sociodynamic law?

[Adam Blatner]

Dear Cynthia,
    I've been coming to a similar realization about the deeply-held need for myth as a 
type of connectedness. I've been a bit blind to it because I was blind to my own immersion 
in the mythic dimensions of modernity, science, progress, the intellectual tradition, the 
medical tradition. Becoming aware that many people are far less immersed in these, the 
talk about angst and alienation became far more meaningful to me, and what you write 
evokes even more agreement.
       I appreciate your noting the applications of mythic awareness in the political 
arena. I suspect that there may be a similar blindness to the power of these mythic 
structures among folks who are idealistic yet secular.
       It seems true that many who are more immersed in traditional religious mythic 
structures sincerely question whether non-believers, agnostics, secularists, or atheists 
are truly committed to deep morality. Many would vote for a Jew or Muslim before voting 
for an atheist, according to some surveys.

       This reinforces a nascent idea that those more allied to the myths of modernity 
might do well to articulate those myths in terms of grander mythic-like language. This 
hasn't been done well enough.
     Mythic themes such as the grand sweep of evolution, a view like Teilhard de 
Chardin's, without the necessity of a personal guiding deity. It's closer to a dynamic and 
evangelic (?) Spinoza-ism. The history of the cosmos as alive, with us as its expressions 
and challenged with the responsibility to help it evolve further--this could resonate with 
the deep call for responsibility, wisdom, love, and the like. If faith shifts from a 
necessary association to some transcendent belief not based on rationality to a willed 
commitment to advocate and promote "the light," the higher values and a workable future, 
perhaps this might also work.
      We're talking about rhetoric, also, the willingness of leaders to engage in 
charismatic language, strong ideals. To generate such ideals beyond those found in 
denominational religion was done in World War II--patriotism, etc. Alas, at present, the 
two mythic structures, the "war against terrorism" and the "war" against the dilution of 
"family values," has been co-opted by the Right.

      Some leaders on the Center and Left have spoken about promoting strong value 
positions, but again, it will take more articulation, clarification, and leadership. 
Perhaps it may emerge.

    Anyway, thanks for stimulating my thinking. Warmly, Adam
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "CGayle" <cgayle at zipcon.com>
To: <edwschreiber at earthlink.net>; <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: sociodynamic law?


> Another book that speaks to this is "Politics of Meaning" by Michael Lerner.
> He addresses how to confront what both the republicans and democrats fail to
> understand, the desire for meaning, recognition and connection are really
> what people are hungering for, and that underlie the dynamics for many to
> "buy" into consumerism and making the buck; and even underlie the dynamics
> and appeal of right wing ideology.  B/c the right wing is the only song in
> town that speaks to the reality of the dismantling of values, community
> disintegration and lack of importance of spirituality in our culture, many
> good hearted people gravitate that direction.  The democrats, liberals and
> the left wing, in general, do not speak about spirituality, values, etc.
> allowing the right wing to have a monopoly on issues of meaning....but
> unfortunately they also scapegoat gays, the poor, immigrants, etc., as the
> problem, rather than looking at the sociodynamic effect, that they support
> either consciously or unconsciously, as the issue.
>
> When I worked w/ Lerner in the mid-1990's, it reawaked my passion for
> psychodrama, b/c it resonates with Moreno's vision for social and "spiritual
> revolution".
>
> Cynthia Gayle
> Seattle
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <edwschreiber at earthlink.net>
> To: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>; <list at grouptalkweb.org>
> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 9:00 AM
> Subject: Re: sociodynamic law?
>
>
>>
>> I would like to weigh in on the sociodyanamic effect.
>> First of all, Dr. Moreno called it an effect, not a law.
>> He noted the effect in all communities, from the "original"
>> to the industrialized.   He wrote extensively about this effect.
>>
>> Here's how Derrick Jensen describes the sociodynamic effect:
>>
>> "Within this culture, economics - not community well being,
>> not morals, not ethics, not justice, not life itself - drives social
>> decisions.  Social decisions are determined primarily (and often
>> exclusively) on the basis of whether these decisions will increase
>> the monetary fortunes of the decision-makers and those they serve."
>>
>> "Social decisions are determined primarily (and often exclusively)
>> on the basis of whether these decisions will increase the power
>> of the decision-makers and those they serve."
>>
>> "Social decisions are founded pimarily (and often exclusively) on the
>> almost entriely unexamined belief that the decision-makers and those
>> they serve are entitled to magnify their power and/or financial
>> fortunes at the expense of those below."
>>
>> "If you dig to the heart of it - if there is any heart left - you will
> find
>> that social decisions are determiend primarily on the basis of how well
>> those decisions serve the ends of controlling or destroying wild nature."
>>
>> Jensen - Endgame
>>
>> So here's my thoughts:
>> Dr. Moreno pointed to the socidynamic effect and described it in
> sociometric
>> language.  Like a Zen teacher, it's what he is pointing to that matters
> more
>> than the language or the pointer.  As I mentioned in an earlier post,
> students
>> of zen can get caught in the trap of evaluating the pointing rather than
> looking
>> to where the teacher is pointing.
>>
>> For me, I see the sociodyanmic effect in may ways.
>> In organizastions, in power, in families, in the ASGPP (which is part of
> our culture, and
>> so reflects this dynamic too, even well meaning), in our own day to day
> lives.
>>
>> The republicans represent the effect, the democrats attempt to reverse it,
> but they too
>> are a reflection, in their own way, of the same effect.
>>
>> Dr. Moreno's understanding of the relationship between the Cultural Atom
> impacting the
>> Social Atom, impacting the psyche, that is impacting the body - is the map
> and diagram
>> suggesting how the culture (of which the sociodynamic effect is one
> element) plays
>> out in our day to day lives.
>>
>> One glaring example:  how many millions of Americans do not have health
> insurance living
>> along side of those that do? Why?  The sociodynamic effect.   How many
> schools are failing?
>> How many more are living in poverty? And further, how many people of color
> in particular are
>> living in poverty beyond what we can even imagine around the world, in
> Africa, etc., and what
>> is the relationship between that and the wealth of the Western world?  How
> much of our history,
>> as Americans, has been built, literally, on the extraction of land and
> resources of the Native peoples,
>> and many others around the world?  The sociodynamic effect, that's my
> view.  An what's quite amazing,
>> from the perspective of Dr. Moreno, is that this effect emerges in our
> body, our psyche, our social atom,
>> in the cultural atom - and in the impact and interplay of each to each
> other.
>>
>> Jensen, a hero of mine, relates it back to civilization's relationship
> exploitation, consumption and the
>> apparent destruction of the natural world, as the foundation to it all.
>>
>> My suggestion:   look around - see if you can see for yourself what Moreno
> was pointing to.
>>
>> Ed
>>
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>>
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