[SonOfDarkSkies]

Julian Jayne's The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind is one of my favorite books, but I'm not sure I understand your point as to its involvement in the left's exclusion of divergent arguments and its (the left's) general intellectual dishonesty (though I heartily agree with your points about the left).

Any help would be much appreciated.

[kabumpo]

I love that book - read it years ago — but agree with you that it doesn’t apply to the left’s infantile inability to understand another point of view.

[jnsun]

In Jayne's view, and to me it's obvious, the consciousness that appeared out of the Greek experience is the struggle (and ability)of the individual to look objectively at the entire envelope of associations and ramifications of his own and others' actions. As opposed to the bicameral mind which is incapable of this, but rather acts from a simple authoritarian, top-down motivation. The latter of which is my own definition of Leftism.

The nascent human consciousness is clearly the foundation for Greek theatre, philosophy, and science. How obvious is it that the theatre was a detached objectified struggle to understand the human condition? The same for philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, et al. And even the great art.

A good counter example is the terrorist bicameral societies of the ancient middle east, like the Assyrians, motivating society through fear and domination.

Not that the human race across the board has to date successfully transformed to a community of higher individual consciousness. Indeed even in modern history we vacillate between the abyss of collective authoritarianism, and the emancipation of individual dignity.

One good literary example is GBS's Man and Superman where the race has reached the point it does not need top-down government because of the greater sense of responsibility, or consciousness, in the individual.

Once pointed out, the common human theme of individual awareness (truth?) as opposed to top-down oppression appears over and over in classic literature, e.g. The New Testament, Shakespeare, Wells, Paine, many more.

Incidentally the Bicamerals hate the Conscious, primarily because they do not understand.

Johnny Suntrade