Today’s post is by Robert Cohan and in response to, “Sins of the Fathers.” He’s a dancer/choreographer/teacher, former partner of Martha Graham and first director of the London Contemporary Dance Company. He has a Purple Heart from a wound received in the Battle of the Bulge, WW2 He lives in France.(Robert Cohan, 1948)
On Sins of the Fathers
Everyone is born into a social structure, a tribe, that they grow up and learn to live in. You only inherit the sins of your father if you accept the rules of the tribe. That usually results in a habituated life controlled by your forefathers rules. You are a Democrat because your parents were. A racist because your father was etc, etc.
In our tribal society the rule is that you must belong to something or you have no tangible identity. You must be a Democrat or a Republican or Catholic or Protestant or black or white or male or female or a Dodgers fan or whatever.
It takes a jump in consciousness an intellectual shock, to live your own life and discover a different class of rules to live by.
The problem is that it is hard work and more than a little scary to leave the tribe. The rewarding side is that if you do, you can see and learn from the "sins" of your fathers’ tribe as well as all the other tribes around.
So far those humans that live outside the tribes do not number enough to change social structures. And by their understanding they are afraid of belonging to a new tribe, made up of the disaffected, and so since our world social structure is mostly tribal, so far, they cannot influence the old rules.
It seems that there are more and more young people right now that are rebelling against some parts of old structure but the movement is not yet strong enough to make changes. it is just a nuisance to be taken care of by tribal rules enforced by the police and legal judgements.
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On Sins of the Fathers
Everyone is born into a social structure, a tribe, that they grow up and learn to live in. You only inherit the sins of your father if you accept the rules of the tribe. That usually results in a habituated life controlled by your forefathers rules. You are a Democrat because your parents were. A racist because your father was etc, etc.
In our tribal society the rule is that you must belong to something or you have no tangible identity. You must be a Democrat or a Republican or Catholic or Protestant or black or white or male or female or a Dodgers fan or whatever.
It takes a jump in consciousness an intellectual shock, to live your own life and discover a different class of rules to live by.
The problem is that it is hard work and more than a little scary to leave the tribe. The rewarding side is that if you do, you can see and learn from the "sins" of your fathers’ tribe as well as all the other tribes around.
So far those humans that live outside the tribes do not number enough to change social structures. And by their understanding they are afraid of belonging to a new tribe, made up of the disaffected, and so since our world social structure is mostly tribal, so far, they cannot influence the old rules.
It seems that there are more and more young people right now that are rebelling against some parts of old structure but the movement is not yet strong enough to make changes. it is just a nuisance to be taken care of by tribal rules enforced by the police and legal judgements.
*** *
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