Many weeks ago, I made a note: “Pragmatism equals having soft beliefs??” I didn’t know what to do with that thought – until now. My concept of the 7 Belief systems lies at the heart of (extreme) human behaviour: either we are willing to sacrifice our own life for these 7 Belief systems – or we are willing to take someone else’s life for those same 7 beliefs.
I used these ultimate considerations (ie, murder vs suicide) as a tool for defining our beliefs. I found seven, which I called the 7 Belief systems, being Love, Money, Politics (2016) / Tech (2019), Faith (2019) / Religion (2016), Philosophy, Science, Data-Info (2019) / the Truth (2016).
Everyone believes in one or more of the 7 Belief systems. Research shows that we even distrust people who claim not to believe (eg, BPS-2016, my 2016 blog).
Nevertheless, most of our beliefs do not result in blind and rigid ideology. Nearly always, our pragmatism is stronger than our ideology, its opposite. Why?
I suppose it’s ultimately about symbiosis (my blogs), one of the fundamental patterns in life, nature and the universe. Symbiosis leads to cooperation between subjects and/or objects (eg, ecosystem). The opposite is competition. Cooperation requires rules; ergo morality. Competition can be cut-throat (sic!); ergo murders. Morality accepts compassion and/but resists suicide.
Actually, it’s hard finding an antonym for symbiotic. Some sites mention independent or solitary. Those examples exclude both competition and cooperation. Chaos and/or entropy may also be considered as opposite terms for symbiotic. After all, balance & symmetry (my blogs) is also a fundamental pattern in life, nature and the universe.
Given the nature of global societies, cooperation between people is default behaviour. Cooperation requires pragmatism (ie, flexible and soft beliefs) rather than ideology (ie, rigid and strong beliefs). This may explain the conflicting nature of many political parties: a party requires cooperation while politics is often about ideology and competition.
For a longtime, my subconscious has been wondering if pragmatism could – and thus would – jeopardise my concept of the 7 Belief systems. I’m quite relieved that it does not. The above is even food for further thought.
Food for Thought (1980) by UB40
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Politicians argue sharpening their knives
Drawing up their bargains, trading baby lives
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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