Aline,

I suppose the real conflict is among the desires themselves and the head is mostly the referee. Though this dichotomy extends to society, as the liberal inclination is to push the cultural boundaries, due to the expansiveness of desires, while the conservative inclination is to re-enforce them. More judge, than referee.

I don’t know that I’d entirely separate the heart and ego, as both represent desire, though of different focus and intention.

A large part of the problem, as I see it, is the concept of God as an ideal of wisdom and judgement, when logically a spiritual absolute would be the essence of sentience, bubbling up through life, rather than an ideal from which it fell.

While conflating the ideal with the absolute might be emotionally gratifying, it is also egotistically empowering, since it presumes given ideals to be universal, rather than unique.

We are all this element of being, filling out the forms of our lives and when they overlap, we become increasingly entangled, such that we are extensions of one another, as a book or a tool might be an extension of our bodies and minds.

So the heart is when we desire that being part of something larger, while ego is when we want to be in control of that larger flow/entity.

Given that many people feel themselves lost in life, there is a tendency to gravitate toward those with large egos, as a focal point.

So a top down cultural paradigm serves to re-enforce this dynamic, rather than a more bottom up, organic social dynamic, that would naturally question authority and break down its more conniving constructs.

Not to say life isn’t constantly recycling such forms, but rather than understanding the old gives form and knowledge to the young, which then grow further, we have a society where the egocentric only really gives way to the more egocentric.

Spiraling down into the abyss, rather than reaching for the sun.