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 %CHOOSE IDEALS VALUES COMPETITION COOPERATION TECH 900127

     Some  of  our most basic decisions have  to  do  with
choosing:   to  engage  in  competition  or   cooperation,
conflict  winning or resolution,  solving or  transcending
problems,   preoccupation with techniques or dialogue with
people;   focusing  upon  poles  of  dichotomies  or  upon
personal and communal integration.

     If  we  choose to engage in competition  rather  than
cooperation,   we  seek to create  competitive  situations
rather   than   cooperative   situations;    and   neglect
challenging   dilemmas  in  preference  to  focusing  upon
superficial competitions.

     If  we choose to try to win in conflicts rather  than
to   resolve  conflicts,   we  become  imprisoned  in  the
conflicts which might be resolved; and in those prisons we
are  trapped with our enemies who are doing the same thing
we are doing.

     If  we choose to try to solve everything which  seems
to  be a problem to us,  rather than to seek to  transcend
the  dilemmas  which are not technical problems;  then  we
turn  dilemmas into tragic efforts to control what  cannot
be  controlled,   and become imprisoned in  addictive  and
codependent relationships.

     If we choose to be preoccupied with techniques rather
than  to  be  involved in open and  honest  dialogue  with
intimate  friends,  we become technocrats who seek to find
ways to use their favorite techniques, even when such uses
leads to personal and communal disintegration.

     If we choose to focus our lives on either pole of any
of  the  multitude  of  available  dichotomies,   we  lead
disintegrative  lives characterized by the  split  between
the  poles  of  the dichotomy whose pole we  fixate  upon:
objectivity  vs reflexivity,  community vs  individuality,
acceptance  vs rejection,  science vs religion,  spirit vs
body, etc.

     In a technocratic society there is little time  spent
on  learning  how  to choose ideals,  values,   and  goals
wisely;    and  much  time  is  spent  on  attempting   to
technically achieve what is implied in ideals,  values and
goals  which  have  been  internalized  thoughtlessly  and
without wisdom.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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