In the simplest of terms, ideology is the study of ideas.

In the previous philosophical series, Developmental Theology 089, we talked about very basic ideas that can help develop an open mind, and teach us how to create our own philosophical views, overlooking prior prejudices. You can read the entire Developmental Theology series in this PDF.

With the foundation built in Developmental Theology, my hope is to extend this learning with my Basic Ideology lessons. These lessons haven’t seen the kind of popularity as the former lessons. I think this is because the ideas and concepts are more complex. I’ve struggled with making the subject itself more accessible to the everyday person, with no prior knowledge of philosophical concepts. I’m beginning to think this is the mistake. It has been suggested that to better understand the current lessons, one should have read the prior lessons.

Which leads us to this lesson. I’ve provided a back link, so those who are behind, but would like to catch up, can. I’ll be working on better ways to do this as we continue these lessons.

Back to the question at hand: What is ideology?

Well, it is indeed the study of ideas, but it is also much more personal than that. Every person adheres to an ideology, whether they realize it or not. It is the sum total of one’s beliefs concerning right and wrong, and the degree to which things are right and wrong. Further it includes a person’s concepts of justice, punishment, reward, and how to deal with our own actions, as well as the actions of others.

Sometimes these ideologies have names, such as Humanism, which we talked about in the last two lessons, or a religious grouping. More often, one’s ideology is very personal, and crosses over many identified ideologies, as well as those without a name. It is influenced by events in life, and their effects, the things children are taught by their parents and other authority figures, books read, and things studied. Personal ideologies are constantly changing and evolving as new ideas and experiences are introduced.

I believe that by talking about these ideas, we can shift our focus and purposely evolve our own concepts. And in this sharing, we might find that we are not so different, despite our personal ideologies. Helping to build the community of man is the most important thing to which a person can aspire. And it’s what I aspire to here, and I hope at least some of my readers are with me on this cause.

Jack
I Listen.

Basic Ideology 101
Lesson #25
The Battle of Focus

In this lesson, we’ll talk about Humanism, using the information that is generally available across the net, and some of the remarks Ryan made.

Humanism has several off-shoots, with a variety of beliefs. Some are based in religion, others in atheism, but agnosticism seems to be most prevalent. The basic ideas involved with Humanism do not require a religious concept of God, or laws laid down by a religion.

So, let’s set out the base of Humanism in bullets.

• Democratic
• Humane Action
• Human Reason
• Ethics
• Justice
• Rejection of Superstition.
• Charity and Philanthropy

So, when we take a look at these aspects, we can see a lot of what Ryan was talking about in his email.

Humane action and ethics play the most important part in this, to my view point. The way we treat other people should be with kindness and understanding. Whether or not there is a God(or gods) should have no effect on how we treat each other. Most Humanists take this a step further and volunteer, work for charity, or donate money to charitable organizations.

I’d like to take a moment, and focus on a couple of things Ryan said.

Do what is right because it’s right and there may be nobody else to do it.

That is a powerful statement. Doing what is right, when you are in the position to do so.

If we want to see good in the world we have to do it ourselves.

Again, there is a lot to this statement. Responsibility. I think that is what it really boils down to; human responsibility. It’s not just a responsibility to ourselves, but to society, and our world.

So, looking back on Humanism, I think it’s easy to see that, at its very core, it is merely the idea of treating people well and doing what we believe is right. Doesn’t sound so different from many other ideologies or religions, does it?

Jack
I Listen.

Basic Ideology 101
Lesson #24
The Battle of Responsibility

I explained to Ryan what I was looking for, and what he sent me was so personal and informative, that I asked if I could publish the entire email. So, here is what Ryan Sutter has to say about Humanism, and how he found it. Enjoy.

I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and stayed one until I was 30 years old at which point I lost my faith in it and didn’t know what to call myself or what I believed. I took the Beliefnet Belief-O-Matic and found out that my beliefs were most closely defined as humanist. Not having really ever thought about humanism before this, I was a bit surprised to find a web site telling me that I was one.

I went on to study it a little and found that the whole idea of humanism was fairly straightforward and could be boiled down into the statement: Do what is right because it’s right and there may be nobody else to do it. In other words, we live in a world that may or not have any supernatural element, but that really should have no bearing on being a good and moral person. Goodness and morality are things you need to practice if you want them to exist in the world, they don’t come from somewhere other than us and if we don’t do them, they don’t exist. This is a compelling alternate reason for living a clean moral life as opposed to the reward/punishment model of Christianity.

You don’t do good and avoid evil in order to reap a reward or avoid a punishment, you do so simply because you wish for good in the world and you wish to avoid evil in the world and you let the supernatural aspect take care of itself, if there is such a thing.

That is humanism and it is my deep belief that even the religious person who hates or fears the “godless atheists and secular humanists” basically lives a moral life for the same fundamental reasons, if you press them on it. Most Christians will admit that they aren’t restrained from killing their neighbor and raping his life because they are afraid of God but because they know it’s the wrong thing to do. They know this innately, because they wouldn’t want it done to themselves. “Do unto others” is a very humanist statement.

Of course, in conversations with religious believers (including my own father) I’ve come to realize that this is not what humanism means to fundamentalist eyes. To a lot of people it seems that humanism means “whatever man decides to do is right” or “there is no god so we’re screwed, ACK! let’s call our pathetic plight ‘humanism’ and worship ourselves”. The first commits the naturalistic fallacy and the second conflates humanism and atheism. Humanism does not glorify people or set them up for worship. The whole concept of worship means to give praise and obedience to a higher power. When you are a human, and a humanist, you are not suddenly a higher power. In fact, it’s humbling. You look at yourself and your limited capabilities and you look at humankind and their messy psychological and sociological situations and you realize that we all need to work really hard to solve our problems, cooperate more, communicate more, help each other more, because if we are all we have then none of us is an island, none of us can operate without considering the fates of the others, and we all need each other. Kinda’ knocked me down a peg from when I thought I was personally fashioned in God’s image, while simultaneously making me feel a sense of civic and moral obligation as opposed to how I felt when I thought God would charge in and fix everything. The sense of personal responsibility implicit in humanism is extremely powerful. I think that explains why so many humanists are involved in social justice and activist causes, as well as volunteerism. They have to be, on some level, or their conscience nags at them because all it takes for bad people to have their way is for good people to do nothing.

I have found a lot of prejudice against humanism over the last 5
years. People say Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot were humanists, to
which I say bullshit. Humanism is a philosophical justification for moral and humane behavior. If a psychopath or despot commits acts of atrocity and cruelty, their actions are immoral and inhumane and therefore anti-humanist, whether they believe in a supernatural or not. Like I mentioned earlier, humanism does not say there is no God, humanism says that regardless of the metaphysical state of things, if we want to see good in the world we have to do it ourselves. The sad fact is that some people decide their is no God so they DO murder their next door neighbor and rape his wife, and other people do the exact same thing and say God made them do it, or the Devil, or whatever. The point is, that any behavior that is anti-human is anti-humanist and people can decide to be evil with or without belief in God. When people start to connect the two questions of “Does God exist” and “How should I behave” as if they are inextricably linked they are committing a fallacy. They are two separate questions that do not necessarily relate.

Thanks for the insight, Ryan.

Jack
I Listen.

Basic Ideology 101
Lesson #23
The Battle of Human Action

The Tao of Minus
—-

Mancini was a little startled when Jane asked about the Akashic Library. But he knew that she had that right, even if she did not have that power.

So, they talked at length about the great teachers of the past, about the holy guardian angel, and about the Akashic Library.

He suggested she take the six month sojourn to learn about the Holy Guardian Angel before trying to access the Akashic Library.

“But… hmm.. When Minus returns, we will talk. He may have a short cut for you. You have every right to view it for yourself. Especially since I have an oath to not speak of what I see there. Minus is not allowed to enter. But neither of us really know why. Sometimes, it’s almost like he has no book. Like his lifetime is not recorded, as it is with the rest of us.”

Jane didn’t know how to answer. Mancini appeared puzzled, even in his ghostly astral form.

Mancini continued, “The information I have about Minus is from my personal experience with him, and from reading the life books of others that have interacted with him. There are large blank periods, that I can find no information on. Five years ago, shortly after we had met, he completely disappeared. No one knows why. Or where he was. He refuses to talk about it.”

“From what I’ve learned of alacrity,” Jane interjected, “Is it possible that he got lost in it?”

“It’s possible. But Othin practices alacrity too.. I’d think Othin would have been able to find him…”

“And then he disappeared for three years with me, at that bar..” Jane was trying to string together the facts. This whole mess was terribly confusing to her. She had never known magic like this. All of these things were brand new to her.

“Yes, that’s right. Minus is… well, odd. It’s almost like he has a cloaking ability. Kotoko witnessed it with trying to find this house. This house is totally off the official radar. Only a handful of people know it’s here at all. But it has been here for fifty years at least.

“Although it wasn’t his fault, you two were completely masked inside that bar. In the same way, Minus is completely hidden now, at the world tree. No magic can find him there. If you were to walk up to the exact tree he was on, you would not be able to see him.”

“Does he know this,” asked Jane.

“Sometimes.. Definitely not all of the time. He doesn’t dabble in divination, so he really doesn’t understand the concept at all. All of his magic comes naturally, through self-sacrifice.”

“Like now? Like his trip to the world tree?” Jane’s curiosity was peaked.

“Yes,” the doctor answered. “Just like now. This is not the first time he has performed the self-sacrifice rituals for knowledge, or power. It’s almost like the gods favor him. His family has no history of magical blood. Unlike me and you. There is no reason for Minus to have the power and understanding that he does. I’ve spent a long, long time trying to figure it out.”

“What about Othin? I thought he was Minus’ uncle?” Jane interjected.

“Othin is not a blood relative. He was a friend of Minus’ mother. But she never knew about Othin’s magical side life. You see, to most people, Othin just looks and acts like an old, burned-out hippie. I’ve known him for five years. He has not aged a day, but we can discuss that later.

“It really boils down to the fact that Minus basically gave me my powers. I’m certain that he has had a positive impact on your magic as well. Probably Kotoko, too. Othin often tells me about personal relationships with gods, but I usually chalk it up to metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. Most of the gods are dead, or were never there to begin with. Maybe I should reconsider that. We’ll talk to Minus about it when he returns. Not long left.”

And so, that night, Jane began to practice astral travel to see if she could find this Holy Guardian Angel and the Akashic Library. She was tired of being out of the loop. She was worried about Minus, and she had to do something about it.

—-

Jack
Listen.

The Cost of Magic
Section #24
The Tao of Minus

Please Don’t Leave Your Ectoplasm
—-

Minus touched the top of the monitor where Mancini had been sitting. He pulled his hand up and it had a yellow slime on it that stretched to the monitor.

“Aww, dammit. He always messes up my fucking monitors. Jackass.” Jane could tell that Minus’ irritation was mostly sarcasm.

“So he talked you into taking one of his messed up astral travel pills, eh? I think he always gives me so many in hopes that I’ll mistake them for Vicodin when I’m drunk,” Minus laughed.

“Yeah, he told me that you were quite the alchemist,” Jane replied.

“I like to play around. I can move molecule to molecule from the base if I enter into speed thought. So just about everything in that drawer is a custom made mind trap of some sort.

“Did he tell you that he’s afraid of the Alacrity Motion?” Jane nodded at this question.

“He can barely understand the concepts, but he was probably right. You should work on other things first. He’ll be able to teach you a lot while I’m gone.”

“Where are you going? That tree you were talking about?” Jane asked.

“Yeah. Closest one is north of here. In the park area of Washington. I’ll have to walk most of the way there, but that’s not really an issue. There are waves I can ride. My truck will be here, if you need it. But please try to stay inside.”

“I’m sure Victor will keep me busy most of the time. It seems like I am pretty out of the loop. I never thought people could use magic like this. I thought the glamors and astral stuff was my gypsy heritage. I mean, my mother taught them to me…” Her head was starting to swim. She felt floaty and very sleepy.

“Why don’t you call your friend and see when she can get here. After she’s stopped by we’ll rest. I’ll need to leave early tomorrow.”

—-

Jack
I Listen.

The Cost of Magic
Section #17
Please Don’t Leave Your Ectoplasm

redemption – noun
1. an act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed.
2. deliverance; rescue.
3. Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.
4. atonement for guilt.
5. repurchase, as of something sold.
6. paying off, as of a mortgage, bond, or note.
7. recovery by payment, as of something pledged.
8. conversion of paper money into specie.

redeem – verb (used with object)
1. to buy or pay off; clear by payment: to redeem a mortgage.
2. to buy back, as after a tax sale or a mortgage foreclosure.
3. to recover (something pledged or mortgaged) by payment or other satisfaction
4. to exchange (bonds, trading stamps, etc.) for money or goods.
5. to convert (paper money) into specie.
6. to discharge or fulfill (a pledge, promise, etc.).
7. to make up for; make amends for; offset (some fault, shortcoming, etc.)
8. to obtain the release or restoration of, as from captivity, by paying a ransom.
9. Theology. to deliver from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner.

Okay, Let’s think about these definitions for a moment.  The most important thing to notice is that the idea of ‘redeeming’ or ‘redemption’ is based entirely on something that was supposed to have been paid for to begin with.  The problem with this is that with the promise of redemption, we accept a debt.  This will not do for free-thinking people.

Redemption no longer has a reason to exist.  Instead, things should be paid for at the time of service, or things should be free.  We seek redemption for our actions.  We should have a free conscience after our actions, thus negating the need for redemption.

Our thoughts have no business creating the state of debt or guilt that brings on this concept.  We should pay for our thoughts accordingly and promptly, and not take on states of debt at all. If we can do this, then we can experience true freedom.

Jack
I Listen.

Basic Ideology 101

Battle #6
Freedom.

(definitions care of Dictionary.com)

I was a guest on Cranky Tech in the early AM Sunday. Click the link to hear the whole hour.

This photo was censored on flickr without my permission or notification. I’ll be moving over to Picasa web soon.

I’d like to take a moment to thank a few great people at twitter. Phyrdancer was nice enough to design a logo for me.  Check it out below. Tonysteward was nice enough to give away 3 copies of Seth Godin’s Tribe. And I was lucky enough to be one of the receivers. Iaindodsworth, who created TweetDeck, was very helpful when I was utterly lost. Another twitter innovator, Mario, creator of twitterfeeds, was willing to go above and beyond to help me change my OpenID login info.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on with twitter again.

In blog news, there will be a post similar to this every Sunday now. Basic Ideology 101 lessons will be on every Monday now.

The eBook collecting the Developmental Theology 089 series is well under way and coming along well. For those of you that didn’t follow this series of articles, it focuses on introducing philosophical concepts to the average person.

-Jack
I Listen.

Class begins!

Reexamining the Self

The patterns in which we think are so important. There are answers in patterns. If you change what you think can you change your life? It’s almost impossible to say really. I could drone on about the power of positive thought and other such cliches, but I won’t. The fact is that we don’t know, and we can’t know, until we try. Take a long, close look at your thought patterns. Could there be a problem or a trend there that you are missing?

Patterns are important in many other ways too. Look beyond just your thoughts. Can you see patterns in your life? The lives of those around you? Are these patterns healthy or damaging?

Jack.
I Listen.
Basic Ideology 101

Battle #1
Reexamining the Self

——–

Odin saw that the storm was getting closer. He looked me in the eye, grabbing my chin.

“You’re our only hope, my son. Show them what you know to be true. Show them magic. Show them dreams. Show them shamans!” Odin was screaming at me by the end.

“Show who?” Dangling by one foot, upside down on the ancient, gnarled tree, Yggdrasil. The blood has full in my face. I was fairly certain I had an eye hanging loose(This is something that often happens around Odin-One-Eye).

“Dammit all! Show them, boy! The ones that have forgotten!” He held his arms wide and I could suddenly see the people of the world with my dangling eye. Odin was gone completely now. Disappeared as fast as he showed up. And I’m sitting in front of my computer, a little crossed, but no worse for the wear. I’ve gotten kind of used to being the Hanged Man.

———————————

I’m stepping things up a bit with DT089 because I believe more and more people are starting to grasp these concepts. So things may get slightly more complex. As your hopefully soon-to-be spiritual leader(j/k), I have faith in you. I speak of Odin a lot, by many different names, and I encourage you to do research on the themes I talk about.

So today, we’re gonna talk about some basic stuff. Very basic. But somehow we never seem to get it right. It’s time we changed that. The Chamber of Guf is almost empty. There is very little time left to make this the world we need.

1. Don’t Kill People! This is the most basic law, yet we have not been able to master it.
2. Don’t Kill People. See above.
3. Friends are found where we need them most. Soul Magnetism is a profound thing.
4. Don’t ever give up! (The hardest one of all.)
5. Time does not exist. It is a human concept for measurement. Without humans there would be no Time at all.
6. Laugh as much as you possibly can! If you cannot laugh at a situation that situation does not exist!
7. Just be fucking nice people. Come on.
8. There is no Tragedy and there is no Joy. Only impressions of emotional highs and lows.
9. Pick up a book! Read. Knowledge = Power.
10. Listen to good advice. Listen to bad advice. Try your best not to take either.

That’s all for now. I’ll expound upon these ideas more in the future.

Loki.
I Listen.
DT089
Lesson #46
Associated Content

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Tags: ideology, philosophy, theology, odin, norse, Guf, religion, judaism

-Loki.
Developmental Theology 089
Lesson #38

“Smells like Death in here…”

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Tags: Buddha, god, concept, buddhism, ideology, religion, philosophy, theology