In Blog #5: We Humans, I offered a “trick” to help us confront our anthropocentrism. I suggested, when you see or hear the words “we” and “us”, mentally tack on the word “humans”. If you do this, it becomes starkly clear that most of our attention, most of the time, is locked onto us–us humans–not onto the multitude of other Gaian species or onto the sustaining universe at large. I expressed my hope that this trick could help us expand our circle of love and lessen our anthropocentrism.
I did not mention in that Blog a similar trick, one that also involves the word “humans”. So, here let me suggest that, from time to time, when you hear or see a social group name, mentally tack onto it the word “human”, or “of humans”, or the like. For example:
“…our local human volunteer firefighters.”
“…my human Representative in Congress.”
“…their favorite human baseball team.”
“The Joneses are a wonderful family of humans.”
“He is a member of a violent neighborhood gang of humans.”
“She is stuck in that awful camp for human refugees.”
The effect of this trick is two-fold. First, we (humans!) see that we are utterly preoccupied with ourselves (our anthropocentrism). And, second, we see that our social group names, in the absence of “human”, can dehumanize us. Human beings become treated rather like things. Thus our groups become, for example, mere firefighters, Congressional Representatives, and baseball players. We become mere families, gang members, and refugees. Our choice of words does not reminded us that all groups are humans first, named groups second.
Granted, this tacking-on of “human” can be awkward. But consider the benefit of it: We (humans) may less often treat one another as things, and more often as human beings. Wouldn’t this benefit be worth the trouble now and then?
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If you are new to Tefistry, the following Q&A’s may offer a few insights into it.
Q. Why do artists often either decline to talk about their art or launch into unitelligibly abstruse descriptions of it?
A. Tef Theory explains this as the result of Art’s being a product of L.2, the Intuition Sector of our Perception. Art exists to express emotion through L.2, but emotion does not use words (poetry only seems to be an exception here). L.2 is mute. Moreover, its “point” is the Value of its expression, not the Form of it. Science, by contrast, is (by design) nearly free of emotion. It arises from L.3, the Intellection Sector of our Perception. And the “point” of L.3 Perception is not Value, but instead Form. Thus, the Sector you use determines a lot about what you say and do. Art neither needs, nor wants, nor succeeds at verbal explanations–it processes through L.2, not through L.3.
Q. Where did the expression, “Love Thy Tef”, come from?
A. I invented it. I used it as the title of my 1986 book (now out of print) on Tef Theory. It sums up much of Tef Theory:
Love is the noblest (but not the only) path to Harmony. Here, Love means our Good Will, our sincere desire that Harmony should prevail;
Thy is an archaic English word meaning “your”, but with connotations of sacredness (and, here, giving just a touch of hokeyness?);
Tef is, of course, my acronym for the Total Experiential Field: my model of All, It, Everything, reality.
So, “Love Thy Tef” is my call for everyone to use love to increase Harmoniousness throughout life.
Q. Each of the four megascale Sectors yields a somewhat different World of experience. Which of these four Worlds is the “real” one?
A. They are all real! Why? Because there is no unreality. Take the most basic one, the Material World (not the best of terms, but the best I could think of). Here the Sensation Sector (L.1) gives us authentic, Actual, firsthand, nonrepresentational experience, such as matter, energy, emotion, repstocks. We often call it This World, residing in the Herenow.
The Story World results from use of the Intuition Sector (L.2). Here Fantasy is generated and injected into This World to yield an enchanted, spirit-filled, dreamy World. Children naturally inhabit this World. It is one of the Other Worlds. Art and Spirituality are at home here.
The Idea World results from use of the Intellection Sector (L.3). Here Imagination is generated and overlaid as Representations upon This World. These Reps include words, thoughts, and inferences. The Idea World models This World, emphasizing Form. Like the Story World, it is an Other World. Science and Philosophy are at home here.
The fourth World is the Optimal World, resulting from use of the Orchestration Sector (L.4). Its task is the managing of all of Tef, such that Harmoniousness is optimized (which is the goal of Tefistry, the Goal of Life).
Finally, the Archives, though not called L.5, are yet another World. Here, Memory creates and stores a record–a mirror/mimic Representation–of all experience, spanning all perceptual scales and Sectors. The Archives, in a sense, double Tef, just as a mirror doubles whatever its image mimics.