Following is the core of my undergraduate thesis for Friends World College. It contains the core concept of the 'script' which has informed almost everything that I have thought, written, created, or said since then. Since 2002 I have been working sporadically on a book that would share what I have learned about these ideas in the last 30 years.
a) Human
beings have a ’biological’ script.
b) This
biological script is the stimu1us for all human experience.
c) Within
the arena of human experience, which includes a ”state of consciousness” and a
process of creativity (which affect not only the material world, but also the
“state of consciousness” that perceives this material world), there is an
accumulative phenomena which results in the constant transformation of the
arena within which human experience is carried out.
d) The
development and use of language and tools appears to be a distinctly human
process (not apparent amongst other primates), which accounts for much of the
accumulation/ transformation of the human arena.
e) It is
not necessary to think of language and tool as exclusive categories. In fact,
language is a tool.
f) Like
any other tool, 1anguage has developed in relation to its function, the value
of which has been created by the human biological script. Also, as with any other tool, once 1anguage
has been created, it is no longer restricted to the use that it was intended
for in its original function.
g) Competition
and cooperation are important dynamics in human experience.
h) Language
has been the most important too1 in the deve1opent of
human social phenomena, and consequently, the deve1opment of human social
phenomena has been one of the ma1n factors in the development of language.
i) Human
experience has generated language to serve a certain function. This of course
means that human experience preceded the development of language. A1though this
is an obvious fact, it may be extreme1y difficu1t to realize its implication in
the context of a transformed human arena where the use of language has already
become an essentia1 aspect of human experience. The transformation which takes
place in human consciousness in conjunction with the development (and use) of
language is usually referred to as ”thought.”
j) It is
possib1e to use language to describe human experience and natura1 phenomena
which are of importance to human experience. It is not only ’possible’ to use
language in this way, it is one of 1anguage’s main functions and therefore one
of the main factors in language’s development.
k) At a
certain point in the development of language an human ”thought,” there tends to
be a distinction made between ”description” of phenomena and ”explanation” of
phenomena. Such a distinction having formed, there is a tendency to attempt to
apply the principle of ”explanation” to phenomena which are not
understood as we11 as to phenomena which are understood.
l)
Also,
at a certain point in the development of 1anguage’s social function, it becomes
used in implementing rules about social behavior. These rules about social behavior have a value in the development of social cooperation.
m)
Language,
as do other tools, has its accumulation/ transformation effect on the human
arena, in conjunction with its own accumu1ation and an increasing dependency
upon its function, which has become valuable as a means of carrying out the
human biological script. Descriptions
and explanations of human experience, descriptions and explanations of natural
phenomena, descriptions of rules governing natural
phenomena, statements of rules which should govern human social behavior, etc.,
accumulate in language (as a tool which is used to communicate them). This
accumulation is greatly increased with the development of written language.
n)
At
a certain point in the development of social cooperation, and the accumulation
of descriptive, explanatory, and prescriptive statements in language,
comprehensive systems of thought tend to be formulated (belief systems, moral
systems, philosophies, legends, religions, sciences, mytho1ogies, aesthetic
systems, superstitions, etc.) Such comprehensive systems of thought will be
referred to as scripts. The over-all system or inter-connection of several
scripts, in a given language, will be referred to as a cultural script.
o)
The
development of a script requires people to believe in it, or else it
disappears. Inducing people to believe in a script requires a system of
enlistment or recruitment. Such a process takes p1ace on two fronts: the
en1istment of children born to people who already believe in the script (this
is called education), and the recruitment of adults who already be1ieve in a
different script (this is called conversion or sometimes called re-education).
p)
Once
a script is being used by a group of people, they may individua11y or
collectively have experiences which are not accounted for in the script or
experiences which contradict the script. The demand of a script, however, is
that all experiences be explained by it. This process, of explaining experience
by recourse to a script, will be referred to as ”attribution to the script.”
q)
The
demand of a script for all occurrences to be attributed to its already existing
system of thoughts, combined with the constant change of natura1 phenomena and
the constant transformation of the human arena, creates a ”conflict of
attribution.” When such a conflict
results in ”dogmatism,” a great deal of
suppression, repression, and ”loss of reality” tend to be generated.
r)
The
essence of this conflict (which occurs whenever a script demands attribution)
is between using language as a creative tool to describe and attempt to explain
human experience (realities), and using a standard script to perform this act.
s) Because
interpretation of the script is a very important activity, individuals or
groups who are in a position of being ”official interpreters” of the script
tend to be very ”influential” peop1e.
t) Once a
script has come into existence/use, despite the skill of any group of people
who re-interpret, alter, or enforce the script, there is always (some degree
of) conflict between new experience and attribution to the script.
u) Cultural
scripts tend to come into existence and spread according to a geographical
origin/center and tend to become limited according to natural geographical
boundaries, or coming into conflict with another script.
v) Any
script has internal conflicts due to the contradictions involved in attribution
of experience to the script, and a cultural script tends to come into conflict
geographically with other cultura1 scripts, which are emanating from different
cultural centers and also from different languages. The former conflict is inward, and the latter conflict is outward.
w) A group
of people who are in the position of interpreting Or enforcing a script within a
certain geographical area, and who are finding it difficult to maintain this
script, may find that it is extremely valuable to direct attitudes of conflict
towards other scripts, and thus to minimize the levels of potential conflict
within their own script.
x) The
concrete factors which must be comprehensively dealt with in any one cultural
script are innumerable. The most important factors are those of competition and
cooperation, attitudes towards techno1ogical and aesthetic innovations, rules
about economic accumulation, rules about human interaction, and attitudes
concerning other scripts. These
different aspects of a human reality are usually dealt with in a variety of
different scripts, the overall organization of which makes up a ”cultural
script.” This cultural script has
internal contradictions. The most important factor in mobilizing the members of
a cultural script into conflict with another cultural script, is convincing the
members of this cultural script that despite the internal contradictions
between different scripts, and between these scripts and reality, that the
overall organization of these scripts, in ”their” cultural script, is something
”sacred,” as compared with other cultural scripts. This belief can be
transformed into conflict with another cultural script by interpreting the
activities of another cultural script as threatening (which they very well may
be), or by creating a sense of moral obligation to convert members of another
cultural script into the ”sacred.” The real factors invo1ved in such a
mobilization rarely become conscious topics for debate.
y) When an
over-all cultural script is mobilizing towards conflict with another cultural
script, it becomes very difficult to use language as a tool to describe or
attempt to explain actual realities.
z) Language
is a tool. A script is a tool. Everybody is an artist.