Could \u201cnot knowing any different\u201d equal the \u201cunifying vision that once controlled the impersonal structures of institutions\u201d that was lost in \u201cmodern\u201d social fragmentation?<\/p>\n
Consider, social fragmentation draws the individual into a type of social bondage, where one is held within a particular \u201clanguage\u2019 community, say, the community of Plumbers, that is further reinforced by the existence of other \u201clanguage\u201d communities that one does not belong to, such as the community of Electricians.<\/p>\n
The fragmentation induces anxiety to the extent that the Plumber imagines that she could have been an Electrician.\u00a0 Anxiety promotes neurotic behaviors, which block actions, close options, and increase one\u2019s own bondage.\u00a0 Anxiety also inspires one to pretend to be what (one could be but) is not.\u00a0 For example, an anxious Plumber (who imagines that she could have been an Electrician) may mess up a project by telling the Electrician how to do her job; that is, by pretending to be the Electrician as well as the Plumber.<\/p>\n
The Plumber has a choice.\u00a0 She may try to impose her own meanings on the Electrician or she may step back and imagine that \u201cshe does not know any different\u201d.<\/p>\n
But \u201cletting go\u201d does not make \u201cmore choices and freedom available to me\u201d, which is what Becker wanted.\u00a0 Well, Becker wanted more than that.\u00a0 He wanted to re-generate his mythical unifying vision that once controlled the impersonal structures of institutions<\/em>.<\/p>\n According to Becker, with this unifying vision, the Plumber could pretend.\u00a0 She could have been an Electrician if she had wanted to be.\u00a0 Pretending would give her self-esteem.\u00a0 Self-esteem is the only way to escape the bondage of psychological determinism that comes from fragmentation.\u00a0 Self-esteem is the surest basis for selflessness and social harmony, especially when it comes from Becker\u2019s mythical unifying vision that controls the impersonal structures of institutions<\/em>.<\/p>\n In this way, Ernest Becker, like so many of his day, defined himself as a Great Progressive Thinker.<\/p>\n He could have stepped back, and imagined that \u201che did not know any different\u201d in order to \u201clet go\u201d and free himself of the anxiety of all the lives that he could have lived but never did.\u00a0 He could have been a painter, a chauffer, a paramour to an old lady with henna red hair, a connoisseur of cigars, a Nazi collaborator, or a member of the Resistance.\u00a0 He could have been what his mother wanted him to be \u2026 he could have been anything except \u2026 a person without anxiety, a person who \u201cdid not know any different\u201d, living in the ultimate wonderland of constrained complexity, where every word was grounded in the Real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Could \u201cnot knowing any different\u201d equal the \u201cunifying vision that once controlled the impersonal structures of institutions\u201d that was lost in \u201cmodern\u201d social fragmentation? Consider, social fragmentation draws the individual into a type of social bondage, where one is held within a particular \u201clanguage\u2019 community, say, the community of Plumbers, that is further reinforced by […]<\/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-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-science-of-original-sin"],"yoast_head":"\n