O East is East and West is west, and the Twain must ever meet
How democratic are numbers?
I left off my first diary submission titled Potlatch, promising to demonstrate the role of numbers in Creation, however before imposing another heavy philosophical and religious salvo, it behooves me to offer some congratulatory remarks on this Site itself, Daily Kos, in order to convey gratitude to the Host (is there one?), and to acknowledge the superior quality of mind of those with whom I feel privileged to share this space and engage in civil discourse. As a Haida and Kitksan, and no less an American than the majority of you, being born and educated as a Canadian, I believe I am able to offer some distinct insights into the problems we all face, one being the nature and affect of alienation.
Coming through the Home Page my eye was caught by a sentence saying, 'Daily Kos is devoted to electing Democrats.' Reading that assertion gave me pause, and gained me some understanding of a few of the comments which my Potlatch essay received, and as I mused on that expectation that I would help elect somebody, I saw that my promise to continue my discourse on numbers can be kept, without contradicting that writer's understanding and agenda, if I am able to meld my theme with her/his.
So Readers can take heart that my diary will be "For democrats" but from a fresh approach which, I assure one and all, help elect as many of you/us as there are offices to occupy. In keeping with my sworn mission to 'tell all about Christ' and my conviction that Potlatch is the future form of Administration for the Planet, my contribution to the Party will begin by reviewing the mindset of the Founding Fathers and Mothers, while I continue persuading readers to entertain the concept of Potlatch because certain principles of your political institutions derived from Eastern forms of this indigenous way of association and assembly, and reviewing those concepts will restore any traits which have slipped away or been dullled by prosperity, and I will finish by proposing just one or two changes. The changes I have in mind are already in play but until words are put on them, they will not become as powerful as they must, in order to arrest the decline in the world and guide all of us in the necessary direction.
Remembering Kipling's poem about the Far East colliding with the European Empires focuses the problem facing the World, but my first concern is not just to use different terms to describe the same paradox, its to extend discussion of the problem all the way to the solution. We all think we know the poem, but who recalls the second stanza, which shows Rudyard's answer to the fact that there are deep differences separating Humankind, and I quote:
O East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet'
'til Earth and Sky stand face to face, at god's great judgement seat.
For there is neither East nor West, nor blood nor breed nor birth,
when two strong souls come face to face, tho' they come from the ends
of the Earth.
Are Humans irrevocably at odds like Hydrogen and Helium are, and destined to burn out in a dimming conflagration like the Sun will, or are we like Hydrogen and Oxygen, the very essence of live existence, truly destined to bring more and more wondrous things from our garden? The simple truth is we are what we choose to be and will experience one or the other of the two aforementioned fates according to the consensus of our choices. Democracy is represented as allowing such choices but only subject to the law, which we rely on to keep the child in us from harming ourself or the Planet. When faced with the enormous duty of mounting a revolution against the mighty Empire of England, a choice equivalent to any modern tiny country, or even a province, starting war not merely with your United States, to draw a reasonable comparison, but it would have to be against the whole industrial western complex with its affiliated states, against a few like those who led your Revolution. That is the magnitude of the courage of the first George W., so I beg you people to keep your heads and your hearts way up high in your speculation and approach to these matters of government. Resist the tendency to expend your limited resources and time, engaging in disrespectful and disengenuous debate. Heal your minds of the habit negativity is, because malice breeds malice, and like any addiction, disrespect will turn into the norm where we seek our fix everytime we meet or hear of another person or idea.
To qualify as Homo Sapiens means using our sapient power to ponder all the available alternatives before selecting the perfect action which will move the whole world forward, as Washingtom and Franklin and their cohorts did, and as President Obama is attempting to do.
No sapient energy is needed to vex or be vexed by one's neighbours; any unguided child will test that strategy and all of us will adopt it if our parents and leaders are seen to promote it as the strong option. the difficult thing to learn is to love others as much as we love ourself.
The challenge before us is more of a challenge than they faced in 1766, this time Nature herself must be met in kind of revolutionary engagement, and so the first change open to every human on Earth, the change that is facing you in the United States, more than any other nation, as the most materially and scholastically blessed of Christ's followers, is to change your feelings and your attitude toward your fellow humans. This is an internal revolution that must be waged more fiercely than any war, and it must be won no less urgently. The real problems will remain until the world is united when they can be confronted with good hearts and clearer minds.
There is a Democratic Party and a Republican one, but I dispute that the differences warrant venom, and can't imagine how anyone would justify the hate on similarities. Athletes compete and may erupt in anger but I know of none who devote practice or game time to imagining how to insult an opponent; business competition too, should be conducted gracefully, and any deterioration now emerging can be traced to what Kipling rhymed would curse us until those two strong souls face off.
Don't expect me, at this point, to wander into apocalyptic prophecy or 'harmageddon' scenarios of who these 2 are, because they are us, you and I, and they are any two individuals prepared to snatch their ego masks off and face being Human Beings, like those in all revolutions who abandon the normal and the safe to confront the dragon of war.
To close this let me leave you with a simple set of questions: What would today be like for people worldwide had the latter George W. invited Osama bin Laden to stand face to face to discuss the beginning, rather than the the end, of the world? Who would have been the greater Man?
A final twain of questions are addressed to President #43: do you GW, think you would be known by the world as the equal of Nelson Mandela, and have a Nobel Prize on your mantleplace, as the real winner of that election, Mr. Al Gore does, had you manned up and invited to come Potlatch with you, your mortal foe, who you did not flush out and run down?
What does Kos think?