|
In Reply to: Re: Does The Family really care about the handicapped? posted by Jo on August 21, 2007 at 23:32:59:
As usual, you give an insightful analysis of Berg & Company. Many times I've been struck by how Berg, and now Queenie & Pooper, calculate the worth of people in terms of their utility to the cause. From a purely humanist standpoint, that is the core definition of what it means amoral--i.e., reducing human beings to objects of personal utility.
I think Berg & Company are able to do this with no twinge of conscience because of how they see other human beings as well as themselves. In Family anthropology, human beings are essentially "golum"--empty vessels of clay that are animated by spirits. The Family's idea of a "self" is one of an entity that chooses which spirits will animate him/her at any given time. Remember, "thoughts are the voices of spirits"--? I used to hear that all the time.
The notion of a self that can think for itself and act independently of spirits or external forces of control is not on the radar screen of Family beliefs. This is why the sheep need leaders or external sources of authority to explain reality, because any internal source of reason and judgement is not to be trusted. More than just not trusted, the promptings of any internal locus of control is actually rejected as the voice of an evil spirit.
