Excerpt #26 from my book, Interconnected, Interrelated & Interdependent, Like It or Not:
DEMOCRACY AND WISDOM — CONFUSION
Overall, we find the values expressed by the insightful to be more startling in their similarities than in their differences.
They all endeavor to help humanity come together to conquer the sources of its problems: fear, greed, power, control, immediate gratification, self-centeredness, authoritarianism, and denial of inequality.
We violate the collective essence of these teachings in our all too common exploitive interactions with others.
Very similarly, we have taken the freedom afforded us by democracy and have chosen to gravitate to hyper-partisan, self-indulgent extremes, all in our perceived self-interests.
The word “counterproductive” is insufficient to describe this madness and juvenile folly.
Having abandoned the essence of democracy, it is understandable that we are unable to resolve severe, complicated, and growing national and international problems in urgent need of solutions.
“The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom.
But in the last analysis our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.” Bernard Baruch
Democracy recognizes an all-embracing oneness comprised of diverse elements each unique, essential, and equal in their potential to contribute to the collective well-being.
It’s a very similar conclusion as that reached by the most insightful beings going back thousands of years.
These beings were particularly insightful as they did not have the information we have today that validates their conclusions.
There is a further awareness that the undeniable interrelatedness and interdependence of diverse elements is optimized to the degree each is allowed to freely contribute its distinctive qualities and abilities.
Should one of the elements of the diverse parts get out of control, other elements have the ability to hold them in check.
It’s a natural system of checks and balances.
As a result, an equilibrium is achieved that is mutually beneficial, totally constructive, and in harmony with the larger oneness.
Equilibrium leads to stability which results in the sustainability that humanity seeks.
All of that, in turn, advances a civilization and allows it, not only to continue to exist but, to thrive and flourish.
Twenty-five hundred years ago on his deathbed, Socrates remarked, “I am not an Athenian or a Greek but a citizen of the world.”
Perhaps the day is nearing when, having realized that our individuality need not be sacrificed on the altar of cooperation, we will share a similar perspective.
Huston Smith said it well:
“…the World Citizen will be an authentic child of his parent culture but related closely to all.
“He will not identify his whole being with any one land however dear.
“Where he prides himself on his culture or nationality, as he well may, his will be an affirming pride born of gratitude for the values he has gained, not a defensive pride whose only device for achieving the sense of superiority it pathetically needs is by grinding down others through invidious comparison.
“His roots in his family, his community, his civilization will be deep, but in that very depth he, will strike the water table of man’s common humanity and thus nourished will reach out in more active curiosity, more open vision, to discover and understand what others have seen . . .
“Instead of crude and boastful contrasts there will be borrowings and exchange, mutual help, cross-fertilization that leads sometimes to good strong hybrids but for the most part simply enriches the species in question and continues its vigor.”
Those who continue to debate these clear messages miss the point.
True democracy and harmonious co-existence are found in the sensible alignment of the parts, not in distorted extremes or in self-aggrandizing and disgusting showboating.
This is our human frailty, this self-centered bickering.
Its catalyst is ignorance and related self-indulgence, and its merits nil.
Throughout history it has categorically blocked our path to our higher potential.
Our greater route has been laid out for us.
We need only to follow the map that has been provided.