In growing psychologically, one moves toward increasing autonomy and independence. In growing spiritually, one increasingly realizes how utterly dependent one is, on God and on the grace of God that comes through other people. -- Will and Spirit by Gerald May
In the 1950s and '60s, there was an easy optimism afoot that touched the lives of most of us growing up then. It was likely naive, partial, and uncritical, but it surely made human relating a bit easier. Things were what they seemed. Objectivity reigned, except among strange groups of bohemians and rarefied university professors, who talked only to one another. Things were clear and distinct, we all liked Ike, and you just needed a good education to know what truth was and a good church to know who God was.
You did not need to know too much about yourself or your parents. Your unconscious was comfortably unconscious. If you followed the laws you were good and probably felt so; if you broke the laws you were bad, and church and state would remind you to feel bad. Now we know that most of the "laws" were products of the white, male system, but at least then we knew where we stood -- and that offered a certain kind of real comfort to the psyche and to the society. I can see why the system has lasted through history.
Let's call it the age of objectivity. Motivations, explanations, parental addictions were not the issue: God, simple belief systems, culture, and rituals held our lives together.
Read the Full Article
