Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 106.  February 16, 2020 continued . . .

  The Lucifer Principle

   The Better Angels of Human Nature

 Bloom is not optimistic about peace in our time. “An equality of nations will never exist in our lifetime. Why? Because peace, freedom, and justice are deceptive concepts. Hidden beneath their surface are the instincts of the pecking order.” He labeled one of his chapters : “The Rise and Fall of the American Empire.” Post-prophetically, the British depression of the 1840s was interpreted as a sign of its impending decline, and as a lesson for America in the 2000s. “Big business was defending itself through counter-productive mergers and takeovers, and the gap between rich and poor was growing ever greater as England was slipping downward in the pecking order of nations.” Sound familiar? Innovation-killing Mergers & Acquisi-tions is a typical office in most American mega-corporations9. Was the American Great Recession of 2008 a downward slip on the hierarchy of nations?  In any case, Bloom warns that, at any sign of weakness in the ruling empire, the barbarians are emboldened to move in and take over.

In every war since WWII, the US has suffered defeat or stalemate at the hands of various “barbarians” testing our resolve. Hence, we are gradually losing our confidence and self-image as a super-power. Yet, Russia is moving up as a military power, and Korea is pecking at our nuclear heels. Meanwhile, China is expanding into the vacuum of declining American economic power. All of which puts America on the defensive, inspiring Trump’s campaign slogan : “Make America Great Again”. As a psychological historian, Bloom insightfully observes that, “A rise or fall in the hierarchy of superorganisms has other profound effects on a society’s collective psyche.  . . . It makes us conservative in times of difficulty and exploratory when times are good.” Perhaps the recent surge of conserv-ative politics, in response to the liberalism of the 60s, is another sign that Americans are feeling pecked-on.

In his Epilogue, Bloom returns to a universal, and more positive, perspective10. While acknowledging the inevitable decline of order in the world, as defined in the Second Law of Thermo-dynamics, he also reminds us that “the universe has not been drifting from order into chaos. It has, instead, been marching in the opposite direction. Since its first second of being, the cosmos has coughed up fresh forms of creation.” “Entropy” is the scientific name for what Bloom calls “the Lucifer Principle”. And “Enformy” is my name for the counter-force of good that causes positive change in the world11. He calls his notion of evil–inherent-in-the-world a “principle” for a good reason. He thinks the dialectic12 between Good & Evil is a necessary opposition in order for change to occur13.

Therefore, Bloom says, “we must invent a way in which memes and their superorganismic carriers — nations and subcultures — can compete without carnage.” And Steven Pinker’s research along the same lines has concluded that, contrary to popular opinion, humanity is indeed making moral progress14. So, although we will always have to struggle against the Lucifer Principle, we can gain some confidence from the knowledge that the Creative Principle of Enformy is working in our favor. You might say that G*D is on our side. 

                   Post 106 continued . . . click Next

Human Nature
moralized by
Human Culture

Order within Randomness
   
What's meaningful about our universe is that, despite the inherent randomness, we can perceive & understand its organized enformed pat-terns. Aware of something crudely equivalent to “natural laws”, the ancients con-cluded that a super-mind, a law-giver, was necessary to create orderly Cosmos from disorderly Chaos. In any case, Entropy is what's common & ordinary in the universe – such as rust & dust – while Enformy is what's unique & extraordinary –  such as Life & Mind, and you & me.

http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page43.html

9. Innovation Killers :
  https://time.com/2837184/mega-merger-innovation/
  https://fortune.com/2009/07/22/is-consolidation-killing-innovation/

10. Progressophobia :
  Like Bloom, Steven Pinker’s research into the declining violence of human interactions has convinced him that civilization and culture have been gradually taming the demons in human nature.
   http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page9.html

11. Enformy & Morality :
   See Enformy popup   http://www.bothandblog.enformationism.info/page73.html

 12. Hegelian Dialectic :
  http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page11.html

 13. Natural vs Cultural    Progress :
   Pinker finds positive patterns of improvement in both physical and historical evolution.
   http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page43.html

14. Moral Progress :
   Humanistic Optimism
https://www.intelligentoptimism.com/steven-pinker-moral-progress

The Lucifer Principle

A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History

Howard Bloom

Psychology; Sociology; Political Science

The Problem of Evil