I'll Pass On The Saccharine
Reading the interesting article on left and right hand paths from Seshat's Voice, I was reminded that none of us are purely one thing or the other. The article got me thinking in that quiet way that happens when you're physically occupied doing repetitive, mundane stuff and it leaves the back of one's brain to turn over more interesting things.
Added to Seshat's article, I was reading an interesting article by Bill Thompson about how our thinking is affected by interaction with the internet. I like Mr Thompson; he's a thoughtful man with a healthy cynicism and can take complex information and make it easily understood. The point he made about search engines can easily be mapped on to blogs and other internet communications:
"The current generation of 'search engines' seem to encourage a model of exploration that is disposed towards assimilative learning, finding sources, references and documents which can be slotted into existing frameworks, rather than providing material for deeper contemplation of the sort that could provoke accommodation and the extension, revision or even abandonment of views, opinions or even whole belief systems."
So, I asked myself just how much I was reading 'comfortable' sites, blogs and information that fitted my model and how much I looked at challenging material and accommodated rather than assimilated. It's very difficult to be objective, as one person's definition of 'challenging' might be 'interesting' to another person; what to set as the criteria...? I also asked myself whether it was just about assimilation or whether I was keeping a critical channel open in my head when reading 'comfortable' materials.
This resonated with The Green Witch article Define Blue, which looks at how so many people accept sloppy work and take things as 'given' without research and care for the presentation of accurate information. All this was milling around in my little cranium earlier today and I came to the following conclusions:
I certainly can't claim to be on a totally right hand path, I just don't think I am idealistic enough.
Any philosophy I embrace has to have a healthy link with the reality I live in; connection to my deity is all fine and well, but I have a physical life to sustain and I'm no aesthete.
The religion that I espouse has to take account of the nature of the humanity that it is designed to teach and support. We are fallible, weak creatures with needs and primal urges - now, I don't disagree with striving to become as close to perfection as it's possible to be, to achieve oneness with the divine and become the best one can be, but there does have to be a thread of realism woven into the ethos.
I recently found The Reclaiming Site and had a read through the principles they espouse. Now, there isn't one thing in that web page that I could find to actively disagree with, but somehow, well, it all left a saccharine taste in my mouth. I do wonder if any system can be all-embracing, without external authority and so even-handed? Surely, as imperfect beings, we strive towards these ideals, but the statement reads as if this has been attained; that, I suspect, is far from the case.
Could I become a 'reclaimer'? Certainly not. Apart from sighing inwardly at the discovery of yet another "tradition" within Paganism, I really do not believe we are all equal. Would I compare myself as an equal to Mahatma Ghandi, to Mother Theresa, to the Dalai Lama? You bet your bum I wouldn't. See, this just doesn't work for me and that's because I have enough left hand path happening that I can't loose myself in the cosy, amorphous mass of such a grouping. I have not set out to savage the Reclaiming Group, far from it; their principles are good but they do provide a stark contrast against the reality that I see all around me.
Perhaps this sort of thing is the prerogative of the comfortable, middle classes; people who have enough time to think and the security to be able to espouse equality and oneness - I can't say I have ever met an active Pagan who wasn't fairly well educated and at least reasonably well fed. Perhaps that's my fault for not finding the other types, or perhaps too much cynicism.
Bill Thompson does have an interesting point about how we interact with the net and Seshat is certainly right in her assessment that we have a foot on both paths. For my part, I'll aspire to be the best I can be, not only for my own personal advancement, but for the betterment of anyone I interact with, sadly though, I'll pass on the saccharine.
posted by The Shepton Witch @ 15:10
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8 Comments:
My PC decided to give me a 'blue screen dump' in the middle of my comment, so this will be an edited and abridged version!
I wanted to comment on your 'we're not all equal' comment. I would say that we are evidently not all the 'same'. There is such a rich diversity of people in this world, and we all have our own aspirations, gifts, abilities, views and backgrounds, so in no way can we be the same. This diversity is to celebrated and welcomed. So we may not all be the same, but we are all entitled to equality of opportunity, that is, each of us, as individuals, should be able to have equal access to life chances. This is clearly not the case in our and many countries, and it is this that makes me angry.
I can't go for all the 'love and light' stuff either, as I feel that I have more than my fair share of LHP, but that doesn't qualify me to remain quiet when I see basic human rights being ignored, in any manner, locally, nationally, or internationally.
So I feel we are all equal in the sense that we should have equality of opportunity, but I also think that 'difference' should be welcomed and celebrated, as diversity is enriching, rewarding and thrilling!
Isn't it a nightmare when you get the blue screen of death? Move to a Mac - it just never happens and I only have to re-boot once a month and then only because I feel I ought!
I think we're pretty much saying the same thing. Diversity is good, being different from one another is healthy and normal.
We don't all get equal access to life chances, that's for sure - you only have to meet kids from a deprived area to begin to understand that; they just don't have aspirations built into their worlds in the same way that kids from more comfortable backgrounds do, so there is huge inequality. That is one tiny example out of many that either of us could have selected. That is wrong and we should strive to change it for the better. The point I was trying to make was just that - we do have to try to make things better and level the playing field, and we also have to accept that there are huge differences between us, not only within different cultures, but within each culture - and sometimes adversity creates great and good people. We wouldn't have made anything like the progress, as a species, that we have achieved if we weren't all different from each other.
So, I don't think we are all equal, but ours is a semantic disagreement, not one of substance. My view of inherent inequality is that if you take present circumstances for any set of people, their opportunities and any other criteria and compare, some will have it better than others. I agree that people should have equality of opportunity, because why should I, for instance, have it easier than some poor woman in Darfur or a child who starts out life with the odds against them? I'm no better, just luckier by birth. I can't see that coming to fruition any time soon, which is saddening, but, I will do what I can for it, just without the saccharine! Each action I take and each interaction I have with the world should be for good, but I can't wear my mission statement on my sleeve.
Very interesting post - and link. Looking at the difference between the LHP and the RHP, I think I stand quite tentatively somewhere in the middle, now and again swaying to eaither side of the dividing line.
As for the second topic - I really think that knowledge gained from the internet is just a preliminary introduction to a topic. I have never come across a website which is more though provoking than a good book. Whenever I find something new and of real interest on the internet, I always read a good few books on the subject before feeling enpowered enough to make any real kind of decision on my own personal slant towards the subject. I rarely wholly trust what I read on the internet and view what I do read as just other people's viewpoints. I think what I am trying to say is that I think learning things on the internet is like over hearing a conversation on a topic that interests you rather than really studying the subject yourself. Hope that makes sense anyway - I'm feeling tired at the moment...
That makes perfect sense Chris, and I love the analogy to an overheard conversation. It is certainly true that my learned friends and visitors here do the study and research - I wonder if everyone does...?
I think we are saying the same thing, SW. I agree that people don't get the same life chances, and this is an injustice that makes me mad and makes me sad. People should all have an equal opportunity, and it distresses me that in 2008, in this very country, this still isn't the case - and worse than that, the inequality is even justified by some.
I agree that we need to do something, and that starts by us refusing to witness injustice in silence. I know you do this as I feel it when I read your posts.
Yes, we are all different, and if we treated each and everyone in the same way then we would discriminate because we would be turning a blind eye to precious individuality, That individuality demands respect.
Adversity can create great and good people, and it can also snuff out people who could have gone to be great and good. What is worse is when these things happen, not because of natural disaster, but because of situations propagated in wealthier countries that have the knock on effect of creating disaster. We can't sit in silence and let these things happen - and I know you don't.
Peace, one and all...
Thanks Shepton Witch for an interesting discussion. I have been enjoying the discussion over at the Star of Seshat's blog too.
I can relate to the impact of the internet. I have often thought about its impact - in teaching and other areas. I think it merely speeds up many processes already inherent in human nature. That is, it simply makes it easier to access material that supports a particular agenda. The tendency was always there, it is simply easier now perhaps.
Abdur Rahman
The left / right idea is valuable, particularly to emphasise that we have to be a bit of both.
And no, we can't all be created equal. Some of us have to try harder than others, and some DO try harder than others - and that increases the perceived difference even more.
We have the luxury of being able to decide our path; we're well fed and rested, as you said, SW. And Andy said the fact that we know not everyone has these chances makes him angry. It does me too.
Anger at injustices is right and proper, but, it needs to be turned into action otherwise we risk the saccharine, anodine statements that have all the impact of a wet sponge on a rainy day.
The way I see it, if we really do feel that 'something should be done' (good phrase that, and usually uttered by those not doing!) then taking time, and money in some cases, that we don't absolutely have to have for survival and doing something to remedy the wrongs has to be the way forward.
Whether it is working with kids, supporting the local community, helping an old person with a bit of shopping or a few chores, supporting people in third world countries who are trying to improve their lives (don't get me on a rant about kiva.org or you'll never hear the end of it, I like it so much) or any other one of a million ways to make someone else's life better.
Andy, I know you are doing work for a charity and that's smashing - let us lead by example. Let's listen hard to what goes on around us as there is much need close to home, and every tiny action we do for good will make a change in the greater scheme. If we all make one action for the good of another, that would add up to a lot of good being done. We may not stop wars and strife, but eventually, what we do will have an impact.
Anyone want the soapbox...?
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