Friday, September 17, 2010
Making Sense of Political Nonsense
We live in a world where well-meaning people do tons of harm. In politics, it’s rampant.
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For example, is our democratic process for sale? In the 2006 midterm election, Democratic-leaning interest groups outspent Republican-leaning ones in federal races nearly 2 to 1. So far in the upcoming midterm, Republican-leaning interest groups have outspent Democratic-leaning ones about 10 to 1 in the Senate races and 2 to 1 in the House. What happens to the voices of the people with little money?

Is playing on our fears the only get-out-the-vote strategy that our political parties know? The Republican’s “Southern Strategy” that used racism to help bring the southern states into the Republican fold is running on steroids with an African American in the White House. Meanwhile, the Democrats are scurrying to find effective attacks on Republicans to scare their constituency into turning out at the polls in November. All to defend democracy.

Making sense of such nonsense is a worthy endeavor, but it takes a little effort. Thinking about justice is a good place to begin.

There are two distinct models of justice, a punitive model that seeks retribution and revenge, and a unitive model that seeks healing and reconciliation. (Strangely, we call both of these “justice,” making sensible communication about either of them difficult.) As soon as I was introduced to the idea of two models of justice, many things that had seemed complex and confusing began to unravel.

Beneath the two models of justice, there is an underlying order that is much deeper and all-encompassing. Our punitive model of justice is a reflection of the disorganizing process of duality, while the unitive model is a reflection of all-encompassing Oneness. When these two distinctions are made, we discover that there is an order and organization to everything. Even politics.

What do I mean by duality and Oneness? Duality is a state of mind dominated by fear and the belief in separation. Inequality rules. Top-down hierarchies, social strata, exclusive enclaves; it is us versus them at every turn. Judgment is pervasive, although those who cast the stones are often no better, sometimes worse, than those at whom the stones are thrown.

The fear upon which duality depends manifests as vengeance, hate, greed, jealousy, anger, arrogance, judgment, guilt, shame, and the like, feelings that denote separation. When we feel fear, we shut down in survival mode and build institutions to protect us against our enemies. Growth and regeneration become impossible.

The moral code of an eye for an eye and its sanctioning of proportional revenge provide moral legitimacy for the discord and violence that marks the realm of duality.

In contrast, the organizing principle of Oneness encompasses the whole, even duality. Think of a large circle representing Oneness with a tiny dot somewhere on it representing duality. Being in the mindset of duality is being unable to recognize Oneness, but the separation is an illusion. Wake up from your dream of duality and Oneness is immediately accessible.

Oneness is a state of mind dominated by love which can be expressed as gratitude, generosity, compassion, hope, trust, inspiration, harmony, joy, forgiveness. These feelings reflect our connectedness.

The moral imperative to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, what some call the Golden Rule, is a moral standard that is consistent with Oneness. Others are seen as being of inherently equal value, and therefore deserving of the equal treatment this standard requires.

Oneness and duality are like two separate containers. The container of Oneness can hold certain human experiences, such as trust, transparency, generosity, reconciliation, forgiveness, healing, restoration, faith, hope, compassion, security, and peace. The container of duality holds different experiences—suspicion, secrecy, divisiveness, judgment, attack, revenge, retribution, greed, jealousy, insecurity, and war.

Pro-social norms reflect the principle of Oneness; anti-social norms reflect the process of duality. One leads us to harmony and healing, the other to discord and disease. Any aspect of life can be constrained within the small container of duality, or it can be transformed to reflect the all-inclusive container of Oneness.

Let’s use this information to unravel our political mess. To begin with, many of us live in the mindset of duality much of the time, and politicians are no exception. Our competing two party system embodies the us-versus-them paradigm of duality. Winning is seen as making the other party lose.

One side is fearful of the other, often to the point of seeing the other as evil, even when both are doing the same thing. Because they see themselves as good and the opposing party as bad, they feel morally justified in doing things that are harmful to the whole in order for their side to win. This includes buying influence and hateful attacks, two drops in the ocean of dirty politics.

Dirty politics is not seen as bad because of the dualistic belief that doing whatever is necessary to win the next election is good. Even immoral acts, and sometimes illegal ones, are condoned because they are seen as necessary, and therefore reasonable, to defeat the opponent. This permits people on both sides of the debate to see destructive conduct as a moral imperative.

Members of both parties get sucked into this downward spiral. In order to justify their destructive conduct, each side must make their opponents seem as scary as possible. This also plays on the fears of the voters and gets them to the polls, so it is deemed smart. Thus attack ad after attack ad.

And so it goes, one election after another. So long as we are trapped in the mindset of duality, the next election will be no different.