Culture Against the "Law of the Mind"

Culture Against the "Law of the Mind" --Gil Prost

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It is generally agreed that conscience is that inner voice informing us as to what constitutes right and wrong behavior. Its presence implies the existence of some kind of behavioral standard. The apostle Paul acknowledged the existence of such a Standard when he wrote: "They demonstrate [by their action] that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right" (Rom. 2:15 --NLT).

But in chapter 7, Paul also points out, "I see a different law (νόμος absent article) at work in me, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me" (Rom. 7:23). When the apostle intentionally absented the article before νόμος, he knew exactly what he was doing.

This time, as signaled by the absence of the Greek article before νόμος, he was dealing with "law" as an abstraction, that is, as a rival law-system of rules, values, customs, and institutions which could causes one to sin. In this case, as theologian George Ladd points out, "νόμος is fundamentally 'custom' [culture], hardening into what we call 'law,' and is human in perspective." Today, we call it "culture."

The apostle Paul clearly viewed conscience as a judge listening to the arguments presented by two very different kinds of law-systems, the Law of God "written on the heart" and the dictates of νόμος as culture which represents a human perspective. The principles of one law-system are "triggered" and brought to consciousness and are not learned; the principles of culture as a law-system are learned and belong to the people The task of the self is to pay attention to what "the Law of the Mind" is saying.

Long before missionaries ever arrived in Winnebago land of Minnesota, Winnebago sages saw this universal struggle within as a spiritual struggle between two law-systems, one represented by the left arm and other by the right. This struggle is described in the following Trickster myth which describes Trickster's left arm battling with his right arm as how to skin and butcher a buffalo. This struggle within the mind of Trickster was described as the self having to choose between listening to instructions from the “left arm" or, to instructions from the “right arm."

War between the Left and Right Arms

As Trickster walked along, suddenly, he came in sight of a knoll. As he approached it, he saw, to his surprise, an old buffalo near it. 'My, my, what a pity! If I hadn't thrown away my bundle of arrows, I would have been able to kill and eat this animal,' he exclaimed.

Thereupon he took a knife, cut down the hay and fashioned it into figures of men. These he place in a circle, leaving an opening at one end. The place was very muddy. Having constructed this enclosure, he went back to where he had seen the buffalo and shouted, 'O ho!

My younger brother, here he is! Here he is indeed eating without having anything to worry about. Indeed let nothing prey upon his mind! I will keep watch for him against intruders.'

Thus he spoke to the buffalo who was feeding to his hearts content. Then he continued, 'Listen younger brother, this place is completely surrounded by people! Over there, however, is an opening through which you might escape'!

Just then the buffalo raised his head unsuspiciously and, to his surprise, he seemed really to be completely surrounded by people. Only at the place of Trickster had designated did an opening appear. In that direction, therefore, the buffalo ran. Soon he sank in the mire and Trickster was immediately upon him with his knife and killed him. Then he dragged him over to a cluster of trees and skinned him. Throughout all these operations he used his right arm only.

In the midst of these operations suddenly his left arm grabbed the buffalo. 'Give that back to me, it is mine! Stop that or I will cut you up to pieces, that is what I will do to you,' continued his right arm. Thereupon the left arm released its hold. But, shortly after, the left arm again grabbed hold of the right arm. This time it grabbed hold of his wrist just at the moment that the right arm had commence to skin the buffalo. Again and again this was repeated.

In this manner did Trickster make both his arms quarrel. That quarrel soon turned into a vicious fight and the left arm was badly cut up. 'Oh, oh! Why did I do this? Why have I done this? I have made myself suffer!' The left arm indeed was bleeding profusely.

Then he dressed the buffalo. When he was finished he started off again. As he walked along the birds would exclaim, 'Look, look! There is Trickster!' Thus they would cry and fly away. 'Ah, you naughty little birds'! I wonder what they are saying? This continued right along. Every bird he met would call out, 'Look, look! There is Trickster! There he is [aimlessly] walking about!"

Two Interpretations as to what is proper behavior

The task of the Winnebago hearer is to decode the hidden message. Just what is the author of this story trying to tell his tribesmen? The story is not meaningless.

Is the satirist attempting to explain to his fellow tribesmen that he has solved the riddle concerning how pre-humans became humans possessing ethical values, or, is he describing a universal spiritual condition common to all peoples here described as a war between learned customary law represented by the right arm and an unlearned "Law in the mind" structured in the unconscious mind represented by the left?

For anthropologist Paul Radin, a committed materialist, there exists no innate "Law in the mind." The butchering of the buffalo with the right hand represents an evolutionary explanation as to how sub-humans without ethical standards became ethical beings as symbolized by the emergence of the left hand.

For the materialist, the story represents a point in time when an unstructured mind is structured with ethical values. Before this, there existed no right nor wrong. With the birth of and ethical code came the birth of culture. In The Trickster, a study of American Mythology, Radin describes his bottom-up, outside-in epistemological perspective as:

"No ethical values exist for him. And how does he kill and butcher the buffalo? With only

one hand, his right. The next incident shows why only one hand has been used. He is still

living in his unconscious, mentally a child, and this is here symbolized by the struggle

between his right and left hand in which the left hand is badly cut up. He himself is hardly

aware of why this has occurred."

The problem with such a bottom-up, outside-in interpretation is this: How does impersonal amoral Nature give birth to a moral self which knows right from wrong?

In contrast, a top-down, inside-out, interpretation explains the struggle between the left and right arm as a war between two kinds of law. According to the apostle Paul. "There exists a law deep within us that is at war with the Law in the mind" (Romans 7:23). The "law deep within us," as marked by the absence of the article before νόμοs represents a law derived from SOCIAL EXISTENCE. As such, it is relative. Its principles are opposed to the Law of God structured in the unconscious mind.

For example, existing within the heart of every Winnebago was a law which said: You are forbidden to marry someone from your moiety. You must marry out! For the Jívaro of Peru, the social law existing among them declared: You must marry your cross-cousin and no one else. The rule was absolute. For the Miccosukee of South Florida, the social rule within them declared: One must marry outside one's matrilineal clan and no father has the authority to discipline his children. In each case, it was the Rule of Exogamy which defined the meaning of family, marriage, husband, wife, brother, sister, and son and daughter. Meanings were the property of people.

Within the soul of every individual there exists a law which is at war with the "Law of God." It is called "culture." Whereas the "Law of the mind" reflects the "Law of God" and is not learned, CULTURE, as a kind of law is learned. It represents the norms of people which are in constant flux.

For Radin, the materialist, there existed no unlearned law structured in the mind. For these sages, however, there existed two law systems, one which is "learned" and belongs to the Winnebago people and the other held in common by all people and which is not learned, rather its universal principles are "triggered" and brought to consciousness in a socio-linguistic situation.

Instead of complementing each other, the two law systems are at war with each other. We therefore propose that the story describes the left arm fighting the right as a continual spiritual struggle in life. The goal is to get one's cultural law-way to conform to God's eternal Decrees. This was the cry of the Psalmist who wrote, "Oh, that my actions would consistently elect your principles" (Ps. 119:5).

The Winnebago satirist is also implying that without an outside "Savior," the task of making one's cultural forms conform to the "Law in the mind" as represented by the left arm is impossible. He is crying out, "Who can set us free from our sinful selves that are causing us to bleed?"

Convictions

The Winnebago satirist is informing his hearers that there exists cultural forms in their life-way that are destructed and will figuratively cause them to "bleed profusely" unless they start paying attention to what the left hand, the Law in the mind, is saying.
Whenever a society tethers its life-way to cultural forms derived from SOCIAL EXISTENCE in a particular environment, the effects of such a tethering will be a loss of human freedoms, a new definition for the family and marriage and the ascription of a particular functions (masquerading as moral duties) to its members needed for the survival of the whole.
Whenever a missionary encounters cultural forms like satire which explicitly warn the hearers that this is not the way things ought to be, he or she can step in and offer a Divine solution to a recognized problem set forth by their sages.
The battle between right and wrong, the left arm versus the right, began when Adam and Eve ate the hanging fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9).