Iain McGilchrist on the importance of barriers in the protection of groups (bold added):
In a world without boundaries or patterns, although in one sense everything would be different, by the same token everything would be the same. We are what we are by virtue of our defining, delimiting (in each case, literally 'bounding') qualities, which nonetheless paradoxically liberate ('unbounding') us into being what we are: what we are is disclosed equally by what we are and are not. Which is why groups cease to cohere if they have no criteria of exclusion, one of the commonest observations in sociology.
-- The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, by Iain McGilchrist, p. 1314
It is not just that, as human beings, our individuality takes its nature and meaning from the groups to which we belong, and that they take their nature and meaning from the individuals that belong to them, so that they are inextricably intertwined and reciprocally generative. It's true of the non-human world, too, and, indeed, of every aspect of experience. . . . A degree of generalisation makes differentiation -- types or species of beings or phenomema -- possible. The more we break down barriers, the less differentiation we have. Meaning derives from the existence of, and a proper delight in, recognisable patterns.
-- ibid, p. 1314
Although I would agree with some of that, group think rather than critical thinking has led us down this path to self destruction... Because of the abuse and criticism that the critical thinker is subjected to, it wears their defenses down... Conviction in your beliefs helps mitigate the wearing down of your psyche as well as prayer and faith in our Holy Father... Cheers anon...
I agree with you about conviction in your beliefs -- which I see as being supported most strongly and unshakably by healthy childhood experience, as Jesus made clear. Without love and freedom (which includes age-appropriate levels of responsibility for one's actions) in childhood, it is all-too-easy for an adult to be led astray.
McGilchrist is talking about the necessary supporting structure of any group, including the exclusion of non-group members (not socially; interaction with others isn't what he's talking about here); about what DEFINES a group and what happens when that structure begins dissolving. And he's speaking of the IMPORTANCE of groups in human life.
Iain McGilchrist on the importance of barriers in the protection of groups (bold added):
Although I would agree with some of that, group think rather than critical thinking has led us down this path to self destruction... Because of the abuse and criticism that the critical thinker is subjected to, it wears their defenses down... Conviction in your beliefs helps mitigate the wearing down of your psyche as well as prayer and faith in our Holy Father... Cheers anon...
I agree with you about conviction in your beliefs -- which I see as being supported most strongly and unshakably by healthy childhood experience, as Jesus made clear. Without love and freedom (which includes age-appropriate levels of responsibility for one's actions) in childhood, it is all-too-easy for an adult to be led astray.
McGilchrist is talking about the necessary supporting structure of any group, including the exclusion of non-group members (not socially; interaction with others isn't what he's talking about here); about what DEFINES a group and what happens when that structure begins dissolving. And he's speaking of the IMPORTANCE of groups in human life.
Got ya... Makes sense...