Hit a wall with studying for the "Bar". May not "pass on the first try", making this a "practice test", but planning on getting back to work shortly anyway. The process reaffirms that "the Law" as promulgated by governments and taught in "Law Schools" isn't exactly what I was meant to study, but very educational nevertheless. But one could never be "educated" by only studying this type of law in a vacuum.
OK, enough sarcasm. I'm tired and frustrated, although a little better rested for having acknowledged this state of affairs and taken a break.
The rest of this blog is just a notebook entry, a seed to be germinated later.
Human relations are, of course, a global pattern, part of the universal pattern. Nevertheless, over the aeons, many human cultures have managed to stay relatively separate. Travel, communications, wars and diplomacy all contributed to breaking down the separateness; to some degree such factors have homogenized us, to another extent they have pitted us against each other. Previous entries on the interactions of human patterns are relevant here. More recently, somebody or other (perhaps someone in particular, perhaps it was more of a gradual dawning) recognized this phenomenon, and decided to push it forward, leading to the term "globalization" to denote an actual program upon which it is suggested that humans should actually be embarking. Even in the most idealistic sense, there is a lot of hubris to this, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is not correct at some level, i.e. all humans could probably stand to be somewhat idealistic towards each other, help each other out, cooperate in attaining mutual goals. However, what's actually happening, not surprisingly to anyone who's paying attention to everything else that's happening, is that the process has become another vehicle, perhaps the ultimate vehicle, for looting the existences of those with less power.
Shifting things to another level, I should perhaps have said "those with less power than they are aware of or in control of". Again, I point to the examples of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. However, the world doesn't need one more Gandhi or MLK. The world needs several billion of them. It is too easy for a violent cult, say some branch of the U.S. government, to scatter a cult of personality; just kill the leader, and the movement will never be the same, at least not for decades. Gandhi and MLK took too much upon themselves; the work they wanted to see done was too pressing on them to delegate too much, or to take the time to wait for their teachings to become fully formed and promulgated. The cult of personality was, unfortunately, a convenient tool, a shortcut that seemed necessary. They accomplished much, but then their work was largely cut short, because they were too important to the pattern of each of their respective movements. But these men did study deeply, and their ideas and examples are perhaps the best starting point that we have to explore the power of love to actually move mountains.
So, one level of the ongoing work of nonviolence is to initiate, for starters, a million people with the depth of understanding of Gandhi, plus a little bit. While we may be fond of the Matrix movies, we need to stop searching for "the One", and each become that person. A beginning is to realize that the power of love is ultimately the strongest, and that we all possess it. The power of violence has long dazzled our eyes, but it is a weaker, clumsy, and unfocussed power that has always done much more damage than it has good. Part of that damage is that whenever it does do any good, it dazzles our eyes even more, making it that much greater of a temptation to go our and do more damage, in the service of some smaller good. Those who followed Gandhi's example did more than anyone else to free their nations from colonialism, and those who followed MLK's example did more than anyone else change civil rights laws in the United States while leaving a lasting vision of how to gain equality, a fair balance of power, in a loving manner. Those are the visions that should dazzle our eyes. However, we should not simply act upon the impulse imparted by hypnotism. We should shake it off, consider what we have seen and what is to be learned, discuss it, teach others, deepen our understanding... The appropriate actions will follow. Yes, there is a hurry, but there is also great danger in too much haste, in not understanding what it is that we are doing.
To let a little air out of this balloon, allow me to quote a song I once wrote:
"Yeah baby, I believe in the 60's." Get down!
Back to "the law".
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