In my experience little that is clear and simple is profoundly illuminating. Elaborating the logical extensions of the dominant zeitgeist is never wrong but neither is it uplifting or even useful. Only openness to what is more ever hits the mark, and then only rarely.
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I forget what the novel was, but it was one that had a quote at the beginning of each chapter; this headed an important chapter. It’s really the only thing I remember about the book.
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I have been thinking of this very helpful quote for the last week; thank you. In some ways, knowledge (and nature, with its red tooth and claws that make solutions hard) is not very democratic. It’s one of the thing that my conspiracy theorist minded family and friends rebel against. One even pointed out to me that if there’s a solution for something (such as a mammogram being a standard for most breast cancer screening, for example), there is a risk of abuse–someone can make money off of the solution.
It takes work to come across with humility, especially when reality can be complex and overwhelming.
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From Drew Strait in “Strange Worship”
Too often we think of Pentecost as a reversal of the so-called curse of Babel in Genesis 11:1–9, where God mixed up the languages of a monolinguistic people who sought to build a culturally homogenous empire. We are taught to think of speaking in many languages as a curse because we’re baptized into ethnocentric nationalism from a young age. We are taught to fear other languages and cultural groups as a threat to our way of life. Christian nationalism is an imperial project not unlike Babel; it is a political movement to build a fortified tower where [one group] dominates. God mixed up human languages at Babel to disrupt nationalism and empire-making. This is a blessing, not a curse.
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Wow. I had not thought of it that way. Good for mulling over.
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Mixed blessing, I would say. It includes positive consequences but also makes communication difficult and may lead to hostile attitudes towards those that speak a differing language (we vs. those others).
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Yes, it certainly was perceived as a curse from the perspective of those trying to achieve their goals of the moment. Maybe it’s one of those things where the blessing in it can only be recognized later (by others). Sort of like personal suffering. We rarely thank God for such things while we’re still in the middle of it. But occasionally we may at a later point recognize a hidden blessing in the experience. The best medicine tastes horrible, right?
I recently listened to linguist John McWhorter as he did a “take down” of the Whorfian Hypothesis, which essentially claims that our language must closely correlate with (and even limit) the conceptual domain of how we think or even can think. According to McWhorter, that hypothesis survives and even thrives in popular culture and literature even though it has been debunked (according to him) in the linguistic world.
So it’s with the risk of perpetuating that debunked hypothesis that I will note how much of a blessing it is to all of us, collectively and as individuals to be exposed to other languages and cultures. I don’t think it is too controversial to claim that we are intellectually and culturally richer for the variety of cultures and languages we may get exposed to, should we be so fortunate. I’m certain McWhorter would agree, since his criticism more involved technicalities like the facile assumptions that other cultures and languages that lacked certain explicit vocabulary must surely then imply an inability or lack of need to process those associated concepts…e.g. thinking that a lack of future tensed verbs must imply an absence of or even inability to make plans or schedules. Given that English only accomplishes this by pulling in the services of an additional words (like ‘will’) is already debunkage enough.
Like inviting us to learn different ways of looking at the world.
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That could be interesting to hear given that in the variety of languages I have learned there are distinct conceptual differences about how the world works.
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It’s in his book: “Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue” (referring to English, of course.)
He doesn’t deny that language and concept very much influence each other. I think it’s more a critique of past facile anthropological assumptions about what other cultures have in their conceptual domains just based on the vocabulary available.
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In response to: The Psychology of Trumpism | A Psychoanalytic Deep Dive
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Back around the mid 2000s, Richard Rohr was delivering workshop lectures for the Enneagram series. When he got to the sixes, he noted several things that should interest us now.
Summary of the six: it is in the “head-space” of the Enneagram series (along with the fives and sevens). Sixes are very fear-based (the primary passion is fear). And we are reminded that all of us (sixes or not), have mixes of all these numbers in ourselves; some of us just make an art form out of it and live there. Nonetheless, he thinks that sixes are by far the most common person of the nine types, and that maybe about up to half of the world’s population are sixes. And many others, even if not sixes, can get drawn up into it -emulating it or being attracted to it. So it really is a difficult thing to know for sure. They (sixes) come in two main types: Phobic, and Counterphobic. The phobic six sees danger and flees. The counterphobic sees danger and attacks. Even the counterphobic very much operates out of constant fear, though. They are into identifying (scapegoating) the “evils out there in the world” - usually identified with some group or ethnicity or religion - anyone different, often immigrants. The sixes themselves tend to be very attracted to fundamentalistic religions, to nationalisms, guns, militarism, - anything to do with security. Hitler was a six (the counterphobic sort - which are the dangerous sixes). These are dangerous people. Though Rohr reminds us that all of us are dangerous when we live in our hurt or fearful spaces. And he also reminds us that most sixes are not counter-phobic, and are generally quite lovely people. Oscar Romero is one (of many) self-sacrificing examples of a six. Very acquainted with constant fear, but with courage to push through it and not be mastered by it. The redeemed (non-shadow side) of a six is a “loyalist”. If they decide they are your friend, then you have a ‘friend for life’ - who will stick with you through thick and thin. But here’s the part that I had in mind for this post; (and keep in mind this is back in the Bush presidency): Rohr notes that increasingly, young men applying for priesthood in the Catholic church are coming from the six-space. And that if the trend continues, nearly all of the Catholic church will be sixes within the next fifty years. They can be very black-and-white thinkers who have no use for nuance or self-reflection - little time for self-doubt or contemplation. (The Franciscan Order does not attract them). They are deeply attracted to hierarchical authority and authoritarianism. Regarding not just the Catholic church, but society in general, “all this does not bode well for our future politics.”
And … here we are! Can anyone doubt the prophetic insight of those twenty year old words now?
The whole lecture linked above is worth listening through.
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Interesting prediction. I never paid a lot of attention to Enneagrams, though have a few family members who have, but they seem to help a lot of people understand themselves and others. There are so many forces at play, it is hard to know what the underlying causes are. I wonder if the “digital age” has a lot to do with it, not only the programmed content social media feeds us based on our interest, but just the whole system on everything based on zeros and ones, on and off, with no gray areas or nuance that analog gives. Maybe that is what is attracting some to listen to vinyl records, and I seem to see a resurgence of people preferring printed books.
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Yes, and I like the emphasis on how fear drives us. I suspect it drives every one of us just in different ways. That description seems to emphasize empathy.
There are different classifications of personality types, Enneagrams is one of these. Others include, for example, the Myers-Briggs (MBTI), The Big Five Traits and The Four Temperaments.
IIRC, the earliest popular classifications had few main categories (four was the most common) with intermediate ones added as the main categories appeared insufficient to include all people. When even the intermediate ones seemed insufficient, more types were added: nine interconnected types in Enneagrams, 16 distinct types in MBTI.
What may be interesting is that in the context of companies, organizations (including churches) and employment tests, four basic types still seems to form the basic classification. The titles of the four categories have changed but the number has remained.
The personality types may be useful in trying to understand the basic reactions of myself or others. There is probably some truth in the types, although it remains partly unclear what originates from our genetic inheritance and what is simply the consequence of our growing conditions. As only part of the background is genetic, the categories are not fixed; the attitudes, behaviours and therefore also the type may change during the life.
Although I think that personality types may be a useful tool, I would not put too much emphasis on predicting the future based on any of the personality classifications.
Edit:
I partly missed the key emphasis that it was a prediction of today, done 20 years ago. Even from that viewpoint, I would not put much emphasis on the predictive value of personality classifications. The basic ‘escape or attack’ reaction is basic biology, as is the tendency to view the world through the ingroup vs. outgroup point (we vs. the others). Personality classifications do not add much to that.
What has changed includes the overwhelming impact of social media algoritms that tend to deepen conflicts - emotional disagreements increase clicks and therefore, are lifted to the feeds of people.
Another matter that has changed is the online-reporting of conflicts and threats. Previously people read the news as daily summaries, compiled and edited by journalists. Now, all attacks are thrown immediately to the screen, often with video clips. This gives the impression of constant threats and dangers, even if the reality would not be worse than before. This is likely to promote the feeling of chaos and dangers and thereby, insecurity of the future.
As before, insecurity and the feeling of chaos makes people want strong leaders and clear rules. How much that explains of the recent interest towards Christianity among young men is an open question.
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On a related note, I recently came across this in volume one of Keener’s four-part commentary on Acts:
“Occam’s razor (the principle of logic that favors the simpler solution) also argues against it, though some have rightly warned that Occam’s razor is too dull for cases where evidence is too slender.”
Vinnie
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I’ve always found Occam’s useless.
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Any of these (Enneagram included) can be used as a mere ‘parlor game’ or magazine quiz for those dawdling in a waiting room somewhere. And you’re mostly correct that is not predictive - or certainly not in any robust sense. That said, Rohr insists that the enneagram does have ancient Christian roots, and can and has been seen as the “nine faces” of God. He insists that the categories “just work” and have a productive track record for those who take the spiritual aspects seriously. But while he insists that each person will have a “primary” number, even so, we are all mixes of many of the other numbers too even if one of them is our “go to” more than the others. There are hardly any of the nine that I don’t identify with at times. So you’re right that it’s messy anyway - and easy to perhaps misidentify at first; especially if you’re young (in which case Rohr says, you haven’t sinned enough yet to really know who or what you are.)
For centuries or even millennia, the personality types were associated to the four basic elements of nature: earth, water, air, fire, or their mix. Other classifications became invented or known after the belief in these four elements was replaced with something else. At the first phase thereafter, the number (four elements) was preserved but the labels of the categories were replaced with something else.
“The nine faces of God” is not and probably has not been common knowledge in popular history, at least not in the context of personality types. ‘Nine faces of God’ may well be behind the nine types but I am sceptic towards the claims of enneagrams having ancient Christian roots. A net search lifted up the book by Peter Hannan “The nine faces of God” and a few years after that the book by Simon Parke “Enneagrams: the nine faces of God”. There was also a page on Numinism that uses the ‘nine faces of God’ in its’ teaching. These suggest that the ‘nine faces of God’ in the context of personality types is a late invention, with attempts to link it to ancient teachings.
Whatever the background is, enneagrams may well be a useful tool. I have not tested it.