There are no such things as straight lines in nature, only science has straight lines, straight lines indicate a level of measure and control. Nature controls through opposing elements and nothing more. As we say there are always two sides to a story, indeed there is. When will the West learn from nature that no one element must reign.
The two opposing elements I speak of are the “I” and the “Collective”.
They are intrinsically linked, if you part one from the other there is disaster on the way.
This is the message of obesity in the western world.
In the politics of the cold war era, we had two starkly opposed views on culture, society and economics. The USA was pro capitalism and the USSR was pro communism, the ideology was poles apart, but on a latent level they were intrinsically bound as an expression of the two essential human needs, that being significance and love.
In its simplified terms, the USA represented the need for significance, the self, the scientific, the “I”. Conversely the USSR represented the need for love, service, sacrifice, and the “Collective”. Although the USSR banned religion, the act of communion and sacrifice is a spiritual act.
Neither in their own right are perfect, on their own that is, but when both elements are present a balance is achieved. This has basically been the folly of the human race for the last 20 years, one element reigned over the other, check your history books for this is when the human race became overweight, ill and diseased.
The USSR crashed and burnt and with it the need for love evaporated, capitalism went mad and the world swung into the hands of the significant, and paid a huge price for it.
Check your history, look at the photos of the 1960’s,1970’s, and even early 1980’s, where were all the overweight and ill people then?
Past, present and future: only three small words but have a massive impact on the psychology of a person.
Communism is past orientated and capitalism is future orientated.
Now let me back that statement up.
Communism is the motive of love; Capitalism is the motive of fear.
All people want certainty, people love the past because it is certain. It is a solid parameter, it can’t be changed, most people don’t like change. Right or wrong are irrelevant that is why some people have trouble breaking from abusive relationships. It’s not right but it’s certain.
The future is uncertain and all people fear uncertainty, the future can be controlled to a degree by making provision for it.
If you observe the world most “collective culture” belongs in the third world and most of the advanced world is “individual culture”.