Saturday, July 12, 2008

Things are Not as they Seem, Part II

Part II

At its very worst this perspective (mentioned in my last rant) will produce a Mao, tearing things down and then building them up (from a violent revolutionary base) only to tear them down again half a generation later, at the cost of millions of lives, from the ideological basis that things are not ‘pure’ enough according to the principle.

At its best this same perspective may be a variation on the Via Negativa, the paradoxical teachings of Jesus on becoming great by serving as the least, of gaining your own life by losing it. It would be an easy step to look into Eastern sources for the contradictory perspective as well, since the Tao that can be spoken or comprehended is not the Tao; paradox is a major tool of spiritual enlightenment and development in nearly all cultures (except the modern “scientific” West). But the central paradox as spoken and lived by Jesus, the Cross, is sufficient grounds on which to base a thorough study of this kind.

A couple of implications come to mind too: in literature, this idea could be an umbrella covering all kinds of sarcasm, irony, humor, as well as social tragedy (I’m thinking of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Those Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula LeGuin). In psychology it could relate to the practice of welcoming or including one’s shadow or dark side in the process of integrating the personality (as in St. Francis’ advice to “feed your wolf”). I can begin to imagine applications in art, and in music….I’m not so sure about where the “hard sciences” would go with this, though I have followed with at least some mild interest a bit of the ongoing discussion on “dark matter.”

Now, about the cynicism: classic irony is based on the disappointing realization that “Things are Not what they Seem” in human behavior; this is difficult for the “Once-Born” personalities (William James) to take, but it is an essential step in the process of growing up. After the realization hits—earlier for some, through childhood trauma; later for others, through broken loves or shattered personal “idols”; but by the end of adolescence for most of us—we then have a choice as to what we do with it. When I was 19 and I began to see plenty of evidence for what Jesus calls hypocrisy, all around me and inside me as well, I bolted: I left school, left home, left God and church and the career world—and I have never been the same since! Now, years later, I can see this perspective as a valid philosophical base for interpreting human behavior on a very wide scale; and I can ground this in the teachings of Jesus who said repeatedly, “You have heard that it has been said…but I say to you….” The Gospel has little or no effect (as is the case in religion as described in the previous post) if it is not allowed its natural course which is to challenge and destroy (or deconstruct) our social, cultural, and behavioral institutions and customs, and face us with our actual raw motives for what we do. The advice from the Cloud of Unknowing to focus on “a naked intent toward God” strikes me as the sanest and most satisfying response because it frees us from the accusation of hypocrisy and from the ignorance of our own inner motives that plagues us in our society, and leaves us in that primal place for which we were made, that of openness to the Spirit. In that place we find our freedom from religion, education, medicine, even websites—in the restoration of our original identity, both individually and corporately.

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