Out of Balance

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” ~Buddha


Professor J,

And if they believe them to be true, they will defend them, argue about them, and ignore evidence to the contrary. Where does that leave the search for truth? That path is choked with weeds while the well worn trails are the ones to and from our previously held opinions and strongly held beliefs. For many those ideas don't even qualify as convictions since they have arrived at them without much thought. We all too often simply repeat what we've heard without doing any research or deep thinking of our own. After that we surround ourselves with those who think like us, thus cutting off the chance to have our views challenged or defend them. We also lose the chance to realize that everyone who occupies a different stance is not possessed by demons.

I know that's a revelation, for some.

It's as if given the choice between sight and blindness, we'd simply CHOOSE not to see. An easy way to walk over the side of a cliff.

We've lost our lightness, our ability to let fresh ideas permeate stagnant thinking. Even in embracing the past we embrace only a particular staid comfort but not lessons that might be found there related to our current challenges. Where along the way did we lose our soaring ideals? At what point (if the good historian would be so kind as to pin it down) did we retreat to our cobwebbed corners of delusion and anger and closed mindedness? Where did we lay our imagination and drive? I'm a firm believer of the rights of the individual and think we have far too much mindless conformity, but when was it that we let someone make cooperation and community into dirty words?

Here's a nice word: Balance.

We keep coming back to that, don't we?

We politicize perfectly reasonable ideas of community and cooperation. We politicize fresh air and clean water. A child's education is decided upon by political factions playing tug of war with everything from funding to banned books. In the center, though, where most of us live, we can see the nauseating selfishness and game playing on both sides. While Hedges brings up point after point that I can agree with in theory, isn't the problem with some things (like government provided health care for instance) that we cannot afford them? Of course we could afford lots of things that would be beneficial for all of us from healthcare to free higher education if we weren't spending so much on our misplaced priorities, which he outlines nicely.

Maybe we should start by having everyone reread the Constitution AND the Bible (though of course we can't mandate that). Is it just me, or do a lot of people seem to be confused about what they BOTH say? 

The soap box is all YOURS, Prof! ;)