A Progressive/Humanistic Lifestyle

A
Progressive
Living
Essay

Introduction

My purpose here is to make it clear what a life lived Progressively and Humanistically might be like, or, to put it another way, to describe the Humanistic lifestyle and its commitments.

The more basic part of this task requires us to make clear what the core Humanist and Progressive values are, and why they lead to a commitment to a particular way of life; and the other part of the task requires us to make clear what it is that Progressives and Humanists can do, concretely, to effect those values. We'll focus here on values and the "why", together with some of the more general aspects of a Progressive/Humanistic lifestyle. Additional, and more economically oriented actions that can be taken can be found at this link.

Life Plans: A Metaphor

A well-lived life in the Humanist view is as different from a poorly-lived one as a garden is from a patch of weeds. And just as it's easier to have a patch of weeds than a well-tended garden, it's easier to live a life of aimlessness and dissipation than one of attainment and fulfillment. Tragically, many people do.

To continue with this metaphor of a garden for a moment, one cannot have a garden without beginning from some idea of the overall layout; and one must also know what to include and what to exclude. The result, otherwise, is haphazard and disordered, the very opposite of what's intended. Among the things that must be excluded are the sort of weeds that grow so aggressively that they take over everything. So in a meaningful life one must have a goal, and also be wary of the addictions that can subvert or exclude other purposes.

As I said, all of this requires discipline and effort; and because Humanism also requires the humanist to forego comforting illusions, to be unflagging in the pursuit of understanding, to nurture one's health and abilities, and to do whatever one can to right the many injustices of the world, the Humanist path is among the most difficult the individual can undertake.

Yet the individual who understands the Humanist path won't resent or begrudge the effort required. This is true because, in part, he recognizes that he has responsibilities that transcend himself, but also because he will identify more with what Huston Smith has called "his long-range self" that will ultimately profit, than with the momentary self exerting the effort. Every good athlete or martial artist understands this concept as applied to physical training — it's only a little more difficult to grasp this principle as applied to living an entire life.

In the West, Humanism has shown an unfortunate tendency to become too abstractly intellectual, too science-obsessed, too impatient with practical wisdom, and therefore too far removed from everyday concerns to serve well as a practical guide to life.

The East was in many ways wiser. Confucianism was (and continues to be) as practical, helpful, and down-to-earth as a good box of tools. So in the more detailed description of a Humanist lifestyle that follows, we'll begin with a brief summary of the key ideas codified by Confucius.

Jen

Jen is the cardinal virtue of Confucianism. The term is perhaps best translated as "human-heartedness." As Huston Smith explains:

"Jen involves simultaneously a feeling of humanity toward others and respect for oneself, an indivisible sense of the dignity of human life wherever it appears. Subsidiary attitudes follow automatically: magnanimity, good faith, and charity. In the direction of jen lies the perfection of everything that would make one supremely human. In public life it prompts untiring diligence. In private life it is expressed in courtesy, unselfishness, and empathy, the capacity to 'measure the feelings of others by one's own.' . . .'The person of jen, desiring self-affirmation, seeks to affirm as well.' Such largeness of heart knows no national boundaries for those who are jen-endowed know that 'within the four seas all men are brothers and sisters.'"

Chun tzu

The concept of the chun tzu is that of the "finished" personality — the ideal of a person who has attained to a maturity that is equal to all occasions. In the west the Renaissance Man notion approximates in some respects to that of the chun tzu. So does the chivalric notion of the gentleman or lady, especially in its later British and French forms. (The James Bond character is perhaps the last, popular — but violence diluted — reflection of the gentleman ideal.) Smith again:

"Holding always to his own standards, however others may forget theirs, he is never at a loss as to how to behave and can keep a gracious initiative where others resort to conventions. Schooled to meet any contingency 'without fret or fear,' his head is not turned by success nor his temper soured by adversity. It is only the person who is entirely real, Confucius thought, who can establish the great foundations of a civilized society. Only as those who make up society are transformed into chun tzus can the world move toward peace."

Li

Li is best translated as 'propriety,' a concept that is in some ways related to that of the chun tzu, in that the chun tzu would be the consummate practitioner of li: that is, he would know not only what to do in any given situation, but also how best and most appropriately to do it. However, Confucius inclined to the view that few could attain to li spontaneously, and so was an advocate of various social rituals which would formalize li and make it easier to practice effortlessly.

The concern Confucius had for li took some interesting and rather surprising turns. For example, he was much concerned with propriety of expression, and would have abhorred the conscious tendency of modern "civilization" to dress up pathological organizations and practices in bland or benign-sounding phrases. (He called his antidote to this tendency "rectification of terms.")

Confucius was suspicious of extremism, and Confucians have strongly advocated the doctrine of the mean. The mean represents a middle way between a deficiency and excess in both various personal characteristics and appetites. Thus Confucius wouldn't have commended either overindulgence or asceticism where such things as food, drink and sex were concerned, nor would he have commended greed or hyperaggressiveness. He regarded fanaticism as the mark of a weak and/or uncultivated mind.

Family has a special place of importance in Confucianism, and he focused especially upon three key familial relationships: parent/child, husband/wife, older child/younger child. (The most important extra-familial relationships were those between older friend and younger friend, and rulers and the ruled, for a total of "five constant relationships.")

Smith: "In effect Confucius is saying that you are never alone when you act. Every action affects someone else. Here, in these five relationships, is a frame within which you may achieve maximum selfhood without damaging the web of life on which your life depends."

A Confucian proverb that has now rung true for centuries: "If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be/beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be/harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order/in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace/in the world."

A final aspect of propriety was respect for the value and importance of life experience (which persons of greater age were assumed, perhaps not always with justice, to have attained). Confucius would have had no patience with a youth-oriented society.

Te

The concept of te addresses the proper basis for the exercise of authority. Once again, I can't improve upon Smith:

"No state, Confucius was convinced, can constrain all its citizens all the time, nor even any large fraction of them a large part of the time. It must rely on acceptance of its will, an appreciable confidence in what it is doing. Noting that the three essentials of government were economic sufficiency, military sufficiency, and the confidence of its people, Confucius added that popular trust is by far the most important, for 'if the people have no confidence in their government, it cannot stand.' This spontaneous consent from its citizens, this morale without which nations cannot survive, arises only when people sense their leaders to be people of capacity, sincerely devoted to the common good and possessed of the kind of character that compels respect. Real te, therefore, is the power of moral example. In the final analysis, goodness becomes embodied in society neither through might nor law, but through the impress of persons we admire."

Wen

Wen refers to the arts, particularly in their capacity to enlarge our understanding of what it is to be human and to engage our empathy for others. The arts are, or should be, the reflection and storehouse of what we value the most, and tools for becoming more completely human.

Confucian Virtues and the Progressive/Humanist Lifestyle

Now that I've spelled out the Confucian virtues, I can draw out some of the implications for a Progressive/Humanistic lifestyle.

Implications of Jen

The cultivation of jen has many implications for a Progressive and HUmansitic lifestyle. To begin with, the Humanist concern is and must be for humanity as a whole. There is and can be no specially privileged nation, no specially privileged race, no specially privileged gender, no specially privileged religion, no specially privileged corporation. A black Muslim girl dying of hunger or AIDS in Africa is just as much a human tragedy as would be the death of the white Christian male son of an American President, or the death of the child of our next door neighbor.

In the Humanist view there is no manifest destiny. No special end of a bell curve. No master race. No God's chosen.

In short, there is no higher calling than humanity itself. Ideas to the contrary can almost invariably be traced to someone's desire for special privileges, or to some form of cultural imperialism.

This is difficult to digest. We are, every one of us, trained to owe our allegiance to some supposedly special segment of humanity, and are often trained as well to regard other segments of humanity as somehow less than human.

Nevertheless, we are all members of one species, inhabiting one little planet. Our race, nationality, and gender are all accidents of birth.

Jen requires something of the passion, focus and dedication the businessman brings to his profits; or perhaps more appropriately, the passion, focus and dedication a good parent brings to the well-being of his or her children. Human nature is so constructed as to make this difficult: parents will often make any sacrifice for their own children, while knowing nothing but indifference for the children of others. Obviously, it can be more difficult still to nurture concern for the less lovable among us.

To practice jen, then, requires a balancing act. One's first responsibility is indeed to oneself and one's own family. The first, and initially most important, way to contribute to the well-being of humanity is to ensure the well-being of oneself and one's own, if for no other reason than that it's difficult to help others if one is in poor health, or living in poverty. Certainly, if the well-being of others is important, one's own well-being can't be less important.

Nevertheless, one objective of a Progressive and Humanistic lifestyle will be to eventually attain sufficient resources to extend help to others and/or to look for synergistic opportunities by working for, investing in, or buying from institutions that are doing something to make the world a better place, and to refrain from doing these things for institutions that are destructive. One's political involvements should reflect the same concerns. An obsession with militarism is suspect; foreign aid given exclusively from self-interest is equally suspect and of little merit.

Jen also requires that assistance lent be effective — in the short term in the case of an emergency, but whenever possible in the long term. Efficiency and effectiveness are even more important in charitable organizations and practices than in the marketplace. An effective idealist must be even more of a realist than the cynic. It's of no value to have good intentions but to take ineffective action or to squander finite resources. It's essential to do more with less.

Choice of a career is important. Especially desirable careers for a Progressive and Humanistic life will be law, public service/politics/administration, medicine, education, the humanities, including especially philosophy, and journalism — though the journalist should also try hard to acquire some business knowledge so as to start his own newspaper or radio station.

Implications of the Chun Tzu Ideal

Becoming and then acting as a chun tzu is perhaps the central aim of life.

Early in life, exposure to a high quality of education is essential. It's important to acquire practical skills, and a sizable body of knowledge; but it's equally important to acquire a love of knowledge for its own sake, and the ability to think clearly, critically, and creatively.

There's been much discussion recently of an education in character. It's obvious that this is essential, but much less obvious how this is to be acquired. The idea of "scouting" is fundamentally a good one, but homophobia and contempt for atheism are absurd and unacceptable anachronisms; and in the contemporary world woodland skills, though fun to obtain, have little value. A focus on conservation, living sustainably, gardening, energy use, community involvement and so on would be far more synergistic and valuable and could be made equally fun.

The truly indispensable element in a high quality education is an understanding of philosophy. Mathematics and to a lesser degree science have often been assigned the role of teaching students to think clearly; however, the role is far more properly assigned to philosophy. The elements of philosophy should be taught from the age of 13 or so, especially ethics and epistemology.

(Essay to be continued.)

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