As some of you may know, I occasionally diary about the I-Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes. I ask the I-Ching a question relevant, imo, to this site, and report on the answer I receive after tossing the coins.
And as always, I have to be upfront and say I am not an expert on this ancient book of wisdom, so any egregious errors in interpretation are all mine.
The question I asked was kind of a long one -- I said that the Dems were not doing such a great job of leadership, the folks at Daily Kos were disillusioned, sad and angry. And I asked what could we do? If you're interested, the result is below the flip.
I have to admit I was kind of surprised by the answer I received. I got the hexagram of "T'ai/Peace" with two changing lines.
"Peace" is pretty much what you would think it was. A time of unobstructed work and union, the small (evil) depart, the great (good) approach, everything is hunky dory. Tra la la.
Well of course we know that isn't how we feel about the recent events of the day.
But then I realized that this hexagram was describing what had happened in November and afterwards, and I'll explain why by talking about the two changing lines and the next hexagram which was formed by those changes and which relates to what we can do now (also kind of surprising).
How did we win back the Congress in November? After all, we had so much going against us, including, we now have found, a concerted effort by the DOJ, among other institutions, towards suppressing the Democratic vote.
And of course it wasn't all due to the superhuman strength of the liberal blogs that this happened, but we sure did our part in this victory.
The second line of "Tai/Peace" speaks of this, of what happened during the two years that led to a Democratic majority:
Nine in the second place:
Bearing with the uncultured in gentleness,
Fording the river with resolution,
Not neglecting what is distant,
Not regarding one's companions;
Thus one may manage to walk in the middle.
In times of prosperity it is important above all to possess enough greatness of soul to bear with imperfect people. For in the hands of a great master no material is unproductive; he can find use for everything. But this generosity is by no means laxity or weakness. It is during times of prosperity especially that we must always be ready to risk even dangerous undertakings, such as the crossing of a river, if they are necessary. So too we must not neglect what is distant but must attend scrupulously to everything. Factionalism and the dominance of cliques are especially to be avoided. Even if people of like mind come forward together, they ought not to form a faction by holding together for mutual advantage; instead, each man should do his duty.
I worked on Election Diary Rescue during the several months before the election. I saw a level of discipline and cooperation I had never witnessed before. So many posters here were working their asses off for individual campaigns, completely focused on their efforts (what is near), yet always finding time to diary about it to let the larger community across the country know what was going on (what is far). And there wasn't time for factionalism or cliques in those diaries -- folks were just too damned busy.
Of course there was the usual meta and snark festivals and flame wars on other topics. But the election based diaries were almost completely uniform on their focused and intelligent and passionate recitation of what was happening on the ground. No one knew if we would win, no one even talked about it. What I read over and over again was an enormous level of personal and political commitment, come what may, the absolute resolution and determination to "cross the river" and let the chips fall where they may.
The next changing line showed the beginning of what happened after the 2006 election, after the elation had worn off and we all realized the Dems were doing such odd things as taking impeachment "off the table," and generally and gradually capitulating on the major issue of the Iraq War.
Nine in the third place means:
No plain not followed by a slope.
No going not followed by a return.
He who remains persevering in danger
Is without blame.
Do not complain about this truth.
Enjoy the good fortune you still possess.
Everything on earth is subject to change. Prosperity is followed by decline; this is the eternal law on earth. Evil can indeed be held in check but not permanently abolished. It always returns. This conviction might induce melancholy, but it should not; it ought only to keep us from falling into illusion when good fortune comes to us. If we continue mindful of the danger, we remain persevering and make no mistakes. As long as a man's inner nature remains stronger and richer than anything offered by external fortune, as long as he remains inwardly superior to fate, fortune will not desert him.
So yep, we were all so happy in November and we're all mad as hell in June. And yes, the stakes are so dreadfully high, it is impossible not to be affected day in and day out by how many folks are suffering due to this lack of leadership in our Democratic majority. It makes us all impatient.
But here's a rather bad analogy that I hope explains this line in the context of what we all are going through now. Let's say you're captured by some evil villain and locked up in a drear and dank dungeon. Now you know you have a group of very good friends who will risk their very lives to find and rescue you - and that they will never give up until the task is done. Would you want those friends to spend a month or so ranting and raving about how awful what happened to you was, stamping their feet and roaring, all that? Or would a couple of days be enough and then back to work? Either way, the task is clear.
So yes, we have to get the excess anger and frustration and pain out of our systems and thus we rant and roar in our diaries. But at some point we have to actually do something.
And what the I-Ching suggests is kind of odd, especially for a group of activist extroverts as most of us are here at Daily Kos.
For the hexagram of "Tai/Peace" then changes to the hexagram of "Fu/Return (The Turning Point)."
This hexagram speaks of a time when all seems lost, dark. And just at that moment, when the "light" has been banished from above, it returns below, for ultimately this light cannot be destroyed.
The I-Ching says:
After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns. There is movement, but it is not brought about by force ... the movement is natural, arising spontaneously. For this reason, the transformation of the old becomes easy. The old is discarded and the new is introduced. Both measures accord with the time; therefore no harm results. Societies of people sharing the same views are formed. But since these groups come together in full public knowledge and are in harmony with the time, all selfish separatist tendencies are excluded, and no mistake is made.
The I-Ching also speaks of this hexagram of "Return" as applied to our own character formation:
The light principle returns; thus the hexagram counsels turning away from the confusion of external things, turning back to one's inner light.
Think back if you will (she said in a "Twilight Zone" kinda voice) to before the time of the blogs, when you were alone in your horrified realization of what was going on in this country. Whether you realize it or not, there had to have been some point at which you reached this realization -- alone -- before you were able to speak of it with others and turn to the internet or community politics to express your outrage.
I think the I-Ching is telling us to do that yet again. Only one battle has been won, and now there is another facing us all. We need to turn back to our own inner voice, the voice that told us from the start that something was wrong in America and we needed to be better citizens to do something about that.
So yes, vent if you must -- we will all have our own time frame to observe when it comes to rage. But once the rage starts to appear repetitive, when we realize there must be something more than just rage, then I think we should turn to our inner voices, look into our own hearts, and begin again.
Markos did that when he started this site. So did a lot of other folks, both in the blogosphere and in political groups around this country. And I believe it's time to do this again. As individuals, we need to recommit to action, in whatever form draws us (and for some of us that may not be Daily Kos, it may be something entirely new, and that's fine with me). Not because of factionalism, not because of hatred, but because we are listening to ourselves.
So that's how I saw what the I-Ching was trying to say. All quotes were taken from the Wilhelm/Baynes translation.