If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways (17 page)

Daniel
. Uh-huh.

Elaine
. Our cultural conditioning at the top level overrules the bottom level.

Daniel
. Uh-huh.

Elaine
. If it's valid to think of top-down thinking operating on concentration-camp guards and on
hostages in the Stockholm syndrome, then it's valid to think of top-down thinking operating on us on a
very wide scale.

Daniel
. Uh-huh.

Elaine
. So your friend's observation seems completely valid to me. Although there's no specific or
single act of hypnotism, the constant hum of Mother Culture's voice in our ears from the cradle on up
causes us to overrule the raw evidence of our senses. In our own way, as we go about the task of
devouring the world, we're like those concentration-camp guards. They viewed exterminating Jews as
just something that had to be done. At the bottom, they were aware that other nations would regard what
they were doing as profoundly wicked, but this awareness was overruled by their cultural conditioning
at the top. We're similarly aware — at the bottom — that other peoples and our own descendants are
going to view our destruction of the world as profoundly wicked, but this awareness is overruled by our
cultural conditioning at the top, which tells us that this is just something that has to be done. It's a job, like exterminating Jews.

Daniel
. Uh-huh.

Elaine
[
after waiting awhile for Daniel to continue
]. So?

Daniel
. So, what?

Elaine
[
laughs
]. I guess I'm waiting for a grade.

Daniel
. In other words, you think you're finished.

Elaine
. Is there more?

Daniel
. If there was more, how would you go about seeing it?

Elaine
. Oh... I'd pull back and look at the matter from a higher angle.

Daniel
. That's the procedure. What is it you see by pulling back and looking at things from a higher angle?

Elaine
. I'd say... more ground.

Daniel
. Of course.

Elaine
. Okay. [
After a few minutes.
] Okay, here's what I see... Your friend was referring to
our
Mother Culture. At least I assume so.

Daniel
. So do I.

Elaine
. But
every
culture has a Mother Culture who hums in everyone's ears from the cradle up.

Daniel
. Of course.

Elaine
. I even supplied an example of my own. The Mother Culture of Australia's aborigines tells them, among other things, that their witch doctors wield immense occult powers.

Daniel
. That's right. Among many other thousands or millions of things, just like our Mother Culture.
When my hard drive failed a few months ago I lost a very significant quote from, I believe, the chief of
a northwestern American tribe. He said, approximately — referring to us, of course — "It didn't occur to us that you meant to
stay
." Their top-level cultural conditioning told them that people don't just move
into someone else's territory and settle down as if it were their own, and this overruled what their eyes
were telling them.

Elaine
. Yes, that's very clear.

Daniel
. And now what do you think of the apparently odd fact that downward neural paths outnumber
upward paths ten to one?

Elaine
[
after some thought
]. I think it means that humans are hardwired for culture.

Daniel
. Yes, I think so, too. We evolved as cultural beings, and cultural conditioning at the top level serves to tell us how to evaluate and act on the information we receive from the bottom level — a much
more complex task for us than it is for squirrels or sharks.

Elaine
. Though what this conditioning tells us is not always... reliable.

Daniel
. That's true — and that's one reason why it's worth examining. The cultural conditioning of
Native Americans told them we didn't mean to stay — couldn't possibly mean to stay. Our cultural
conditioning tells us that the way we live is the way humans were meant to live from the beginning of
time and that we have to hold on to this way of living even if it kills us.

Elaine
. I feel bad that this has to be our last day.

Daniel
. Why is that?

Elaine
. I'm sure we could go on this way for weeks.

Daniel
. I wish you were right. The fact is I've run out of questions that seem worth exploring. I've gone over the hundreds I have on hand a dozen times.

Elaine
. That's hard to believe.

Daniel
. They're just very straightforward. Have no hidden depths, present no challenge.

Elaine
[
alarmed
]. Does that mean we're finished?

Daniel
[
laughs
]. Oh no. We have a question we left unanswered from the first day, and then I've saved a really munchy problem till last.

Elaine
. Good. What's the question we left unanswered?

Daniel
. We were talking about why the first three million years of human life had been swept under the rug by the people of our culture.

Elaine
. Oh yeah.

Daniel
. We'd gotten to the fact that these three million years pose a threat to the understanding of ourselves that informs our cultural mythology. Care to summarize?

Elaine
. Let me think... According to our cultural mythology, we and we alone are humanity. To
acknowledge that our ancient ancestors have any claim to humanity — to acknowledge that their lives
amounted to anything — is obviously a threat to that mythology. The way we live is the way humans
were meant to live from the beginning, and our ancient ancestors were just passing the time,
accomplishing nothing. Truly human life didn't start until we came along to begin building civilization.

Daniel
. Very good. And you remember I said there was an even more dangerous threat involved in
acknowledging the first three million years of human life.

Elaine
. Yes...

Daniel
. Are you ready to tackle that now?

Elaine
. I should've been thinking about it...

Daniel
says nothing.

Elaine
. I remember I asked some question you didn't want to answer, but I don't remember what it was.
It must have been relevant.

Daniel
. What should you be doing now?

Elaine
. Backing off. Trying to get a higher, wider view of the terrain.

Daniel
says nothing.

Elaine
[
after a minute
]. I remember what it was now. I asked who would feel threatened. Actually...
Okay, this might be useful. What I'm thinking about is the period when people were being compelled to
consider the possibility that humans were not the product of a special act of creation that occurred just a few thousand years ago. That was obviously a very distressing idea to a lot of people... But we already
knew that.

Daniel
. Take your time.

Elaine
. But it was especially distressing to... Christian thinkers.

Daniel
[
after a minute
]. Maybe it would help to come at the problem from a different angle.

Elaine
. What angle?

Daniel
. What are some of the things we've done before that have been helpful?

Elaine
. Well, there was turning the tables.

Daniel
. Try anything.

Elaine
[
sighing
]. Turning the tables... What would that mean here?

Daniel
says nothing.

Elaine
. Here was the setup. "We detest the idea that humans were not the product of a special creation just a few thousand years ago." Instead of trying to call up evidence to change their minds, I'm going to ask why this is so detestable. Why don't you say, "Hurray! The human family is vastly larger and older than we thought!" Why aren't you cheering instead of grousing?

Daniel
. Uh-huh.

Elaine
. What do you find so disturbing about the idea that we've been here for three million years?

Daniel
says nothing.

Elaine
[
after thinking for a couple of minutes
]. I've got it, I think. If we've been around for three million years, where was God all this time? Now,
that's
a dangerous question.

Daniel
. I'd say so.

Elaine
. I think I see it now. We are humanity, therefore our religions are the
religions
of humanity. But our religions are only three or four thousand years old — Christianity only two thousand years old. So
how can these be considered the religions of humanity if humanity is three million years old? That just
doesn't make sense.

Daniel
says nothing.

Elaine
. It was okay when that bishop's date was in place. What was it?

Daniel
. It was 4004 BC. According to Bishop Ussher's calculation, Adam and Eve, along with the rest of the universe, came into existence almost exactly six thousand years ago.

Elaine
. And that was okay, because... Because that meant that God began to interact with humanity right from the start, from the very first day. The whole biblical story was safe... How did Ussher make his
calculation?

Daniel
. Basically he added up the ages provided in Old Testament genealogies, which can be traced
right up into the historical period — up to the first destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, in fact. I don't recall how he determined the date of this event, but after that it was just simple arithmetic.

Elaine
. I see. But in any case, this puts the notion that Christianity is humanity's religion on a solid footing, generation after generation and event by event right from the beginning. That's what you lose if
you toss out Ussher's date — that foundation.

Daniel
. Yes, so it would seem.

Elaine
. But it occurs to me that the only religionists outraged by losing humanity's special creation were
— and are — Christians. I've never heard of any outrage among Jews or Buddhists over it.

Daniel
. And where does that lead you?

Elaine
. I'm not sure... I guess it leads me here: Christianity is the only one of our religions that actually represents itself as a religion for the whole of humanity. Judaism and Hinduism are both specifically
ethnic religions, wouldn't you say? I mean, Judaism is for Jews and Hinduism is for the people of India.

Daniel
. It seems clear enough that Judaism is for Jews, since they are a specifically Chosen people. I'm not aware of any evangelical tendency among Hindus.

Elaine
. But what about Islam?

Daniel
. Offhand, it does seem to be represented as a religion of the whole of humanity. Let me check a source. [
Returning twenty minutes later.
] This is from
The World's Religions
, by J.N.D. Anderson:
"There can be little doubt that Muhammad at first believed that he had only to proclaim his message to gain Jewish support, for was not his message the one, true religion preached by Abraham and all the
patriarchs and prophets, ever corrupted only to be proclaimed anew?"

Elaine
. Um. That shoots my theory.

Daniel
. What was your theory?

Elaine
. Maybe it doesn't. Islam's book is the Koran, not the Bible.

Daniel
. And so?

Elaine
. And so they're not tied to the creation account in Genesis — or to Bishop Ussher's date for creation. Or at least not as tied as the Christians, who were upset by losing that foundation that enabled them to trace their roots back to the beginning of human life.

Daniel
. That seems plausible. But I'm still not sure what point you're reaching for.

Elaine
[
laughing
]. By this time, I'm not quite sure myself.

Daniel
. Let's take a little break and maybe it'll come to you.

Elaine
. Okay.

Daniel
[
half an hour later
]. Any luck?

Elaine
. No. I think I reached my point and then overshot it. You can skip this part of the dialogue when you do the book.

Daniel
. Not at all. I wouldn't dream of it. You did brilliantly. And you made some points that I missed in a lecture I delivered on this subject at Southwestern University a few years ago (Georgetown, Texas. See
appendix 2).

Elaine
. Huh. I guess that's something to brag about.

Daniel
. It is. So... Anything to add?

Elaine
. You mean to this particular subject? No.

Daniel
. Are you ready to move on to something completely different?

Elaine
. Sure.

Daniel
. Good. While on tour for
The Holy
in the fall of 2002 I happened to see a billboard showing some golfers and displaying the message "Golfers Against Cancer."

Elaine
. Uh-huh.

Daniel
says nothing.

Elaine
. That's it?

Daniel
. That's it. Right out of the air, about sixty feet above the ground, by the expressway. Just the thing for a Martian anthropologist.

Elaine
. Lord. Golfers against cancer. That's all?