Ernest Becker\u2019s view of the \u201cmodern\u201d parallels the impression that any long-lived alien would have had after watching the transformation of the Ubaid village culture after the adoption of speech-alone talk.\u00a0 An apparently holistic society became supercharged through fragmentation.<\/p>\n
For the Ubaids, the fragmentation was practical.\u00a0 Potters separated from House-makers.\u00a0 Reed collectors separated from Reed boat makers.\u00a0 Wool spinners separated from Weavers.\u00a0 Priests separated from Shamans.\u00a0 Each separation created a new job title.<\/p>\n
7600 years later, for the moderns, the fragmentation was abstract.\u00a0 Money fragmented from value.\u00a0 Fact separated from theory.\u00a0 Science fragmented from Philosophy.\u00a0 Social Science separated from whatever-was-left-of-Philosophy.\u00a0 Electricity fragmented from Matter.\u00a0 Nuclear force separated from Electro-Magnetism.\u00a0\u00a0 Television separated from Radio.\u00a0 Hair-stylists separated from Barbers.\u00a0 Each fragment yielded a new profession.<\/p>\n
Becker asked: How to analyze this issue of fragmentation in terms of science and reason?<\/p>\n
He started by considering individual and society.\u00a0 In fragmentation, each fragment has its own set of shared values (which I would call a \u201clanguage\u201d) that exists independently of the individual.\u00a0 The individual may belong to one fragment and not to another.\u00a0 One fragment \u201cspeaks her language\u201d and the other does not.\u00a0 The latter is experienced as \u201calienation\u201d by \u201cimpersonal social institutions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Within one\u2019s own fragment, the individual is faced with pressures to conform.\u00a0 The person faces a reduction in choices and freedom.\u00a0 So the person suffers a second alienation in \u201cconforming\u201d.<\/p>\n
Becker\u2019s conclusion:\u00a0 We have lost the unifying vision that once controlled the impersonal structures of institutions.<\/p>\n
A shorter version:\u00a0 We have lost perspective.<\/p>\n
But what we have really lost is the security \u2013 really, the joy – of \u201cbelonging to who we belonged to\u201d and \u201cnot knowing any different\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0This was the way of life among our hand-speech talking Paleolithic and Early Neolithic ancestors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ernest Becker\u2019s view of the \u201cmodern\u201d parallels the impression that any long-lived alien would have had after watching the transformation of the Ubaid village culture after the adoption of speech-alone talk.\u00a0 An apparently holistic society became supercharged through fragmentation. For the Ubaids, the fragmentation was practical.\u00a0 Potters separated from House-makers.\u00a0 Reed collectors separated from Reed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-science-of-original-sin"],"yoast_head":"\n