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EXODUS FROM DARK-AGE TYRANNY
Our elementary
education as aspiring humans has been subject so far to an
"authoritarian style" exemplified by the Old Testament. It is
acknowledged of course that youngsters need such categorical
lessons--notably from mythological "fairy tales"--as starters in this
school of hard knocks.
Ideological Republicans
remain habituated to the old authoritarian penchant for legislated
morals and enforced prohibitions to curb our inherent "evil." (Consider
the Constitutional definition of "marriage" currently proposed to
exclude those "sinful" gay folks.) This authoritarian habit complicates
the foundational GOP resolve to minimize institutional government.
Photo
Credit: U.S. Department of Defense
This essentially
Jeffersonian resolve reminds us that an alternative philosophy has been
developing, over the centuries, based classically on Natural Law. It
forces upon us students an incentive
to grow up and avoid the pitfalls of "evil" ways. The hard challenge to
our self-interest is to enjoy life (if we can).
The
basic "hook" of natural morality was stated long ago in Book 9 of
Plato's REPUBLIC: the "just" person can maximize pleasure. Conversely a
karmic
principle burns us for following unfortunate ways. During human youth
these educational subtleties of nature are eclipsed by authoritarian
demands for strict conformity. All these influences prepare us
nonetheless for basically biological maturation toward "on the spot"
rationality required to handle rising situations not anticipated by the
hard-and-fast rules of youth.
Jefferson's Second
Inaugural Address summed up accordingly the principles of
self-government upon which this nation was really founded. "A wise and
frugal government" will minimally restrain citizens from injuring one
another unjustly. Otherwise they must be
freed to develop
themselves--under the subtle guidance of natural rewards and
punishments--toward moral and intellectual adulthood.
An equivalency has come
to light recently concerning essential (if neglected) messages of both
the Old Testament and Natural Law. Scholars have reportedly noticed a
numerical identity in ancient gemmatria between the Hebraic words for
"God" and "Nature." Evidently some combined magnitude is making us
behave rationally--with "sticks and carrots." Modern enlightenment
emphasizes the latter.
THE
BUSH TILT TOWARD ISRAEL
America's biggest
single problem these days is arguably our Biblical
identification with Israeli fundamentalists' claim that the
Old-Testament God "personally" gave them the Holy Land originally; and
not to the consequently embattled Arabs living there for centuries.
Photo
Credit: U.S. Department of Defense
This wishful claim
blantantly ignores a universal principle of Natural (common) Law. It
has been found sufficiently pragmatic--over the centuries--for
absorption into humanity's colloquial lexicon. Possession
is accordingly called "nine points of the law."
Land grants claimed
morbidly from the Spanish Crown in old Mexican territories have lapsed
at best, for example; especially absent direct
empirical evidence
of grantor intent.
Currently, however,
only the purported grantees
and their Bible-tumping cohorts are testifying in support of Israel's
claim. The purported Grantor's
intent is suggested somewhat by scriptural hearsay.
It is fatally self-serving
though as to the proffering grantees perpetuating the claim.
Actually we all know
far less than commonly supposed about this purported "Grantor." Folks
are swept into a storm of religious "conjectures" about an
imaginatively invented "personal" God. (Conjecture and belief notably
appear as "lower" mental faculties in Plato's Riddle of the Line--books
6 & 7 REPUBLIC--which tend to drown out our "higher" faculties
of reason and understanding.)
The verbal contrivance
evidently commenced with the type of local "war god" needed by
primitive tribes--like ancient Hebrews--to
imaginatively watch over them. While a more nuanced concept of their
deity was slowly developed in the Old Testament--as universal
"Essence"--too many of its old "personal" traits were retained: jealous
anger, notably, and a whimsical eagerness to take sides in human
competition.
Such verbal
descriptions of Divinity presupposed in old (mythological) stories are
commonly confused with "factual" history. These archetypally symbolic
stories thereby comprise what Joseph Campbell's series of books began
calling THE MASKS OF GOD some decades ago. They obscure the real
Divinity obviously prevailing beyond description by words.
Earthly manifestations
of this higher Source are nonetheless apparent empirically though; as
embodied in universal usages of perhaps humanity's most comprehensive
word: "Nature." Scholars have significantly noticed recently its
"numerical" equivalency with the Hebraic words for "God."
Obviously Natural
(common) Law is a spiritually rational source of motivation for humans
to strive toward workable justice in this world. Palestinians have been
victimized in a massive displacement of human reason and understanding
(of one another) by our "lower" faculties of conjecture and belief'; as
verbalized ruthlessly.
***
Author's
Note (January 9, 2006): Jews have also been victimized—for
too many
centuries—by the basically “semantic”
confusion of everyone
concerned. Naturally they cannot be dispossessed under foregoing
considerations. These might nonetheless encourage subtly a more
balanced sense of justice enabling ethnic cousins to embrace; even
under a “one-state” solution, pragmatically pooling
national
resources, as fostered by the following further considerations. Great
courage would be required.
***
The righteous
belligerence expressed by exclusive clubs of believers--toward "others"
under an old tyranny of labels--leads not only to tragic injustice, but
is downright impractical as a matter of natural common sense. More
friendship and forgiveness are essentially needed for everyone
to enjoy the Good Life.
Please remember now the
foundational resolve--inscribed around the dome above Jefferson's
statute in Washington--to overcome "every form of tyranny" over the
human mind.
(Memorial to a rather reluctant slaveholder)
Source:
San Diego Mesa College Website
© Jim McCord
June 25, 2004
Email Jim McCord
mac@jimmccord.com
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