Micro-cosm of the collaboration we have undertaken. An essential distillation. Novel for me to consider, "In species-normal conditions (small-band egalitarian hunter-gatherers; Narvaez, 2013), the self actualizes in babyhood." This feels to me to address the developmental fractality (self-similar at varying stages of development, not scale in this case) of the nest.
"So now we have a world full of half-baked ‘needy’ people, many without an inner moral compass except ‘what suits me in this moment,’ or ‘what helps me/mine win,’ or what an authoritative script or figure tells them is right."
Yes. I didn't know how much I lacked an "inner moral compass" until I finally left a community that wouldn't accept me outside of my codependent "hero child" role at the service of a few of the community's key members. I hurt people by my complicit silence, and I asked and received forgiveness from those people just before I left.
Two weeks after I left, I woke up with my conscience on fire. I was disloyal, it told me. I had forsaken the group. But I had the inspiration to read Paul Tillich, the existentialist philosopher and theologian, on the issue of innocence. The key passage (Theology of Culture, pg. 141) for me that night:
". . . every moral act involves a risk. The human situation itself is such a risk. In order to become human, man must trespass the 'state of innocence,' but when he has trespassed it he finds himself in a state of self-contradiction. . . . A morality which plays safe, by subjecting itself to an unconditional authority, is suspect. It has not the courage to take guilt and tragedy upon itself. True morality takes guilt and tragedy upon itself. True morality is a morality of risk."
My conscience had internalized an external authority. I was full of what Tillich calls "moralisms"--rules from an external authority that one must live by. If I manage to follow those rules pretty well, I remain "innocent." But I never develop the inner moral compass you speak of.
So, late in life, I'm freer from the effects of my primal wounding. Hopefully, in the moment of political choice, I'll be among the unpredictable you speak of.
And, yes! There's a political connection between primal wounding and authoritarianism. In this respect, your essay is close to Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil," a phrases that many don't like in part because of its suggestion that any civilized person, by virtue of their civilized upbringing, is capable of great harm.
I love Tillich and you present a case in point (perhaps we all do). To free ourselves from our obedience to other is a big task. I salute you for your courage!
The evolved developmental niche the builders of civilisation had rejected has now become the cornerstone. It is THE missing puzzle of wholesomeness that we need to re-member and re-store and re-integrate into our collective indigenous regenertative memories. As always, much love and appreciation for all your inspiration and enlightenment. I have used your infrastructural base of understanding to synthesize with life-value onto-axiology then TATi regenerative grammar of coherence that may be useful. I hope this synthesis which builds heavily on your work helps to re-activate more optimistic embodied realiazations of the ways forward. Namaste!!
It is so important to reflect and question the concepts/"precepts" we are consciously and unconsciously led by, due to being able to free ourselves from what leads to harming ourselves and each other and, as everyone and everything is interconnected, harming "All Our Relations". It is so important to become aware of how ignoring our natural, true potentials, needs and healthy "nested" socialization leads to "neediness," codependencies, and moralistic, ideological confusion instead of healthy, free, cocreative, mutual connectedness with ourselves and each other. We are challenged globally indeed by such mechanisms. Each and every culture is challenged because there is so much dogmatism forced on human beings by their human surroundings all over the world. This is what I would like to add: dogmatism and authoritarianism are not just a "western" phenomenon. It has many forms and backgrounds... Not all of it is caused by humans with "western" or European socialization. Yes, we should begin with reflecting on ourselves, our own cultural background, but we should not forget that every form of political, economic, and/or religious dogmatism leads to psychological destruction and violence committed as a result, to victim-perpetrator-savior cycles. We are responsible for our "contribution," but coming from "western" cultures, we should not take all the blame on our shoulders alone. This would not be helpful either. Being self-critical is the foundation. Freeing ourselves from one-dimensional identifications, projections, and the concepts of "evil" and "enemies" is vital, but it should not mean that we may not be critical about others, who have their own share in their local problems and our global challenges as well.
Thank you for expanding the critique of dogmatism and authoritarianism. You are right, it is not just a western culture disease but a human disease once inequality gets established and rationalized.
Micro-cosm of the collaboration we have undertaken. An essential distillation. Novel for me to consider, "In species-normal conditions (small-band egalitarian hunter-gatherers; Narvaez, 2013), the self actualizes in babyhood." This feels to me to address the developmental fractality (self-similar at varying stages of development, not scale in this case) of the nest.
"So now we have a world full of half-baked ‘needy’ people, many without an inner moral compass except ‘what suits me in this moment,’ or ‘what helps me/mine win,’ or what an authoritative script or figure tells them is right."
Yes. I didn't know how much I lacked an "inner moral compass" until I finally left a community that wouldn't accept me outside of my codependent "hero child" role at the service of a few of the community's key members. I hurt people by my complicit silence, and I asked and received forgiveness from those people just before I left.
Two weeks after I left, I woke up with my conscience on fire. I was disloyal, it told me. I had forsaken the group. But I had the inspiration to read Paul Tillich, the existentialist philosopher and theologian, on the issue of innocence. The key passage (Theology of Culture, pg. 141) for me that night:
". . . every moral act involves a risk. The human situation itself is such a risk. In order to become human, man must trespass the 'state of innocence,' but when he has trespassed it he finds himself in a state of self-contradiction. . . . A morality which plays safe, by subjecting itself to an unconditional authority, is suspect. It has not the courage to take guilt and tragedy upon itself. True morality takes guilt and tragedy upon itself. True morality is a morality of risk."
My conscience had internalized an external authority. I was full of what Tillich calls "moralisms"--rules from an external authority that one must live by. If I manage to follow those rules pretty well, I remain "innocent." But I never develop the inner moral compass you speak of.
So, late in life, I'm freer from the effects of my primal wounding. Hopefully, in the moment of political choice, I'll be among the unpredictable you speak of.
And, yes! There's a political connection between primal wounding and authoritarianism. In this respect, your essay is close to Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil," a phrases that many don't like in part because of its suggestion that any civilized person, by virtue of their civilized upbringing, is capable of great harm.
I love Tillich and you present a case in point (perhaps we all do). To free ourselves from our obedience to other is a big task. I salute you for your courage!
The evolved developmental niche the builders of civilisation had rejected has now become the cornerstone. It is THE missing puzzle of wholesomeness that we need to re-member and re-store and re-integrate into our collective indigenous regenertative memories. As always, much love and appreciation for all your inspiration and enlightenment. I have used your infrastructural base of understanding to synthesize with life-value onto-axiology then TATi regenerative grammar of coherence that may be useful. I hope this synthesis which builds heavily on your work helps to re-activate more optimistic embodied realiazations of the ways forward. Namaste!!
https://bsahely.com/2025/07/11/from-primal-wound-to-moral-wholeness-re-indigenizing-the-self-through-nested-coherence-chatgpt4o/
Always so good to hear from you, Bichara, a fellow traveler!
It is so important to reflect and question the concepts/"precepts" we are consciously and unconsciously led by, due to being able to free ourselves from what leads to harming ourselves and each other and, as everyone and everything is interconnected, harming "All Our Relations". It is so important to become aware of how ignoring our natural, true potentials, needs and healthy "nested" socialization leads to "neediness," codependencies, and moralistic, ideological confusion instead of healthy, free, cocreative, mutual connectedness with ourselves and each other. We are challenged globally indeed by such mechanisms. Each and every culture is challenged because there is so much dogmatism forced on human beings by their human surroundings all over the world. This is what I would like to add: dogmatism and authoritarianism are not just a "western" phenomenon. It has many forms and backgrounds... Not all of it is caused by humans with "western" or European socialization. Yes, we should begin with reflecting on ourselves, our own cultural background, but we should not forget that every form of political, economic, and/or religious dogmatism leads to psychological destruction and violence committed as a result, to victim-perpetrator-savior cycles. We are responsible for our "contribution," but coming from "western" cultures, we should not take all the blame on our shoulders alone. This would not be helpful either. Being self-critical is the foundation. Freeing ourselves from one-dimensional identifications, projections, and the concepts of "evil" and "enemies" is vital, but it should not mean that we may not be critical about others, who have their own share in their local problems and our global challenges as well.
Thank you for expanding the critique of dogmatism and authoritarianism. You are right, it is not just a western culture disease but a human disease once inequality gets established and rationalized.