Civilizational Pathology
19
the president becomes the big CEO rater than the philosophical and moral leader
of a people.
But what, then, are we to do? If anything, I, like Bateson before me, will
suggest that no simple remedy can be achieved by backing the Romans against
the Palestinians or vice versa. The problem must be dealt with at levels different
from the mythical and the rational; or, more practically, at a level that integrates
both transparently superimposed through each other. Such is the way of a
phenomenological deconstruction, as the metaphysics of presence are explicated
as communicative acts, and the tacit assumptions decay from their own din (and
here we just begin to see ideas such as “nature” and “balance” deconstruct). In
this way perhaps we can explicate not only the ills but some plausible remedies
as well.
First, the scientific arrogance brought about by its own remarkable success
must give way to the humility that science textbooks proclaim but rarely teach.
It’s well to note that science sows into its own seeds of its own potential growth,
and serious scientists (or should I say honest scientists?) do not seek absolutes
but rather the challenge of an on-going quest --a forum for being human. The
power-technology-tool bearing techno-specialist, however, from the industrial
revolution through the nuclear explosion is an autocratic being who sees himself
with complete power over a universe that is barely understood. While our bag
of tricks is formidable, and we have become powerful wizards indeed, we still
lack the wisdom to wave certain wands. Indeed, such arrogant thinking is by
Convention