PatrickG
11-12-2005, 05:27 PM
I've sold out or bought in or whatever you care to think of it.
The years since September of 2001 have forced me to do soul searching and deep thinking and I've come to a simple but unpopular conclusion:
The greatest error we can make is to seek redress; the greatest virtue we have comes in seeking congress.
Much as my inner idealist chafes at the thought, it is better to be in harmony with the world in some way. "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."
Before anyone mistakes this line of thinking for anything remotely Daoist, let me elaborate: I don't believe there is a Yin for every Yang. The world, from our perspective as humans, is a puzzle with missing pieces.
I once believed that it was possible to "right" wrongs. I no longer believe that is possible in reality.
It's not that I am content with the world being a miserable place -- far from it.
But I've come to believe that the truest form of Justice is not about combatting Injustice and that it's a misnomer to believe that Evil and Good are opposites that counteract eachother.
The world, as I see it, is incomplete. A puzzle with missing pieces. An imperfect system. And like any machine, there is friction that causes "energy" to be lost in any action.
In this sense, I am incredibly gnostic; I believe that no action is as pure as the thought which precipitates it.
But to the point: Justice cannot be acheived by fighting Injustice. The world is not a zero sum iset of interactions but a complex four dimensional grid where things like wealth, prosperity and virtue cannot be shifted without creating a vaccuum.
When we avenge wrong, we create a vaccuum which demands to be filled. And then, once we have reclaimed something of equivilent value to what we have lost (but never the actual thing or status we have lost) then we invite the "losing side" to seek redress against us.
And so the cycle of revenge continues until nothing is left of value.
Virtue, prosperity, wealth, hope, happiness... These things can be created or destroyed and they are either diminished or multiplied in every transfer.
Therefore, true Justice is not about seeking balance, leveling the scales, getting even or seeking recompensation. These things all lead to diminishing returns.
Justice is about creating wealth, happiness, hope and virtue in such a way that in a transaction between two parties, both sides receive more benefit than they expend.
Love can never be fifty-fifty. It must be 100-100.
And a business transaction, when engineered wisely, is never about making a profit at the expense of another; a wise transaction is one in which the merchant receive more value for the good(s)/service(s) than they expended making it and the consumer receives more value/satisfaction from the good than what they spent on it. Wealth is created.
And beyond material wealth, I believe this to be the way with all things.
When we are wronged, striking back is tempting but unrewarding and ineffective. Rather, it behooves us to set aside notions of fighting Injustice (a loser's game) and turn toward hopes of creating Justice by concocting mutually beneficial scenarios. Only in doing this can we create an abundance of Justice to counter the Injustice of the world.
Thus, it behooves us as humans to overcome our nature and reject the urge to retalliatory action in favor of creative action. We must always initiate in a vaccuum of hope and never retalliate against the evils of the world.
An eye for an eye will leave the world blind. But if we find ourselves short an eye, we should be like Odin and find omniscient sight in the face of blindness.
We must love those who hate us. We must offer no ill towards those who wrong us. We must preserve those who would kill us.
And above all: We must never take human life, no matter how reprehensible the actions of an individual may be. We must all value the worst above ourselves.
Am I there yet? No. But this is the direction I believe we should strive towards.
Every word can connect or divide people and I believe it is better, always, to connect -- even when we find ourselves in horrific times or relationships that must end.
And this is my dream, my hope, my prayer... That the world will see that fighting Injustice and combatting Evil does nothing for the sake of what is Good and Just. But rather than being Evil's opposite, counteracting force, Good is actually a much stronger force that comes not from combatting Evil but by doing Good.
And that, however far from where I am, is what I believe and aspire towards.
The years since September of 2001 have forced me to do soul searching and deep thinking and I've come to a simple but unpopular conclusion:
The greatest error we can make is to seek redress; the greatest virtue we have comes in seeking congress.
Much as my inner idealist chafes at the thought, it is better to be in harmony with the world in some way. "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."
Before anyone mistakes this line of thinking for anything remotely Daoist, let me elaborate: I don't believe there is a Yin for every Yang. The world, from our perspective as humans, is a puzzle with missing pieces.
I once believed that it was possible to "right" wrongs. I no longer believe that is possible in reality.
It's not that I am content with the world being a miserable place -- far from it.
But I've come to believe that the truest form of Justice is not about combatting Injustice and that it's a misnomer to believe that Evil and Good are opposites that counteract eachother.
The world, as I see it, is incomplete. A puzzle with missing pieces. An imperfect system. And like any machine, there is friction that causes "energy" to be lost in any action.
In this sense, I am incredibly gnostic; I believe that no action is as pure as the thought which precipitates it.
But to the point: Justice cannot be acheived by fighting Injustice. The world is not a zero sum iset of interactions but a complex four dimensional grid where things like wealth, prosperity and virtue cannot be shifted without creating a vaccuum.
When we avenge wrong, we create a vaccuum which demands to be filled. And then, once we have reclaimed something of equivilent value to what we have lost (but never the actual thing or status we have lost) then we invite the "losing side" to seek redress against us.
And so the cycle of revenge continues until nothing is left of value.
Virtue, prosperity, wealth, hope, happiness... These things can be created or destroyed and they are either diminished or multiplied in every transfer.
Therefore, true Justice is not about seeking balance, leveling the scales, getting even or seeking recompensation. These things all lead to diminishing returns.
Justice is about creating wealth, happiness, hope and virtue in such a way that in a transaction between two parties, both sides receive more benefit than they expend.
Love can never be fifty-fifty. It must be 100-100.
And a business transaction, when engineered wisely, is never about making a profit at the expense of another; a wise transaction is one in which the merchant receive more value for the good(s)/service(s) than they expended making it and the consumer receives more value/satisfaction from the good than what they spent on it. Wealth is created.
And beyond material wealth, I believe this to be the way with all things.
When we are wronged, striking back is tempting but unrewarding and ineffective. Rather, it behooves us to set aside notions of fighting Injustice (a loser's game) and turn toward hopes of creating Justice by concocting mutually beneficial scenarios. Only in doing this can we create an abundance of Justice to counter the Injustice of the world.
Thus, it behooves us as humans to overcome our nature and reject the urge to retalliatory action in favor of creative action. We must always initiate in a vaccuum of hope and never retalliate against the evils of the world.
An eye for an eye will leave the world blind. But if we find ourselves short an eye, we should be like Odin and find omniscient sight in the face of blindness.
We must love those who hate us. We must offer no ill towards those who wrong us. We must preserve those who would kill us.
And above all: We must never take human life, no matter how reprehensible the actions of an individual may be. We must all value the worst above ourselves.
Am I there yet? No. But this is the direction I believe we should strive towards.
Every word can connect or divide people and I believe it is better, always, to connect -- even when we find ourselves in horrific times or relationships that must end.
And this is my dream, my hope, my prayer... That the world will see that fighting Injustice and combatting Evil does nothing for the sake of what is Good and Just. But rather than being Evil's opposite, counteracting force, Good is actually a much stronger force that comes not from combatting Evil but by doing Good.
And that, however far from where I am, is what I believe and aspire towards.