This is http://www.essayz.com/a8909282.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %ATTITUDES VALUES IDEAL CONFLICT DISINTEGRATE 890928 Unconscious attitudes which dominate daily living can easily undermine consciously held and affirmed values and ideals and lead to personal and communal disintegration. To avoid such disintegration it is essential to change the unconscious attitudes; i.e., the unconscious habits of mind and heart as they respond to daily circumstances. To change such disintegrative attitudes which undermine conscious ideals and values one needs to recognize the disintegrative consequences of the disintegrative attitudes, be willing to give up whatever it is that prompts one to maintain such disintegrative attitudes, make a decision to start some fundamental changes, make the necessary commitments and plans to implement those changes, and then exercise the will and power to carry through the commitments to make those changes. To change fundamental attitudes which have dominated daily life is not easy. It is to be born again. Re-birth is a painful process and we tend to try to avoid such a painful process; yet to avoid disintegration we may need to go through some painful re-birth process in which we sacrifice the disintegrative values and ideals which undermine the integrity of our lives. It is even more painful to discover that our conscious ideals and values as well as our unconscious attitudes are disintegrative in the way in which they lead us. Few people find the courage to face the fact that those ideals and values to which they have made great sacrifices, are in practice leading them into disintegrative relationships and processes. We tend to regard our highest ideals and values as God, even though our highest ideals and values have been created by our communal processes and by our own efforts. We idolize them and regard them as ultimate, even when they lead to our personal and communal disintegration. It is difficult to show the courage to change our attitudes when they lead us into disintegrative relationships and processes. It is even more difficult to change our ideals and values when they lead us into disintegrative relationships and processes. Yet in such idolatrous circumstances a failure to make fundamental changes leads to ultimate personal and communal disintegration. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================