Good Breeding

Breeding vs Liberty

Its a common term … that's used to refer to the breeding of horses … canine … and perhaps cats … but when the term is brought to refer to humans … it raises an odd taste in the mouth. A well bred horse … responds to commands … is attentive to the owner … and limits its own freedom in relation to that which the situation suggests. Its a behavioral factor … that responds to a ken of understanding about personality.

 

But where the phenomenon … raises its head of exultation … especially in the lives of the wealthy … it presents a spectacle of views … that is as curious as it is awkward. For starters … the notion of good breeding enacts its own rules about life. Like the upper classes in the Brit experience … it implied a born to rule perception … lead the way for others … and identifies only with those who have had the same opportunities. All else is suspect … and is … in some way unformed as to its proper ideal.

 

In time the experience of the well bred … responds to itself as being self made. It conjures a view of itself … having planned its own life … and having brought that into realization. Its a notion … and comes into the test on occasion. It sets up an intellectual tradition founded on its rules … that has become the basis of right and wrong … in society … and is the very foundation of our social norms in these times. The phenomenon is not unlike … good breeding in the wilds … where the survival of the fittest rules the kingdom … of the non-thinking.

 

The experience may have reached a peak … in France before the revolution … and since then … the dictates of human equality … and freedom … has come to replace notions of good breeding … as the only reliable value in society. In a nutshell … the experience is not unlike the general refinement of human society … from the experience of the Neolithic … to that of modern man. We find today … in our practices of civil rights and liberty … the opportunity to develop and cultivate the human personality … that far outstrips the narrow … definitions of being well bred.

 

In advancing ourselves forward for that cause … we encounter the natures of the well bred within … and even when we grant the opportunity to the well bred to take the initiative on issues … it simply creates a fuss about the lack of support … infrastructure … or the fact that no one bothers to listen these days. And once the well bred is perceived to have dropped the ball .. . he goes into a trench of the uninvolved … quits on everything … and struggles hard from sliding into despair.

 

His self made notions … places him in a position of high risk … as regards possibilities for being rescued. He dismisses any and all … guides or encouragement … as being ill-informed. Certainly he's not going to accept from those … who fed at his table … any crumb of suggestion about himself. And yet … he knows he has to … without jeopardizing his own self founded beliefs … regarding humanity and life.

 

There's a parable I heard from a Muslim preacher in these parts … that referred to a devout man … standing on the roof of his house in a flood … waiting for God to help him. He turns away the green crescent rescue boat … the military helicopter … and finally perishes in the flood. When he gets to heaven … he tells God he was waiting for him. To this God replies … ' I sent you a boat … a helicopter … and you refused to be rescued.'

 

The parable makes clear … the special qualities of the man well bred that … now comes to the fore. He is a man of formidable faith … and a most devoted friend. Such qualities that he had harbored in himself … indicates the quality of being well bred. These are not necessarily wrong or weak … in the character of the man. He can if persuaded well … take the initiatives to prove his self worth as friend … and a man of faith. And where he draws on these to reach for salvation … there is no doubt whatsoever … that he will succeed.

 

At a point in my experiences of recovery … I came to meet Jesus and Siva … in the half dimmed … half witted mind of distortion. I spoke to them … and received from them the final word on faith. I was at that point considering severing my bonds from all. My impression of my meeting … is that they provided no objection or resistance to my will. In the childlike personality I saw myself in … I was actually astonished that they would take the trouble … with a little nobody like me.

 

Beyond that … I re-evaluated the content of my faith … my devotion as friend … and then … walked down a path of my own choosing. Right there … the thousands of years of conditioning and habituation of mind and thought … was left behind in abandonment. I had then … entered a new experience of identity crisis … further than anything I had experienced before. But it tested my pride in the notion that I was self made … and it proved the adage in the final word on faith … that in the last part of the journey … man must necessary walk alone. It would appear that its also the final word on … good breeding.