( 4 votes, average: 4 / 5 )
Loading ...In our increasingly polarised society, we find solace in identifying with extremes. We identify with Conservatives or Liberals, Evangelists or Atheists, the Left or the Right, Aggressors or Pacifists, Traditionalists or Progressives. We brand ourselves with Hip-Hop or Rock and Roll, Geekdom or Emo-ness. It gives us identity and purpose. It gives us someone to be like, someone to blame. It gives us salvation.
Then along comes a new campaign, a new war, an Enlightenment, A Reneissance, a famine, a flood, a new ad - the pendulum swings and masses of us change our mind, and identify with something new. Perhaps something on the other side. But do we sometimes throw out the baby with the bathwater? Do we replace communism with a rampant capitalism of excess that still leaves us with extremes of wealth and poverty and for some, death by excess? Do we oppose the fire of religious fundamentalism with an equally fanatic form of atheism, blessed with a highly presumptuous, patronising and unwarranted faith in its own abilities? Do we fight gender inequality and female suppression with a hyper-sexed and sex-obsessed society which treats women in just as severe a way, as objects?
We can all argue our bit. We can say that those women are excercising their liberal choices and being empowered by presenting themselves in that way. We can say that all of a sudden our knowledge of science is so perfect that we don’t need religion, and that religion is for the weak, because we are too weak to delve into the deeper mysteries of both. We can put our trust in the free market to deliver us from all evil for all time.
But we can also stop and wonder: Is the balance not in the middle of all these things? Is there not some truth in each side, however distorted, beneath a surface of inconsistencies and vagueries? Are we not overdue for approaching things with a world-embracing vision, one of foresight and detachment from pre-conceived notions tempered by open-mindedness and wisdom? One that can listen as well as preach? One that though progressive, is guarded and moderate in the way that it swings? Yes, this is where we must expend our energies. Somewhere between the left and the right place.
There is a certain convenience in throwing rocks at falling buildings, but there is much greater purpose in the laborious process of building a new one, giving timely and patient attention to such verities as moderation, humility and deeper truth. Building is highly underrated, but this the age of the owner-builder.
Bookmark: 
yes I agree, in some way, when we talk about building we have to realise that all systems, from a single cell to a house has a structure, whether it is made up of points and lines forming poles ie. geometric or it is organic, free flowing ‘romantic’…there is always an organisation of form which has much to do with the function.We all know this, but what we may not see is that the design which we have to conform to now is like a pot.Its function is to withold the complexity in a very simple way, to create something good.
THE PROBLEM WITH OFFERING THE WORLD A POT AS A MODEL IN WHICH TO WORK > IS THAT so far it has not produced anything where any one group or where the ego can flourish, think about it, who can take credit for anything where there is a melting of ideas? it goes back to how man values himself,individually…if he can get over the polarity within himself, then he can accept a world in which all good belongs to everyone and no one and he/she will be okay deep down.Think of the most humble society and you may see an inverse relationship wrt they have contributed to the world, of course its huge generalisation but…anyone heard of the waterproof teabag and other Irish inventions ?