By Dr. Charlie Palmgren

“The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead.” – Albert Einstein

Summary of Previous Material

Previously, Wieman suggested our creativity was sinking to a minimum” Our innate, instinctual and intrinsic capacity for engaging in CI was being corrupted. He suggested that the oligarchs, as I now refer to them, would not be immune to the continuing decay of postcivilization. I’ll pick up right where I left off. All of Henry’s quotes are found on page 154 and 155 in RI.

Danger Hanging Over the Privileged

Wieman continues;

“The danger will hang over the privileged few as much as over the enslaved many, because ruling groups come into conflict with one another, and modern instruments of war and industrial production are so excusably powerful that their misuse will bring self-destruction more swiftly and fatally than was possible in the past.”

So, how are our privileged few, I refer to as oligarchs, doing? Are they sitting on their massively expensive yachts, sipping champagne and checking their phones for the latest stock shares available for exchange? How about one of their billion-dollar homes on some exclusive isle in the South Pacific? Or, perhaps plotting strategies for new international alliances? Or more precisely, Putin of Russia, Urban of Hungary, Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, Chi of China, Modi of India, Netanyahu of Israel or Ishiba of Japan? Oh, and let’s not forget any from the U.S., who might aspire to be one too. We know one individual who considers himself to be one of them right now.

You would think people with all that power and wealth would be preoccupied with the buying and selling of their big expensive yachts, multiple properties and houses, exotic perfumes, wines, liquors, fine cuisine, gold bullion collections or bit coin investments. However, these options do not seem to be taking center stage in their thinking or their agenda. Henry suggested they might be more interested in accumulating more power and wealth.

A dear friend and philanthropist friend of mine helped me get a glimpse into the world of wealth. She and her husband turned a small business into millions of dollars in one decade. One day she was pondering a burning question, when is enough, enough? The answer of many billionaires and millionaires was and still is, just a little more. After accumulating millions or billions there remains a lingering feeling of not quite enough. What is missing? Why more of the same? So, what is missing AND when will enough be enough? What is this strange value or which one can’t get enough?

It is important to understand Wieman’s definition of a value. Henry said a value is a “goal-seeking activity”. Values change things or situations from point A to point B. There is an intention, anticipation, motivation to change a particular situation to a different situation, i.e. a certain amount of money into a larger sum of money. In the opening sentence of his doctoral dissertation in 1917, Henry wrote;

“Our problem will be to the discover that organization of human interests which is most conducive to their maximum fulfilment. The object of [a] quest is the greatest good.” 

The Organization of Interests page 3

In this case an interest is a form of value, something worth your attention and/or effort on our part. I think if Henry were writing that sentence today, he might well have used the word greater, rather than greatest good; elsewhere he used the highest good. The greater good can simply mean a higher or better form of the current good. That is why I recently said to my co-author, Bill Petrarca, “our book, The Greatest Good needed to be changed to The Greater Good.” Henry always left the door open for increasing value. That’s a two or three pager for another day.

Henry continues;

“The principle of organization, which [I] propose is…creativity. [My] thesis is that all interests should be…organized…to function as one; and that one should be creative interest. Interest which is directed to developing a fuller consciousness of some object…. [I] believe that the organization which causes all the processes constitutive of human life to function in satisfying creative interest is the organization…which yields the most complete and continuous satisfaction.”

            The Organization of Interests page 3

In my simplistic way, I researched for over a decade in various parts of the world and multiple cultures to identify some core values of people living in other parts of the world. I found that our deepest values can be boiled down to a handful that include satisfaction, peace, love, kindness, compassion, truth, beauty and goodness. Perhaps this is related to why the wealthy having experienced all of the exotic things of life realized wealth fails to produce lasting satisfaction. There must be some kind of deeper need for a deeper truth, a greater good and more beauty than money can buy.

Henry continues;

“Raymond Aron writes, ‘Mankind has a history because it is in search of a destiny.’ To that comment we can add: The continuity of human history will not be assured until mankind finds and accepts its destiny, that way of life which [humankind] must follow if they are not to become self-destructive and bring history to an end. 

I am arguing…this destiny will be found if and when the control mechanisms are deliberately and effectively designed to avoid anarchy…[by] directing liberated impulses into the creativity of history, whereby the human level of existence is expanded to larger dimensions. …The mechanisms of control which must do this…are government, industry, institutional education, religion and morality, established custom, and the use of language.

This of course is no simple request on Henry’s part. When it comes to U.S. culture, there have always been challenges of how to interpret the relationship between the value of Church and State. Henry felt we can’t shove our differences under the rug when it comes to governance and the ethical consequences of our religious, ethical and moral dilemmas. If Henry were here today, I would argue that one more social institution must be added to governance, business, education and institutional religion. It is clear to me that social media and hi-tech with its AI and ChatGPT is a game changer. We know phones, T.V.s and other electronic devices are accelerating social change AND much of it is polarizing.

Rapid acceleration of hi tech has brought everything and everyone into closer proximity and the planet has become progressively a resource to fuel our insatiable appetites for ever more products and services to satisfy our endless quest to consume and be entertained. What we have failed to take into account is the toll postcivilization is having on the natural world and the kind of environment that is required to sustain our endless cravings. We’ve remained blind to how resources are distributed among our neighbors.

The largest impact is the acceleration of how quickly we can destroy the decay of postcivilization. We see this when current science studies climate change, introducing chemical pesticides and herbicides into our decaying ecosystems and the challenges of planetary warming and a host of interconnected contaminates such as microplastics into the food chain. Civilized thinking fails to perceive the interconnectedness of these issues. Instead, it compartmentalizes and systematically attempts to solve problems produced by such an approach.  This is folly.

Returning to Wieman we read;

“Of all the innovations required to enable men to live at the high human level in the new age we are now entering, the one most critically important is the development of a form of religion which can join with science AND morality to serve THIS creativity. The part of religion in this development is to direct commitment of our lives to this creative presence; the part of science is to search out its required conditions; and the part of morality is to use scientific knowledge AND technology to provide these conditions and continuously improve them as research learns more about them.

Imagine, if you can, religious, scientific and facilitative types collaborating, cooperating and coordinating while inventing creative solutions to our environmental, economic, social educational and governing problems. Impractical you say? Think about what we are doing with our political, social and economic capital at the moment. What are our oligarchs spending right now and profiting from? Our conflicts of course. Instead of enjoying their boats, houses, vacations, belongings and the like, some of the wealthiest are strategizing and financing war. Putin, Kim, Urban, Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, and Ali Khamenei.

How much CI do you see practiced by the oligarchs? How much more power is needed? When is enough, enough? What would just a little more power do for them? The quest for power, prestige, fame, control, publicity, stocks, seems endless. Perhaps bigger crowds, applause would do it or hands for that matter. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The quest for power is a value. This value generates a lot of energy in the service of control. Is there another value which might fill the hole or vacuum and bring authentic satisfaction?

Wieman believed there was and is. Remember what he said, “This outcome is not inevitable; it can be prevented if [humankind] can be made to see the danger of it.” That is the theme of the next Final Frontier in the WLL. Stay tuned.

Love to all and Co-Creatively,

Dr. Charlie Palmgren