Our Children’s Children Will Inherit An Exponential Rise In Pain And Suffering

Preface And Preliminary Remarks--Structuralism Paper
April 1994

Blight weighs heavy upon the land. Exactly when this blight started and what
will follow in its wake is uncertain. We do know, however, that this blight has
physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions. It cannot be seen in its
totality, but we know its negative forms. We know that it manifests
in environmental disasters, disproportionate wealth distribution
(poverty, mental illness, homelessness), disease, war, etc. We know that it has
impacted negatively and, in some cases, completely destroyed the human beings
capacity to feel compassion, solidarity, and love. We know that rampant
materialism is fueling today's global marketplace, a marketplace that is itself
immune to any authority other than the one that applauds the dollar as an end in
itself. We also know that man-made catastrophes e.g., acid rain, burning
rainforests, polluted water, depleted ozone, endangered species (and now—global
warming) etc., are in the vanguard of the blight's devastating effects. Unless
something is done to mitigate or reverse this blight, our children's children
will inherit an exponential rise in pain, suffering, and death.

A contributing factor to this blight, though certainly not its cause, may be
found in the unstable ground upon which knowledge is based. This unstable
foundation becomes readily apparent when we ask the question, "Where is the
foundation of knowledge, the knowledge of the world that we inhabit? This
question cannot be answered without encountering incongruities, and these
incongruities, as they relate to our physical universe, spill over into what we
take to be our most reliable knowledge concerning psychological and sociological
realities. What we are left with, as a result of these incongruities, is at
least five different scientifically identifiable worldviews.