Thanks for this comment Michael. I was reading through these posts again realizing how helpful, simple, and powerful John Mackey’s insights are to me. This isn’t to say that his insights are at all simplistic. Quite the opposite.
I imagine his spirituality plays a big role in this. I imagine him meditating, thinking, listening and engaged in a loving dialogue. This is both an inner dialogue with his conscience and an external dialogue with others. From this, he seems to have found — and describes lucidly — important truths about human nature. For example, his insights on cooperation, competition, and hunter-gather groups in describing capitalism; this simple explanation is powerful and universal.
In describing his experience with Christianity he writes, “I knew that humans had spent much of our evolutionary history in small tribes or bands, and I felt like I understood for the first time that bone-deep joy of belonging, sharing a common purpose and belief system.” That says a lot about religion and ideology, but in a very positive and loving way. There’s not a hint of cynicism there. That’s where we need to move toward. I think. Common purpose while minimizing myths. Common purpose toward truths with understanding that we will not agree on truth and certainly not all at once. Maybe eventually on certain topics. This is why we need religious tolerance and freedom. The scientific method isn’t a panacea. We still need to admit our need for tolerance for religious differences about mundane things. Forcing belief is disastrous.
Thanks for highlighting the loving aspects of his character. I will ponder that some more. As men, we often don’t love enough. Not speaking for everyone of course, but this is a stereotype that can be true in wide swaths of our culture. Maybe our lack of Christian religion has made us less loving? I’m not saying we should re-adopt everything about Christianity. It is undermined by physics, reality and truth. But “revelation” is an important idea. What does “revelation” mean to you in the sense of Socratic dialogue? Sort of an abstract question, but I think you understand where I’m coming from.
John is great, his commitment to living a life based on love is very real.
Thanks for this comment Michael. I was reading through these posts again realizing how helpful, simple, and powerful John Mackey’s insights are to me. This isn’t to say that his insights are at all simplistic. Quite the opposite.
I imagine his spirituality plays a big role in this. I imagine him meditating, thinking, listening and engaged in a loving dialogue. This is both an inner dialogue with his conscience and an external dialogue with others. From this, he seems to have found — and describes lucidly — important truths about human nature. For example, his insights on cooperation, competition, and hunter-gather groups in describing capitalism; this simple explanation is powerful and universal.
In describing his experience with Christianity he writes, “I knew that humans had spent much of our evolutionary history in small tribes or bands, and I felt like I understood for the first time that bone-deep joy of belonging, sharing a common purpose and belief system.” That says a lot about religion and ideology, but in a very positive and loving way. There’s not a hint of cynicism there. That’s where we need to move toward. I think. Common purpose while minimizing myths. Common purpose toward truths with understanding that we will not agree on truth and certainly not all at once. Maybe eventually on certain topics. This is why we need religious tolerance and freedom. The scientific method isn’t a panacea. We still need to admit our need for tolerance for religious differences about mundane things. Forcing belief is disastrous.
Thanks for highlighting the loving aspects of his character. I will ponder that some more. As men, we often don’t love enough. Not speaking for everyone of course, but this is a stereotype that can be true in wide swaths of our culture. Maybe our lack of Christian religion has made us less loving? I’m not saying we should re-adopt everything about Christianity. It is undermined by physics, reality and truth. But “revelation” is an important idea. What does “revelation” mean to you in the sense of Socratic dialogue? Sort of an abstract question, but I think you understand where I’m coming from.