There's a whole invisible dimension of social relations. Ignore them at your peril. Primitivism is not reserved for those few tribal societies living on the fringes of 'civilization'. If anything, those who have developed techniques and strategies for becoming more aware of these invisible forces may have more that is civilized about them than many who live in 'advanced' societies.
To succumb to primitive patterns of response is to be on a losing streak. Phenomenological experience, acknowledged and not reduced trumps the ways of thinking that are defined by fundamental categorizations. Perception guided by a refined phenomenological awareness is always going to provide more information (and be relatively sharper)compared to perception of reality only in terms of two fundamental categories.
To be on a losing streak in life is to revert to the more primitive form of perception at the expense of the richer, phenomenological level of perception.
Of course, most people are often "stuck" at either one or the other level of perception.
Only a person who has developed 'shamanistic' propensities can see the world in a way that incorporates knowledge of both these levels of perception. Such a 'shaman' will have taught themselves to see the practical expressions of these different levels of awareness and how they intersect.
Mass consciousness (a state free from individualism) and mob mentality are modes of thinking that a more self-consciously 'civilized' person may think himself to be beyond. Rarely is he beyond these modes of relating to the world. Rather, the more he is assured that these aspects of consciousness have nothing in common with his own, the higher the probability that he has succumbed to them.
The most fundamental mode of 'primitive' consciousness is based on thinking of the world in terms of gender. To divide the world up along these lines seems so natural to us that we are easily hoodwinked into thinking that such a schema is not regressive at all. Hold the certainty of your 'civilized' nature to your heart. You are about to embark on a descent into mass consciousness and mob mentality. You will not know what came over you.
If seeing the world in terms of gendered dichotomies represents the most profound level of human psychological regression, one need not be resigned that this is all there is to consciousness. A higher level of thinking is phenomenological awareness. When one becomes aware of one's thoughts, one's reactions and others' reactions, one has entered this higher state of phenomenological awareness. From such a vantage point, one can observe, with much greater neutrality (as compared to what is possible when embracing a gendered schema), how people react to others on the basis of primitive markers such as gender.
This capacity to step aside from crude mentalisations so as to observe reality more "as it is" is doubted by some people. Those who express the most virulent doubts are those whose whole consciousnesses are very often immersed in the murky waters of gender essentialism.
How does one emerge from these murky thoughts? By means of phenomenology!
The rigorous practice of phenomenological observation enables one to understand the 'invisible' forces at work, whenever gender categories are employed as the most basic categories to define human experience. From a phenomenological perspective, one sees that without mob mentality and mass consciousness are the means by which these categories become concrete. Men rarely perform a gender-based psychological transaction on their own, but are encouraged to do so by other men. This co-operation takes place at an unconscious level, often as a result of some catcall implying that some woman has somehow threatened "masculinity" as such.
How to be on a losing streak
To succumb to primitive patterns of response is to be on a losing streak. Phenomenological experience, acknowledged and not reduced trumps the ways of thinking that are defined by fundamental categorizations. Perception guided by a refined phenomenological awareness is always going to provide more information (and be relatively sharper)compared to perception of reality only in terms of two fundamental categories.
To be on a losing streak in life is to revert to the more primitive form of perception at the expense of the richer, phenomenological level of perception.
Of course, most people are often "stuck" at either one or the other level of perception.
Only a person who has developed 'shamanistic' propensities can see the world in a way that incorporates knowledge of both these levels of perception. Such a 'shaman' will have taught themselves to see the practical expressions of these different levels of awareness and how they intersect.
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