Maslow / Fromm

Abraham Maslow posited that the fear of knowledge is the fear of doing via knowledge’s inherent requisite for action due to conscience. Fromm, in The Sane Society talks about the widespread reluctance to fully awake oneself and I believe these are one and the same conceptually speaking for awakening occurs by way of gaining knowledge as well as allowing for gaining further knowledge of things which one would not otherwise have accrued. This is because the awakening, the achievement of awareness, takes you out of your previous narrow tunnel-reality; it takes you out of your amassed consensus reality and thus ‘expands your horizons’ (your potential horizons at the least).

Awakening also implies a new freedom; as an individual, to be an individual. This freedom and the new knowledge-bound conscience (qua Maslow’s insights) is also closely linked to Fromm insofar as his discussion of conscience as related to the reader in Man For Himself. He makes the distinction between authoritarian conscience and humanistic conscience where authoritarian conscience is that which exists in an individual (and societies for that matter) in the capacity of dictating their motivations via the authority of a ‘higher’, ‘more virtuous’ elite with fiat wisdom. Conversely, humanistic conscience hails from the individual’s true, basically good (as a primary alternative) human nature – that which is virtuous and in the best interest of man, both as an individual and as a species. The more awakened one has become, the more awareness one has achieved, the more the humanistic conscience is employed in both everyday life and in the realm of the abstract, the philosophizing that goes into concept integration (memetic integration).

One’s memetic filters are, more and more, guided by / affected by this humanistic conscience and, being the feedback loop it is, the memetic filtration system is furthermore affected by the types of memes it decides to ‘allow’ in for integration. This scenario of Maslow-Fromm knowledge-awareness-conscience-driven action is a requisite for personal transformation (which is, in itself, requisite for societal transformation).

The plethora of available psychotechnologies means that one is able to study multiple disciplines and integrate in a syncretistic manner which ones work for them and they, working in tandem, and which aspects work best for any given individual.

The times we live in now where we are globally connected via communication technology allow for the greatest spread of information by way of our astounding level of interconnectedness. Increasing ones ability to gather information and integrate it optimally is now more precious than ever given our telecommunicative capabilities. This should also be coupled with an ever increasing degree of interpersonal skills (i.e. emotional and social intelligence – ‘social skills’) as well as the necessity of honing ones memetic filters as sharply as possible.

On the topic of memetic filters, it is important to understand the roles they play both on the original reception of a meme, but also the recurrent aspect memetic filters have regarding the concepts one already holds; i.e. going back over already extant concepts and re-evaluating their significance and validity in light of memes accumulated in the intervening period.

The grand import of memetic filters, in our time as in all previous others, is the avoidance of ideological pitfalls such as blind faith, dogmatism, fanaticism and other related phenomena. The application of logic, reason and Pancritical Rationalism when properly and skillfully utilized, staves off the seemingly all-pervasive tendency of humans to abuse, misuse and deform any given concept that comes into play in the social arena. The ideosphere is rife with originally well-intentioned viewpoints which are led astray by those viewing them for personal greed (of money, power, control, etc.).

Thought and action are symbiotic. Action relies on thought (even instinctual action may be modified via reprogramming which requires initial thought). Hence, it behooves us to analyze our thoughts and our thought processes in order to achieve consistency in our actions.

Not just consistency, but logical, meaningful and productive action. Understanding the, oftentimes, irrational reasoning we employ in our actions takes us one step closer to fuller awareness and allows us to reformulate our all-too-often automatic reactions to external (and internal) stimuli. We can learn to be responsive and proactive as opposed to strictly reactive.

Clarity of mind is a necessary prerequisite for the focus we need to achieve fuller awareness. Focus is a must when we are analyzing our thoughts and our subsequent actions. There are multitudes of psychotechnologies available which can assist in gaining mental clarity. Proper sleep, exercise and dietary regimens are also more than merely helpful in acquiring this status of clarity. Psychological health is not necessarily a simple thing to achieve, but it both aids in mental clarity and is required to have it. One must apply their focus on many issues in the mind to work towards psychological health and a base of clarity needs to be present for such work to be undertaken, not to mention successfully.