A-R-P
(How the dialectic process affects you, your children, your spouse, your leadership, etc.)
by
Dean Gotcher
We, as children, seek approval from others (A). We are caught between either seeking approval from those who restraint us (R), becoming subject to parental authority, or seeking approval from those who (like us) "lust" after pleasure (P), finding "oneness" with other children. Parental authority (A+R) and "oneness" with other children (A+P) are antithetical to one another—(A+R) ≠ (A+P). If (A+R) is encouraged and supported, (A+P) is inhibited or blocked in the behavior of the child. If (A+P) is encouraged or supported then (A+R) is negated in the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the child, along with his relationship with others. Dialectic 'reasoning' 'justifies' (A+P) over and against (A+R), negating the guilty conscience in the child for questioning and challenging, i.e., revolting against parental authority.
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24
What children are "lusting" after ("coveting") in the 'moment' (P) and who they are turning to for approval (A) can be identified through the use of dialogue (sharing with one another how they are "feeling" and what they are "thinking" about in the 'moment' regarding personal-social issues). If they refuse to participate or resist participation their 'loyalty' to parental authority, i.e., their desire for parental approval is stronger than their desire for group approval. Dialogue reveals (seduces the children into revealing) their desires of the 'moment' (P), including their desire for approval from the other children in the group (A), as well as reveals their dissatisfaction or resentment toward restraint (R), which includes their fear of being rejected by the group (A) (which offers them an opportunity to acquire their desires of the 'moment,' i.e., P). By (using "feigned words"—plastic words, i.e., using deception, i.e., "doublespeak," i.e., saying one thing while meaning another) giving the children hope that they can have what it is they desire or want (P), as long as they do not hold one another accountable, i.e., judge one another for their thoughts and actions (R)—the lie in the garden in Eden, "Ye shall not surly die"—they can be united as one (A+P) (manipulated, i.e., be made "merchandise of," i.e., be made into "human resource") in the social action (praxis) of augmenting pleasure and attenuating pain, 'liberating' themselves and society to do as they desire (A+P), negating parental approval, i.e., negating anyone (including anyone in the group, where rejection is role-played, i.e., voiced and acted out against those) who keep them (the group) from doing what they want (A+R) in their feelings, thoughts, and actions, and in their relationship with (in their approval of) one another, negating parental authority and the guilty conscience for disobedience, doing unconscionable, unrighteous, abominable things, in the name of "peace and affirmation" (A+P), i.e., "Making the world safe for Democracy" in the process (called sensitization, conscietization, habitualization, democratization).
"And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you;" 2 Peter 2:22
Dialectic 'reasoning' depends upon sensation, i.e., our "feelings" (our "sensuous needs") of the 'moment' and sight (our "sense perception"), i.e., what we covet ("lust") after in the 'moment,' to determine 'reality,' i.e., to determine what is real and what is not, making all things subject to the world only. Therefore, according to dialectic 'reasoning,' only that which is of "human nature," i.e., only that which is of the world, i.e., only that which is of Nature, only that which we can "sense experience" in the 'moment,' i.e., only that which we can relate with (or is understandable according to our "feelings" of the 'moment,' i.e., "sense experience"), i.e., only that which is' rational,' i.e., only that which is "practical" to us in the "here-and-now" is of worth or value. Since we are all born into this world with the natural inclination to approach pleasure and avoid pain, the pleasure-pain spectrum of sensation is the ground of being from which we first learn to measure value or worth. Since pleasure "feels" good and pain "feels" bad, a "good day" would be a day in which we had more pleasure than pain (we got what we wanted) and a "bad day" would be a day in which we had more pain than pleasure (we did not get what we wanted).
We are able to have stability in our lives by developing an "equilibrium" within this pleasure-pain spectrum. When pain exceeds pleasure to the point where pain is intolerable, we naturally desire 'change,' i.e.' we desire to 'change' the situation or the environment we find ourselves in in order to remove the source of pain, in order to have or "enjoy" more pleasure. Through the use of words and/or action we, according to our nature, attempt to 'change' the world, i.e., try to make it a "better" place to live in, by removing the conditions or objects which stimulate the sensation of pain, making the attenuation of pain and the augmentation of pleasure the 'drive' and the 'purpose' of life. This is the way of the carnal (natural) man, making decisions, dealing with the symptoms of the problem, i.e., the "feelings" of the 'moment,' without considering the lasting consequences—whether our thoughts and actions are right or wrong before God, according to His Will (His Word).
The Lord God is the giver of life. The next breath you take is a gift from Him whether you want to accept it or not. God is not against pleasure. He created it. It is that doing right and not wrong is the issue of life or else the love of pleasure will result in the death of man, not only physically (the body, i.e., the flesh) but also spiritually (the soul), since the soul is eternity.
While pleasure-pain is a spectrum, i.e., tolerant of ambiguity (we tolerate pain as long as we are having enough pleasure), right-wrong is not, making right-wrong intolerant of ambiguity (any wrong makes the answer wrong despite all the right in it), engendering a guilty conscience in us for doing wrong. By making the duality of right-wrong subject to the pleasure-pain spectrum, with pain becoming "wrong" (bad), pleasure becomes "right" (good), right-wrong (bad-good or good-bad, it depends upon how you "see" it) is made into a spectrum, making things "more right than wrong," i.e., ambiguous. By making the conscience, i.e., the duality of right-wrong, which is subject to established commands, rules, facts and truth, subject to the "super-ego," i.e., subject to the pleasure-pain spectrum, i.e., subject to the "feelings" (desires and resentments) of the 'moment,' the conscience, which is intolerant of ambiguity becomes seared, i.e., becomes negated, having now been made subject to "feelings" of the 'moment,' which are tolerant of ambiguity.
Our nervous system informs us of objects in the environment (inside and outside our body, real or imagined) which stimulate the sensation of pleasure as well the sensation of pain. The sensation of pleasure is associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine, i.e., a chemical our body naturally produces and 'emancipates' or 'liberates' into an area between our nerve endings (called a synaptic gap) in order to convey information regarding the source, type, amount of pleasure, etc., to the brain. Dopamine is not only emancipated into the synaptic gap between our nerves on the way to the brain but is also emancipated into the synaptic gap between the nerves (called neurons with their dendrites) within the brain. This is when and where we become aware the sensation of pleasure, informing us that we come into contact with, are observing, or imaging an object of pleasure. After coming into contact with an object or a situation (real or imagined) which stimulates the 'emancipation' (or 'liberation') of dopamine into the synaptic gaps in our brain (where we become aware of the sensation of pleasure), and, by observation or perception (whether it be real or imagined), identified it as the source of the pleasure we are "feeling," we attempt to approach (apprehend) it in an effort to attain and control it in order to experience more dopamine 'emancipation' or 'liberation,' i.e., more sensation of pleasure, within our brain. All habitual drugs (including nicotine and caffeine) are associated with dopamine, either stimulating the emancipation of it, imitating it, or preventing its reuptake (breakdown) in the synaptic gap. We buy or build things, i.e., acquire things and fix them up (arrange them in a particular way, whether in real life or in our imagination) in order to stimulate more dopamine 'emancipation,' i.e., in order to experience pleasure (enjoyment) whenever we approach them, walk through them, put them on, touch, taste, smell, see, or hear them, think about them, and/or talk about them with others. Without dopamine 'emancipation' our natural (carnal) life would be boring, i.e., we would be depressed and depressing to be around. God gave us dopamine in order for us to enjoy His creation and praise Him.
It is the presence of pain in our lives (which includes our missing out on pleasure) which causes us to think about 'change.' Without it (pain and the desire for 'change') we would tend to stay in the condition we find ourselves, either not being cognizant (aware) of anything or cognizant of pleasure only, therefore not desiring 'change.' According to dialectic 'reasoning' it is the sensation of pain which forces us to become aware of ourselves and the world around us, using our 'reasoning' ability to identify and respond to, i.e., avoid or remove the objects or situations which stimulate pain in our lives.
In order for the child to learn right from wrong, the parent uses pain (including the pain of missing out on pleasure and the pain of rejection) as well as reward (pleasure, including the pleasure of approval) in order to teach the child that what he is doing or thinking about is either right or wrong according to the parent's standards, since, according to our carnal nature, i.e., according to the nature of the child, pleasure is always "right" and pain is always "wrong." With the parent's first command, rule, fact, or truth and use of parental restraint, i.e., with the threat of pain or application of pain upon the child (for not obeying or for doing things wrong) the child becomes aware of an authority which is not of nature only, engendering a guilty conscience for doing wrong, the desire of the moment being superseded (restrained) by the consequences which would follow later. According to dialectic 'reasoning' the child's acceptance of parental authority results in his 'creation' of a "super-natural" authority, i.e., that which is not of nature, i.e., that which not of the world, i.e., that which is not of natural. By the child accepting (submitting to) parental authority, i.e., an "alien force," i.e., God is created, influencing, i.e., restraining his feelings, thoughts, and actions, and his relationship with others, "repressing" him from satisfying his desires of the 'moment,' "alienating" him from having relationship others who satisfy or seek to satisfy the same desires in their lives.
"The life which he has given to the object sets itself against him as an alien and hostile force." (Karl Marx, MEGA I/3, pp. 83-84) "Tillich suggests that it would be better to let the giver of arbitrary laws to destroy us physically than to accept the psychological destruction that would accompany submission to an alien will." (Leonard F. Wheat, Paul Tillich's Dialectical Humanism) "God is conceived more directly after a parental image and thus as a source of support and as a guiding and sometimes punishing authority." "The conception of the ideal family situation for the child: (1) uncritical obedience to the father and elders, (2) pressures directed unilaterally from above to below, (3) inhibition of spontaneity, and (4) emphasis on conformity to externally imposed values." "An attitude of complete submissiveness toward ‘supernatural forces' and a readiness to accept the essential incomprehensibility of ‘many important things' strongly suggest the persistence in the individual of infantile attitudes toward the parents, that is to say, of authoritarian submission in a very pure form." "Authoritarian submission was conceived of as a very general attitude that would be evoked in relation to a variety of authority figures―parents, older people, leaders, supernatural power, and so forth." (Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Authority)
It is the father's authority (in particular) that those of dialectic 'reasoning' seek to negate in the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the child, as well as in his relationship with others. Only then can the child be of and for himself again, as he was before the father's first command, rule, facts, or truth and threat of chastening, i.e., of and for nature only. In this way unrighteousness and abomination can become the law of the land, 'liberating' man from Godly restraint (from our Heavenly Father's authority), i.e., from the affects of parental (from our earthly father's) authority.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 1 John 2:15-18
Now that we have an understanding of the issue at hand, i.e., the affect of dialectic 'reasoning' upon us, we can better understand the formula being used to 'change' us and the world around us, i.e., 'liberating' us and it from Godly restraint, so that we can be "of and for our self" and the world only. Since the pleasure-pain spectrum (our desire to approach or augment pleasure and to avoid or attenuate pain) comes from our nature and the world around us, which stimulates it, and the duality of right-wrong comes from an authority above us restraining us, i.e., inhibiting or blocking us through the use of pain, i.e., preventing us from becoming at-one-with ourselves and the world in pleasure in the 'moment,' we all have within us a tension (a conflict) between our natural attraction toward the pleasure of the' moment' and our desire to do what is right. If right is tied to pleasure than parental restraint is wrong but if right is tied to parental authority than pleasure is made subject to parental authority, resulting in the child's pleasure being restrained by the parent in order to teach him to do what is right, with the child no longer being of nature alone. Therefore, according to dialectic 'reasoning,' only when the child is 'liberated' from parental (the father's) authority can the child (and therefore society) become normal, i.e., can man and the world have harmony, i.e., be at peace with himself and the world around him, i.e., have "peace and affirmation."
"Alienation is the experience of ‘estrangement' (Verfremdung) from others, . . ." "Alienation has a long history. Its most radical sense already appears in the biblical expulsion from Eden." "Alienation, according to Feuerbach, derives from the externalization (Entausserung) of human powers and possibilities upon a non-existent entity: God. . ." "God is thus the anthropological source of alienation . . ." "Alienation will continue so long as the subject engages in an externalization (Entausserung) of his or her subjectivity." (Bronner, Of Critical Theory and its Theorists)
Since peace, according to the father is based upon doing what is right and peace, according to the world, is based upon having pleasure, affirmation becomes the issue at hand. Affirmation by the world engenders pleasure, with peace being tied to pleasure, while affirmation by the parent or God engenders restraint of pleasure, with peace being the result of doing what is right and not wrong.
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:23-27 "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:" Luke 12:51 "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 "And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:17-18 "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, either indeed can be." Romans 8:6-7 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" Romans 5:1 "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." Colossians 1:20-21
When two or more desire relationship, i.e., when they are influenced by the pleasure which comes from approval, yet have differing positions on an issue regarding right and wrong, they have the option of either holding onto their position, seeking affirmation from the one above them, who gave them their position of restraint, resulting in potential division and alienation (lose of affirmation) from the other person, or they can compromise or "set aside (for the 'moment') their position (parental authority) for the sake of initiating or sustaining the relationship, i.e., enjoying the pleasure which comes from the affirmation of pleasure (which is "positive," a "win-win" situation," according to nature).
Therefore there are two kinds of affirmation (A), that of restraint (R), where the persons seeks affirmation from an authority above nature, restraining their impulses and urges of the 'moment,' with them refusing to compromise for the sake of relationship with others, and that of pleasure (P), which 'justifies' and augments the pleasures of the 'moment'—where those who are willing to compromise, i.e., desiring 'change,' i.e., willing to set aside parental restrain (R) in order to initiate and sustain affirmation (unity) based upon pleasure (P), thereafter basing 'reality,' i.e., the 'drive' and 'purpose' of life upon the augmentation of the pleasure (P) over and against the restraint of pleasure (R), making "right" subject to pleasure (P). The "old" world order is based upon the restraining of pleasure (in order to do right and not wrong) while the "new" world order is based upon 'liberation' of pleasure from restraint (from doing right and not wrong). We are all servants to either pleasure (nature) or restraint (He who is above nature). Dialectic 'reasoning' is based upon the 'liberation' of pleasure (P) from the restraints of authority (R), negating parental authority in the process, where the affirmation (A—the pleasure of approval) of the many (P—the group, i.e., the community, i.e., society) negates the affirmation of the one (R—the parent, the father, and/or God).
The gospel message is of a Son's obedience to His Father, calling us to follow Him, doing the same, i.e., living by faith in Him and His Word. The message of the world (dialectic 'reasoning') is to 'liberate' man from the Father's authority, negating the Father's authority in man feelings, thoughts, and actions and in his relationship with other men, making him subject only to the approval of man.
"Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God."
If we make A subject to P then all we have are the things of world, i.e., that which is of the world only ("the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"). But if we make A subject to R (to the Father's authority), then we are not of the world (we are in the world but not of it). (A+P) negates (A+R), i.e., the approval of man negates in man's feelings, thoughts, and actions, and in his relationship others, the approval of God. (A+P) responds to (A+R) with a "cold shoulder," treating their "information" as being irrational and therefore treating them as being irrelevance, sending the body language of "Don't mess with my 'fun.'" After all don't you want your children to have "fun." As might be said by the master facilitator of 'change' (the first facilitator of 'change') who made himself manifest in the garden in Eden, helping two children, resenting resistance, desiring 'change,' i.e., doing what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it, moving from (A+R), i.e., faith and obedience to (A+P), i.e., sight and "fun."
Since preaching and teaching is associated with the father's authority, i.e., his commands, rules, facts, and truth, and dialogue is associated with the child's nature, i.e., his desires of the 'moment,' an environment of dialogue negates the father's authority as the father's authority negates dialogue, i.e., as the father's participation with the child's "Why?" negates the father's "Because I said so," so the father's "Because I said so" negates the furtherance of the child's "Why?" By simply 'changing' the learning (policy setting) environment the outcome is guaranteed. By 'changing' the classroom environment from the preaching of rules and commands to be obeyed and the teaching of facts and truth to be accepted as is (by faith) to the dialoging of opinions, i.e., "how" the students feel about and "what" they thing is the best solution to the current issue or situation, the outcome for 'changed,' i.e., the negation of the father's authority is guaranteed.
Karl Marx wrote: "once the earthly family [with the earthly father's authority 'system'] is discovered to be the secret of the holy family [the Son's obedience to His Heavenly Father's authority 'system'], the former [the child's obedience to earthly father's authority 'system'] must itself be annihilated [vernichtet] theoretically and practically [in the child's feelings, thoughts, and actions and in his relationship with others]." (Karl Marx, Theses On Feuerbach #4) Sigmund Freud wrote: "'it is not really a decisive matter whether one has killed one's father or abstained from the deed,' if the function of the conflict and its consequences are the same [that the father's/Father's authority 'system' no longer has relevance in and for the family]." (Sigmund Freud as quoted in Herbart Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud) George Hegel wrote: "the child, contrary to appearance, is the absolute, the rationality of the relationship; he is what is enduring and everlasting, the totality which produces itself once again as such [once his feelings, thoughts, and actions and relationship with others is 'liberated' from the father's/Father's authority 'system']." (George Hegel, System of Ethical Life)
Hegel, sounding more like Karl Marx than Marx himself, wrote: "On account of the absolute and natural oneness of the husband, the wife, and the child, where there is no antithesis of person to person or of subject to object [no father's authority over the children (and husbands authority over the wife)], the surplus is not the property of one of them [there is no private, as in private property or business, i.e., no "My family. Not yours."; "My property. Not yours."; "My business. Not yours"], since their indifference is not a formal or a legal one [there is no authority above man, restraining "human nature" telling man and child what is right and what is wrong]."
If you accept this scenario, then the earth is not the Lord's but belongs to everybody, and it's fruit's, i.e., your children, your wife, your property, your business, and even you do not belong to you (under God) but belongs to everybody (under the facilitator of 'change's' control), i.e., where everybody is (has the right) to get pleasure out of your children, your wife, your property, your business, and even you. By 'changing' the classroom learning environment to the dialoguing of opinions (sight, i.e., perception, i.e., the "feelings" of the 'moment') over and against the preaching and teaching of rules, commands, facts, and truth (faith) the next generation of citizens have been changed from individuals under God to socialists subject to the laws of man's carnal natures, ever subject to 'change,' i.e., where the situation and "feelings" of the 'moment' take you, 'creating' a world of unrighteousness and abomination. The formula for 'change,' dialectic 'reasoning,' has 'changed' this nation from the 50's on, with the classroom, through the use of "Bloom's Taxonomies," getting rid of Ten Commandments, prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and chastening for disobedience or for doing wrong, all of which are structured after to the Father's authority and had to be removed if we were to make the world "safe" for democracy (common-ism), where "relationships are built upon self interests" (P), not upon the word of God (R), which divides between those under God's authority (spirit) and those of the world (flesh), the righteous (in Christ) and the unrighteous (of the world), the redeemed (by the blood of the Lamb) and the unredeemed (of the world), the saved (spending eternity in heaven) and the lost (spending eternity in hell,) those 'reconciled' to the Father (through the resurrection of Christ) and those 'reconciled' to the world (living in the 'moment' according to their "feelings," subject to the flesh and the world in indifference and defiance to the Father and His obedient Son, Jesus Christ).
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6
"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." John 5:30 "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me commandment what I should say, and what I should speak." John 12:49
"For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Matthew 12:50
"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." I Corinthians 8:6 "And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 3:1
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 1 John 2:15-18
Where are you going to spend eternity? With the (A+R) group, in Christ (subject to the Father's authority) in heaven or the (A+P) group, of the world (subject to the child's feelings) in hell.
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2015
