Naturalism Idealism Spiritualism Pragmatism and Anger

I would suppose that most people’s Behavioral Patterns, and the particular Philosophies by which they decide on how to Behave, is not consciously and deliberately chosen by them. The Usual Case, I suppose, is that People behave in much the same way their Families had behaved before them, and then of course there are the Regional Types of Behavior, such as in the case that ‘all People from New York act like New Yorkers’. But if one wished to Categorize and Specify particular Types of Behavioral Orientations in a sort of Philosophical Way, well we could start with the conceptual frameworks of Naturalism, Idealism, Spiritualism and Pragmatism.

Naturalism is perhaps the easiest of these ‘Ism’ to achieve in practice, as one simply has to follow one’s Animal-Instinctual Impulses and Drives – ‘as easy as falling off a log’, as they say. Yes, it would be very easy to be Judgmental toward those who behave entirely Naturalistically, but if I had to say something ‘Good’ about Naturalism it would be that, in Material Terms, sometimes the Animal Instincts – particularly the Go-For- the-Throat Killer Instinct, can pay off Big in many career fields. Indeed, many of the most successful Business People are almost entirely Animalistic. And Nowadays it doesn’t seem to hurt in Politics.

But it is easily understandable that these Naturalistic People would tend to do poorly with Anger Management. You see, to them Anger is SO ‘Natural’ that they tend to forgive it in themselves, just as one can easily forgive a dog, or for the dog to forgive itself, for barking and growling at the Potal Carriers. But while we live in a mostly Civilized World, it often happens that Naturalistic People find themselves inconvenienced by their Episodes of Angry, particularly if they must face adverse Social and Legal Consequences afterwards. But when this happens, well, these Naturalists most often resort to blaming others for having provoked them –by such means as not readily conceding to all of their Business or Personal Demands, or by not showing them enough Respect or Whatever. Of course, it is very often the case that the People whom the Naturalists blame for their Troubles are in fact other Naturalists themselves! So you see, behaving Naturally just seems to be Everybody’s Road Map to Trouble.

With Idealism I don’t have to be quite so much on my guard against being Judgmental – I like Idealists! You see, Idealists are your quintessential “Human Beings”…They believe that there IS or at least that there SHOULD BE an Intrinsic and Basic Distinction between ‘Human Beings’ and the ‘Lower Animals’. This Distinction, as we look about us in a largely Man-Made World, created for us largely by Past Idealists, is demonstrated in quite a number of Ways – Human Beings adopt a Sense of Morality and maintain Moral Ideals; Human Beings tend to endeavor to live like Ideal Beings – Dressing in Cloths, shaving and styling their Hair, and closeting off privately to accomplish the Animal Functions (such as sex and bowel movements), using utensils to eat rather than eating with their hands or just digging in with their ‘mauls’, and certainly there are many other examples we could think of . It is as though Idealistic Human Beings see themselves as something More and Better than just their Physical Bodies. And all of the Thought that has gone into Lifting Us Out and Above the Animal Nature has certainly helped us in many other ways – The Age Old Drive to push Thought to Higher and Higher Levels, in order to Adapt our Way to Better and Easier Means for Survival, undoubtedly served to Evolve our Large and Capable Brains, giving us the Ability to formalize, record and communicate Concepts, which is perhaps the Well Spring of All Human Inventiveness, and the Foundation for both Our Material and Moral Progress.

Spiritualism is much akin to Idealism, in that most Spiritualists are also Idealists. But not all Idealists are Spiritualists. You see, Spiritualists have the distinction of acknowledging some Central and Unifying Oneness or Life-Force in which all of our separate Lives form into One Great Life of All Things. It is a difficult concept to explain, but I was once helped to SEE the Idea of ‘Life In All Things’ in a Dream I had decades ago when I was still quite young. In this Dream I dreamt that I met this Young Man out in some Sun lit and arid countryside where the grass and the bushes were meagre and far between. The Young Man approached me and he had the most intense Smile – his whole Face beamed with it… no, it wasn’t a grin, and it wasn’t close to a Laugh…rather it was a deep benign and penetrating Smile – a Smile full of disinterested but fathomless Love, and it shown especially through his eyes. I was quite startled by it, as nobody ever looked at me like that before... or, wait… now that I think about it, not since I was a small baby (it seems my very First Memory is of my Grandmother looking down at me with just such a Smile (while I was being ‘changed’!)… apparently such a ‘Smile’ was powerful enough to awaken my Consciousness and switch on the Life Memory Circuit that has been running ever since… well, except for moments that are probably best forgotten...). But Back to My Dream! … after the Young Man gave me that penetrating, eerie and startling smile, he nodded a kind of ‘farewell’ and turned to walk away, out into that arid countryside. Then this Great Deep and Powerful Voice from ‘Out of the Blue’ spoke saying “And He went out into the Wilderness and became One”. As I continued to watch him, and he was still not very far away – he developed an Aura of Silver-Blue Light. But then I noticed that all of the Grasses and Bushes close by also began projecting the same Silver Blue Light… and then the bushes further off… and then the Trees out in the Distance. It seemed to show that the ‘Oneness’ that the ‘Out of the Blue Voice’ spoke of was a Oneness In the Life of All Things (if I could have seen myself at the moment, I probably would have had that same Blue Silver Aura!). We could ask why the Blue Silver Aura seemed to start in the Young Man. Interesting question, that. I would suppose because he was able to Feel It – that ‘to Feel It’ sparks a kind of cascading expansion of The Thing that is Felt – Boundless, All Penetrating Life. It kind of reminds me of another Old Dream I had in which a Dream Guru told me “You have Seen It. You have Heard It. Now all you have to do is Feel It.” Well, enough of Dream Land… let’s get back to the Waking Reality of this Discussion!

Well, we can easily imagine why any Spiritualist who thus acknowledges Oneness In All Life would adopt a Moral and Cooperative Approach in his or her Behavior. But the Idealist, who behaves in almost exactly the Same Way, may only have different Motivations – being Good and Moral because of Rational Convictions, Logical Arguments, Religious Reasons or by the influence of a Strong Moral Example.

Well, after such warm and glowing appraisals of Idealism and Spiritualism, you would think such people would have no problem with Anger, but in fact they do. They may actually have less anger than other people, but they are often more aware of anger as a ‘Problem’, that is, they are bothered more by it, as it conflicts with what they would see as appropriately ‘Ideal Behavior’. And then there is the Problem of Causation, that is, of What Makes these High Minded People Angry to begin with. It seems that for all of their Ideals, they are still saddled with many of the same Habits and Conditions of Life which weigh upon everybody else, and just like as with anybody else, for every Good Role Model in their Lives, there have probably been a Thousand Bad Ones. And there are some Bad Role Models to which Idealists are particularly susceptible – those who make a display of ‘Righteous Anger’ or Overweening Pride and who flaunt an Attitude of Contemptuous Indignation or Snobbish Superiority – all that is exactly the opposite of our Smiling Saint from the Land of Dreams! And then there are Family Dysfunctions in even the Best of Families, and of course the Peer Groups from One’s Youth are almost always the epitome of Stark Barbarism (“no Child is Enlightened… they are all Barbarians somehow or another”, as Aristotle had said.). So, yes, Idealists and Spiritualists can have Anger Issues, and it seems that they can also be caught in an impasse when it comes to Confronting their Anger, that is, when they try to ‘Re-Invent’ their own Anger Management ‘Wheel’, so to speak. I would suppose that They believe that just re-emphasizing the Constructs of their own Ideal Beliefs and Convictions would be enough to quell their Anger, that is, when they Flip Out they try to Fix Themselves by reading their same old favorite Books on Spirituality or Philosophy. While such readings won’t ‘Hurt’, still it would tend to lack the directly applicable focus that a dedicated Anger Management Book would have. So it is that some of the Best People continue on with sporadic incidences of Anger cropping up now and then all of their lives because they can’t somehow come to effective grips with the Problem in Terms that they are comfortable with. I would be the last person to call Idealistic People ‘Snobs’, but it does seem that they have an abiding Belief that Anger Management Books are somehow beneath them… maybe if the Publishers bound them in Tooled Leather and printed them with gilded edges…

Pragmatism is the last Behavioral Category we will discuss. Pragmatism, basically speaking, is doing what seems most ‘Practical’. Pragmatism rises above Naturalism in that it recognizes the importance and complexity of Events, Situations and Conditions and attempts to steer the straightest and smoothest course through Life’s various Obstacles; whereas Naturalism only reacts moment by moment with emotion driven impulse. Of course the Pragmatist can be accused of oftentimes violating Moral Precepts in an effort to make Life More Comfortable for themselves, as, for instance, with those who Cheat on Exams or lie to their Relationship Partners about such things as ‘where they were and who they were with last Saturday Night’. Indeed, there is a Great Deal of this kind of Amoral Pragmatisms circulating nowadays, especially since the slow and steady decline in Greater Civilized Traditional Religious Values over the last several Centuries (yes, while there are people nowadays who claim to be motivated by “Religious Values”, well, what they call ‘values’ are often not very ‘Traditional’ – not in the context of our Greater Western Civilization that developed all of its Moral Fiber BEFORE the Protestant Reformation and all those Other subsequent Revolutions that have lead up to our Modern and Morally Muddled –Up Era.

Perhaps it would be helpful to present some idea or example of Amoral Pragmatism. So let us pretend that a circumstance containing a Moral Dilemma pops up, and actions must be taken at a Moment’s Notice, and IF it seems Easy and Uncomplicated to Lie, Steal or Cheat, and if Nobody will ever Know or Find Out (besides the ‘Friends’ who are urging one on), and if the Benefits will be Great, well, THEN there is really nothing of any weight in the ‘Pragmatists’ Mental and Moral Outlooks to stop them from choosing to do what they ‘KNOW’ to be Morally Wrong, is there? “Knowing” that Something is ‘Wrong’ would just be their cue to be careful not to get ‘caught’. Essentially a Pragmatist’s ‘Moral Choices’ come down to a Calculation based on Expected Consequences. The Religious Person would fear some kind of Supernatural Religious Consequences, whatever they might be – Hell or Bad Karma or Whatever. Indeed, many of your Religious People have the core belief that God SEES, or at least KNOWS somehow, everything that one does, and that He somewhat vindictively Keeps Score on it all and Promises to get Even in the End! Yes, such Beliefs may not be very ‘scientific’ but they do serve to keep The Believers on the moral ‘straight and narrow’…and all without the expense of maintaining Universal Police Surveillance, and a Judicial System that gives us more Lawyers than Doctors, and a Prison System that gives us more Prison Guards than School Teachers. Anyway, with the Rise of Pragmatism, we must be aware that there will be a corresponding Drop in the Trust we can expect to have in and from other People – “Love your Neighbor, but count your Forks before the guests leave”.

But, yes, of course, Pragmatisms isn’t always immoral (on the rare occasions when doing ‘Good’ would seem to result in some Material Benefit (such as contributing to a Tax Exempt Charity in response to solicitations from your Boss’s Wife) , but sometimes Pragmatism does have to Choose Between Evils – the Choice of doing some Absolute Good is often times not on the List of Available Options (and in Situations such as these often the Idealists are effectively ‘paralyzed’ – if not positively sure of doing ‘what is positively right’, they will do nothing at all). So, while we live in an imperfect World, it can be argued that People who are Responsible for the Welfare of Many Other People really should be Pragmatists. Take the Decision to Go To War – a Politician’s Decision to go to War should always be a Pragmatic Calculation –balancing the Concerns of Right, Justice, and National Interest, against the concerns for the Life and Limb of the Soldiers and Civilians involved (on both sides of the Conflict) and the possible detrimental Economic and Social Costs to the Nation, which can never be accurately predicted (“No War Plan survives the First Shot”… Sun Tzu). History is Full of instances where National Leaders would have begged to be able to go back in Time simply so they could ‘look the other way’ if given a Second Chance on their Choice for War. I suppose many Voters do not understand this or the underlying quasi-principles involved . We hear of Citizens criticizing various Politicians for Neglecting Principles and doing what is Expedient, and it doesn’t seem to occur to them that THAT is exactly what our National Leaders SHOULD be doing – that they really ought to DO whatever it takes to Bring the Best Long Term Sustainable Results for One’s People, even if it requires something of a Morally Zig Zag Approach to do so. And, yes, if it is not all Goodness and Light, our Leaders should not scruple but to Take the Sins upon themselves (when a President says he will take Full Responsibility, it is not for the Good and Moral Things he does, but for all of the unfortunate Things that Weight Heavy with Guilt). So before any of us People allow ourselves to get Angry with the Lying, Cheating and ‘waffling’ of Politicians, consider whether they are doing it only for their own personal benefit or whether that maybe they might be doing it all for the Good of the Entire Nation or even for the Sake of the World and Greater Civilization. And, of course, on the smaller scale, when you notice certain people within your own Orbit consistently being Pragmatic – choosing what Moral Precepts to Follow on a Case by Case basis, well, try to consider that if one could know the Full Circumstances and Conditions surrounding all of the related Events (if one could see “The Big Picture”), whether such Pragmatism could actually seem warranted or at least understandable in some vaguely qualified Moral Sense –You know, such as the “Robin Hood” Rationale.

But, now, considering Pragmatists in reference to Anger Management, they are perhaps the most pliable group. Yes, the Idealists and Spiritualists would be Perfect, but only if they were as Good as they Wished they were. But Pragmatists have no problem doing whatever they calculate will be to their lasting advantage. So, if such Pragmatists find they have an Anger Problem that is holding them back, well nothing seems more sensible to them then to just Deal With It by resorting to Anger Management Therapy or Self Help.

So, in conclusion, let me go over my assertions in brief: that Naturalists see Anger as just a Part of Life, and if reprimanded for it, they tend to resort to excuses and rationales, and this makes them very poor candidates for Anger Management Therapy. Idealists and Spiritualists are typically less angry than most other people, unless they have a ‘thing’ for Righteous Anger, but when these High Minded People are angry they may feel more than ordinarily concerned for it, as it does not conform to their Ideal Image of Themselves, but in dealing with their Anger Issues they tend to confine themselves to their Own Personal and often very limited Resources, so they tend to shy away from Effective Anger Management Therapy or Self Help. Pragmatists, if they become aware that Anger has become a Problem for them, will seek appropriate help and will tend to cooperate and take an active role in Fixing their Anger Problem. Of course, all of the Above are all just very Broad–Stroke Generalizations, but it still may offer a Starting Place for one’s Thinking if this type of subject matter ever becomes a matter of concern.