Correctionism is an authentic, African American philosophy that can be helpful to all men regardless of ethnic background. Correctionism can also be seen as the result of roughly 400 years of the Black experience here in America. In this essay, we’ll apply the principles of Correctionism to another great problem of human life in order to better understand its teachings as well as to better understand why philosophy is needed now more than at any other time in human history.
For thousands of years, the saga of mankind has been a largely tragic panorama dominated by various forms of war and slavery for our species. Furthermore, another important feature of the last roughly 6000 years of human history up to today, is that evil or criminality is not only well represented but it’s also been on a roll! Therefore, man’s collective history over the aforementioned period has been clearly shaped by evil rather than good to the point that today, both evil and ignorance have become more powerful than ever while good is truly, hard to find. Why has the recent history of mankind turned out this way and why have things been so heavily skewed in favor of both evil and ignorance? While men may resort to religion, science or even politics to tackle problems of this nature, we shall turn to philosophy, and more specifically Correctionism, for answers to the foregoing questions.
Before we get to answers, however, we first need to examine how the vast majority of people living today actually view the world and specifically, their views on how man’s world actually works. Though mainstream science offers the big bang and evolution theories to explain man’s world, the vast majority of the public still subscribes to the God-is-in-Control model of how man’s world works, taught by the most influential, organized religions. We covered this model in a related essay on Cultural Dynamics so to put it briefly, it’s the belief that the world of men is controlled by God and that the devil, a supernatural being, is the source of all evil as well as the principal adversary of both God and man. Furthermore, this doctrine teaches that man is the image of God and that he must rely upon God to straighten out the great problems of human life.
On the other hand, Correctionism teaches the Cultural Dynamics Model of how man’s world actually works and, in this model, God is also the Supreme Being, while the devil is the personification of the built-in punishment mechanism called evil that forms the opposing side of man’s own nature. In this model, man is not only his own worst enemy and often a danger to himself and other species, but man is also most responsible for preventing the takeover of his cultures or societies by the forces of evil, in actual practice, rather than merely giving lip service to this. In this light, the constant degeneration of human civilization to war and slavery seen throughout recorded human history is a testament to man’s failure to hold his own evil and ignorance at bay across historical epochs. In Correctionism, the preponderance of the force of both good and evil operating in the world of men, at any given time, must actually come from humans themselves rather than from supernatural sources.
Therefore, the reason why good has underperformed in man’s affairs over the last several thousand years of human history up to and including the present is that the relatively small minority of humans who truly represent evil in this world have become far cleverer and more sophisticated than the vast majority of humanity who consider themselves good. This means that the vast majority of mankind has been underperforming in their struggle against the devil for many thousands of years up to and including the present day, as the earth has been literally converted into a massive crime scene.
The on-going crime spree of human evil wouldn’t be possible without the complicity of human ignorance because, as we learn in Correctionism, ignorance is the greatest enabler of evil among men; so being ignorant for a human being can have the same effect as being evil. Man’s current crisis of ignorance continues to be an epic tragedy for mankind yet most humans living today are completely unaware of this. This is largely because those who represent good in this world, the vast majority of humanity, tend to live in religious or secular mythology rather than in reality, while those who represent evil have made it a point to provide erroneous yet popular beliefs and behaviors to deceive and manipulate the masses of men, who’re supposed to be representing the force of good.
With such a vast number of gullible pawns and ignorant dupes, representing good in this world, we shouldn’t at all be surprised that the force of good is barely registering in human affairs today; this has been going on for so long, that most people now believe that it’s normal. On the contrary, what we’re witnessing today is essentially the triumph of evil over good here on earth; this is also how the devil came to rule this world and will continue to do so as long as the vast majority of humans keep strengthening the devil’s hand by their blind, unquestioning faith in the most influential and cherished, religious and secular, beliefs. This is true because in any era ruled by evil and ignorance, such as that we live in today, the most popular and influential beliefs, religious or secular, will always be those favored by the devil, which in Correctionism is just another name for the cunning of human evil and the obstinacy of human ignorance!
In Correctionism, we learn that living in mythology, whether religious or secular, is a poor substitute for living in reality. Lest we forget: real human life takes place in reality not in mythology, which is true only in our minds. Therefore, among the worst things we can do as humans is to believe we can’t be wrong; so we must at least come up for air or question even those things we “know” are true. This is the very essence of philosophy and also why it’s needed now more than at any other time in human history. The only way to increase the performance of good in this world is for enough people to make a difference to elevate their game, both individually and collectively, through the questioning of their beliefs, regardless of the source, rather than blindly adhering to them.