SDSL pt1: Colectivismo (2 de 3)

The goal of linguistics, he argued, should be to reproduce these principles. Ultimately, he said, the aim of linguistics is not so much to formulate the grammars of specific languages as to describe a universal grammar. A model of the shared properties that underpin all human language. It is these universal principles Mr. Chomsky argued that all people are born knowing, and that allows children to acquire whatever native language they are exposed to. Even a man such as Chomsky, notorious for his extremely rationalist view of the world could see that human beings were more than empty vessels, to be filled with whatever knowledge and experiences were made available by their environment. Humanity was something much more. Born with faculties and gifts that science could not explain away. Chomsky is far from being alone in this assessment. Imagine, that some divine superengineer, in a single stroke, endowed humans with the power of language where formerly they had none." - Noam Chomsky - Cognitive Neuroscience and Mathematics On january 20th, 2006 the London Telegraph reported on a study by the journal of science involving intricate geometric tests on the tribal "Mundurukú", who lived deep in the jungles of Brazil. A people who had never before been exposed to advanced mathematical concepts. It was widely believed by the scientific community prior to the study, that the ability of tribal adults in the amazon to conceptualize numbers was no better than that of infants. That without words for specific numbers a number sense cannot develop. That mathematics was learned through environment with a set of specific concepts and communicated through and adequate and learned language. The blank slate theory rears its ugly head once again. However, science refuted the blank slate assertion, finding that: "As many mathematicians have claimed, the new study shows that the most basic concepts of maths, space, time and number, are hardwired in the human brain and independent of language." Researchers in France and at Harvard University found that: "The Mundurukú readily grasp basic concepts of geometry that would have been familiar to the ancient greeks, such as point, line, parallel and square vs rectangle" said co-author professor Stanislas Dehaene of the Collége de France in Paris. He added that: "Earlier studies 'totally underestimated' the amount of 'proto-mathematical' knowledge that is shared by people who lack the language to express these ideas." More and more scientists are beginning to discover that most knowledge is in fact not learned, but inborn. That our environment rarely determines anything except the ease or difficulty by which we learn to express these ideas to others or discover them within ourselves. This is the essence of individualism. Even in the face of adverse conditions or hardship every human being is his own product. He is born with an underluded knowledge and he has the power to choose how he would discover it and what he will use it for. This type of individualism is a significant threat to collectivists. In order for colectivists ideas to take hold in a society people must first be convinced that they themselves are empty. They must be influenced to accept that it is the environment that determines their faith, and not their own will. Collectivism requires men to be a piece of the whole but not whole himself. The totalitarian structure is easily born out of such conditions. Men who forget their individualism often handover their free will to those who appear to have the greatest influence over the environment. This is of course a slide of hand. To put it simply, a collectivist system cannot control you but it will attempt to convince you, that you need the environment that the system provides. And now then because we are reproducing this amazing item for the first time in this country it isn't going to cost you one cent. All you have to do is sign this little scrap of paper and you'll get your bottle absolutely free. I hereby turn over to Ism Incorporated everything I have, including my freedom Freedom? and the freedom of my children, and my children's children in return for which, said Ism, promises to take care of me forever. If a man does not need the system, why be a part of it at all? Why conform to the chain of moreys that holds it together when a man derives its moreys and his meaning entirely from his own soul. In a world of individuals collectivism falls apart. For a collectivist system to survive, it must breed out individualism. This is the inevitable result of any society that prices the needs of the many over the needs of the one. What is collectivism? What? Don't grieve admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outway the needs of the few. Or the one. All they have to do is claim that their action is for the greater good of the greater number, you see. Now that's one of the foundations of collectivism. Now, the individualists on the other hand, and that's the other side of the debate, the individualists looks at society and says: "Wait a minute. What is this thing called group?". Can you see a group? You can't. You can only see individuals. The word "group" is an abstraction. It's a word concept. It's an image in the mind. It's something that doesn't really exist. Except to the extent of individuals exist. It's like the word "forest". There's no such thing as a "forest". There are only trees. You can see trees, but you cannot see forests. So it's an abstraction. When you then therefore base a political philosophy on an abstraction and you say that this abstraction has rights that are greater than the individual you made a huge mistake. Collectivism is not a new idea. It is a fundamental part of the human psyche often preempting all other instinctive concerns. Cognitive thinkers attribute this to man's need for survival and safety in numbers, but this is a very simplistic view. The reality of collectivism is much more complex. Tribalism, city states, countries, empires, could not exist without man's natural tendency to join into collectives. However, even more than survival, the collective fulfills a spiritual need. This need is rooted deeply in the psyche of human beings from the moment of their birth, and stands from what the psychologist and philosopher Carl Gustav Jung termed, "The collective unconscious". Early in his work, Jung discovered a psychological link mostly unconscious between all people. This link reveals itself in symbols that are common to the dreams, art and culture of every human being, regardless of the time or place they lived. Regardless of environmental conditions or family structure.