Don't blame me I'm wired wrong! Agree with this concept or not, Tom Wolfe's essay "Hooking Up" presents a lot of food for thought. He presents the idea of how the id and ego creates a new God.
Wolfe discusses how educated people no longer need a God (as Nietzsche said) and how Nietzsche somewhat prophesied the history of the next two hundred years.
He predicted that the twentieth century would be a century of devastation and astronomical war, as people would no longer have a god to turn to, to rid them of their guilt. However they would still remain very guilty, as guilt is natural, and begin to hate themselves. With the absence of God in their lives, humans would inevitably form barbaric brotherhoods to give a sense of direction and purpose. Clearly there are very blatant parallels between groups, which appeared across Europe during the early 20th Century; most obviously Nazism, which was somewhat of a national barbaric brotherhood.
There is an agreement with neuro-scientists of the 20th Century, both believing that guilt is predetermined at birth, and that those who don't feel guilt are wired genetically incorrectly and cause crime. This is an interesting concept but I strongly disagree as although some humans may very well be born with different perceptions of both right and wrong, inevitably it is an individual's surroundings and outside influence which is the most prominent factor when determining whether a person feels guilt or not.
The essay states that mankind will come out of the end of the 20th Century barely upholding religious moral ethos, but the 21st Century would experience revaluation of moral beliefs and consequently fail due the fact that morals need a God to uphold them. Again there are parallels with Nazi Germany, as although Hitler was at the forefront of barbaric brotherhood. He was trying to establish himself as god-like, and many German’s reveled in this. Were the Germans looking for a new God? Is this a continual circle? Brain imaging?
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