Problems in Watts

The obvious objection to an argument against "wiping out" such natural enemies of man as cancer or mosquitoes is our sympathy for the individuals who get caught. It is all very well to reason, in the abstract, that the human population has to be pruned, but when disease puts its finger on me I run for the doctor. What would be the success of a call for "volunteers for pruning"? In Western civilization we do not abandon sickly babies, shoot the insane, let the hungry starve, or leave diseased people to die on the streets. (At least, not in our better moments). For the most sacred ideal of our culture is the right of every individual to justice, health, and wealth, or "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." To suggest that the personal ego is a hallucination seems to be an attack on this most sacred value, without which civilized people would fall back to the level of coolies or ants to become an organized mass where the particular person is expendable. During World War II a friend of mine used to fly Chinese laborers over the Hump to work on the South end of the Burma Road. The long flight was, of course, ideal for gambling, but since there was not enough cash between them to make the game interesting, the stakes were that the final loser should jump off the plane. No parachute. Our natural reaction is that such people aren't fully human. Like the families and servants of ancient kings who were buried alive with their deceased lord, they seem, as Thomas Mann suggested, to be faces with no backs to their heads—mere masks, mere roles of no further use or meaning; bees without a queen. Whatever villainies the British may have committed in India, their Christian consciences balked at the practice of sati, which required a widow to commit suicide at her husband's funeral. Truly civilized people are—we feel—not faces on the sky but fully enclosed heads containing souls, each one of infinite value in the sight of God.

At one extreme, then, we have the sacred individual—the unique personal ego, separate from both nature and God—defined as such by a society which, almost in the same breath, commands him to be free and commands him to conform. At the other extreme is the coolie, the cog in the industrial-collectivist machine, or the mere "hand" (as the factory worker is often called). If one believes that the personal ego is a natural endowment of all men, as distinct from a social convention, then the lot of the coolie is bleak indeed—for one sees him as a repressed and frustrated person, though his own society may never have defined him as such.

This quote is from Chapter 3 of The Book on the Taboo of Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts. I believe it is pages 58-59 in the pdf version I read. We had a discussion about this section in the discord chat, and I will try to summarize what was said, but I welcome anyone adding their perspectives.

- Watts lived in an era with different social norms but this doesn't mean we should not be able to critique these ideas from our modern perspective.

- Jedi believe in the inherent worth and sanctity of all people regardless of ethnicity and national origin.

- There are also some parts of the text that people found very helpful and important.

- Many people do not engage in critical reading practices when completing the IP, and therefore a section that does not reflect Jedi values may be problematic.

Suggestions:
1) Put a disclaimer in the lesson to clarify the temple's position on racism.
2) Select only certain parts of the book for the lesson, and link to the rest if people want to read it.
3) Find a more recent author who deals with the same material from a modern perspective.
4) Include a lesson on critical reading early in the IP.

So Watts is criticizing the way he thinks people think of themselves and their relation to the wider world in the west, mistaking - in his opinion - their instinctive sense of separation from each other and said world and sense of self-importance for an inherent part of their being and for something crucial and necessary to provide for the prosperity they enjoy...

Now far be it from me to defend Watts on much of anything, but specifically what about his criticism of western short-sightedness and narrow-mindedness, or proneness for self-centering and cultural biases is it that is being objected to?

With Watts i think that there are things quit hard to swallow for most people, there are harsh realities and he does not care for the way of our so called modern cultures. We think to be the judge of what is civilised and what isnt and we think that our ways are certainly better. I still like to say that the British did let millions die of starvation in Ireland as they took out most of all the food that was left in the Island! Our society beside it s appearance to care for humans life forget about what matters, like the survival of the species and acting like a cancer ( i do not call humans a cancer but we are acting like it) is totally against survival! Cancers kill their host. The so called savages, living like ants in the forest hunting and foraging were no more civilised than us. There is no definition for being civilised ! Animals are certainly very civilised they have them self languages, manners of sort and they follow the laws of nature or the Force. Now it is true that by the laws of nature , again, we re too many, by the law of modern man all seems to be fine but who s right ? us a little very young species homo sapiens sapiens who lived as a species for only few 200 000 years and managed to ruin the planet in matter of few hundreds. Personally i love Watts, the thing with Ego is not to think as us as the top species who has the right to live while everything else dies but to put aside our ego and realise that something has to give so that balance could be restored. After all the Force is all about balance. I believe that we will have to accept what ever that will happen! But we must keep in mind that The force is everything , religions have been giving us the idea that god and nature are a separated thing but it isnt, The Force is all we see and all there is, humans do not count more than ants they re not superior so they do not have the right of life before even the smallest animal. We could make thing better but it will involve drastic changes and really let go at ou overwhelming ego, accept that our ways are simply not in accord with the laws of nature.

“A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions.
By thoughts I mean, specifically, chatter in the skull—perpetual and compulsive repetition of words, of reckoning, and of calculating.
I’m not saying that thinking is bad; like everything else, it’s useful in moderation, a good servant but a bad master.
And all so-called civilized peoples have increasingly become crazy and self-destructive because through excessive thinking they have lost touch with reality. That’s to say we confuse signs, words, numbers, symbols, and ideas with the real world.” —Alan Watts

There are harsh realities that have to be faced and accepted for life to prosper. One being that suffering is a natural part of existence. Another being that we are not all equal. Some may be good at sports. Some may be good at math. Some may be good at compassion and some may be good at enduring and on and on. But we are not equal. We all have worth. We all have opportunity. None of us knows what is best for others. None of us knows what is best a culture, society or any other kind of group because each of us are individuals.

We, the human race, cannot be over populated. We can reach appoint where a single planet can no longer support the numbers of people on it. But all that means is that we will then be required to expand our occupied territories. IE, find other planets or celestial bodies to live on. Necessity has been a great motivator all throughout history. And given the opportunity, when need arises, I have faith that we will explore alternative resources.

Nature assaults us with natural disasters and diseases because that is what nature does. We learn how to overcome such obstacles because that is what we do. And learning how to tackle such issues gives us the tools and keys on how to expand beyond where we are now. As we expand as a species to go forth into the universe we will have to have had theses hard experiences to learn from so that we are successful in future endeavors.

Not being able to accept that life has hardships, that there are winners and losers, we will not be prepared for future events. Watts sees this and relays it to his audience in several different ways. But it is not what many want to hear so it is rejected as flawed or incorrect and we try to find ways to rationalize our own theories and substitute those as more favorable.

Wescli Wardest said :We, the human race, cannot be over populated. We can reach appoint where a single planet can no longer support the numbers of people on it. But all that means is that we will then be required to expand our occupied territories. IE, find other planets or celestial bodies to live on. Necessity has been a great motivator all throughout history. And given the opportunity, when need arises, I have faith that we will explore alternative resources.

Well this is what is the human ego, we re fed with ideas that we can destroy it all and still survive, it is not realistic, we depends and we in tight connection with the universe. It is a form of blindness to think that way, all living creatures of earth could easily live with out us but we cannot with out them. Star wars or what ever other movies that have imagined a planet entirely habited by a form of human like form , as one planet city is totally impossible. The science behind it can not back it up beside our imagination. Alan Watt has talked so much about ego it is because of such a form of thinking. The force is about balance, so one supreme species doesnt fit in that equilibrium. Why would human have the right to be superior ? The hard lesson that we will learn is to come, we cannot ignore the Force and continu on living the way we do. The Force is all there is, all we can see , the force is all living beings and it does not care for humans more than it cares of other creatures. To believe that we can control it is really being blinded by the dark side, a thing of our own creation. Alan Watts wasnt introduced to the IP for no special reasons. Uncontrolled EGO give humans the belief to be able to control the force and to be the superior species. We re instead only few grain of sand on the face of the earth and we havent done anything lately to be remembered for in a good way.