Culture War. by Dean Gotcher

Culture War.

by
Dean Gotcher

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John 2:16

   You discuss commands, rules, facts and truth (at your discretion), changing your position only by persuasion—making you resistant to 'change,' i.e., not easily 'changeable.' You dialogue "feelings," i.e., opinions, i.e., your (and others) carnal desires of the 'moment' and your (and their) dissatisfaction with restraint, making you (and them) readily adaptable to 'change'—readily 'changeable' according the situation or "environment" and/or anyone manipulating it, thereby manipulating you (and them).
   These are two different cultures. One culture is based upon discussion—preaching commands and rules to be obeyed, teaching facts and truth to be accepted as is, by faith (at least to begin with), and discussing any disagreements (at the discretion of the one in authority—who themselves are under authority, with God being the final authority), with being or doing right and not wrong being the issue, i.e., the objective. The other culture is based upon dialogue—discussing "feelings," i.e., your (and others) carnal desires and dissatisfactions of the 'moment,' with whoever is facilitating the dialogue being the one in control.
   These two cultures are antithetical to one another. Mixing them, i.e., bringing them together in order to 'create' harmony (consensus) only produces confusion, resulting in the culture of dialogue, i.e., "feelings" negating of the culture of preaching, teaching, and discussing commands, rules, facts, and truth—resulting in the "lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," "all that is in [and of] the world," i.e., the carnal nature of man negating the authority of "the Father" in the thoughts and actions ("theory and practice") of all participants, 'creating' a culture "of and for the world only."

When a culture of restraint is tolerant of (abdicates to) a culture which hates restraint, it becomes a culture which hates restraint. It is just how things work. The father's/Father's authority, i.e., a culture of restraint and the carnal nature of the child, i.e., a culture which hates restraint are antithetical to one another. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8, 9

By placing children (and adults) in an environment which requires all to be "positive," i.e., to be tolerant of those who hate restraint, children (and adults) become, by nature, children (and adults) who hate restraint, creating a culture, i.e., a new world order which hates restraint, i.e., which hates the restrainer., i.e., which hates the father's/Father's authority, making all children (and adults) subject to the child's carnal nature, i.e., "human nature" only, i.e., creating a borderless society, i.e., a world void of parental/Godly restraint, rejecting the rule of law, fulfilling Immanuel Kant's, as well as Georg Hegel's, Karl Marx's, Sigmund Freud's ideology, the negation of the father's/Father's authority, i.e., restraint, i.e., rule of law from the face of the earth.

If the war against the culture of restraint, i.e., the father's/Father's authority (parental authority), i.e., the rule of law is to be successful, the carnal nature of the child, i.e., the rule of "feelings," i.e., the child's carnal desires of the 'moment' (which are antithetical to restraint), i.e., the love of pleasure (dopamine emancipation) must become the 'drive' and its augmentation the 'purpose' of life—instead of focusing upon the child learning to do right and not wrong according to the father's/Father's will, focusing upon him or her having a "better life," where the marriage vow goes like this, "for better or for worse, or until something better comes along," like it, in practice, reads today. As Hegel explained it, we must start with the carnal nature of the child if 'change, i.e., a world 'liberated' from restraint, i.e., the father's/Father's authority, i.e., the rule of law' is to become a reality. "The child, contrary to appearance, is the absolute, the rationality of the relationship; he is what is enduring and everlasting, the totality which produces itself once again as such [once he is 'liberated' from the father's/Father's authority so that he can be his "self," i.e., carnal, i.e., of the world only, as he was before the father's/Father's first command, rule, fact, or truth came into his life]." (Georg Hegel, System of Ethical Life) The dialoguing of opinions to a consensus, i.e., the 'justification' of the child's carnal nature, i.e., the 'justification' of his or her love of pleasure and hate of restraint, i.e., "self" 'justification,' especially with others of the same nature, i.e., affirmation is the means of communication from which the culture of hate 'discovers' and 'justifies' itself, i.e., 'justifies' its desire and finds its purpose in negating the restrainer, i.e., the father's/Father's authority, i.e., the rule of law, 'creating' a world made in its own image, i.e., a world subject to the child's carnal nature instead of the father's/Father's authority. "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:15

The culture which hates restraint must create chaos (confusion) in order to create order, i.e., a "new" world order made in its image. Cognitive dissonance is produced when a person is caught between his belief (doing right and not wrong, i.e., doing father's/Father's will) and his behavior ("lusting" after the things of the world, i.e., doing his will), between what Kurt Lewin called, "barrier behavior" and "play behavior." "Unfreezing. This term, also adopted from Lewinian change theory, refers to the process of disconfirming an individual's former belief system." (Irvin D. Yalom, Theory and Practice and Group Psychotherapy) By placing a child in a group dynamics environment (as in a laboratory experiment) which pressures him into either holding onto his "ridged" beliefs, i.e., his parent's standards or going with his natural desire, i.e., pleasure, including the pleasure which comes from the approval of "the group" (affirmation), i.e., his "feelings" of the 'moment,' cognitive dissonance would become manifest in the child, pressuring him to choose between one or the other. Change in the child's way of thinking ("organization") would therefore be more easily accomplished in "the group dynamic" setting or environment, changing him from obedience to his parent's authority to initiating and sustaining relationship with "the group," from doing right and not wrong to the approaching of pleasure and the avoiding of pain, including the approaching of the pleasure of group approval and the avoiding of the pain of group rejection. Kurt Lewin wrote: "It is usually easier to change individuals formed into a group than to change any one of them separately." (Kurt Lewin in Kenneth Bennie, Human Relations in Curriculum Change) "Change in organization can be derived from the overlapping between play behavior ["feelings"] and barrier behavior [commands, rules, facts, and truth]. To be governed by two strong goals [parental approval, i.e., commands, rules, facts, and truth and group approval, i.e., "feelings"] is equivalent to the existence of two conflicting controlling heads within the organism. This should lead to a decrease in degree of hierarchical organization [the child's 'loyalty' to parental authority, desiring approval from his parents would become confused with (overshadowed by) his desire of the 'moment,' i.e., his desire for approval from "the group," i.e., affirmation]. Also, a certain disorganization should result from the fact that the cognitive-motor system loses to some degree its character of a good medium because of these conflicting heads [lose of identity with his parent's position result in confusion, destabilization, i.e., in a lose of his own identity, lose of his moral foundation, and lose of meaning in life, which was founded upon them]. It ceases to be in a state of near equilibrium; the forces under the control of one head have to counteract the forces of the other before they are effective [either the voice of the parent, i.e., the guilty conscience for disobedience, i.e., the voice of the father/Father in the child has to re-gain control over the child's thoughts, preventing 'change,' or the voice of "the group," i.e., his desire for pleasure and group approval, i.e., affirmation will gain control of his thoughts instead, engendering 'change']." (Kurt Lewin in Barker, Chapter XXVI Frustration and Regression) If "the group" is encouraged (pressured) to arrive at a consensus, where everyone must be in agreement with the outcome, then any individual resisting 'change' becomes overwhelmed, tending to succumb to group approval. (group pressure) "Few individuals, as Asch has shown, can maintain their objectivity [holding onto their former beliefs] in the face of apparent group unanimity." How evil is this!

By shifting education (or any learning environment) from being facts based to being feelings based, group dynamics (psychoanalysis and psychotherapy) comes into play in the students life inside and outside the classroom, with the focus of educational objectives becoming the students behavior in regards to where his loyalty lies in any given moment, along a spectrum from loyalty to parental authority (self control and self discipline, humbling and denying of self) to loyalty to group relations ("self" 'liberation'). As Bloom wrote: "It was the view of the group that educational objectives stated in the behavior form have their counterparts in the behavior of individuals, observable and describable therefore classifiable." "Only those educational programs which can be specified in terms of intended student behaviors can be classified." "What we are classifying is the intended behavior of students—the ways in which individuals are to act, think, or feel as the result of participating in some unit of instruction." "Educational procedures are intended to develop the more desirable [according to the child's self interest] rather than the more customary [subject to the parent's authority] types of behavior." (Benjamin Bloom, et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Book 1, Cognitive Domain) In the second Taxonomy we read: "There are many stories of the conflict and tension that these new practices are producing between parents and children." (David Krathwohl, Benjamin S. Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Book 2: Affective Domain; one of two books referred to as "Bloom's Taxonomies"—which are based upon the "Weltanschauung," i.e., world view or ideology of two Marxists, "Erich Fromm, T. W. Adorno"—which are foundational for teacher certification and school accreditation around the world today, including "Christian" school and increasingly in home schooling material as well.)

By putting students under the pressure of group dynamics their loyalties could be detected and 'changed' (if need be) from loyalty to parental authority, i.e., to doing right and not wrong established by their parents to loyalty to the group, to "human relationship" established upon pleasure ("enjoyment," "lust," i.e., "self interest") and the augmentation of it. As Carl Rogers wrote, regarding the results of the student's 'change' in 'loyalty': "By a careful design, we control not the final behavior, but the inclination to behavior—the motives, the desires, the wishes. The curious thing is that in that case the question of freedom never arises." "If we have the power or authority to establish the necessary conditions, the predicted behaviors will follow." "‘Now that we know how positive reinforcement works, and why negative doesn't' … ‘we can be more deliberate and hence more successful in our cultural design.' "We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled, though they are following a code much more scrupulously than was ever the case under the old system, nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That's the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcement—there's no restraint and no revolt." "We can choose to use our growing knowledge to enslave people in ways never dreamed of before, depersonalizing them, controlling them by means so carefully selected that they will perhaps never be aware of their loss of personhood." (Carl Rogers, on becoming a person: A Therapist View of Psychotherapy)

Benjamin Bloom wrote: "To create effectively a new set of attitudes and values, the individual must undergo great reorganization of his personal beliefs and attitudes and he must be involved in an environment which in many ways is separated from the previous environment in which he was developed." "...many of these changes are produced by association with peers who have less authoritarian points of view, as well as through the impact of a great many courses of study in which the authoritarian pattern is in some ways brought into question while more rational and nonauthoritarian behaviors are emphasized." (David Krathwohl, Benjamin Bloom et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Book 2: Affective Domain) Carl Rogers admitted: "We know how to change the opinions of an individual in a selected direction, without his ever becoming aware of the stimuli which changed his opinion." "We know how to influence the ... behavior of individuals by setting up conditions which provide satisfaction for needs of which they are unconscious, but which we have been able to determine." (Carl Rogers, on becoming a person: A Therapist View of Psychotherapy) Karl Marx, lamenting over the education of his day wrote: "Education as yet is unable and unwilling to bring all estates and distinctions into its circle. Only Christianity and morality are able to found universal kingdoms on earth." (Karl Marx, The Holy Family) He found the answer in re-educating the educator:"Concerning the changing of circumstances by men, the educator must himself be [re-]educated." (Karl Marx, Thesis on Feuerbach # 3) "Re-education aims to change the system of values and beliefs of an individual or a group." (Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change)

Thus, through the use of group dynamics, "the individual is emancipated ["human nature," i.e., carnality is 'liberated' from the the parents and/or God's authority, 'liberating the individual from having a "guilty conscience" for doing wrong] in the social group [through his desire for approval from "the group," i.e., affirmation]." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History) "The individual accepts the new system of values and beliefs [rejection of and hostility toward their parent's and God's authority, i.e., 'liberation' of their carnal thoughts and carnal actions from restraint] by accepting belongingness to the group." (Kenneth Bennie, Human Relations in Curriculum Change) "One of the most fascinating aspects of group therapy is that everyone is born again, born together in the group." (Irvine D. Yalom, Theory and Practice and Group Psychotherapy)

Those who hate restraint are winning the culture war through the praxis of children (and adults) dialoguing their opinions to a consensus, 'discovering' common ground (common-ism) with one another in a "positive," i.e., intolerant of restraint environment. The classroom is the means to winning (and loosing) the culture war. How your child is educated determines the outcome, whether we live in a culture of restraint, i.e.., subject to the father's/Father's authority, i.e., rule of law or in a culture which hates restraint, i.e., which hates the father's/Father's authority, where the children rule.

"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken." Jeremiah 6:16, 17

"And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable." "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah 3:4-5, 12 "... and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death." Mark 13:12

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Timothy 4:3, 4

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Romans 1:21-32

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie [that pleasure is the standard for "good," instead of doing the Father's will]: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth [in the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ], but had pleasure in unrighteousness [in their "self" and the world]." 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12