We can rant all we want about the insufferable and destructive attitude and policies of the Tea Party and its fellow travelers, but truth be told, virtually all politicians are sorely lacking.
A politician should be first and foremost a public servant ... there should be no greater interest than to serve the interests of his or her constituents and the greater public good. And where the greater public good conflicts with the interests of constituents, politicians should back the greater public good because the welfare of the nation should always take precedence over the narrow interests of a locality.
Why is it that there are no, or at best a handful, of politicians today, and for that matter in the past, who encompass this ideal? The short answer is that all politicians, and indeed all people, are driven primarily by their ego ... which is to say the sum of their learned experience that forms how they view themselves and the world around them. All people and all politicians are programmed by their upbringing and societal environment to look at things a certain way. They cannot really do otherwise.
And what is the primary lesson that our culture teaches? Is it that we must work for and if necessary sacrifice for the good of the community, or is it that we should insure first and foremost that #1, ourselves, is taken care of first. During much of our history there was a balance between these two messages. But over the past 30-40 years, it has become increasingly the latter. Everything else is secondary, at best.
When one combines the self-centeredness of politicians with their programmed view of the world, the result is often disaster for the nation they are supposed to be serving. In the past, while politicians and people have always been driven by ego, most people were exposed to a strong centrist tradition ... for example the news broadcasts of the three networks and most major newspapers ... and that formed the core of their political learned experience. Thus they were able to see it in their interest to come together, not on all issues but with sufficient frequency, to serve the public good.
But as the power of corporations has increased in politics and as the attitude of the people has become more extreme, especially on the right due to the emergence of right-wing cable news and right-wing radio talk shows, there remains virtually no issue on which the two Parties can come together in the nation’s interest. The result is the total dysfunction that we’ve been seeing in Congress. The result is a growing fissure in our society. The public good and the interests of those most vulnerable suffer.
Our political system is a mess. The electoral system is a mess. Our society is a mess. Is there any hope out of this morass? There is no hope so long as even well-meaning politicians and people seek to find answers within the system as it exists because within those constraints there can be no real change. There is no hope without being willing to examine the concepts that lie at the very core of our culture. For it is these concepts that make people what they are and make our system of government what it is.
What in the world am I talking about, you might ask. It means going back to basics. The core moral ethic behind all the world’s great religions is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Yet there are few people, even among those who profess themselves to be ultra-religious, who practice this core ethic.
Why is that? The bottom line reason is that most people are insecure, both individually and as groups. If you are insecure, you only think of yourself, not others. Yes, many people, groups, and nations may appear to have strong egos and are full of bluster and bravado, but deep within, people whether low or high are insecure. That’s why those on top are typically so imperious. It’s a mask.
And why are people so insecure, even those who have “made it” in our society and have so much? The answer is that most people were not brought up with unconditional love and compassion.
I know this sounds very new age, but don’t laugh. We are all cursed with the learned experience that we have to be someone other than we are, we have to be better than we are, in order to be loved and respected. We learn this in childhood from our parents and later from our peers and the broader culture that bombards us with messages that we need to be or do more.
If on the other hand, we were all brought up with the constancy of unconditional love and compassion ... and mind, this does not mean no criticism; it means that criticism is done with loving kindness; children need direction, but there’s a way to do it and a way not to do it ... then we would not be insecure as children and we would not grow up to be insecure adults.
This atmosphere of unconditional love and compassion would not be limited to the family, but would extend to all people in the community, in the country, indeed to all mankind because we would be taught that all of humanity is one. We are all children of the same God (if there is one), we all suffer in the same way, we all are programmed by our learned experiences to act the way we do. No one is innately bad or evil, but history has shown that it is surprisingly easy to teach people to be bad or evil. With that knowledge we can have compassion and love for all, even those who seek to harm us.
This new attitude does not mean that we would not defend ourselves, as a nation or individually. But with this new attitude we would have a chance to break the cycle of hate with love. To show those who are insecure that they have nothing to fear from us; that there is no need to be aggressive. And with time, this new force of love would gain in strength, encompassing ever more people and nations. Slowly but surely the aggressive traits that we have assumed are part of the human condition would be replaced by a more spiritual perspective based on unconditional love and compassion for ourselves and for all others.
Martin Luther King said, "Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love." To that I say, "Amen."
First let’s start with some basic facts. For millennia now, three of the world’s major religions have believed in one God. Whether one is Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, when one speaks or prays to God, one is praying to the same being. Indeed, the ancient history of these religions are to be found in the same story. Where they separate is in their belief of who the true prophet of God was and then they further separate based on the institution that best represents the faith or the sub-prophet that is more worthy of adoration.
Religions, from the earliest times to the present, exist to make the universe, nature and man sensible to man, setting up an orderly relationship between nature and man, and between man and man. As such, religion has been central to the core identity of its adherents, be they individuals or nations. While in the modern world, the ties of religion have been markedly reduced for many people as they have found other ways of explaining the universe and man, it continues to be a primal force for probably the vast majority of mankind.
It is this primal identity with religion coupled with the belief of most religions and sub-sects that they are the true and only source of communication with God ... the exclusiveness of religion ... that has made religion, either on its own or as a tool of nationalist leaders, the cause of much conflict, persecution, and death over the centuries. Indeed, it is safe to say that religion has either been the cause of or lent itself to the cause of more human misery over the ages than any other force. How ironic and how sad.
And we’re not only talking about conflict between Christians and Jews or Jews and Muslims. As we know all too well, there has been deadly conflict between Protestants and Catholics (most recently in Northern Ireland), and between Shia and Sunni (still ongoing). And while the conflict between ultra-orthodox Jews and all other Jews has usually not been deadly, the conflict is intense.
All of these religions have an institutional authority, some more formal and absolute like the Catholic church. Conflict has continued over the centuries because the people in leadership positions have seen it to be in their religion’s or sub-sect's best interest to foment discord and conflict with the members of other religions or sub-sects.
Now of course, such individuals always speak in the language of faith ... that God has ordained whatever the object is. But really it is man who has ordained these conflicts and positions just as it was man who created each of the religions or sub-sects in the first place, whether it was the result of a received vision or otherwise.
If someone truly believes in God ... and remember here that we are in all cases referring to the same God ... can he or she honestly believe that God would wish such misery on the members of another religions? If man is made in the image of God, then even those who don’t believe in Yahweh, let alone those who believe in a different prophet, are still his children. Do Christians believe that Jesus would do what they have advocated over the centuries? True, the God of the Old Testament was often wrathful and jealous, but for most people, Jews included, that God of the ancient Hebrews has been replaced by a loving God.
My point is that all it would take ... and I know this is an over-simplification, but its impact would be enormous ... would be for the leaders of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and their sub-sects to come together and say, in the presence of the leaders of Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism,
“Enough is enough. We all believe in the same God. We are all children of the same God. We may have our own prophets, our own rituals, our own institutions, but there is no question that it is against the will of God to continue to fight with one another. We choose to reject the conflicts and forgive the misery that has been inflicted over the centuries. What is past is past. And beyond our religions, today we join with leaders of the eastern faiths ... Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism ... and say with them that from this day forth, we declare an era of peace and respect between us and all other religions.
We therefore say to our followers: may you love your fellow man regardless of their religion, or indeed regardless whether they believe in God. May you always follow the Golden Rule and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
And so the world would come to a point where all religious conflict, or religious-abetted conflict, would be a thing of the past. No longer could a nation claim that God was on its side and not the other’s. The waging of war would be made much more difficult for political leaders if the world’s religions took the position I advocate in a steadfast and very visible way.
