Shifting of our Foundations

In my last post, I wrote about deprogramming ourselves; in today's blog I want to emphasize the importance of our early years, and what we learn during that time, much of it subliminal, being one's personal foundation; that upon which everything which comes later is built.

The foundation building begins as young children when we are inculcated with what our parents/families have been taught to believe through the learning of one's culture, religious beliefs, the group(s) with which we identify, the language we first learn along with cultural roles, as well as family relationships.  It is not generally recognized that our cultures are built into the language we speak.

For most people in the world, roles and relationships are set by one's cultural heritage. In these times, for those of us living in the West, many have learned of the rigidity of such cultural rules through news reports about the Muslim World.  Many of us in the West, deny their immigrant roots; for those whose cultural roots go back a generation or more, it is easy to believe they have no relevance,.  

Those of us living in the West generally believe themselves to be free of such unwritten rules.  As examples of the influence of our Western Culture, however, we only have to think back to the sixties.  During the Revolution that was the sixties, some of our culture's many rules were brought to light for those who called themselves, "hippies," or "flower children" when they rebelled against Middle Class cultural values. 

The "Freedom Movement," also, not only brought to light the many arbitrary and discriminatory rules/laws which black people had to endure, and live under, it brought home to most the contrast between white privilege and the consequences to both blacks and whites of refusing to abide by those rules/laws.  It also revealed to the females involved in that Movement, the great divide between male role privilege and women's roles, and second-class status.  Those revelations led to the "Women's Liberation" movement, beginning with the understanding that that male/female divide could be traced back to the fact that they had been, from their youngest years, indoctrinated with, "little girls play with dolls and help mommy, little boys play with sticks and balls and identify with daddy, who is the boss."

This mass of early cultural programing/conditioning/experience is a major part of the Foundation--the very basis of--our, "Belief Systems."  (As I have written about before, our Belief Systems, are the total knowledge and information structure which has been built up over time.)   Perhaps, because the Belief System includes this Foundation, with which most identify, it is so hard for people to understand that it could be false, let alone want to change it.  And, that this edifice has been imposed on every one of us through Programming and later Indoctrination. 

I am reminded of an old story about a traveler in the New England area who was lost in the back country.  Finally, he saw a local person; he stopped and asked the local person, "How do I get to Boston?"  The local started to give directions, stopped; started again, and stopped again.  He then scratched his head, looked at the visitor and said: "If'n I wanted to go to Boston, I wouldn't start from here."  This is the problem most of us in this Western World face, if we want to get at anything resembling Truth, or the nature of Reality, we cannot start from what we have been Programmed and Indoctrinated to believe is Truth, or the nature of Reality.  "Such a puzzlement!"

In actuality, what has happened in the West is a major shifting of our culture away from what used to be the various aspects of our inherited foundations of cultural rules and norms.  This shifting began with the Industrial Revolution, and the breakup of extended families, and was exacerbated by the World Wars, all of which has led to a conglomeration of cultural remnants as well as dependence on pseudo-scientific theories.  Sorting through what you, personally, have incorporated is a real challenge.

When I was young, it was believed that infants come into the world as little more than lumps of unformed clay, and it was the duty of parents to try to form that clay into a, more or less, social entity. This process was facilitated by the, then still functioning, system of extended family units; the older people helping the young adults to learn how to take care of, and train, the young ones.

With the breakup of extended families, brought about by the many social changes occurring at that time, such as the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and other reasons, many younger individuals lost their family support system.  Also, around this time, in Europe, there was the advent of Sigmund Freud's ideas related to child development, to be followed by B. F. Skinner's Behaviorism ideas, all of which led to the new specialty of Child Psychology.

Not to be left out, failing an access to any of those experts, one could always turn to child rearing advice from the Government.  In one of my college course--Social Psychology--in the text book was an excerpt from a government pamphlet, (from the 50s, I believe) advising new parents on how to properly raise young children, with a picture.  This picture showed, and excerpt stated, that young children should sleep in one-piece pajamas, which had feet and hand coverings that had ties attached.  The new parents were instructed to tie these tie ribbons to the upright rungs of the child's crib in order to prevent him/her from touching themselves!

Over the last half-century, or more, theories of child development have morphed into a pseudo-science.  This, "science" has resulted in the fact that very large numbers of children were, and are currently, being "diagnosed" as having ADHD behavior which, it is believed, require them to be drugged in order to calm them down and make them manageable.  Such a determination is generally made by the teacher, who then instructs the parent that the parent needs to get her child's doctor to prescribe the drug for the child to take.

I remember when, many years ago now, one of my sisters-in-law was told by one of her son's teachers that her son must start taking Ritalin to calm him down, so that she would be able to teach him in class.  This sister-in-law saw no reason to do so, so did not act on the teacher's directive.  The teacher, believing she would be obeyed in this regard, when she next talked to my sister-in-law reported how much better my nephew was now behaving in class!

In addition to the current child-rearing practice of dispensing with discipline and, instead, instilling, "self-esteem," in children from a very early age, in actuality, there have been found to be many things that can cause children's behavior to become unmanageable.  One of those is too much sugar in their diets, another is food dyes, another is exposure to high levels of cathode rays from televisions and florescent lighting.  

As stated above, the first years of everyone's learning experiences is what forms our personal Belief System foundations.  Unless an effort is made to analyze what this foundation contains, which, as indicated, consists mainly of: one's culture, religious beliefs, the group we identify with, the language we learn, our roles, and family relationships, they will never be accessible to gain an understanding of them. 

What environment each of us was born into cannot, of course, be changed.  What I am advocating is an intentional shifting of your Belief System Foundation by gaining an understanding of what it consists.  By making an effort, at least, to discover/remember the various aspects of your early environment, at minimum it may bring about some understanding as to one's personal relationships. 

Hopefully, by gaining an understanding of those underlying, personal factors, and the role they have played, it can help you to, not only understand how you incorporated them, but to shift away from identifying with them,

With that thought, I end today's blog,

Shirley Gallup