On the thread "Another Arena of Ideologically-Driven Simplification: An Exchange about Understanding Israeli Motives," on my own website, I posted the following in response to a comment. The point it makes seems to me worth underscoring, so I'd like to share it here as well as part of an entry on its own.
Response to Philip, who closes with: "If I see one-sided cheerleading in the mainstream for the state of Israel , then perhaps my efforts, as just one member of a huge society, are better spent acting as a corrective than as a microcosm of perfect balance."
I respect your effort here to find truth and seek justice.
In response to that idea of yours I quote, a thought: while I understand the logic of that position, I do not think that is the route to truth or justice.
Think of all that's been said here about the dynamics of polarization. (And set aside for the moment the particular set of issues we've been discussing here.) Polarization is at the foundation of many of our problems, at least so I have argued, and the "balance" of two extreme views does not create any of the balance that the world really needs.
There is no "invisible hand" that takes the polarized "social atoms" of controversy and merges them into wisdom. Polarization just confirms division, and tends to drive people further apart.
Only wisdom brings wisdom. It cannot be the fruit of competing follies. Only truth brings truth. It is not the offspring of contrasting extremist distortions.
I believe that a truly fundamental part of the challenge we seek is to find the genuine truth, genuine balance, genuine justice– and to speak it and to embody it.
These things cannot exist outside of the minds and souls and hearts of individual human beings.
********** On the thread, "What's With that Stubborn One-Third of the American Public," also on my own website, I wrote as a comment in response to another comment:
Responding to Phil, who writes: "If Bush is as bad as we believe he is, then would it not follow that anyone who supports him must, by definition, have SOME sort of problem?"
Two things I'd like to say.
First, yes, I think they DO have some sort of a problem. And my best effort to articulate what that problem is can be found in my piece, "Here's the puzzle: How is it that many remarkably decent people can support leaders who are remarkable precisely for their lack of such decency?" which can be found at www.nonesoblind.org/blog/?p=43
Second, while yes, those people who support Bush do have a problem, it has been part of my overall thesis about this moral crisis in America that the whole cultural system in America has a problem, and that problems manifests in different ways on the different sides of our polarized cultural system.
Because the defects of the right are embedded in a hierarchical structure, when the right makes a mistake about good and evil it can be a catastrophic one: all it takes is an evil leader, skilled at exploiting the defects in the right-wing structure, and the system can lurch as a whole in a disastrous and destructive direction. THat is what has happened in this BUshite era.
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
I totally agree with your analysis of the moral deficit on the left (exhibited by a lack of "wisdom" consciousness, lack of moral compass, spiritual vacuum) and how this contributes to increasingly distorted polarization, moral crisis and social breakdown in America rather than healing and progress.
One hopeful sign is the grassroots network of "spiritual progressive" groups that are forming around the country and working to bring about a shift in consciousness on the left that would correct this deficit.
This problem has been beautifully summed up (along with a detailed 8-point spiritual progressive agenda for America) by Rabbi Michael Lerner in his book, "The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right". Please take time to read it. It gives reason for hope.
http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/books/left-hand
by
my2cents (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 30 comments)
on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 2:46:27 PM
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