The Picture Is Getting Clearer…
If you’ve read our four part “Professional Development is Screwing You Over!” series, then you know that…
- Academics called New Historicism and Cultural Criticism are ignorant at the most basic level.
- They keep us blind by telling us there are no patterns in life because there is no Human Nature.
- They cook up crazy ideas like Post-Orientalism that only empower the bad guys and hurt good people.
You know what doesn’t work. You’ve sensed it for a long time, you’ve had a gut feeling driving you away, and you can see the results with your own eyes…
The Ivory Tower Utopia Schemes
Are A Bust.
Lucky for you, there’s another way…
The truth is, you know what it is already deep down.
You may not have a name for it, you may not have it categorized in a neat little box…you might not even know you it!
But you do…because you live it everyday!
It is…
- The Foundation that every achievement of Western Civilization is built on.
- A Universal Human Truth that Jews, Arabs, Greeks, Slavs, Tartars, Chinese, Japanese, and American Indian cultures all agree on…
- It’s so simple…a little kid can understand it!
What is this Big Truth that you already know about it?
Life is built on Conflict.
The Big Truth.
The Greeks call it Agon. The Jews call it Yetzer Ha’ra. The Arabs call it Sijal.
Vietnam War Hero and Medal of Honor Winner Lt. Cmdr. James Bond Stockdale define this Concept of Conflict as…
“…Competition, stress, pressure, struggle to win” (Stockdale 18).
The bottom line is…
Conflict is what makes life possible.
What does that mean?
To see what I mean, get out of your chair, stand up, and walk a few steps.
The only thing that keeps you from flying away into space when you stand up is gravity. It fights the forces of vacuum and wins, and keeps you planted on the ground.
The only thing that keeps you from being stuck in one place is friction. When you walk, friction rubs against your feet. Your feet fight the forces of friction and win, allowing you to move wherever you wish.
Without these opposing forces fighting each other until one wins…gravity vs. vacuum, feet vs. friction…basic human life would not exist.
It’s an example of The Big Truth…the Guiding Principle of Life.
And it’s not just true for physical phenomena…
If you think a thought, you push another thought out. If you feel a feeling, you’re pushing another feeling out. The thoughts and feelings compete, and you choose the winner.
The concept of two forces in conflict until one wins is what makes the functions of life possible…Physical, Mental, and Emotional.
The shoot-em-up Roman Emperor and Stoic Soldier Marcus Aurelius summed it up best…
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way is the way” (De Sena 107).
The Bottom Line…
- Life is built on Conflict.
- Conflict is “Competition, stress, pressure, struggle to win.”
- Two forces in conflict until one wins is what makes life possible…
- This includes all life…Physical, Mental, and Emotional.
- Marcus Aurelius says it best…
- “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way is the way”
The Stoics of the Ancient Greek and Roman World called the understanding of the Big Truth Physis.
How does this applies to you?
Find out how in the next article…
Sources Cited
De Sena, Joe. Spartan Fit: 30 Days. Transform Your Mind. Transform Your Body. Commit to Grit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
Stockdale, James Bond. Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995.
Recommended Resources
The Big Truth in Western Civilization and America
Fretwell, Peter and Taylor Baldwin Kiland. Lessons From the Hanoi Hilton: Six Characteristics of High-Performance Teams. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013.
McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kentucky, 1985.
Stockdale, James Bond. Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995.
The Big Truth in the Stoic Greco-Roman World
Epictetus. Discourses of Epictetus, Translated by George Long. Edited by John Lancaster Spalding. New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1904.
Epictetus. The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, In Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments: Vol. II. Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1891.
Rufus, Musonius. Musonius Rufus: Lectures & Sayings. Translated by Cynthia King. Edited by William B. Irvine. Lexington, KY: Createspace, 2011.
Senecca, Annaeus. Minor Dialouges Together With the Dialouge “On Clemency.” Translated by Aubrey Stewart, M.A. London: George Bell and Sons, 1889.
The Big Truth in the Jewish World
Moen, Skip. “Guardian Angel: A postscript.” Hebrew Word Study. February 16, 2017. Accessed March 1, 2017. https://skipmoen.com/2017/02/guardian-angel-a-postscript/
–. “Untranslatable.” Hebrew Word Study. November 30, 2016. Accessed March 1, 2017. https://skipmoen.com/2016/11/untranslatable-3/
Patai, Raphael. The Jewish Mind. New York: Haterleigh Press, 2007.
The Big Truth in the Arab World
Afnan, Dr. Soheil M. Philosophical Terminology in Arabic and Persian. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1964.
Khalid, Mansour. Arab and American Cultures. Edited by George N. Atiyeh. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1977.
Patai, Raphael. The Arab Mind. New York: Haterleigh Press, 1992.
The Big Truth in Eastern Europe
Tomasic, Dinko. Personality and Culture in Eastern European Politics. Cornwall, N.Y.: The Cornwall Press, 1948.
–. The Impact of Russian Culture on Soviet Communism. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1953.
The Big Truth in Asia
Benedict, Ruth. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. Wilmington, MA: Mariner Books, 2006.
Tomasic, Dinko. The Impact of Russian Culture on Soviet Communism. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1953.
The Mind At War 