Some Heathen Wisdom
This is an early draft of a possible future 'Handbook of Heathen Wisdom'.
All statements made are just the ideas of the author and might not be true!
THE WORLD
HUMAN NATURE
Human Needs
Human Needs are those things that a human being needs to flourish. These include both bodily and mental needs.
A human body needs access to air, water, food of the right kind, suitable temperature, shelter from harm etc.
The human mind needs access to things like social contact, meaningful activity, challenging situations, opportunities to express themselves, opportunities to order things which are chaotic, opportunity to gather things , contact with people who are caring of them, etc.
Food Deprivation
Food Deprivation is the situation where a person is deprived of food sufficient in quantity or quality for their good health.
This may happen because the substance they are given to eat is not wholesome but is low on nutrients, or has harmful substances within it. It may happen because they lack the ability to gain the food in their environment due to lack of wealth to exchange for it, or because the food is controlled by those who will not allow them access to it. It may happen because of a lack of food in their environment due to lack of transportation of food to their location, or lack of food produced.
Food Deprivation or the risk of it can be countered by means such as self-production of food, self-storing of food, good social contacts with those who do these things, supporting those near to you who do these things.
Social Deprivation
Social Deprivation is the situation when a person is deprived of social contact of the nature and degree necessary for their well-being. Social Deprivation tends to be low in decentralised 'cellulised' societies - where each person is involved in multiple activities with different but overlapping circles of people and where the governance of community life is in the hands of those affected. Social Deprivation can be high in centralised societies where each person may be a specialist only performing one useful activity or sometimes no useful activity and where the way of life may be influenced by the wishes of remote governors wishing to discourage associations which may have a political impact.
Social Deprivation can be countered by the organisation of social activity. Elements of social activity include an idea for an activity which is attractive, physical space and resources for the activity, communication of the idea for the activity to others who are attracted by it and have the freedom to engage in it, organisation of the activity to bring all the necessary elements together - which are different people performing different tasks and facilitation or hosting for the activity - which is usual a particular individual able to provide care to each of those engaged in the activity sufficient for them to feel confident that their needs will be looked after.
Privacy
Privacy is the ability to control territory and resources without interference from others, including the ability to prevent information about the activity from reaching others.
Privacy deprivation is a source of emotional stress and is also detrimental to the power and potentially the freedom of those deprived.
Challenge
A good challenge is an intention to bring about some state that puts some stress on those who rise to the challenge so that they stretch themselves - doing things that are somewhat difficult for them, but which ultimately are satisfying.
Engaging with challenge helps a person to grow so that they become able to do things that they were not previously able to do. It helps satisfy their desire for adventure, and to manage their anxieties.
Deprivation of challenge can be caused by an absolute lack of opportunity for challenge, or challenges that are not tailored to the needs of the person, or which are not sufficiently attractive to motivate a person to engage in them. Deprivation of challenge can lead to lack of growth and possibly increased levels of general anxiety.
Cognition - Understanding the world
Developing a mental map of the world one lives in helps one interact beneficially with that world. A map which is both accurate and detailed is the most useful. Using mental maps which are inaccurate or insufficiently detailed means that one's activity will likely be less productive than it would otherwise have been and maybe quite counterproductive. Lacking a good map prevents proper prediction of what activity will produce what results.
The human mind is designed in such a way that certain kinds of maps will trigger spiritual responses - that is they will be seen as meaningful to a person - and are more likely to emotionally engage a person. Successful religious world-views are typically those of this kind which make use of the natural human affinity for a world made of living agents who can either be helpful or harmful to you depending on their particular nature and the way you treat them.
KASATRA - THE ORDERING OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT & SOCIETY
Cellulisation
A term to describe the splitting up of a large system into lots of smaller ones which are each to a degree autonomous and self-reliant. Can cover the same phenomenon as the terms decentralisation and relocalisation.
Distributism and Autonomism
Distributism is a cultural movement that favours cellulisation especially in economic matters. Distributism is a practice for a central authority which involves in distributing the means of economic sustenance such as control of land.
Autonomism is a cultural movement that favours cellulisation. Autonomism is a practice for individuals with some initial degree of freedom and power to practice in order to build stronger communities with autonomy.
March 2011