Relative absolute

My comments on the fourteen mindfulness trainings are based upon, and are indicative of, the manner in which my mindbrain has been conditioned. We all have conditioned mindbrains. Nobody holds the monopoly on ‘truth’ - although there are many people who claim that they do.

Using extreme and inflammatory language the ‘true’ people are likely to be parochial xenophobes and zealots who are prone to murderous rage aimed at the opposition ie the demonized ‘them’, the evil enemy, those who eat babies, rape their mothers, and practice genocide. (ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history for a list of more or less severe genocides throughout history)

The human mindbrain is hard wired to fit into a pre-existing socio-cultural system and this includes cognitive biases about (a) an independent self, (b) the dualism of Them v Us, and (c) a range of totems and taboos based on myths and magic that reinforce systems of hierarchy, status and division of labour.

Humans are social animals and communication is highly adaptive in terms of survival. Before language evolved there would have been non-verbal communication related to the use and transfer of practical and social skills

Anthropology has provided a mass of evidence about many of the world’s socio-cultural systems - all of which have already developed language. These have included traditional hunting and gathering systems, settled agriculture systems, city states, nation states and more recent variations linked to globalization.

Various scientists have tried to identify patterns of belief and behaviour that are common to all human cultures. This has included work with the great apes and also human babies. Charles Darwin for example recognised that many human facial expressions are universal in how they are linked to particular feelings eg joy, surprise, aggression, shame etc. More recently Paul Ekman created an ‘atlas of emotions’ with more than ten thousand facial expressions. (ref: Facial Action Coding System). He has noted specific biological correlates of specific emotions, and he has demonstrated the universality and discreteness of emotions in a Darwinian approach

In the 1960s Kluckhohn and Strodbeck charted a set of five key value orientations and a range of variations on each. (Ref: http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/values.htm ) The known ‘facts’ suggest that there are innate, hard wired, instinctive foundations to the patterns of non-verbal, verbal, and written communication in human cultures and sub cultures. These play a key part in human nature but there is also interaction with human nurture (education and enculturation)

Inasmuch as ‘truth’ is a product of human cultures (nature and nurture) then the truisms might be viewed as absolute when they feature in all human cultures but be viewed as relative in that they belong only in the mature human sphere and not in great apes or in human babies. There is also the problem that evolution tinkers with pre-existing entities. A change does not need to be true – it is enough that it is fitter than what the opposition has to offer.