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     %CHANGE ULTIMATE CONCERN VALUE IDEAL GOOD EVIL 910615

     It   is  difficult  for a person or  a  community  to
find  integrative    ways   to   change   from   unhealthy
ultimate concerns,   values ideals and conceptions of God,
good and evil; to healthy alternatives to them.

     Unhealthy  attitudes,   habits,   assumptions,   etc.
confuse  the  issues   which  must  be   considered   when
consideration  ultimate  issues.   When one has made  what
one  has  regarded  as ultimate commitments to  a  set  of
beliefs, how can it be possible  to come to the conclusion
that those commitments were unhealthy!  Yet,  it should be
possible  to  do  so,   in  order  to  correct  ultimately
addictive commitments.

     Commitments   to   beliefs usually carry  with   them
beliefs  about  the life experiences which may  reasonably
flow  from living  in  terms  of  those  beliefs.     When
our   beliefs  regarding  the  expected  fruits  of  being
committed to a  set of  ultimate  beliefs  are  repeatedly
frustrated   through  disappointments,   conflicts,    and
disintegration;   then we may  reasonably come to question
our  original  commitments and the beliefs which motivated
them.

     Our   commitment may be so fanatical  and  unreserved
that  it will  blind  us to the reasonable interpretations
of  our frustrations,      disappointments,      conflicts
and disintegration.  Fanatical people will often choose to
die rather  than  change  their  beliefs.   This  is  true
of fanatical nationalists,   religious fanatics,  addicts,
co-dependents,  and others of similar dispositions.   They
fail  to  see  that  the only way  to  integrity  involves
fundamental changes  in their own commitments,    beliefs,
attitudes, perceptions, etc.

     These   considerations pertain to communities as well
as  to  individual  people,   and involve  more  difficult
situations  in   the  instance of communities than in  the
instance  of human individuals.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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