Cultural Survival Skills

Successful Cultural Evolution

I am tired of thinking and writing. Therefore, I will take a break for awhile and showcase some of the free products at one of my favorite web sites.

This web site is http://www.prageru.com. There you will find many short (five minute) informative videos. These videos are mostly about American history, society, ethics, values, economy, social problems and yes, politics and much more. The videos may also relate to international history and comparative cultural analyses, from time to time.

PragerU videos are a wonderful and convenient way to gain, not only knowledge, but more importantly, wisdom.

I like to think of wisdom as the ability to apply a broad knowledge-base to successful thinking and behavior at individual, group, and sociocultural levels; including all components of political designs and activities.

This definition of wisdom can relate directly to all aspects of successful cultural evolution.

Thinkers will know that successful cultural evolution is a very difficult idea to define. My personal best definition, at this time, has a number of components:

I judge that successful cultural evolution is comprised of a pleasant and strong blend of population mental and physical health, resiliency, spiritual well-being, intelligence, inventiveness, productivity, mutual respect, safety, as-well-as equal justice and freedom from despotic control.

Without question, there will be numerous recurring threats to the existence of any socioculture and these will demand that populations work cohesively to overcome them. It should be obvious that these intermittent challenges will not all be “pleasant” to overcome, and at times thy may require that citizens make personal sacrifices, even risking life and limb to perpetuate the common good of other inhabitants and to extend the life-span of their collective civilization. 

I know my definition of evolutionary success can be improved, but it’s the best I can do at this moment. Not to formulate and revise such an important definition leaves socioculture’s without a helm to steer by and this foreshadows their their decline, if not collapse.

From my perspective, an advantageous blend of the qualities listed above are essential to maintain within evolving sociocultures  (from a history perspective), for a long time to be successful. I do not accept that simple quantitative longevity, bereft of the qualities I have identified spell success.

Historians may name dictators and brutal sociocultures that have achieved notable longevity, but they have failed qualitatively just as they often do not last long.  

As you will note, my complicated definition lacks formulae for achieving the desired population, sociocultural and evolutionary outcomes.

I will therefore showcase a series of PragerU videos that will highlight many of the components of my definition that I believe promise long-term success for evolving sociocultures.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D. 12/3/20

https://www.prageru.com/video/why-i-left-the-left/

P.S., My postings of PragerU videos will become more intermittent in the future. So to see all that I have selected, type “PragerU” in my search box at the top right-side of my blog page and press “return” on your key board.

Tags: PragerU, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D.s, VTM, Why Leave the Left, Wisdom of PragerU Video

This entry was posted on December 3, 2020 at 6:44 PM and is filed under Boiling the American Frog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.