Ernest Hemingway once said. "The world breaks everyone. And in the end, some are strong in all the broken places. I don't believe that humanity has been put into an impossible situation. In fact, I believe we already have all the tools and potential we need to succeed--that is, to overcome our shortcomings and adversities. Life itself, it seems, is a test created by our "Source". If it were easy, what would be the point? It gives me hope to think that, in spite of my failures and weaknesses, I can make a difference in the world, however small. And this hope, like having a purpose in life, is medicinal! It has been proven in meticulously controlled scientific experiments where hope is found to be both biologically and psychologically vital to man.
When suffering hits us, personally, the common cry is, "Why me?" But personal pain has been with us since the beginning of life. Today, more than ever, we need to find the strength to live life to its fullest, in spite of the pain around us. While individual suffering has no respite and the collective suffering in the world continues, some have found a way to accept suffering as a natural way of life. Although we cannot avoid it, we can determine our response to it. In my mind, it's not a battle between some mysterious outside force of darkness and evil vs. the force of good--but about all of us meeting the challenge of being human. We must learn self-acceptance and the power to forgive. Maybe then, we will achieve the wholeness you speak about. Maybe this is the road to peace!
Andy Schmookler:
This is a lovely statement of your personal faith, and the insights you have gained from your life experience. And my response to that is to just let it stand and speak for itself.
The only thing I feel a need to respond to is where you say: "In my mind, it's not a battle between some mysterious outside force of darkness and evil vs. the force of good--but about all of us meeting the challenge of being human."
The truths about our human situation are many and deep. There is room for both of those things -- the battle between forces of good and evil as well as the challenge of being human -- to be true.
In this Series, I believe I will demonstrate the reality of there being such contending forces at work in the human world -- one might also call them forces of wholeness and of brokenness -- and show also that understanding this battle of coherent forces operating in the world is essential to understanding our situation.
At the same time, even without such understanding, one can grapple meaningfully in one's own life and in the world with "the challenge of being human."
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Fred Andrle:
We certainly have a world order based in exploitation and military/economic dominance. A laboring class in developing countries provides those of us who reside within the prevailing powers with sweatshop goods produced at the risk of worker health and lives. The United States and other militarily powerful nations regularly protect and expand their interests through military action or the threat of use of force.
Andy, if, as you write, this power system proceeds not from an inherently destructive human nature, but rather as an inevitable consequence of humankind's creative dominance over the natural world, how can we work toward a path of correcting this unsought for, unintended evil? Other than a spectacular heightening of mass human consciousness in the direction of wisdom and compassion, it's difficult for me to see a remedy. Perhaps you can suggest a path to follow.
Andy Schmookler:
Let me respond by spelling out the steps that "the parable of the tribes" takes to get from "humankind's creative dominance over the natural world" to "the problem of power in social evolution."
Your formulation in your comment leaves room for the interpretation --whether it is yours or not, I can't tell -- that our relationship with nature remains the root cause of the destructive role of power in shaping our civilization. That's an important dimension of the brokenness of our civilized systems, but that is not at all the picture of our present world that I would draw.
The "dominance over the natural world" issue, rather, pertains solely to that crucial point in the history of humankind -- indeed in the history of life on earth -- when our species extricated itself from the niche in which we had evolved.
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