A similar idea is employed in method acting, where one must actively acknowledge that the people around you are obliged to wear masks in order to function in society, which they have forgotten they are wearing, but which you as an actor can learn to wear. However, it is more than just putting on a different face, as one adopts the posture and physiology of the person one is looking to become. In Castaneda's work it is used as a technique for freeing ourselves from the ravages of society's craziness. Don Juan teaches Castaneda that changing our self-perception can alter our place in the world, but to do so we must learn all the quirks of our own disguise, and how to adopt a new persona at will. To this end the warrior's path requires that we be ruthless, cunning, patient and sweet - with ourselves - and that each quality is tempered by its opposite compass point as follows.
Ruthlessness should not be harshness,
Cunning should not be cruelty,
Patience should not be negligence, and
Sweetness should not be foolishness.
 ©1987 Carlos Castaneda
In this instance, patience tempers ruthlessness, and sweetness tempers cunning, in some measure. This is similar to the lesson from classical Greece, where complementary qualities are tempered by each other - or we emphasize the ills instead of the virtues. Unfortunately, that is the situation here in America, where the ideological split between the Democrats and the Republicans has brought out all the negative qualities cited above.
The current-day political parties in the USA caricature the ideals held by those same parties in my childhood. So it is not surprising that some people who had a strong party affiliation have left their party or taken an independent stance, in recent days. But the biblical reference invoked by Abraham Lincoln applies all too well today: "a house divided against itself cannot stand." So the opposites must be united in us. Courage is neither foolhardiness nor timidity, but it is informed by knowing what it means to be foolhardy and timid. If we truly understand courage, it is because we have been too timid to fight on some occasions and too eager to jump into the fray or engage an argument on others. If a nation can have virtue, it is possible only by bridging the gap between the opposing philosophies to build the pediment of virtue. But we must realize the profound importance of seeing through society's illusions, however compelling they might be, and of learning how to assume or create a better identity for ourselves. Specifically, to be in control of our own lives, we need to see some of the choices before us as unreal or half-true answers which we must learn to balance with tempering qualities. But American politics is divided in a way that leaves those tempering qualities out of the picture and ignores the middle ground, in favor of extreme positions taken to guard against the ills of the opposition. So we have the Republicans guarding against the perceived negligence and foolishness of the Democrats, and the Democrats guarding against harshness and cruelty by the Republicans, where nobody dares to take a balanced view - which is what we need to solve today's problems.
We may teach that patience is a virtue, but it is virtuous only if being patient means waiting until the proper time to act, and then taking action. One can board a train only after it has arrived, so one needs to be patient until then, but it will leave without you if you are not on the platform ready to step forward when the doors open. So patience alone won't get you where you want to go. In recent years the value of ruthlessness as a virtue has been highlighted in business, as useful to cultivate for career advancement. But this carries with it some heavy baggage unless tempered to avoid harshness. Of course, we all need to learn how to be decisive and assertive, in order to survive. Taking action will get things done, while being passive will not. But that doesn't mean we need to cut the opposition down, to rise above them. That notion is heard often today but it is dangerous. When one political party extols ruthlessness and cunning without realizing it is harsh and cruel, while the other party extols patience and sweetness without realizing they are being negligent and foolish, it creates an unsound ideological basis for both parties. But more frighteningly it dilutes the power of either party to do good. Our government does a poor job of serving the American people today, because the parties are too busy fighting each other.
What is needed instead is to understand that a sound ideological basis requires a more balanced view that values the ideas of the opposition, and acts as though their cooperation is important, when the ultimate goal is to get things done. If we fail to act in a manner that helps knit opposing views together, we are dooming ourselves and this country by putting false values above the need to make things work. Perhaps we were forced into a corner by efforts of others who would separate us. But we don't need to stay in our corner, if we want to stand up for what is real and true. While the pundits may feel that one party's view is valid while the other is flawed, they earn a living by playing to the preferences of one or the other. There are no political pundits who preach the need for unity and the commonwealth these days. But we need a whole class of such people, to have a hope of overturning the hegemony in today's political machines. The elites are still controlling the people by forcing us into corners of our own design, and hoping to keep us separated for fear we would find too much in common with our peers otherwise. However, the corners we find ourselves in are too real for us to forget those qualities that define us. Though we need to find common ground and apply a balanced philosophy, and while we know that there is profiling going on by others trying to put us into a corner, we can still celebrate our individuality and enjoy the diverse range of types and beliefs we see around us.
America's founding fathers strove to preserve balance while providing for the basic needs and the freedoms of the American people. But the modern era brought unique challenges, where if we are not careful those provisions and freedoms will soon disappear forever. This is because the split dividing political ideologies is like a wedge between qualities that make people virtuous, and this threatens to tear the hearts of America apart. At the same time, it makes America vulnerable to influence from all kinds of unfriendly forces, both abroad and at home. So we need to wake up, because it doesn't matter who did this to us or why. What does matter is living up to our name by finding our unity and becoming the United States of America again. Both political parties seem more intent on dividing up the nation and its people than they are in creating unity of offering a unifying vision.
If our great nation is being torn apart by leaders who are promising to restore its greatness, or who only want to undo their predecessor's work, then we the people need to rise above the divisive rhetoric and insist that our leaders behave like adults. Even if our leaders can't see past the need to keep up the 'good fight,' and be a 'loyal opposition' for those across the aisle, many people in America wish they could spend more time governing and less time arguing about what are rightly philosophical issues. When our leaders feel like cornered animals themselves, it is no wonder they often behave like adolescents. But if they can't see the benefits of doing the right thing as more important than keeping to the values of their party, we need to replace them with leaders who are more sensible and adult.
 ©2019 Jonathan J. Dickau - all rights reserved
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