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Membership
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Norms
Every group develops norms or customs, that is, expectations and guidelines for behavior. These norms are equivalent to the self-concept in the individual. They are based upon or reflect the worldview accepted by the group. Worldviews are in turn based upon the physical capabilities of the societies which create them. The production of cultural worldviews is driven by generative death anxiety. Until recently, the confrontation with death could only be dealt with through symbolic means. That is, human understanding of life processes did not permit any intervention in the physical processes of disease or degeneration. A person could strive for immortality through reproduction, great works, or heroic deeds. Some symbolic frameworks used written texts, images, and buildings to make believable promises of survival through spiritual transcendence. Sometime these frameworks specified preservation of the body at death. However, they could only preserve the appearance of the body, thus reinforcing the beliefs of the survivors and providing some consolation in a time of grief. The norms or ethos of the group derive from the system of meanings generated by the cultural worldview. The dominant normative systems in the West today are based upon the Abrahamic religions, originated about four thousand years ago. They are based upon the technology of writing, that is scripture, and therefore are limited to symbol manipulation in the confrontation with death. We could cite many examples of problems that arise when an ethical system from one period is applied in another which is vastly different from a technological standpoint. Application of obsolete ethical frameworks are today not only making the lives of their followers unnecessary difficult, but also holding back developments in science and technology, and thus condemning us all to unnecessary suffering. A norm system which is not in conflict with current knowledge and technology, but which takes advantage of the great progress human society has made, could guide future development in a positive direction more surely. Many people fear these new developments. Some see practical risks with new technologies, such as genetic engineering. They feel that our society does not have the wisdom to use such technologies safely. Others feel that even scientific investigations of human cells is unethical. For example, in some cases research funding for experiments with human embryonic cells has been eliminated, even though such research is crucial for the treatment of genetic diseases and for further medical progress. The justification for such measures is derived from ancient beliefs, stemming from thousands of years ago, when the cell was unknown.
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