Participatory Thought & Planet Plundering

[coberst]

Participatory Thought & Planet Plundering

 

David Bohm informs us that in early culture we humans exercised “participatory thought”; this form of thinking is still common today—people felt that they were participation in the big picture—plains Indians felt that there were many buffalo that were displays of the spirit of buffalo and that in hunting and eating this buffalo the Indians participated in this world spirit—likewise the Eskimo felt similarly being a participant of the spirit of seals—these people felt that in their thoughts they participated in these worldly spirits.

 

Modern man has converted somewhat from such thoughts “We want to have a thought about something where we don’t participate, where we think about it and know just what it is.”—the form of thought which we modern man prefers are what is called “literal thought”.

 

Literal thought is intended to reflect just reality as it really exists—it is thought that focus on “just the facts mam”—technology aims for literal thought--the scientific method enthrones literal thought

 

Some compare this attitude about literal thought as being a form of idol worship—when we construct an idol it is a representative of some force, after awhile the idol becomes in our thoughts that force—example is when the flag becomes a literal thought of a nation—thus we overvalue the symbol—literal thought and participatory thought stand side by side but generally those things that we value most involve participatory thought—“the tribe and the totem—we are identical”—when my country is attacked, I am attacked; when my conclusions are attacked I am attacked.

 

Explicitly we give supreme value to literal thought—tacitly we give supreme value to participatory thought—literal thought makes technology possible and participatory thought went underground, the crazy aunt in the attic.

 

Participatory thought creates a sense of belonging; it does not create a separation of subject and object. “That way of thinking would not lead anybody to plunder the planet.”

 

Participatory thought however has some dangers. When Indian tribes thought of them selves as human beings and ‘human being’ became a word for tribal members then when engaging other tribes in battle that tribe were not ‘human beings’. Likewise in Hitler’s Germany a similar situation prevailed.

 

As society began to develop larger groups literal thought became more prevalent; these societies need much better organization. They organized society by saying “You belong here, you do this, and you do that…They began, therefore, to treat everything as a separate object, including other people. They used people as a means to an end.”

 

How do these characteristics of thought affect our ability to communicate and to “just get along”?