Desires and the Happiness Cultural Levels :
In our daily lives we are, for all intents and purposes, living out our desires. We desire certain things because we think that their fulfilment will bring us happiness.
Our desires can be at various levels from low to high.
Examples of low-level desires would be the desire for food, belongings and for the pleasures of the senses (Happiness Level 1), and satisfaction of the ego, (Level 2).
Examples of high-level desires would be the desire to promote the welfare of others and of the community (Level 3) and the desire to do God’s Will, whatever it may entail (Level 4).
We can now see that happiness level depends upon desire level.
The presence of higher-level desires does not rule out the coexistant presence of lower level desires. It merely means that fulfilment of the latter is subservient to fulfilment of the former and is not of paramount importance.
When we have desires we act towards their fulfilment and this fulfilment brings a corresponding measure of happiness.
In those persons where pleasure of the senses is paramount, fulfilment is transient and therefore the happiness it brings is transient : we can enjoy the pleasure of food only during its ingestion : we can enjoy our belongings only while we are able to use them, we can enjoy the pleasure of sexual relations only transiently. In these cases, however, there CAN be a more enduring element.
By taking food we can also enjoy the more lasting pleasure of the good health it will bring if we eat properly. In the case of the sexual act, we may enjoy the more durable pleasure, love, committment and happiness of the marriage union within which it should occur and, if God wills it, enjoy the long-lasting joy of the fruit of the act, the conception and birth of a child.
In the case where our desire to promote our egos is paramount, fulfilment will depend upon a realistic balance between the nature of our desires and the qualities we possess that can operate to bring those desires to fulfilment. Our desires must be appropriate to our natural abilities to achieve those desires. Fulfilment tends to be more long-lasting than transient and therefore the happiness therefrom tends to be long-lasting. Fulfilment, however, may be difficult to attain because our desires may be in conflict with the desires, aims and objectives of others and frustration, suspicion, anger, and even downright hostility may prevail to hinder fulfilment.
In those cases where desire to promote community welfare is paramount - to the extent that there is less the element of seeking personal satisfaction, less the element of competition and more the element of cooperation - frustration, suspicion, anger and hostility will probably not be significant and each advance towards the common welfare will produce a corresponding measure of satisfaction and happiness. These will be instances of more durable happiness.
In cases where a paramount desire to further the will of God in our personal and public lives exists, seeking the pleasures of the senses, acquiring possessions and furthering the demands of the ego will not be prominent desires. Happiness will come with the knowledge that one is living in accordance with God’s will with the hope of achieving unending and perfect happiness in a future life. Such hope will minimize the effect of the troubles, frustrations, disappointments and failures that one may experience in this temporary life and thereby allow a significant measure of long-lasting happiness in the interim on earth.
Ethics and the Cultural Levels
The 3rd and 4th Cultural Levels are oriented towards ethical objectives.
Where Levels 1 and 2 are oriented towards bringing the outer world under the control of the inner world by possession, mastery, success, admiration, and other forms of comparison, Levels 3 and 4 are oriented towards bringing the inner world –– the world of thoughts, words, creativity and actions - into the outer world to make it a better place.
In contrast to civil laws which are a form of external control, ethics is a form of internal control, personal laws and self-discipline that seeks to orient human behaviour towards what is true and good.
What is good.?
Some ethicists view good as that which has beneficial consequences for a particular person or group : this is the utilitarian or consequentialist view. Others view good as a quality intrinsic to human intentions and actions : the deontologist view. Both views seek a set of guidelines that will allow persons to optimally achieve the good in their lives. In view of this, ethics may be considered an essentially Level 3 or 4 enterprise.
It is important to make our ethical assumptions explicit since it is clear that clarity of one’s thoughts and intentions helps in actualizing the good .
Those with Level 1 and 2 perspectives tend to hold implicitly rather than explicitly any ethical assumptions they have and therefore they find it difficult to actualize them towards good actions. They will be more interested in living out the Silver Rule – which says “Do not do unto others the harm you would not wish that others do to you” rather than the Golden Rule which says “ Do unto others the good you would like them to do to you ”. The first is ‘Avoid Harm’ while the second is ‘Do Good’. The difficulty Level 1 and 2 perspectives have in understanding the Golden Rule, is that it is essentially contributory and oriented away from self and towards others.
In Level 1 and 2 persons, the emotional vices of the ‘comparison game’ – ego protection, inferiority, jealousy, fear, suspicion, and emptiness - can get in the way of actualizing the good intentions of true ethics. This Level 1 and 2 emotional overwhelming of the contributory desire proper to Levels 3 and 4, makes ethics less clear, less focused, less dynamic and less efficacious. With this failure, ethical relativism may seem to Level 1 and 2 persons to be the only solution.
We must bear in mind that all persons possess - in relation to the cultural elements of Happiness, Success, Quality of Life, Personhood, Love, Suffering, Ethics and Freedom, - intrinsic, inbuilt desires towards achieving the fulfilment of all four levels.
The four perspectives will vary in their predominance in different persons : some will predominate in Level One desire orientation, some in Level 2, some in Level 3 and some in Level 4, but all will have at least a minimum of each kind of orientation.
In the case of those in Levels 1 and 2 predominance, their handicap is that they tend to lack the interest or drive needed to move towards the higher levels and their ultimate end and aim in life remains limited to achieving Level 1 and 2 objectives : they are suffering from Cultural Deficiency Disease.
It is important again to note that no one is fixed in a lower cultural level and all have a capability to move to higher levels of predominance if given the requisite environmental encouragement and the grace of God needed for its accomplishment.
From infancy, childhood and youth, the individual’s cultural development is influenced by his training in the family, in the school and in the local neighbourhood environment. If these developmental influences do not impress upon youth, implicitly and explicitly, the importance of striving towards higher level fulfilment, then the general cultural level of society will reflect orientation towards the lower Level 1 and 2 objectives.
Successful movement to the higher levels, especially to Level 4, can be very difficult.
It will require the acceptance, adoption, practice and habituation of the seven major virtues – humility, generosity, self-control, patience, moderation, magnanimity and commitment - opposites of the seven deadly sins of pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth.
In the process, it will be difficult at first to remember Level 3 and 4 attitudes inasmuch as Level 2, not Level 3 or 4 attitudes, are the default attitudes, the attitudes of habit, the attitudes one falls back on easily.
To make Level 3 and 4 attitudes the default attitudes, to place them, not in our conscious awareness but in our subconsciousness, requires effort over time and the conversion of new virtuous choices into virtuous habits. Changing choice to habit by frequent practice is the conscious, effort-filled, part of changing attitudes : exercising established habits is the subconscious, relatively effort-free, part.
In the period between making the conscious choice and establishing the subconscious habit, there may well be severe conflict between Level 2 and Level 3/4 propensities which might cause the effort to be abandoned as being too difficult or impossible.
Where ethical relativism and utilitarianism prevails in society, this ineffective form of ethics, this failing system of internal controls, must, over time, to avoid anarchy, be replaced by a system of exterior controls in the form of civil laws. Society will then be forced to use the State’s legal system to protect the rights of individuals from attack by those lacking authentic ethics, those lacking in true interior principles. Self-discipline will be replaced by State discipline and the greater the cultural deficiency, the greater will be the State’s involvement. This is a prime reason for the growth of the Leviathon State. Therefore, true ethical norms built on personal self-restraint, rather than collective civil law, must be the basis of a healthy culture.
Though laws are needed to protect the rights of the unborn and others at risk now and in the interim, the Pro-life Movement must work towards restoring the lost ethical norms by converting the majority of people now apparently possessing a predominance of Level 1 and 2 perspectives to Level 3 and 4 cultural dominance. By thus restoring the ethical norms, we will be restoring the Culture of Life and defeating the Culture of Death.
Ref: Healing the Culture by Robt. J.Spitzer. S.J. PhD.
In our daily lives we are, for all intents and purposes, living out our desires. We desire certain things because we think that their fulfilment will bring us happiness.
Our desires can be at various levels from low to high.
Examples of low-level desires would be the desire for food, belongings and for the pleasures of the senses (Happiness Level 1), and satisfaction of the ego, (Level 2).
Examples of high-level desires would be the desire to promote the welfare of others and of the community (Level 3) and the desire to do God’s Will, whatever it may entail (Level 4).
We can now see that happiness level depends upon desire level.
The presence of higher-level desires does not rule out the coexistant presence of lower level desires. It merely means that fulfilment of the latter is subservient to fulfilment of the former and is not of paramount importance.
When we have desires we act towards their fulfilment and this fulfilment brings a corresponding measure of happiness.
In those persons where pleasure of the senses is paramount, fulfilment is transient and therefore the happiness it brings is transient : we can enjoy the pleasure of food only during its ingestion : we can enjoy our belongings only while we are able to use them, we can enjoy the pleasure of sexual relations only transiently. In these cases, however, there CAN be a more enduring element.
By taking food we can also enjoy the more lasting pleasure of the good health it will bring if we eat properly. In the case of the sexual act, we may enjoy the more durable pleasure, love, committment and happiness of the marriage union within which it should occur and, if God wills it, enjoy the long-lasting joy of the fruit of the act, the conception and birth of a child.
In the case where our desire to promote our egos is paramount, fulfilment will depend upon a realistic balance between the nature of our desires and the qualities we possess that can operate to bring those desires to fulfilment. Our desires must be appropriate to our natural abilities to achieve those desires. Fulfilment tends to be more long-lasting than transient and therefore the happiness therefrom tends to be long-lasting. Fulfilment, however, may be difficult to attain because our desires may be in conflict with the desires, aims and objectives of others and frustration, suspicion, anger, and even downright hostility may prevail to hinder fulfilment.
In those cases where desire to promote community welfare is paramount - to the extent that there is less the element of seeking personal satisfaction, less the element of competition and more the element of cooperation - frustration, suspicion, anger and hostility will probably not be significant and each advance towards the common welfare will produce a corresponding measure of satisfaction and happiness. These will be instances of more durable happiness.
In cases where a paramount desire to further the will of God in our personal and public lives exists, seeking the pleasures of the senses, acquiring possessions and furthering the demands of the ego will not be prominent desires. Happiness will come with the knowledge that one is living in accordance with God’s will with the hope of achieving unending and perfect happiness in a future life. Such hope will minimize the effect of the troubles, frustrations, disappointments and failures that one may experience in this temporary life and thereby allow a significant measure of long-lasting happiness in the interim on earth.
Ethics and the Cultural Levels
The 3rd and 4th Cultural Levels are oriented towards ethical objectives.
Where Levels 1 and 2 are oriented towards bringing the outer world under the control of the inner world by possession, mastery, success, admiration, and other forms of comparison, Levels 3 and 4 are oriented towards bringing the inner world –– the world of thoughts, words, creativity and actions - into the outer world to make it a better place.
In contrast to civil laws which are a form of external control, ethics is a form of internal control, personal laws and self-discipline that seeks to orient human behaviour towards what is true and good.
What is good.?
Some ethicists view good as that which has beneficial consequences for a particular person or group : this is the utilitarian or consequentialist view. Others view good as a quality intrinsic to human intentions and actions : the deontologist view. Both views seek a set of guidelines that will allow persons to optimally achieve the good in their lives. In view of this, ethics may be considered an essentially Level 3 or 4 enterprise.
It is important to make our ethical assumptions explicit since it is clear that clarity of one’s thoughts and intentions helps in actualizing the good .
Those with Level 1 and 2 perspectives tend to hold implicitly rather than explicitly any ethical assumptions they have and therefore they find it difficult to actualize them towards good actions. They will be more interested in living out the Silver Rule – which says “Do not do unto others the harm you would not wish that others do to you” rather than the Golden Rule which says “ Do unto others the good you would like them to do to you ”. The first is ‘Avoid Harm’ while the second is ‘Do Good’. The difficulty Level 1 and 2 perspectives have in understanding the Golden Rule, is that it is essentially contributory and oriented away from self and towards others.
In Level 1 and 2 persons, the emotional vices of the ‘comparison game’ – ego protection, inferiority, jealousy, fear, suspicion, and emptiness - can get in the way of actualizing the good intentions of true ethics. This Level 1 and 2 emotional overwhelming of the contributory desire proper to Levels 3 and 4, makes ethics less clear, less focused, less dynamic and less efficacious. With this failure, ethical relativism may seem to Level 1 and 2 persons to be the only solution.
We must bear in mind that all persons possess - in relation to the cultural elements of Happiness, Success, Quality of Life, Personhood, Love, Suffering, Ethics and Freedom, - intrinsic, inbuilt desires towards achieving the fulfilment of all four levels.
The four perspectives will vary in their predominance in different persons : some will predominate in Level One desire orientation, some in Level 2, some in Level 3 and some in Level 4, but all will have at least a minimum of each kind of orientation.
In the case of those in Levels 1 and 2 predominance, their handicap is that they tend to lack the interest or drive needed to move towards the higher levels and their ultimate end and aim in life remains limited to achieving Level 1 and 2 objectives : they are suffering from Cultural Deficiency Disease.
It is important again to note that no one is fixed in a lower cultural level and all have a capability to move to higher levels of predominance if given the requisite environmental encouragement and the grace of God needed for its accomplishment.
From infancy, childhood and youth, the individual’s cultural development is influenced by his training in the family, in the school and in the local neighbourhood environment. If these developmental influences do not impress upon youth, implicitly and explicitly, the importance of striving towards higher level fulfilment, then the general cultural level of society will reflect orientation towards the lower Level 1 and 2 objectives.
Successful movement to the higher levels, especially to Level 4, can be very difficult.
It will require the acceptance, adoption, practice and habituation of the seven major virtues – humility, generosity, self-control, patience, moderation, magnanimity and commitment - opposites of the seven deadly sins of pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth.
In the process, it will be difficult at first to remember Level 3 and 4 attitudes inasmuch as Level 2, not Level 3 or 4 attitudes, are the default attitudes, the attitudes of habit, the attitudes one falls back on easily.
To make Level 3 and 4 attitudes the default attitudes, to place them, not in our conscious awareness but in our subconsciousness, requires effort over time and the conversion of new virtuous choices into virtuous habits. Changing choice to habit by frequent practice is the conscious, effort-filled, part of changing attitudes : exercising established habits is the subconscious, relatively effort-free, part.
In the period between making the conscious choice and establishing the subconscious habit, there may well be severe conflict between Level 2 and Level 3/4 propensities which might cause the effort to be abandoned as being too difficult or impossible.
Where ethical relativism and utilitarianism prevails in society, this ineffective form of ethics, this failing system of internal controls, must, over time, to avoid anarchy, be replaced by a system of exterior controls in the form of civil laws. Society will then be forced to use the State’s legal system to protect the rights of individuals from attack by those lacking authentic ethics, those lacking in true interior principles. Self-discipline will be replaced by State discipline and the greater the cultural deficiency, the greater will be the State’s involvement. This is a prime reason for the growth of the Leviathon State. Therefore, true ethical norms built on personal self-restraint, rather than collective civil law, must be the basis of a healthy culture.
Though laws are needed to protect the rights of the unborn and others at risk now and in the interim, the Pro-life Movement must work towards restoring the lost ethical norms by converting the majority of people now apparently possessing a predominance of Level 1 and 2 perspectives to Level 3 and 4 cultural dominance. By thus restoring the ethical norms, we will be restoring the Culture of Life and defeating the Culture of Death.
Ref: Healing the Culture by Robt. J.Spitzer. S.J. PhD.
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