Posts Tagged ‘cultural decline’

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1960’s World-Wide Decline to Social Chaos!

September 26, 2023

There is an extraordinary chronology of population behavior changes in America beginning in the late 1950’s and 60’s. Astonishingly, about that same time, similar population behavior changes occurred throughout much of the world!

I suspect that the technological developments of social media (and more) at that time, and post WWII improved standards of living in developing nations sparked world-wide cultural revolutions. Well-researched concepts of technological determinism and behavioral contagion appear to be useful in evaluating these stunning pandemic behavior changes.

There have been allegations of accuracy problems with Wikipedia. But, having lived through the the time-period covered by this article, I can vouch for the accuracy of nearly all of it. Furthermore, my readings of other books and articles recounting the events of this era confirm a large number of them reported in this Wikipedia publication.

This article will enrich your understanding of contemporary America’s social and cultural condition, as well as other nations.

This lengthy read is essential to understanding our own social and cultural big picture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture_of_the_1960s

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 9/26/23

P.S., Please note the well-researched diminishing religious influences reported by Wikipedia. This is sometimes not mentioned in other discussions of America’s ongoing social and cultural decline.

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“THE BLACK DILEMMA”

June 24, 2020

“THE BLACK DILEMMA”

The following blog was published by me on 10/30/17.

A dear friend sent an article to me for my evaluation.

My research on the internet found the following:

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“While many online postings of the above-displayed article” (the title above) “in June 2015 claimed that it had been recently published in Baltimore Sun, this article has actually been circulating on the Internet since at least September 2014, when it was published under the title “Ten Percent Is Not Enough” in the American Renaissance blog.”

“The American Renaissance posting was originally attributed to Anthony Bryan; but his name was stripped from versions shared via Internet forums, craigslist postings, and comments sections of several race-related articles. Several different authorial names have been attached to the piece, including “John S. Mosby” (a Confederate cavalry officer) and “Edmund Hughes,” but the article didn’t truly go viral until after the Baltimore Sun attribution was tacked on.”

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Further follow-up research found that the Baltimore Sun published a disclaimer indicating that it never published the article to follow. This can be confirmed by typing “Baltimore Sun, The Black Dilemma”.

Never-the-less, the following article partially conflates with the various socio-cultural realities that I have personally witnessed and what I have learned in my studies of America’s attempts to improve race relations and economic advancements for black citizens. 

Indeed, the black population has made very significant progress in past years. But, but these gains have recently stalled and I fear the progress is not yet sufficient avoid a future of great racial strife in america.

Please read the following article in black print.  I will add my personal thoughts in red print.

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The Black Dilemma

For almost 150 years the United States has been conducting an interesting experiment.  The subjects of the experiment:  black people and working-class whites. The hypothesis to be tested: Can a people taken from the jungles of Africa and forced into slavery be fully integrated as citizens in a majority white population?  The whites were descendants of Europeans who had created a majestic civilization.  The former slaves had been tribal peoples with no written language and virtually no intellectual achievements.  Acting on a policy that was not fair to either group, the government released newly freed black people into a white society that saw them as inferiors.  America has struggled with racial discord ever since.

I do not think it was unfair to release black slaves into into whites, nor do I think freedom was unfair to blacks. Obviously, the conscription of blacks into slavery was not only unfair, it was an immoral abomination. However, slavery was a world-wide practice in those times and blacks were complicit in capturing and selling other blacks into slavery. Furthermore, whites were also historically sold into slavery. The systemic blatant discrimination and hostility to blacks before and following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 by whites was absolutely unfair, in many cases horrific.

The surprise for many is that the worst treatment, and greatest proportion of it, was institutionalized by the democrats.

I know it sounds outlandish, but it is the absolute truth. Please read the following short articles right now, as my remarks to follow are predicated upon this easily available knowledge for those who will do their research.

https://townhall.com/columnists/victoriastroup/2016/11/05/how-fdrs-racism-gave-democrats-the-black-vote-n2241694

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/did-lbj-say-ill-have-those-nggers-voting-democratic-200-years

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445303/democrats-black-history-month-amnesia-democratic-party-oppresses-blacks

For a more historical and in-depth and expose’ of democratic abuse of America’s black population, it is essential to read Dinesh D’Souza’s new book, “The Big Lie”.

Decade after decade the problems persisted but the experimenters never gave up.  They insisted that if they could find the right formula the experiment would work, and concocted program after program to get the result they wanted.  They created the Freedmans Bureau, passed civil rights laws, tried to build the Great Society, declared War on Poverty, ordered race preferences, built housing projects, and tried midnight basketball.  Their new laws intruded into peoples lives in ways that would have been otherwise unthinkable.  They called in National Guard troops to enforce school integration.  They outlawed freedom of association.  Over the protests of parents, they put white children on buses and sent them to black schools and vice-versa.  They tried with money, special programs, relaxed standards, and endless hand wringing to close the achievement gap. 

All of this is true. To the greatest extent it was the a growing and increasingly democratic government that imposed draconian and unconstitutional fascist social engineering programs under the guise of liberating the black population. 

The result was a great social disruption, clashing subcultures, massive appropriations for programs and entitlements run by an increasingly bloated leftist and incompetent government. 

The greatest purposeful achievement was to destroy the black family structure (as it has done to a great many white families). It further “re-enslaved” great numbers of voting, chronically dependent and economically disenfranchised blacks and poor whites to the increasingly radical liberal/progressive/fascist democratic party.

To keep white backlash in check they began punishing public and even private statements on race.  They hung up Orwellian public banners that commanded whites to Celebrate Diversity! and Say No to Racism.  Nothing was off limits if it might salvage the experiment.

This is true, but it was only part of the goals of the long-term game plan of the socialist/Marxist left in America. These goals were: Capture the poor minority’s vote, capture the news and entertainment media, capture education, capture the judicial system, weaken the family, weaken religion, grow the size of the government, increase taxes, gain control of all levels of government and the budgets, and increase the practice of socialism in America.

Implementing strong controls over what people think and are allowed to say and stamping-out religion and individualism in favor of communalism is the leftist’s goal, now largely accomplished.  The tool for cultural change has been fascism, as Mussolini first configured it leading-up to WWII. The American radical left was enamored of this form of government control and they still are: I.e.,  Private ownership of business largely controlled by the government and the enforced political philosophy is the control of citizens behavior: “The government and the people are one!” 

Some thought that what W.E.B. DuBois called the Talented Tenth would lead the way for black people.  A group of elite, educated blacks would knock down doors of opportunity and show the world what blacks were capable of. There is a Talented Tenth.  They are the black Americans who have become entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors and scientists  But ten percent is not enough.  For the experiment to work, the ten percent has to be followed by a critical mass of people who can hold middle-class jobs and promote social stability..  That is what is missing.

A large mass of advancing black people has followed. They can be seen working in America’s universities, high schools and grade schools. They are working in law enforcement, social welfare efforts, medicine/health care, business, the judicial system, government, politics, the military, and in other jobs of all sorts.

This is plain to see! There have been great gains, but there have also been some set-backs, as the following data will show.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/

Through the years, too many black people continue to show an inability to function and prosper in a culture unsuited to them.  

OK, but this problem has not been a result of black “inability”. As proven in my first citations at the start of this blog, it is the result of radical/liberal democratic social engineering leading to fatherless families, poverty and governmental dependency among poor blacks and whites. American blacks have been disproportionately disadvantaged because they were disproportionately disadvantages from the start.

Detroit is bankrupt, the south side of Chicago is a war zone, and the vast majority of black cities all over America are beset by degeneracy and violence.  And blacks never take responsibility for their failures.  Instead, they lash out in anger and resentment.

The author (whoever that might be) should have said “too many blacks never take responsibility”. A statement that could also be made about “too many whites”. 

Across the generations and across the country, as we have seen in Detroit, Watts, Newark, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and now Ferguson, rioting and looting are just one racial incident away.

It is not blacks that have failed, but rather the system in these specific cities and states that have been, for generations, under the governmental control of radical liberal/ progressive politicians who have tried to implement socialistic mini-societies that predictably have failed,  just as thoroughgoing socialism eventually fails every where else in the world.

The white elite would tell us that this doesn’t mean the experiment has failed. We just have to try harder.  We need more money, more time, more understanding, more programs, and more opportunities.  But nothing changes no matter how much money is spent, no matter how many laws are passed, no matter how many black geniuses are portrayed on TV, and no matter who is president. 

All of this sure has captured the poor black and poor white vote, as well as the leftist-leaning population in America! The result has been more political power for the radical left. It is most correctly viewed as a positively accelerating vicious cycle.

It will never be a matter of more programs or more money. It is a matter of the motivational and administrative structure of how the money, opportunity and rewards are provided within programs. It is a matter of prompting and supporting marketable skill acquisition, work/financial opportunities and rewarding individuals who progress in achieving these goals.

Psychology’s great Law of Effect states “behavior is controlled by its consequences”. Change the consequences for a population’s actions and the populations behavior patterns will change!

Some argue it is a problem of culture, as if culture creates peoples behavior instead of the other way around.

It would only take one good course in introductory sociology, anthropology, and psychology for most to realize that what we call culture is influenced by many things. Some of these things are: The physical environment, biological/health issues, war/peace, feast/famine, religion/lack of it, how citizens make their livings, science and technology, and of course the thoughts/beliefs, perceptions, emotions, and behavior of the individuals within the population.

Do not forget that cultures are also comprised of subcultures. Yes behavior creates culture, as the author so strongly states. But please never forget that there is an undeniable synergism among all components of a culture.  All components of culture interact with other components in complex feedback cycles capable of both accelerating and decelerating population behavior patterns. Cultural causes and effects are best  conceived as a great multi-layered lattice of multi-directional causal interactions both within and between these layers.

Make no mistake, a culture shapes the  thoughts/ beliefs, perceptions, emotions, expectations and behaviors of those who live within it. 

Consider the infants born into the third generation families of those who have learned to live off governmental hand-outs and entitlements. That is, families that have learned it is most convenient (government rewards are most predicable and immediate)  and least effortful ( The “law” of least effort) to live the marginal life-style of a welfare recipient within the relatively deprived and dangerous environs of poverty.

These infants also tend to be born into environments that provide the quickest and easiest routs to increased status and prosperity through intimidation, violence and crime; environs in which education is viewed as useless.

From a statistical perspective, what would any psychologically knowledgeable individual predict for infants born into such conditions, other than the statistical negative outcomes commented upon by the unknown author if this article sent to me?  Of course, there still are wonderful very positive individual outcomes. They are inspiring testimony to the strong wills and undying efforts of many of our disadvantaged citizens.

But, would you really like to try and make the argument that culture does not shape the future outcomes for America’s disadvantaged infants of all races?

Others blame white privilege.

But since 1965, when the elites opened Americas doors to the Third World, immigrants from Asia and India people who are not white, not rich, and not connected have quietly succeeded.  While the children of these people are winning spelling bees and getting top scores on the SAT, black youths are committing half the country’s violent crime, which includes viciously punching random white people on the street for the thrill of it that has nothing to do with poverty.

The subcultures brought to America by the immigrant families specified contained a successful inoculation against the American subculture of governmental dependency and behavioral degeneration. It would be wise to more closely examine what these inoculating variables are and to strive to incorporate (I should say reincorporate) them into our own culture.

The experiment has failed.  Not because of white culture, or white privilege, or white racism.  The fundamental problem is that American black culture has evolved into an un-fixable and crime ridden mess. 

I do not think it is “un-fixable” in the long run. As a psychologist often working with middle-class black families and seeing loving, hard-working, grandparents and mothers, and sadly a fewer number of black fathers, doing their best to raise good children, I see reason for hope.

But, I also see the influences upon these growing children who are affected by the entertainment media and peers who have embraced the immorality, irresponsibility and  barbarianism of “the hood” and the Godless leftist secular humanist philosophy. Many black families, along with what is left of their families are fighting with all of their might to raise a wonderful future black American population.

They do not want to change their culture or society, and expect others to tolerate their violence and amoral behavior.  They have become socially incompatible with other races by their own design, not because of the racism of others – but by their own hatred of non blacks. 

This is true of significant numbers of all races.

Our leaders don’t seem to understand just how tired their white subjects are with this experiment.  They don’t understand that white people aren’t out to get black people; they are just exhausted with them.  They are exhausted by the social pathologies, the violence, the endless complaints, and the blind racial solidarity, the bottomless pit of grievances, the excuses, and the reflexive animosity! The elites explain everything with racism, and refuse to believe that white frustration could soon reach the boiling point.”—“You can’t legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.  The government can’t give to anybody anything that the government doesn’t first take from somebody else.  When half of the people get the idea that they don’t have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

Author Unknown

Yes, Socialism in America is destroying America. It is also destroying the quality of behaviors of our citizens of all races.

I therefore deplore all races of American citizens to vote the radical leftists/Marxists/socialists/communists and so-called progressives out of office.

Vote for Constitutional conservatives or see more and more of what the this article (in black) is complaining about in all of America’s races. 

Someone once said, “In a Democracy (America is really a Democratic Constitutional Republic) the people get exactly what they deserve”!

It will be so.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 10/30/17; Republished 6/24/20

 

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The Psychology Of Socialism In America: And Elsewhere

November 26, 2019

The Psychology Of Socialism In America: And Elsewhere

From my perspective, as a psychologist, the reasons for the growing  popularity of Socialism in America (and elsewhere) basically have to do with many elementary principles of psychology and the equally basic principles of animal behavior.

These basic scientific principles strongly tend to yield certain behavioral outcomes in animals, the world around.

Though we often do not think about it, humans are animals. After all, we are not vegetables or minerals…so we are animals. Both logic and mature psychological scientific experimental research strongly support that our emotions and behaviors are influenced in ways similar to the other animals on earth. Yet, few among us understand any of the details of this amazing perspective of modern psychological science.

In his powerful book: Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1972), B. F. Skinner explained how this great problem blocks the maximization of our individual and collective human potential. Reading his book will inform you of this relatively new perspective and may dramatically transform your thinking. You will learn a great deal about the determinants of human behavior and also the success and failure of evolving cultures…including our own.

The following are facts about how human nature interacts with some principles of psychology and behavior. I judge that they also help explain why socialism and communism can be so attractive to people everywhere.

  1. Animals prefer to get more rewards, easier, with less work.
  2. Animals prefer to find ways to make #1 happen more often.
  3. Animals prefer to get their rewards sooner than later.
  4. Animals prefer to find ways to make #3 happen more often.
  5. Animals prefer to get bigger rewards than smaller ones.
  6. Animals prefer to find ways to make #5 happen more often.

When animals are used to getting rewards easier, with less work; sooner than later; bigger than smaller; and getting all of this to happen for themselves with less effort, this tends to weaken their their tenacity and perseverance. Therefore animals who experience this learning history are prone to “give-up”, or “quit trying” when rewards, for any reason, suddenly become 1. harder to get, 3. are obtained later than sooner, 5. become smaller than bigger, or 6. happen less often than more often. In fact, this frustrating chain of events all too often tends to produce hostility and aggression between classes of individuals, fighting between tribes, and wars among civilizations.

Of course,  if animals have never been trained, or somehow learned to work hard to get their rewards they will be prone to showing a lack of persistence.

When rewards have slowly, over time, become harder to get, animals tend to continue to work harder and not to give-up or quit working quickly. They have learned to “hang in there” because, in the past they have learned to work hard to achieve their rewards. They are more likely to work harder to get rewards, “when the “going gets tough”!

When rewards are in short supply animals are more likely to look around, to”forage” to get (# 1, #3, and #5, in order to secure the highly rewarding consequences of 1, 3, and 5.

The following is an unusual perspective. But, please stay with me for the surprising outcome of chain the events described above.

A. If animals had a bar or button to push that made items 1., 3., and 5. happen more and more often in their lives, they would push this them more and more frequently because these low-effort responses would be so very powerfully rewarded. 

B. These elementary principles, and others not listed, are subsumed under a Law of Psychology, named the Law of Effect. This is one of psychology’s premier laws, that allows us to predict how the occurrence of rewards will change the behavior patterns of animals.  A simple explanation of the Law Of Effect is: Consequences Control Behavior.

I wonder if you can anticipate what I will say next about why Socialism is growing in popularity in America.

C. Humans are animals. Therefore, they are subject to all of the principles and behavioral outcomes listed above.

D. “Modernity” is a relative term though history (I.e., sleds vs. wheels; wells vs. aqueducts, horses vs. cars, ovens vs. microwaves, trains vs. planes, etc., etc., etc.). Modernity tends to make 1., 3., and 5. more easy to achieve. Successive generations of youth within a modernizing society tend to become more susceptible to giving-up or not trying when faced with the inevitable greater demands for effort that will face them in young adulthood. It tends to be true of modernizing societies that as children develop they encounter greater complexity in their lives and they also encounter greater demands for them to do more work per units of time. As a side-note; this may help to explain why, the world around, within rapidly modernizing modernizing societies, when various population behavior problems, as well as anxiety and depression  show increasing rates of occurrence.  

E. Finally, under these conditions, clever and unprincipled power-hungry politicians target their reward-deprived citizens with promises of free money, services, and opportunities in exchange for their votes. If this potentially accelerating self-defeating sick-sociopoliltical mututal reward system continues, the outcome becomes predictable.

The society becomes increasingly weakened by socialism/communism and begins its relative decline.

There are other events and cultural evolutions that are stimulating the popularity of socialism in America, so please stay tuned for more on this topic!

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 11/26/19

Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Indiana University South Bend

President, Behavioral Psychological Family Services

http://www.saulsnews.com/index.php/article/23156/

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“Shaping” New Socialists in America

April 5, 2019

“Shaping” New Socialists in America.

In psychology we call all that follows, the “Differential Reinforcement of Successive Approximations”, or “Shaping”, for short. You need to know about this because it is the method that socialist/communist revolutionaries are using to transform America.

Shaping is a technical term that refers to a procedure in which a desired end-state behavior pattern that is not present in someone, or in this case, a population of someone’s….slowly becomes prominent.

At the beginning of the procedure, any action that even remotely resembles the desired end-state behavior pattern is rewarded. As part of this approach, behavior that is incompatible, or competing with with the desired end-state behavior pattern. is not rewarded. The lack of rewards for non-desired behaviors reduces the frequency of occurrence of those behavior patterns, while the rewarded behavior patterns increase in frequency. 

It is often useful to combine measures of frequency with units of time. It is appropriate to call an increase of frequency of some behavior pattern in a fixed unit of time, an increased rate of that behavior pattern.

While shaping a behavior pattern, punishment can be added for incompatible or competing behavior in the form of social censure, legal persecution, material/financial loss, imprisonment, the administration of pain (torture), or threats of all of the previous and other forms of aversive treatment. The addition of punishment for unwanted behavior patterns can speed-up the shaping progress. But, if the punishments are too intense, or too often used, they can cause individuals and populations to rebel and counter-aggress against the shapers. Much as America did during its revolution against Great Britain.

Skilled shapers provide rewards to individuals or populations following the desired behavior patterns, at each of a series of successive steps, until the desired end-state behavior patterns happen at acceptable rates of occurrence. 

The shaping procedure is like atomic energy: It is neither moral or immoral, it is amoral. Its morality is determined by the uses to which it is applied as well as its produced outcomes.

It is best that this “shaping of behavior” process move in small steps and at a reasonably slow pace, over a some workable period of time. If punishment is used along the the teaching way is is best used very sparingly and ideally, not at all. 

It is important to note that if this process moves along successfully; individual’s or populations of individual’s thoughts, beliefs and attitudes will normally also changed in support of the the learned end-state behavior patterns.

Many other psychological laws and principles will be concurrently embedded within the procedure of shaping. However, they are too numerous and complex to describe here and unnecessary to understand the main message of this blog.

But, please understand the following:

  • Many socialist/ communist revolutionary’s have learned how to skillfully employ this shaping method.
  • They understand that revolution using primarily punishment, at the point-of-a-gun, and  the harsh control of populations can lead to counter aggression and counter-revolution against the shapers.
  • They know that it is most effective to target children and younger citizens, who’s behavior is more easily shaped in comparison to that of adults. 
  • They use many other psychological principles to influence the actions, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes of the young. 
  • If done well, the shaping method will likely lead to pacified and dramatically changed population’s preference patterns in favor of its own changing behavior patterns.

It is important to understand this: Socialists/communists and their allies have been shaping the population of America away from its founding behavior patterns, beliefs, and attitudes towards their own for many decades. Tragically, this shaping procedure  is working exactly the way the science of psychology predicts that it will!

Finally, understand that when socialist/communist behavior and preference patterns are shaped in a young population, within a Democratic Republic such as our own, all that is needed for great success, is that “the shapers” have success with only a  determinant percent of the voting population.

Know also, that the youthful population, over-time, will out-reproduce the aging generation. This is also true of youthful immigrant populations. These parenting generations will likely teach their children their own behavior patterns, beliefs and attitudes. 

There is much more to the Psychology of America’s Decline, but that is for my future blogs.

Wake-Up America! But it may already be too late.

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/51562108_10161354463420297_8627345535264620544_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=e3433bbbc26a06a52ec33618d2a6aa92&oe=5CF1DF0A

I want to thank my dear friend Howard Hawkin’s for sending these displays to me; thus inspiring me to put them in a science of psychology context.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 4/4/19

Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Health Services Provider in Psychology

 

 

 

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Guns, Faith and Culture

February 25, 2018

Guns, Faith and Culture.

It should come as no surprise that traditional morality has declined to pitifully low levels in America. By this, I mean the traditional moral and ethical codes of conduct that are based upon the Judeo/Christian faiths and their derivations.

I have documented the decline of traditional American culture and social conduct in here my blogs since 2009, now approaching 1700 publications. I did the same as a university professor, when I changed my area of research to these matters in the 1980’s. 

There are many corrective laws and encouragements that can be promulgated by our various levels of government. Also, there are those of us who are dedicated to showcasing America’s cultural and social decline. We hope to embolden everyone to fight the forces of our undoing in all available peaceful ways. 

Yet, I struggle with one great fear. This fear is that, no matter what a secular government and an increasingly secular culture and society may do to reverse its own steady decline…nothing will work. 

My grave concern is that nothing will work because there is no compelling reason to forsake the immediate pleasures that a population’s increasingly self-centered (“selfish”) behavior most quickly and most reliably secures.

Without God, and his sacred rules of conduct, there is no compelling reason to abandon our own selfish pleasures in order to only have a chance at securing the long-term benefits to ourselves and perhaps for society at large. What is it that will motivate us all to forestall or give-up immediate rewards in order to benefit others who will succeed us in the distant future?

As a doctoral student, I was trained that there is no such thing as human nature. I now know this is false.

Humans prone to pursue their own short-term rewards. They prefer that these rewards come faster not slower and larger not smaller. They also prefer that they come on a thicker schedule of occurrence,  that they come with greater convenience and less pain.

Humans also love to control the odds that their rewards will become bigger and faster, etc., and that means that they will strive to control their physical, social, political and geopolitical environs. Humans are prone to use their powers to reward, hurt or kill others to achieve these ends.

Unless there is some powerful counter-controlling force, they will use whatever methods most immediately provide these things that  human animals tend naturally covet.

Within any society, it takes a mighty powerful generally accepted  belief system to motivate its inhabitants to conduct themselves accordingly and to acculturate their children to do likewise.

Historically, mighty powerful belief systems have come in the form of a society’s chosen God, who must be obeyed in order that individuals and their society can gain favor and avoid a myriad of  terrifying cataclysmic events.

Often this Godly influence has been augmented by political leaders, kings, or dictators who use their God’s rules to control their population through the threat of slavery, banishment, imprisonment or execution. Many kings and dictators have even commandeered the status of a God in order further enhance their mighty powerful control of their subject’s beliefs and behavior patterns.

Since the Founding of America, a particularly pro-social and peaceful God has shaped the development of the United States. The attendant belief system is composed of Judeo/Christian precepts and rules for personal conduct defined good and evil behaviors for the worshiping majority of Americans.

Secular forces and political leftists  have relentlessly attacked this undeniable truth and have increasingly lied and propagandized to impose their own religion upon America. This failed religion is secular humanism and its “god” is humanity itself.

Though it has lost much of its power, the Judeo/Christian God-Based belief system has been so interwoven into the fabric of American culture, that it was also woven into the fabric of its Constitutionally based Representative Republic Government.

This assertion is incontrovertible. I hope you will read one, or both of the following two books to understand the undeniable true font of America’s Greatness.

1. Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rediscovering_God_in_America

2. One Nation Under God, by  David Gibbs with Jerry Newcombe

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/350512.One_Nation_Under_God

America’s Founding religious beliefs guaranteed HUGE fairly immediate and also deferred spiritual CONSEQUENCES for engaging in good or evil (bad) behaviors during one’s lifetime. Believers were promised the love and favor of God during their life-times. Also, huge delayed consequences were promised, heaven if one will believe and follow the Ten Commandments; hell if one did not. A strong belief in the personal and social advantages of God exerts, both then and now, strong peaceful and pro-social influences over human behavior.

Even if a strong belief in God begins to fade for the reasons stated above, the behavior patterns learned under this Godly belief system can persist for a time with some strength. 

But for the generations that follow, without the sustaining religious belief system that sustains good behaviors and reduces bad population acts…the rate of selfish, short-sighted, hedonistic and corrupt behavior will increase with each successive generation.

This, I believe, is what we are witnessing in America and all around the developing world. The common denominator of these trends appears to be the growth of science-based beliefs and technologies that bolster human’s confidence in the their own ability to increasingly control their environments and other important events in their daily lives.

The majority of us appear to love science-based modern technologies and the amazing advantages and conveniences that we enjoy.

Sadly, these technological “gifts”  appear to be powerfully undermining the moral/ethical behavior of America.

The the thing I fear the most is that it is the proliferation of science-based technologies that have led to the growth of secular humanism and socialism leading to destructive forms of narcissism for leaders and extreme dependency and helplessness for followers. All of this correlating with increasing sociopathic/antisocial behavior for all.

I suspect that this self-destructive cycle has, along with other killing influences,  spelled the downfall of developing societies (a relative concept), for all time. 

All living things are born, they live for a while, and then they die. So it also has been with cultures. 

In the past I have fantasized that cultures, particularly America, can teach themselves how to live with increasing health for longer and longer intervals of time.

Now, and I hope I am wrong, my happy fantasy seems to be logically flawed. If it is ever to occur, even temporarily, it may take another of our great national tragedies to bring America again to its vital roots…roots that can only be found on our knees in prayer. 

I endorse the importance of the following article and hope you will give it your close attention.

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA18B48&f=WU18B16

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 2/25/18

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Sperm Count and Cultural Evolution

January 29, 2018

Sperm Count and Cultural Evolution

One of my recent blogs discussed the fact that the loss of influence of a culture’s religion is commonly associated with the decline of that culture. This observation was presented as part of a larger blog on the seemingly unrelated, though actually not , topic of “Why Leftists Hate Religion”.

Here I noted that historically there are many causes of cultural decline, even total collapse, and recommended an excellent book on that topic for those who may wish to learn more about it.

I hope you will visit this blog and that you will find it thought-provoking.

https://culturalsurvivalskills.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=11839&action=edit

Now a new potential cause of cultural change, and I judge possible decline, has been confirmed by scientists. Modernizing cultures tend to experience a significant and continuing decline in their male citizen’s sperm count.

This powerful mechanism of cultural change is now occurring throughout Western Civilization. Of course the United States is a leading Western Civilization Culture and we also are suffering a declining male citizen sperm count.

It is logical to conclude that declining sperm counts in a male population are likely to lead to a decline in indigenous birth rates.  Scientific studies have also documented declining  birthrates in developing countries.

Although the causes for the decline among this cluster of events are yet uncertain, as I have reported, they are correlated with modernization. 

The specific causes of these correlations are unclear. A simple chain of linear causes leading to cultural decline is unlikely, given that the plethora of potential interacting variables are in constant flux within cultures over time. Causal interactions within such complex systems of variables, if they are linear at any level, are apt to be so only for a short time before many outcomes began to causally interact with other individuals, groups, businesses, agencies and levels of government within a culture. The outcomes  and exact magnitudes of such causal interactions may be near impossible to parse-out and trace as they interact, catalytically and perhaps, in some cases, exponentially with a myriad of other cultural features.

As if this complexity is not daunting enough, as any single culture changes, its interactions among other cultures will also likely change . Such changes can set the stage for reciprocal cycles of mutual influence among interacting groups of different cultures. The outcomes of these causal cycles will be fiendishly difficult to control and predict.

Perhaps you will agree with me that contemplating the intelligent control that humans might be able to purposefully exert upon the evolution of the cultures of this world is mind-boggling. 

Whatever is the case with the data on declining religiosity, declining fertility and declining birth rates in modernizing cultures ; all correlating with general declining conditions within these cultures, none of this seems to bode well for happy outcomes. 

Below, see the recent scientific findings on modernization and decreasing male fertility.

We are living in interesting times.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-weekahead/state-of-the-union-more-likely-to-raise-eyebrows-than-stocks-idUSKBN1FF1WV

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 1/29/18

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Why Leftists Hate God

January 27, 2018

Why Leftists Hate God.

There should be nothing surprising about the following article, noting that Google is censoring the name Jesus and information about him in their new technology, Google Home.

Socialists, communists and so called “progressives” (i.e., Leftists) most often seek to undermine the influence of God within the societies they control. This is well documented by the histories of many such societies.

Why should this be so often the case?

The answer should not cause any brain-strain to a clear thinking politically savvy individual.

In free societies, to exist long and well, it is absolutely critical that their population agree to similar rules of moral conduct. Christian-based religious influences have been very successful at teaching large populations to follow prosocial moral precepts and providing supernatural influences (God) that engender a love of these teachings and the fear of  forsaking them (i.e., heaven or hell in the after-life).

These deeply held beliefs create a population that is motivated to worship God and to strive to follow His Rules.

When God’s Rules come into conflict with a secular Government’s rules, among the faithful, God’s Rules will normally supersede the government’s rules. At the very least, they will compete with them.

This is a major strategic problem for any government that seeks to impose increasing levels of control and sanctions for resisting this control over its governed population.

In America, our increasingly leftist secular government, unelected governmental employees (the “deep state”), educational systems, news and entertainment media, and judicial system have increasingly censored, insulted, and ridiculed God and our religious citizens over many decades. Our government, using a common leftist ploy now called “political correctness”, has increasingly suppressed the language and holidays of  America’s traditional religions and have sought to marginalize its adherents.

Someone once said something similar to: The government that governs least is the government that governs best.

B. F. Skinner, the great American Psychologist amended that statement when he said…and I paraphrase: The government that governs least, governs best only when something else governs.

In America, historically, that “something else” has been the Christian God, His Son Jesus and the moral precepts that they teach.

For a leftist government to exert increasing control of the American population, it must destroy America’s God and the Son of God. Of course the ultimate goal is to make the leftist government America’s new “god”.

As this systematic strategy has unfolded and God’s influences in America has been weakened, our population has behaved in increasingly lawless and barbaric ways. 

The recurring tragedy is that this provides leftist governments the rational to fix the moral problems they caused by increasing their rules, controls and and sanctions in a failing effort to escape the predictable path to its own abject failure.

Below, please see yet another assault silently perpetrated against American’s  Christians.

http://fox17.com/news/local/does-google-home-know-who-jesus-is-brentwood-resident-says-no

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 1/26/18

P.S., I.  Of course, there are other factors that can lead to a decline in the religious influences within cultures. The processes and technological, biological, social and psychological outcomes of modernization appear to be important mechanisms in this decline.

P.S., II.  If you would like to learn a lot more about the many ways in which  societies decline and sometimes totally collapse, I recommend that you read the following:  Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond.

 

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Law of Effect Needs Moral Governance

January 18, 2018

Law of Effect Needs Moral Governance

There are many psychological principles that determine human behavior. They work together in complex ways and the behavioral outcomes of these interactions often appear to be both synergistic and exponential.

For example, being sexually abused twice, 1+1, may not equal a magnitude of disturbance in the victim of 2; it might equal a magnitude of disturbance of 5. Other unfortunate experiences frequently evolve from this person’s troubled behavior and is likely to produce a quickly accelerating rate of more troubled emotions and behaviors.

Of course principles of genetics and biology are of great importance. The interactions between these factors and psychological factors are bi-directional. Therefore, principles of psychology influence behavior and behavior is influenced by bio-genetic factors.

For example, a person born with the genetic factors that determine alcohol addiction will be more motivated to consume alcohol to excess , which in turn, can lead to more physical and psychological problems. These problems can include broken families, road fatalities, ruined business early death due to alcohol related illnesses or suicide.

In the previous example of rape, the victim may turn to drugs or alcohol in order to self-medicate for the fears and anxieties that typically are associated with rapes or other traumas. This can lead to more physical and psychological problems, which could end in bad outcomes for the individual and society.

These individuals could be helped by entering therapy. But many refuse treatment, are only partially assisted, or even fail to benefit in any measurable way.

Any society that designs itself in ways that accidentally, or selfishly, increase such problems for their citizens and then spends increasing revenues and energy to fix the problems is maladaptive and self-defeating. Such cultural designs are on a certain path to cultural decline.

This defines one of modern America’s most severe and worsening self-management problems.

The primary focus of the remainder of this blog will be upon psychological principles, processes and behavioral outcomes.

The great and powerful Law of Effect states that the probability of behavior is controlled by its consequences. The higher an animal is placed upon the phylogentic continuum, the greater the Law of Effect influences that animal’s behavior. Therefore, human behavior (good, bad, or indifferent) is most greatly influenced by the Law of Effect. The behavior of animals lower on the phyologentic scale is less influenced by the law of effect and more so by genetics.

Unfortunately, if  the powerful and natural influences of the Law of Effect and other interacting psychological principles are not guided by commonly accepted moral rules, values and consequences transmitted consistently and synchronously; within families, agencies and organizations (at managerial and governmental levels)…increased rates of bad behaviors within populations will certainly occur.

This is my prediction based upon principles of conditioning and learning theory and behavioral/cognitive social learning theory. My prediction is also informed by my 36 years as a professor of psychology and over 40 years as a private cognitive/behavioral therapist.

The population behavior changes I have seen in America during the course of my adult life (now at 75 yrs.) is largely, though not a singularly result, of a decline in our moral rules and consequences that less and less consistently govern our behavior. The interacting biopsychosocial scientific principles and  behavioral outcomes cause by this erosion of moral rules, values and consequences is what I call Behavioral Contagion. More specifically, Bad Behavioral contagion, leading to increased rates of bad behavior.

For our informal purposes, “bad behaviors” will include those  perceptions, emotions, beliefs and actions that damage the healthy physical and psychological development of children, adolescents and adults. These problems are very expensive and decrease the ability of a society to survive long and well.

To be sure, an entire book could be written about what bad behavior is, and is not, and there would be disagreement about what are good or bad behaviors under various circumstances. Regarding the class of “good behaviors”, I view these as human actions that are incompatible with, or compete with, the bad behaviors as defined above.

Most people would agree that, bad behaviors are neglecting, abusing or abandoning children or other loved ones; becoming addicted to activities or substances; lying, cheating, stealing and murdering, etc.. Most people would would agree that behaviors that are incompatible, or compete with, such actions would be examples of good or non-harmful behavior.

My general definitions, for the sake of this blog, will allow most folks to begin to to think about this complex matter of desirable, pro-social (good), or undesirable antisocial (bad) behavior among residents of our society.

It is important that citizens of America learn to think about such moral values and judgments because they determine the consequences for the actions of  themselves and others (rewards, punishments or no consequences) through their social interactions with others. Just as importantly, in America’s Representative Republic, citizens also influence the moral values, rules and consequences for themselves and others by casting votes for those who will be elected to make and enforce, or change the rules that govern all of us.

So, now comes the big question based upon Behavioral Contagion Theory: What can be done to decrease bad behavioral contagion in America and, as a result, also increase our cultural health and viability? 

Without a doubt, the “wisdom of the ages”, on this matter can be found in the moral precepts of the worlds greatest peaceful religions. My research finds that many scientists who study cultural decline, note that when populations loose their faith in their God’s teachings, they also loose the moral precepts and values important for their culture’s health and viability. This phenomenon appears to be happening to many (perhaps all, to some degree), modern technologically advancing societies in the world. 

I judge that skillfully using the psychological (and genetic/biological) principles of behavioral contagion will naturally decrease rates of bad behavior and increase rates of good behavior in America. But, to achieve this will require that we strengthen the influences of the social agencies, families, churches, schools and media influences that can promulgate and model moral rules and values and also reward conformity to these rules and values with acceptance, praise, recognition, influence, political power and material/financial consequences. 

Though it is unpopular in America’s increasingly immoral society, withholding these rewards for those who do not follow moral rules is essential. In extreme cases, murder, robbery, rape and child abuse, etc. To ever be effective, Swift and certain punishment must be administered by authorities for these and similar behaviors. 

For this chain of events to occur will require that America’s government (at all levels) cease the restrictions and punishments for America’s traditional and contemporary, peaceful and pro-social religious influences. 

I judge that it is essential to vote only for those public servants who support conservative moral rules and values to guide local, state and national governance. This will naturally catalyze increasing rates of good behavioral contagion in America and decrease rates of bad behavioral contagion.

Wake-Up America: Vote For Conservative Moral Values and Principles!

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Health Services Provider in Psychology

 

 

 

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Cultural Complexity and Decline

October 13, 2016

Cultural Complexity and decline

The following text is Quoted from Plato’s Revenge: Politics in the Age of Ecology, by William Ophuls, Kindle page 138-139. This book is an essential read for anyone who remains perplexed by America’s dramatically declining condition, as well as our debouched political system.

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When we recognize its necessity, we shall see that a simpler way of life might indeed be more virtuous and happy than the one we now believe represents the acme of human progress. In the first place, industrial civilization has become too complex and interlinked for its own good. As Joseph Tainter points out, an excess of complexity, usually aggravated by other factors, has spelled the downfall of previous civilizations. (13)  The costs of increasing complexity grow disproportionately until they eventually reach a point of diminishing or even declining returns. the civilization therefore has to run harder and harder to make further progress or even to stay in the same place.

In addition,  a civilization already stressed by the high costs of complexity may no longer be resilient enough to respond to further challenges. It risks a cascade of failure should a critical link fail for whatever reason. The interconnected institutions of a highly complex society are like mountain climbers tied to one rope with no belay: the fall of one can trigger the death of all. For example, the world financial system experiences periodic crises when the failure of one bank brings down a host of counterparties. Similarly,  a sudden or significant increase in the price of a critical commodity, such as petroleum, can choke an industrial superstructure predicated on cheap and abundant energy. The further danger is that  such a crisis can trigger psychological panic and social pandemonium. In short, the higher we build the edifice of civilization, the more vulnerable we become to catastrophe. A simpler, more resilient way of life would therefore be advisable on prudential grounds alone.

But our primary concern here is politeia, and the political argument for cultural simplicity is that great size and complexity produce a debased politics. When a polity grows beyond certain bounds, oligarchy in the bad sense is inescapable, the burden of bureaucracy grows ever more stifling, and genuine consent of the governed is practically unattainable.  A vicious circle fostering ever greater  centralized planning, administrative intervention, and political control takes over. If democracy survives at all, it will be a token democracy shadowed by the lurking menace of mob rule.

In the United States today, for instance, a tiny circulating policy elite makes all the important decisions in ways that align the interests of government, finance, and business. Since the system is “democratic,” the elite has to take into account the passions of the mob, which can erupt if its ox is palpably gored. So as long as he American ruling class provides the bread of affluence and the entertaining media circus, it can do pretty much as it likes. Having long since outgrown the relatively simple conditions required to support its constitutional design, the United States has therefore become an imperial polity bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the original American republic. Such is  the political price of great size and complexity .

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End of Quote.

It is clear that the ol’ saying: “Nothing Lasts forever” applies to everything we cherish, including our home-land; the once great socioculture of the United States of America.

America’s stability and permanence is an illusion. Indeed, simplifying the American lifestyle would promise to bring benefits to many people. But, we might then be hard-pressed to imagine how we would go about winning WWIII, in which our very existence is now on the line.

This is particularly the case when so many of our citizens and politicians suffer from pathological levels of denial of the current war on Western Civilization and also from delusions of an achievable peace through kindness, acceptance and forbearance toward America’s mortal external and internal enemies.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 10/13/16 (From the Reservation)

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America Better Rediscover God!

October 6, 2016

America Better Rediscover God!

The way things are in cyberspace, I cannot guarantee that this piece was written by Ben Stein. It sounds like something that he would say and I think that it is written by him.

No matter who the author is, I am convinced that what will follow is absolutely the truth.

When sociocultures enter their end stages of decline, they often try to save themselves by returning to what had once made them great. Generally speaking, this does not work and the they end in chaos and barbarianism.

You are currently seeing these themes during America’s present stage of decline.

Sadly in matters of sociocultural decline there are no guarantees. But there is hope because what America was founded upon were powerful Judeo/Christian belief systems and their superior codes for moral conduct.  All of this is exactly what America has lost to a markedly inferior secular humanistic movement and its ruinous political system…socialism.

I believe that a return to America’s founding religious and moral base is our only hope. Ben Stein agrees and I hope you do also.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 10/6/16

P.S., Thanks to Lee Hornack for sending me this article.

 _____________________________________________________________________________________
Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late
\! 

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBSSunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. 

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. 

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.In light of recent events–terrorists attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school .The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said okay.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with, ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’ 

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. 

Are you laughing yet? 

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. 

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. 

Pass it on if you think it has merit. 

If not, then just discard it. No one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. 

My Best Regards, Honestly and Respectfully, 

Ben Stein

 

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