Introduction to Maximum Advantage Collection by Travis B. Part 10

Developing Individuality: The Balance of Complimentary Forces.

This archetypal, artificial, instinct for self-preservation is the dynamic expression of what SRL calls the "anti-natural". Within this concept SRL explains that an artificial reality is defined as well as perpetuated within the minds of its constituents. Consider the diagram included on the previous page. Within this admittedly simplistic representation lays the core problem. The transmittal of culture, which includes our current as well as historical beliefs, values, and convictions, is manipulated and exploited by the archetypal forces that influence it: this process is what SRL has named "Maximum Advantage". The path of communication[10] (of which this diagram represents albeit simplistically) is determined by the "verbal worlds" as well as the "herd" mentality that responds to it. The artificial archetypal figure- head's self actuated desire for preservation rivals its constituency's needs.

The transmittal of information, in the level of abstract formalism evident in this era, has contributed to the interdependency of the populace on the existing system. The self-preservation instincts of the father and mother archetypes demand the active and willful collaboration of its constituents. This collaboration, itself described as an "anti-natural" instinct by SRL, is facilitated by artificially constructed imagery and symbols. These artificial images and symbols, themselves a representation of the global village in which we are a member, are constructed and defined by the father and mother archetypal figureheads. As one will recognize, this is an exclusively self-serving system, and as SRL argues in his book, bends its constituency's will to the maintenance and preservation of an anti-natural[11] culture. The resulting rules and regulations determine not only the ideologies and goals pursued but also the constraints and demands that will be placed on our "freewill[12]. As the diagram representing the path of communication will show, the transmittal of culture as well as the meaning contained in its imagery and symbols is established within an unbalanced playing field. SRL offers several insights and conclusions regarding how this era can eventually transcend the existing power matrix.

[10] I would argue that communication cannot be quantified or reduced to such a simplistic linear state. This model is only intended to assist with the following argument.

[11] This concept of the "anti-natural", is an interesting concept developed by SRL. It is his contention that the anti-natural is an artificial state resulting from both propaganda and Pavlovian principles.

[12] SRL argues that these are static, and uniformly defined within a given context. Jung's collective unconscious is considered to contain historical as well as current mythological motifs. The difference between the static cultural myths that are promoted in society, and Jung's mythological motifs, is that the prior is essentially unchanging in definition, whereas the latter's meaning is to be defined by a fluid state that incorporates the immediate context and all that implies.