Social Conditioning of Fear, Imperfection, and Division

The current state of humanity is in peril. We are far detached from a life of community, of love, and ultimately, of self. I propose that to know thine own self, is the only way we can truly love; and thus, have a true sense of community. A community based on love would have at its core the purpose of uplifting his fellow human beings. But to what end do we uplift our fellow man? The answer is quite simple, and best quoted by Buzz Lightyear from A Toy Story: TO INFINITY, AND BEYOND!

Buzz Lightyear to infinity and beyond artsbbk.com

Of course I am joking, although my real answer is not too far off. I believe that the ultimate goal of humanity is to aid each other towards ascension, or to what I call, God-self. God-self is a conceptualization that we are all created to transcend our current state of being so that we may be more like, or equal to, that which created us (whether its God, spirit, universal energy, The Great Architect of the Universe etc). Why? Because like the bible says, man was created in God's image. If we believe in a perfect God, and we are made in the image of God, then I can only surmise that we are either perfect, or put here to reach perfection. I will go with the former; and thus believing we are already perfect, the goal then becomes to attain wholeness (or completeness) that is to say, find union with that which created us.

The Big Question

If we are already perfect, why then, are we not living a life that resembles perfection? One that encompasses all the things our heart desires? 

The most basic reason is that we are living in an imperfect world. We did not inherit an imperfect world - we created it.  How? By creating imperfect living conditions within a perfect world. How have we done this? By creating a world of conditions.

Here are the conditions which keep us captive:

1. Fear

Fear is the biggest contributor to any other conditions which may afflict us in the future. Let's take into account the folklore of el cucuy. El cucuy is the Latino folklore of fear akin to the American Bogeyman. But what exactly is El Cucuy? Or for that matter, the bogeyman? What does it look like? No one can answer these questions, yet they serve as the basis of fear for many children. What's more, is that it is imposed on them by their parents. “Behave or El Cucuy will get you!”

http://decaymag.com/movies/reviews/cucuy-boogeyman-peter-sullivan/30944/

Let's break down this fear of El Cucuy and how it becomes a barrier to the rest of our lives. Aside from the basic primordial fears such as darkness, children are rather fearless! They run amok and do as they please without a care in the world. That is until someone (a parent or caregiver), introduces them to the world of limitations. They use words like no, don't, and cant. “No child, you can't jump on the bed” etc etc. When words fail to limit the child's behavior, the parent instills what they think is benign fear. The child gets told “El Cucuy will get you if you don't stop”. The kid doesn't know what El Cucuy is, but he senses fear. El Cucuy triggers the primordial feeling of dread of the unknown, the thing lurking in the dark. Without really knowing anything about El Cucuy, he understands that he needs to stop if he doesn't want El Cucuy to get him. But what he really learned is that if he wants the feeling of fear to end, then he must stop doing whatever it was that he had desired to do ( i.e jump on the bed).

So now the child becomes conditioned in a way that if  he wants the feeling of fear to end, he must merely stop what he desires to do. This spills over into adulthood. Going to college causes fear? That's easy, just stop wanting to go to college and the fear will dissipate. Writing that book you always wanted to write causes fear? Well I won't do that either!  Investing your money, flipping houses, starting a company, competing in a fitness competition, all causes fear? Stop, stop, stop and STOP!

Now we are in a rut where we aren't getting anywhere in life because this internal bogeyman will get us! We have been taught that fear is a viable reason to stop acting, but we were never taught to feel fear as a means to propel action. Fear is not useless, it can help you to succeed if you harness its powerful energy. We need to teach ourselves, and our young ones, to use this powerful energy to propel us into useful, goal attaining actions. If inaction in the face of fear is a learned behavior, why not learn to feel fear as a catalyst to growth?

2. Humbleness

The second condition is what I call the condition of the humble man. Let's circle back to my conceptualization of perfection. Bare with me a bit on this one. Many would agree that humbleness is considered a noble trait. However, where does it stop? To what point do you diminish your greatness, your potential, your uniqueness, as to not offend the fragile sense of self of others? - Or - to maintain an air of grace?

To say, “I am smart”, is OK. To say, "I am great"! Is bordering boastfulness. But to say “I am perfect”, is down right blasphemous! Say this, and you are perceived as cocky or arrogant.  I say you are perfect and you should act as such! We are conditioned to believe one must diminish their belief in self in the presence of others. No one is perfect, right? That is what we were taught. That is, except God, and the God/kings of ancient Rome and Egypt. That was the hook! You must obey me because I am a God; I am perfect! This is the mentality that keeps us subjugated to a higher power. We must admit our meekness lest we offend God himself! Since the days of God kings, the mentality of imperfection has kept us under the ruling power. It is beneficial in a society to believe of oneself as imperfect because it is easier to rule a class of men who believe they have a right to be ruled. A class of perfect men do not need a ruler!


Now let me burst your bubble a bit: perfection does not imply we are without "bad" qualities.

Why? because bad is a construct created by societies that value one thing and not the other. Not all societies would agree on what is good or bad. What is good in one society, may be reprehensible in another. What is certain, is that one thing cannot exist without its opposite, that is what makes things whole. A day is perfect because it encompasses both the light and the dark.

So you see how in your perceived flaws you are made perfect? You are perfect because you are made whole by your imperfections. Your bad complements your good. In Taoism, we call it the yin and the yang. Once you realize this (and you stop shaming yourself for your flaws), you can begin using your faults as a catalyst for change and growth. Let's take a look at the dictionary definition of perfection.

I use Oxford dictionary because it provides a collectivist world definition of words rather than the cultural definitions such as Webster is known for.

perfect.
ADJECTIVE
1.having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.

Here we can see that to be perfect you must have all desirable qualities. But who is to say what is desirable? The Arian Brotherhood might say white male, blue eyes, and blonde hair is the desired qualities. But I rather fancy being tall dark and handsome. Most may say the desirable weather may be sunny days, but I enjoy a cool rainy day cozied up in blankets. You can't have perfection without duality. If you do, then the thing is made imperfect due to its incompleteness - it does not have an opposite. This point is solidified by Oxford's second definition:

2.absolute; complete

Oxford dictionary agrees that to be perfect, a thing must be complete. One sided is not complete. Lets take a look at perfect as a verb according to Oxford.

VERB
1.make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible.

Again we fall into the trap of defining who writes the rules regarding faultlessness. This will vary depending who you ask. As stated before, those faults make you whole, complete, perfect. Why do I harp on the concept of wholeness through faults? Because life is about growth and your imperfections is the soil that bears growth. Within them, one can shape themselves to be who you desire to be. We are builders and destroyers of our own universe by feeding that which we want to keep, and starving what we desire to get rid of.

But what about being humble? Many will still insist it is a virtuous trait! What we need is to respect others. I can believe myself to be perfect yet treat you as an equal. To humble myself diminishes me and engrandeurs you - respect uplifts us both.

3. Misaligned Compass

Another reason we aren't living our perfect life is because we feed and starve the wrong things in our lives. Why?  Because we are inundated with societal messages that contradict our inner compass. For instance, one may grow up a happy child of color until society sends the message that our skin color makes us less than perfect. The same could be said of the LGBT community, women, and any other marginalized community. Or we may feel less than perfect because we are not fitting the ideal male or female standard of beauty.

istockphoto.com/photos/broken-compass

The truth is that none of these things dictate in and of itself how successful we could be. But the sad reality is also that in the society we have constructed as a human race, these are major roadblocks to our success. They affect us internally. We believe the lie that we are inadequate and so we behave inline with those beliefs!  We need to embrace how great, and how perfect we are so that we may transcend the programming instilled in us.

4. Lack of Focus

The last problem that keeps us from living our perfect lives is the lack of proper focus. We have been conditioned to focus on attaining a certain physical trait, a huge bank account, and a big house. In other words, worldly riches. Many affluent people from the Buddha to Steve Jobs will tell you that in the end, material gains amount to nothing. Yet, we have been convinced that one piece of clothing is better than the other just because of its label.

Material possession do not by any means define us as perfect beings. If we refocus our energy on the wealth that we have, like family, friends, etc. then we can build a society based on community, not class, money, or power.

Scary isn't it? why is it scary? Because those words sounds like socialism. I'm sure that community is synonymous with socialism on purpose. Why? So that we learn to hate a community of united people and thus keep the rich in power. Socialism is not what I'm advocating. I am content with community within a capitalist society. But how will you use the wealth you attain? To build opportunity for others? Or to step down on your fellow man and say "claw your way up here if you can, just like I did! We should be using our wealth to empower others; and to better programs for the less fortunate. If we all did this, class would disappear. And that is NOT what those in power want.

In short, we have not attained a perfect life because we are conditioned through fear, the self diminishing belief that we are less than perfect, and by focusing on the wrong things in our lives.

I believe that God-hood can occur here and now if we only learn how to focus our energy in the right direction. We can have abundance in our lives here and now if we knew how to harness the energy that is within us. Energy such as fear transformed into action instead of inaction. The energy that is in our creator is also within us.  Lets learn how to harness these energies so that we may transform our lives into one that leads to completeness and uplift each other into a community of God people .

He who has eyes to see, let him see. He who has ears to hear, Let him hear. 

- Jesus Christ

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