existence.  Berlin hated to write or to make systematic preparation but that became necessary when giving celebrated lectures such as the Mellon Series in Washington, DC in 1965.  His ability to dissect and assess history resulted in his rise to prominence.

(7)    Isaiah Berlin by John Gray is important in this inclusion because he was not a big fan of Berlin or Berlin of him.  It was a way of looking at the philosopher from the perspective of another philosopher.

(8)    Conversations with Isaiah Berlin and Ramin Jahanbegloo.  The value here is the same value Krishnamurti has with his audience.  Ramin asks some of the questions you, the reader, might have liked to ask.

(9)    The Sense of Reality.  Again, as is Berlin’s comfort level, he gets to the depths of his own reality through the reality of famous thinkers.  But in the process, his own humanity surfaces which connects with the reader’s own.

(10) Four Essays on Liberty.  This is perhaps his most famous book, which is only a little over 200 pages.  He always wanted to write an opus of some distinction but he didn’t have the temperament.  His concept of positive and thinking freedom (liberty) became the jewel in the center of his legacy.  As no one previously had shown, liberty, equality and fraternity are not mutually exclusive.  Indeed, they are not possible without conflict and sacrifice.  He demonstrated that with “negative freedom” there are no barriers to freedom, but likewise there are no guarantees of security, protection, stability and safety.  When these are embraced, they do so at the sacrifice of “negative freedom” which now becomes “positive freedom.”  Conflict and choice are endemic to man and no one gets a free ride no matter the level of their wealth, prestige or power.

(11) Against the Current.  This was a book, again edited by Henry Hardy that resonated with me to my roots.  Suddenly, I understood why my life had been conducted as it had been, why I related to people and society and the corporation as I did, and why I took the road less traveled without apology.  The irony is that Berlin never did but he could write poetically about such a road.

(12) Personal Impressions.  Here are word portraits of such men as FDR (Roosevelt), Churchill, Einstein, Huxley, and Pasternak.  Berlin was quite an observer of the movers and shakers of his time and was not above showing a delight in gossip and innuendo. 

(13) The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin.  If you don’t feel you have the time or inclination, this short volume would give you a clear assessment through his essays.

(14) Karl Marx.  Berlin was never a communist, but he was Russian, and as a young man he was commissioned to write this book knowing nothing about the great man.

(15) Russian Thinkers.  He went on to write this book about Tolstoy, Herzen and others in the tumultuous time of 1848 in Russia.

(16) The Magus of the North.  This is a book about J. G. Hamann and his irrationalism in a time of the dominance of rationalism.  I not only liked this book I loved this book.

(17) The Hedgehog and the Fox.  This appeared in abbreviated for in “Russian Thinkers.”  Here in this slender volume (81 pages) he explains an interesting concept.

(18) The Power of Ideas.  This is another volume edited by Henry Hardy which attempts to show in a systematic and somewhat chronological order how Isaiah Berlin balanced his being a Jew, a Russian from Riga and an Oxford don.  These three identities were his crown and his cross throughout his life.

(19) Concepts and Categories.  This as the title suggests is a systematic inquiry into the legitimacy of the history of ideas, which became Berlin’s designated profession as he didn’t believe he had the gravitas or pure scholarship as a philosopher.  He often took career risks consistently landing on his feet.

(20) Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty.  This might seem like overkill since all of these enemies are historical figures who have appeared in other Berlin books: i.e., Helvetius, Rousseau, Fichte, Hegel, Saint-Simon and Maistre.   

(21) Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration.  This was written six years before his death in 1991 which he claimed he never read.  Many of the writers were colleagues at Oxford.  

This is hardly an exhaustive listing of his works or interpretations of them, but it is representative.

Peripatetic Philosopher shares his opening gambit:

PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS ON NEW WRITING PROJECT

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 17, 2017

Henry Adams in his autobiography, "The Education of Henry Adams" uses "he" for "I" throughout. Whereas his life spanned the 19th and 20th century, mine has the 20th and 21st.

That is where the commonality ends as his grandfather was President John Quincy Adams and his great grandfather was President John Adams, the second President of the United States, and one of the Founding Fathers. If that was not enough, his uncle was Edward Everett, one of the premiere orators of his day along with Daniel Webster, who incidentally was a friend of the family. Henry Adams family was ten to twenty levels deeper in accomplishment to mine with clerics, scholars, politicians and academics.

My da completed the seventh grade and was a brakeman on the railroad; my mother graduated from high school but suffered from poor hearing all her life and so was always a home body. That was a great asset to me if not to the family's economic fortunes.

With the exception of my mother's brother, my uncle, who earned two Ph.D.'s from the University of Iowa (economics & psychology), modesty and ignorance beyond simply work has been the story of my family.

Perhaps that is why work, workers and the workplace have been so engaging. In any case, from a preliminary conceptual standpoint, I plan to use the gentlemanly "he" in briefly tracing my earliest recollections to the present. This section is to be designated PERSONA.

The next section is to be devoted to THE INDIVIDUAL and how that status has evolved, devolved and stagnated over time to reach the critical stage of essentially no longer being relevant. We are a spoiled brat society with a herd mentality and that has progressed over my lifetime to the point of boredom.

The next section is to be WORK as viewed through the books I have written on the subject and why they were written. I would have preferred to write poetry and prose but felt I was more qualified to write on this more pragmatic subject.

The last section will be on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, not from a scientific and theoretical perspective, but how they have become like atomic energy, a great source of cheap energy but with the impossible challenge of how to control and dispose of them once they negatively impinge on society.

Like my family which is of simple roots, I am blessed with more ignorance than knowledge, and I'm sure this will show only too clearly to readers. That blessing often finds inspiration for readers' own ideas by reading someone less gifted than they are, giving them the courage to enter the fray and possible embarrassment by exposing their own ignorance by writing. I've never had a problem exposing mine so it should come as no surprise to readers who have known this of me all along.

My hope is that I have the time and energy to complete this insanity.


JRF


PS Readers are still trickling in who want to receive these updates. I've tried to give them back issues of how this process is unfolding, but I will desist from that from this point forward as that has become time consuming. At the same time, I welcome newcomers as I welcome comments from everyone as they keep my feet to the fire while clarifying my approach to this undertaking.

The Peripatetic shares:

The Concept of “Western Society” Disputed:

An Exchange!

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 16, 2017

A EUROPEAN WRITES:

As having worked as a corporate executive in Germany, France and U.S., I would be careful in using the general expression "Western Society." 

There are some commonalities, to be sure, but also quite a few differences between cultures, values, and attitudes in Europe as compared to the U.S. In fact, within Europe we have such critical differences that we see palpable disharmony at the common parliament in Brussels.

In regard to globalization, these differences are much more drastic. For example, common terms may have a different meaning and be used in a different sense.

A year after the events on Tiananmen Square (1989) I was at a fair in Shanghai and during a dinner I had the opportunity to talk to a high ranking member of the Chinese government. When I mentioned the violation of the human rights to him, he answered:

"Why do you think your values would be equally functional in another culture that you clearly do not even understand?"

Why do we so, indeed.

Best regards


DR. FISHER REPLIES:

Your caution is well taken. The term and concept of "Western Society" can be seen as ambiguous.

Moreover, I agree there is no universal culture in Europe; indeed, there is no universal culture in the United States.

That was precisely Isaiah Berlin's take on culture, that is, that there are a plurality of cultures and that not a single culture is necessarily superior (or inferior) to another.

Moreover, he got into some trouble for his stand on pluralism with his fellow Oxford dons, when he further suggested that there was no universal morality or ethical principle by which to judge all cultures and societies.

Berlin did believe, however, that there were common sense values that applied to and were shared by a common humanity.

As I indicated to one reader, morality and ethics are two sides of the same coin, as is love and hate, but what I didn't mention is that all coins are not of the same impression.

Can you imagine morality without ethics, or ethics without morality? Indeed, where would love be if the capacity to hate was not equally acknowledged and understood as part of individualism? It is part of our collective cultural DNA. Likewise, all cultures have a capacity for violence as well as a capacity for peace; for giving succor and aid to the sick and brutalizing the innocent.

Absolutes had no appeal to Isaiah Berlin, and while I was once totally committed to the absolutes of Roman Catholicism, with age, experience and hopefully, some growth, I realized how destructive such absolutes could be and were.

That said, although I am a renegade Roman Catholic, like Berlin in his Jewishness, I consider myself a Catholic thinker and writer. Perhaps I have gravitated to the Jesuit priest that my mother hoped that I would one day be.

We in the West, meaning specifically, the United States, have this cultural proselytizing zeal to make other societies like our own in terms of human rights, freedom and democracy as if they see the world through the same eyes as we do.

What we Americans have trouble understanding, and Berlin was fully cognizant of this, as he was a Russian, a Jew and an English don, is that his allegiance, sincerity, passion and tolerance were fueled by the conflicts and confluence of competing disparate identities.

Knowing this, obviously colored Berlin's conclusions as he extrapolated his ideas through the works of such 18th century philosophical heroes as Vico, Herder and Hamann, leavening their views as if his own, and as seen through a three sided crystal. That is what thinkers and writers do.

While agreeing with you, perhaps I should qualify my use of the expression "Western Society."

It is taken from the "Age of the Enlightenment" from such philosophers as Descartes and Kant who stamped "the Age of Reason" with Western Society's imprimatur of empiricism.

For Berlin, as for me, I see little advancement beyond empiricism while what you allude to was the view of critics of the enlightenment philosophy. That is to say, before the 19th century and the "Age of Romanticism" with Goethe, Nietzsche and Sartre, the very idea that values might be in conflict had not arisen.

Up to that time, there was no question that there must be one true answer; that these truths were accessible to all human beings; and that all the true answers to true questions must be compatible with each other.

Rationalists in the church and the state simplified the contradictory impulses of the Enlightenment to fit church dogma and state policies.

These Romantic poets, philosophers and critics considered man an expressive creature who creates his own nature and his own identity through labor, reflection, love and expression. Since human nature is not always one and the same, truth will not always appear the same to each human group much less every individual.

Therefore, each culture has its own center of gravity, which I have suggested represents its own "moral compass." This is not something stated, but something felt and expressed in behavior. It opposes the idea that we are all committed to progress rushing like robots towards the same bottom line.

Finally, we have hopefully moved beyond the idea that there is one right answer to all human questions; that truth is the same to all; and that human values can never be in conflict or contradict each other.

The dogma of Calvinism and Roman Catholicism may be worthy of respect, but there is no heresy if individuals or other societies find such dogma and belief systems damnable.

As always, it is great to hear from you. Your sage comments are much appreciated.

Equally best regards to you as well.

The Peripatetic Philosopher elaborates:

Isaiah Berlin & Why He Resonates With Me!

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© October 15, 2017

A READER WONDERS – About Isaiah Berlin’s “hedgehogs” & “foxes”

So, is a hedgehog like a broken record while a fox is like a cd on random play? 

In your opinion, did Isaiah Berlin succeed in getting his essential message across? Was his genius in distilling his thinking, reducing the complex to a single all encompassing truth, easily grasped by dolts? ☺ 

Marketing people and sales people understand this very well I believe. People like brief explanations... or rather, they drift off if they are required to absorb long drawn out explanations. We lose them when we cannot "get to the point". Some engineers I know are like that. VP's too.😀

Regards,

DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

Isaiah Berlin was just the opposite of what you construe as essential to success in business or any other enterprise.  

Moreover, he didn't think the complex could be reduced to a simple universal truth, but quite the opposite.  In fact, he believed that conflict existed between "liberty, fraternity and equality," and that painful choices had to be made.  In other words, one or more of these attributes would necessarily have to be sacrificed or diminished at the expense of the others.  For example, in order to realize some semblance of equality freedom could not but be diminished.  

That is one reason why social justice is easy to formulate and so difficult if not impossible to implement.   Idealists are not willing to recognize much less accept this reality.    

If you attempt to carry the burden of someone else, in most cases, you weaken them and their resolve.  The American nation, after 72 years of weakening such resolve since WWII, now wrestles with the consequences of that policy and philosophy.    

My writing is all about conflict, but managed conflict.  It is also about exalting the individual to be his own man and all that he can be.  It is not about carrying another man's water but energizing man to realize the freedom and satisfaction that is derived when he accepts that burden, himself. 

Long before I ever read Berlin, I was weary of absolutes or of simplistic or universal approaches to truth, which I realized much as Berlin did that your truth is not my truth and my truth is not your truth.  

Berlin has had an amazing impact on Western society while being much less of a philosopher than an advocate of the plurality of approaches to life.  Long before I ever knew he existed, I understood that it was more important to understand an organization's culture than the selective views of its personnel.  A plurality of cultures exists in one's neighborhood why are we so surprised when we find that it exists as well in ethnic groups and nations, or indeed, in different functional groups within an organization?  

As a chemical sales engineer, I never sold as a cognitive engineer while my friend William L. Livingston III has always been so inclined.  There is room for a diversity of approaches to life.  I'm just profiling mine for whatever it is worth to my readers.

PS What you describe is true.  Media and advertisers have been successful in reinforcing the attention deficit disorder common to our times.  They successfully exploit the "herd mentality," which is now quite in vogue.  It has less sustaining power than one might think for eventually people even become bored with being bored.  We see this in automobiles commercials on television for the umpteenth time.  We are approaching WORK WITHOUT WORKERS. but already, we have been anesthetized to making purchases on automatic pilot as part of the herd mentality.   

The Peripatetic Philosopher shares a project in process:

SEARCH FOR A COVER

WORK WITHOUT WORKERS

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 14, 2017

Cover Designer Writes:


I'm toying with a few concepts. If work is to be carried out entirely without workers, that's magic, right? Sorcery might be a better description.


Q. How to depict sorcery in the context of the workplace? Which workplace?


Dr. Fisher responds:

I don’t believe the confluence of my books suggests sorcery, but rather the collapse of confidence in the productivity of man, given man’s increasing irrelevance in the scheme of things.

There is a consistent theme to my books -- and articles -- over the past forty years. I shared this recently with Henry.

Individualism and the power of personality, and the insights and intuitive wisdom of that dominate centrist orientation, has enabled the person of such characteristics to get out of his self-consciousness and truly observe, perceive and understand others as they are.

When Prentice-Hall, the publisher of my first book CONFIDENT SELLING (1971) asked me if I could explain my book in one paragraph, I replied, "I can explain it in one sentence: If you have the ability to accept yourself as you are, you will be able to accept others as you find them, which gives you an amazing advantage because bias does not get in your way."

Back to Henry (who had written earlier purpose of the efficacy of purpose), I explained that some two centuries ago, when absolutes of science as well as religion were challenged, sincerity, itself, became a virtue and authenticity backed up sincerity with commitment. It was a time when Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, with no formal education, but with the grit of will and determinism won the "Battle of New Orleans" (1815) against the British against enormous odds, and then went on to be President of the United States (1829-1837) taking on Eastern Establishment to move power to the people, establishing what would come to be called "The Age of Jackson."

Jackson, for a time (he died in 1845), gave voice to sincerity, authenticity, and identity moving power to the Executive Branch over the Legislative and Judicial Branches, but also to the common people, working men and women in the heartland of the country.

Now, Jackson or the history of the past 200 years is not my theme, but I can see how sincerity, authenticity and identity have been fundamental to my life's work and now my writing. As that writing attempts to show, I came to see the power of tolerance manifested in accepting oneself and others, and how that has eroded in my lifetime, a retreat that is quickening as the mania is driver-less cars, people-less factories and clerk-less department stores and waitress-less eating establishment, and beyond.

With retreating roles for people as workers, we have seen a rise in anxiety and psychosis; a rise in murder and suicide; a rise in depersonalized violence; a rise in ubiquitous apathy; and a rise in violent polarity and confrontation among neighbors.

The mania is to replace the human will and mind with Artificial Intelligence, not because it is good or necessary or desirable, but because man in his hubris sees that it can be done, forgetting AI and all these brainless schemes follow the prescience of Frederick Perls, "In and Out of the Garbage Pail" (1969), who obviously had no idea what it would be like in 50 years. Well, we are here! And this is how it is.

Briefly, my books are of hedgehog consistency, or the idea of "one big thing," that is, man's consciousness and his selective choices (endeavors) is key to his survival or destruction.

(1) CONFIDENT SELLING (1971) was about buyer and seller as partners, not adversaries, and that the seller's greatest obstacle was himself, not the buyer; overcome that and meaningful relations were not only possible, but inevitable.

(2) WORK WITHOUT MANAGERS (1991) was about the schizophrenia of corporate management with several divisions in search of a company while the collar of workers were drastically changing from blue to white, but management was driving these enlightened workers into greater dependency.

(3) CONFIDENT SELLING FOR THE 90s (1992) elaborated on the "Confident Selling" theme as a counseling and consulting tool.

(4) THE WORKER, ALONE! (1995) addressed the passive professional worker on why conflict was inevitable and managed conflict was the key to his performance and satisfaction. It illustrated for the first time Isaiah Berlin's negative and positive freedom. With negative freedom, the professional had more latitude and control of his destiny because he was essentially in charge without constraints or restrictions, while positive freedom was less risk apparent but at the sacrifice of many of the freedoms of negative freedom for security, predictability, comfort and less anxiety.

(5) THE TABOO AGAINST BEING YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND (1996) addressed the mania to have a friend, to belong, and to be part of the herd, while failing to be a friend to oneself, or to have any since of belonging other than in connection with others. Choice became a frenzied attempt to save others from themselves while having no time to save oneself from one's own challenges. The book attacked the idea that it was good to carry others pointing out that it only weakened them and their resolve, and when they failed, and failed they would, who would they blame? Obviously, not themselves. Companies bought into the idea of carrying people with entitlements and benefits not associated with productivity, until economics proved this an impossibility. A frantic turn from people to robotics and depersonalized approaches to management followed.

(6) SIX SILENT KILLERS (1998) emphasized the passive behaviors that had become endemic to professionals who were intent on avoiding conflict and distress while behaving as inconspicuous social termites destroying the workplace from within their devastating passive behaviors only to be discovered when too late for damage control.

(7) CORPORATE SIN (2003) looked at the growing division between doers (workers) and managers (watchers) since WWII with several developmental factors being ignored. Workers as doers were now predominantly college trained often with superior acumen and skills to their watchers, yet the pay differential was escalating to impossible delta, bringing management guru Peter Drucker to register his disappointment. An unanticipated but totally understandable persona characterized the complex organization across the United States if not the Western World as well: leaderless leaders and dissonant workers. Once again, those in charge, who were most comfortable managing things, and not motivating people, turned to technology with increased emphasis on computers, software, intelligent designs, and robotics.

(8) IN THE SHADOW OF THE COURTHOUSE (2003) was a memoir as a novel on what it was like to grow up as a preteen in the middle of America in the Middle of the Century in the Middle of a Community of 33,000 in the time of World War Two. Evidence of the hedgehog in my personality was already apparent.

(9) A LOOK BACK TO SEE AHEAD (2007) attempted to put the trends in perspective of work, workers and the workplace with a blueprint for a possible escape from the entrenchment, along with the emerging "Feminine Paradigm" that was increasingly illustrated that intuitive and conceptual approaches to the problem solving with creative thinking was a possible complement to cognitive and concrete approaches.

(10) TEN CREATIVE STAGES TO CONFIDENT THINKING (2014) was a systematic attempt to put the reader in the driver seat thinking creatively rather than critically, as we have moved beyond critical thinking that is limited to what we already know, and has become a circular argument that drives the problem solver deeper into the hole of frustration without resolution. Creative thinking is designed to embrace what is not known but can be found out. The book values especially written by Edward de Bono.

(11) Alas (10) that was a first edition, and the nine other books were second editions including all those listed here. These books were heavily edited and expanded along with extensive illustrations and more comprehensive BUT THEY ARE NO LONGER IN PRINT as the publisher TATE PUBLISHING COMPANY has gone belly up. Many are still available on Amazon.com while some have gargantuan prices well beyond reason.

Five years (2012 - 2017) were devoted to this project but to no avail. It is the nature of a hedgehog who has no support system. Not to be dissuaded, three new books came out in paperback in 2017 with amazon's KINDLE LIBRARY:

THE VELVET GLOVE & IRON FIST (2017), a book that emphasizes the Feminine Paradigm (Velvet Glove) and the anachronistic Masculine Paradigm (Iron Fist). I took a gigantic risk naming the book as such as it has not sold well, but I would do it again because it is consistent with my hedgehog's confluence.

CONFLUENCE IN SUBTEXT (2017) got inside the hedgehog's confluence to reveal why the subtext and not the content and context that is the focus of our current attention is more relevant and consequential.

A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT THINGS (2017) represents a collection of social psychological essays on the themes of these books that have been published in another form somewhere else.

Back to negative freedom, I have had the luxury of time, comfort and no demands other than self-imposed to chronicle what I have observed; what I have experienced; and what I have learned from this exposure and experience. I have always been my own person at nearly every decade of my life, having come from little I've needed little -- other than books and my Beautiful Betty -- to keep me engaged.

This will be perhaps my last work of some moment. I write to satisfy no reader or promote any particular agenda. I write because I can and my only wish is that I could write better. I hope this helps in completing a cover for this book.

PS A "fox" is good at many things, while a "hedgehog" is good at only one thing with a singular focus and obsession.

The Peripatetic Philosopher shares a reaction to his new book:

An Exposition of Dr. Fisher’s

“Moral Compass”

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© November 2, 2017

 READER WRITES:

Dr. Fisher,

I’ve read your little book, “The Absence of Mind in the Modern Self – The Invasion of Media,” with interest.  You point out that the media select facts – true or distorted, verified or not – which suggests a form of propaganda.  It is a way of appealing to something in us that we find in adventure movies and novels, and in children’s literature. 

Media takes us across a line that is hardly visible.  What distinguishes selling from education is that selling serves mostly the seller while education serves those being educated.  I like to think I have become immune to this evasive strategy. 

More to the point, you have often referred to the “moral compass,” as you do in this little book.  This brings me to my criticism.  Your reference to “moral compass” reminds me of what Bertrand Russell once said:

“Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize til you have tried to make it precise.”

In other words, to my mind there are widely differing references to the “moral compass.”  Take for example, nepotism.   In the Middle East, nepotism is considered a virtue for it puts one’s family to work.  In the West, however, it is considered far less virtuous but something of a pejorative.  In that context, ideally, one does not use one’s position of authority to favor relatives over merit.  Leaving inheritance to offspring aside, which tilts the level playing field, we come back to the ambiguity of your concept of “moral compass” with philosopher Russell’s comment, do we not?

DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

Thank you for your most poignant reflections.  My surprise is that I’ve never been asked this question before.  I first used the term in “The Taboo Against Being Your Own Best Friend” (1996).  To wit:

“We are not happy campers. We have lost our moral compass and our way.”

Twenty one years later (2017), I see little evidence that we have rediscovered our moral center, or indeed, our way back to civility.

THE GENESIS OF “MORAL COMPASS”

Obviously, we are looking at the concept of “moral compass” from differing perspectives.  My focus is in terms of personal identity and relates exclusively to the individual.

We were both born and grew to maturity in a terrible century, a world of deliberate cruelty, destruction, and the extermination of millions of innocent people which has had no parallel in history.   Voltaire once claimed “ideas did it all.”  He may have anticipated Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his Communist Manifesto” (1848) and Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and his “Mein Kampf” (1925).  In any case, Western Civilization over the past 100 years has been influenced by ideas taken from these respective ideologies. 

Philosopher of History Isaiah Berlin writes:

(Ideas) not, as some historians like to believe, social conditions, and the effect of technology on culture, (when the influenced has been by) Marxism, Fascism, National Socialism – ideas born in the heads of individuals who bound their spell upon a mass of credulous followers: it is these ideas in the end, and these individuals, who are responsible, without them it is not credible that anything of this kind could have happened (Isaiah Berlin: Affirming, 2015, p. 541).

The focus of my writing has been on the individual with the ideas of that conceptual framework coming out of my experience, reflections, observations and reading.  My approach has never been about the collective group, per se, although sometimes the individual has been viewed in that context: e.g., the behavior of the individual in the work group where the dominant culture dictates collective behavior.       

Man exists in somewhat of an unconscious state while claiming to be conscious of his every act, when such consciousness often on display is “after the fact.” 

The media in general and advertising in particular – be the claim truth telling or information sharing – has mainly devolved to the status of entertainment as an art form.  These disciplines are in the business of manipulating human thought based on an understanding of what effect this or that stimulus will have on them in a marketing, political or economic sense.  They lean on analytics of demographics and behavioral data, as there is no other reliable theoretical substitute.  Through mountains of data they distill catch phrases that are designed to provoke a plurality of favorable responses, and are willing to spend tens of millions of dollars towards that end.

We are a reactive rather than an anticipating animal although we have the same anticipating mechanism at our disposal as lower animals, which we refuse to use as we prefer to see ourselves as conscious cognitive thinking human beings.  We expect to display “grace under pressure” with problem solving aplomb whatever the situation demands. Unfortunately, our failure to take seriously palpable danger is part of our cultural programming.  This finds us existing mainly on automatic pilot.  Alas, the mechanism we bypass is our intuition. 

We feel danger before we are aware of its presence; we feel a bad relationship before it blossoms into despair; we feel our innate capacity for happiness before we abort it to win popularity with the “in” crowd. 

We have had great philosophers since the beginning of time, but have been dependent on philosophers of the 18^th century’s “Age of the Enlightenment” ever since.  They successfully dismantled the metaphysics of religion to replace it with the scientific method, logical positivism and cognitive reasoning.  Now science has replaced religion with compelling efficiency in exploring physical phenomena while being much less efficient in matters relating to people as persons, the social sciences notwithstanding.  Consequently, the individual finds himself in the midst of shifting shadows and misdirecting mirrors unable to grasp reality in an increasingly confusing and hostile social and political climate. 

Despite all the disruption over the past 100 years, man has done better than might have been expected when his “moral compass” is on display.  Knowing how to act, when to act, how strongly to act, and against whom to act is a gift of this creative center.  This is the individual as artist of his own destiny with buoyancy to survive all challenges. 

Life is a pragmatic matter in which a “moral compass” allows the individual to identify the ends for which he is working; to discern the subtle distinctions between ends and means; and to recognize possible collisions between equally appealing choices, which cannot be avoided.  To not choose between the options available is to have circumstances control the choosing.    

None of this is reducible to a simple system.  It is the individual reacting to what is real to what is not; what is relevant to what is simply smoke and mirrors; to what enhances progress to what derails such efforts.   

Given this assessment, a preoccupation with “things” tends to mask the clarity of what is being pursued.  Reliance on second, third and fourth levels of information clouds the mind with spurious data preventing a fundamental grasp of the requirements in the problem solving.  The solutions are never in the media; nor are they in books and the latest fad.  Solutions are buried in the problem itself, requiring an intrinsic understanding of that problem.   

Interestingly enough, once we are comfortable alone, without noise, without the need for compulsive texting and tweeting, without constant checking of our iPhones for the latest social media postings, we are free to grasp reality.  We are ready to take the appropriate action demanded in the problem solving; and by extension, ready to reconnect with others in real and substantive ways.

THE MORAL COMPASS & PURPOSEFUL IDENTITY

In June 1993, The Reader’s Digest carried a brief work of mind, which could have been deemed “Aspects of Our Moral Compass.”  It suggested:

To have a friend you must be a friend starting with yourself.  The greatest virtue is kindness.  You cannot love everyone, but you can be kind to anyone.  Nothing of consequence is achieved without enthusiasm.  Positive people attract others while negative people repel.  Gossip cheapens the gossiper more than the one gossiped about. Communicate cheerfulness.  If inclined to make fun of someone, make it be of oneself. Smile often as it costs nothing. Follow the Golden Rule by doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

No doubt these are clichés but they connote values and provide a window to the moral shop of our mind to see who and what we are.

Philosopher Isaiah Berlin claims we are born with certain moral values as a result of all the forces that create us – tradition, education, the views of people we live among, the books we read, and our own thoughts.  But can we reject that “self” to which we are kin for yet another self?

Obviously, there exists constant pressure to adopt the identity of the “in” crowd or that of the masses, resulting in the curious predicament of being seen as an outsider if we remain true to our roots.  With the flippancy of a chiaroscuro day, we can become a millionaire but remain an imposter to ourselves if we deny our working class heritage.      

 We can change our personality as it is impressionistic and something borrowed.  We cannot change our essence as it belongs to ourselves, alone.  It is something owned.  If it is necessary to “blend in” to win acceptance of the group, the price may be self-estrangement.    

 Evidence of this retreat from self-knowing can be experienced in fits of depression, violent mood swings and boredom.  This propensity to gloom and doom has become a boom to the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, psychotherapy, plastic surgery and dermatology industries.  Religion once provided sanctuary from the trauma of self-doubt, but now it has lost its efficacy and relevance.  The newest boogeyman now is life, itself, as people are afraid of life, afraid to grow up, afraid to grow old, feeling a compelling need to deny death which is simply a part of life.

Drug addiction has become a pervasive norm of popular culture as an alternative to boredom and self-loathing.  This may start with the innocence of taking a prescription drug in recreational insouciance only to subsequently become hooked on the remedy and on the road to self-destruction.  We don’t become lost and self-hating in a moment.  Depersonalization takes time for the gradual erosion of core values and beliefs to drive a person away from self-regard and into a state of being associated with the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Eventually, the addicted person finds himself in “nowhere land,” wondering how this has happened. 

There are questions we may ask ourselves when caught in this dilemma:

When did I adopt this new outlook?  When did I start to hate what I am and my own people?  When did my thoughts spin out of control and my imagination end in fantasy land?  When did I uncritically accept my adopted belief system without reflection?

Identity and self-regard spring from a healthy self-monitoring “moral center” with supportive values that are fully operational and self-sustaining. 

Anyone who reads biographies and histories of people in their respective situations can see how they wrestled with their times and with themselves to reach their eminence.    

Challenge and failure humanized them as they dealt with their foibles and follies, the same way they humanize us as we deal with our own.  They are not another race.  They are the same as we are only written large.  Intuition often plays a role in their lives the same as it does in ours.  This was true of Elbert Einstein who dreamed of riding a light beam soaring beyond time and matter and what we call “space.”

TWO CASES IN POINT

PROFILE OF ADAM

The idea of a “moral compass” has intrigued Adam since a boy as he has always been disinclined to compare and compete with others while quietly doing his own thing to effectively utilize his inherent ability. 

The idea of being popular with his playmates never occurred to him, for if they wanted to go to one movie and he desired to go to another, he would separate himself from them, and say he would see them after the flick often to their disappointment and consternation.

If it started to rain when they were playing baseball, his teammates would find some place to go to chat and play card games, while he would go home to read his comics.  He would do this without preamble as he never felt comfortable with small talk. 

It didn’t occur to him that this was odd as it was quite natural to him.  His teammates tolerated him as he was, as did his classmates and later coworkers on the job because they knew he would bring his best efforts to whatever he was doing with a complete commitment to excellence irrespective of the activity or the return on that investment.

Once reaching professional status at work after university, he never considered competing against other professionals for raises or promotions.  Ironically, since his focus was entirely on the job at hand, he enjoyed a modicum of promotions in a panoply of careers.  

Should he become bored at what he was doing, experience a sense of betrayal, or encounter an assault on his character, he would resign posthaste.  No amount of money or social pressure could keep him doing what was offensive to him as he trusted himself in finding something more suitable to his disposition, but alas, often at the pain of personal and economic sacrifice.       

His “moral compass” has been a reliable guidance system that has defied conventional wisdom and good sense as it is inner directed rather than externally dependent.  He would retire early to write books and articles outlining what he has experienced, has learned from that experience, and how that experience has elevated his awareness of the satisfaction and happiness possible when worry, distress and anxiety are put to bed.  He encourages his readers to think for themselves, creatively and confidently, in their daily pursuits by harnessing their unique talent.

He claims no special talent, never considered himself either especially ambitious or courageous, while being wholeheartedly involved in some kind of activity at every juncture of his life keeping his mind and spirit operating at something approaching his capacity.

PROFILE OF EVE

Eve never met a stranger.  She warms up to everyone she meets as if a long lost relative.  She is kind, gentle, courteous, generous, humble, perspicacious and perennially cheerful.  She goes out of her way to make others feel good about themselves helping them wherever she finds them: at work, in the shopping mall, in the community, or in her home. 

It is never about her but always about others with whom she is socializing or working.  She delights in bringing a smile to a face that was earlier frowning.  She is modest to a fault while being talented at whatever she does.  She is exceptionally intelligent but wears this attribute with disarming charm.  She is a learner not a knower; a listener not a talker; a problem solver not a worrier.  She is the most mature adult you will ever meet, and you will feel this before it reaches your consciousness.     

She has a zest for life that is contagious.  Everyone she knows considers themselves her best friend.  She came from a loving family where her parents were “Born Again” Christians and practiced their faith openly and unapologetically.  She was an obedient and loving daughter but once out of the nest she took on life in a much less doctrinaire way and became her own person on her own terms and her own way.  This has confounded those confined to absolutes be they of church, state, social class, or of a certain political persuasion, ethnicity or race, as reason not bias guides her actions and choices.   

Given this description, the reader might assume that she is malleable to a fault.  Not true.  There is steel in her spine.  Cross the invisible line in her construction that marks the sanctity of her person, and you will experience her wrath, a vitriol that you will never forget.  Her “moral compass” is unobtrusive but totally engaged.  While it is not rigid, it will sanction no violation.   

To meet her, you would find it hard to imagine her ever getting mad, upset or calling a person out.  But lie to her or betray her trust and you will experience her animus and the thunder of her displeasure.    

ADAM & EVE AS ONE

The “moral compasses” of Adam and Eve may appear to be quite different, but are they?  Eve is clearly a cognitive person with a strong affect while Adam is an intuitive person with an equally strong affect but tainted with self-righteousness.  Adam rejects the herd mentality with a vengeance and moralistic disdain while Eve is simply amused by those inclined to such counterproductive dalliances. 

Eve is gregarious with a strong social conscience while Adam is most comfortable alone with his books or in the company of Eve.  Adam is pensive and quasi-narcissistic whereas Eve never takes herself too seriously.  She enjoys games and popular music as well as situation comedies on television whereas Adam has no interest in any of this.  He prefers complex mysteries on television with many fault lines with the greater the twists and turns the greater his satisfaction.  Such mysteries, however, put Eve to sleep.   They both enjoy reading but not necessarily the same books.  Adam is driven never having learned to relax, that is, until Eve came into his life.  She has introduced him to the comfort of simply hanging out.      

Adam and Eve have been married for many years, both with active “moral compasses” with dispositions to act and react to situations and stimuli consistent with their respective differences.  What these guidance systems have in common is that they are centered on, activated by and responsive to external stimuli. 

Adam and Eve have remained loving, committed and supportive of each other despite their different approaches to life.  Why do they get along so well?  They respect and trust each other, give each other lots of space, constantly talk to each other every day, sharing their high points, while enjoying each other’s company in such diverse activities as shopping for groceries or traveling about the world.     

Another common bond is that they were both born and grew up in the culture of the American Midwest with Eve’s ancestors coming from Norway and of the Lutheran faith, while Adam’s ancestors came from Ireland and Norway and were Roman Catholics.  Not enough can be said about a common heritage contributing to a sustainable relationship.

In summary, Adam and Eve are each other’s best friend; committed to doing no one harm be they rich or poor, educated or not, and of whatever race, religion, and ethnicity or belief system; for they trust themselves and therefore can trust each other.

I hope this helps; and I thank you for challenging my reference to the “moral compass.”