Vern wrote: …terms “animal” and “origin” yield 35 results, we’ve looked at twenty eight, leaving 6 to check out…
here’s No. 6 which looks at the seemingly innocuous subject of “Totemism,” however, if we look a little deeper you will find it very pertinent to today’s social challenges.
Totemism is a combination of social and religious observances. Originally it was thought that respect for the totem animal of supposed biologic origin insured the food supply. Totems were at one and the same time symbols of the group and their god. Such a god was the clan personified. Totemism was one phase of the attempted socialization of otherwise personal religion. The totem eventually evolved into the flag, or national symbol, of the various modern peoples. [Paper 88:3.2, page 970.3]
In today’s sports obsessed society we see totems everywhere as our favourite team has emblazoned the appropriate icon, wolf, tiger, lion, bear, etc.
A fetish bag, a medicine bag, was a pouch containing a reputable assortment of ghost-impregnated articles, and the medicine man of old never allowed his bag, the symbol of his power, to touch the ground. Civilized peoples in the twentieth century see to it that their flags, emblems of national consciousness, likewise never touch the ground. [Paper 88:3.3, page 970.4]
Modern totems are revered because of the idea society has placed upon them.
The insignia of priestly and kingly office were eventually regarded as fetishes, and the fetish of the state supreme has passed through many stages of development, from clans to tribes, from suzerainty to sovereignty, from totems to flags. Fetish kings have ruled by “divine right,” and many other forms of government have obtained. Men have also made a fetish of democracy, the exaltation and adoration of the common man’s ideas when collectively called “public opinion.” One man’s opinion, when taken by itself, is not regarded as worth much, but when many men are collectively functioning as a democracy, this same mediocre judgment is held to be the arbiter of justice and the standard of righteousness. [Paper 88:3.4, page 970:5]
In another part of The Urantia Book slavery to “public opinion” is mentioned as one of the dangers of democracy.
Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization, not of evolution. Go slowly! select carefully! for the dangers of democracy are:
1. Glorification of mediocrity.
2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.
3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social evolution.
4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent majorities.
5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always right. [Paper 71:2.1–6, page 801:13–18]
Public opinion delays social progress, education of public opinion is the only safe means by which to ensure steady progress. To be of state value It must be nonviolent in expression.
Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed society; nevertheless, it is valuable, for, while retarding social evolution, it does preserve civilization. Education of public opinion is the only safe and true method of accelerating civilization; force is only a temporary expedient, and cultural growth will increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots. Public opinion, the mores, is the basic and elemental energy in social evolution and state development, but to be of state value it must be nonviolent in expression. [Paper 71:2.7, page 802:1]
There are still too many states that employ force as a means of maintaining control, cultural growth will increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots. Evolution of the democratic principle provides a means of comparative and advancing practical adjustment to the impulse for social improvement.
The measure of the advance of society is directly determined by the degree to which public opinion can control personal behavior and state regulation through nonviolent expression. The really civilized government had arrived when public opinion was clothed with the powers of personal franchise. Popular elections may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to do a wrong thing. Evolution does not at once produce superlative perfection but rather comparative and advancing practical adjustment. [Paper 71:2.8, page 802:2]
Here we come to a mighty challenge of our times where today the nations of the world are directed by men who have a superabundance of ideas, but they are poverty-stricken in ideals. Originality of meaningful thought is in short supply.
Ideas may take origin in the stimuli of the outer world, but ideals are born only in the creative realms of the inner world. Today the nations of the world are directed by men who have a superabundance of ideas, but they are poverty-stricken in ideals. That is the explanation of poverty, divorce, war, and racial hatreds. [Paper 111:4.10, page 1220:9]
When creativity is turned to destructivity we find ourselves face-to-face with the devastation of evil and sin—oppression, war, destruction.
This is the problem: If freewill man is endowed with the powers of creativity in the inner man, then must we recognize that freewill creativity embraces the potential of freewill destructivity. And when creativity is turned to destructivity, you are face to face with the devastation of evil and sin — oppression, war, and destruction. Evil is a partiality of creativity which tends toward disintegration and eventual destruction. All conflict is evil in that it inhibits the creative function of the inner life — it is a species of civil war in the personality. [Paper 111:4.11, page 1220:10]
Inhibition of the creative function of the inner life is a species of civil war in the personality and when such persons make a fetish of democracy they are in effect slaves to public opinion.
