The mind-lock of duality infects every aspects of life. Education, religion, health care, politics, news media, entertainment, nationality… This is a good person, that person is evil. This is right and that is wrong. This works in cartoons and tediously predictable movies, but surely not in real life? Apparently so.
Last night as we watched the Grammies, the kids could not understand how rap artists and country singers could enjoy each others music so much. "but they are so different" Rajvir exclaimed. I told them “that’s because they are musicians, they are artists, they have a common bond between them that is deeper than the sound they create” . To teenagers hooked on a particular fashion, my words were meaningless. They asked me why I liked country music. I told them that I found as much joy in great country music as in great rap music, that bad rap is just as lousy as bad country music. They had no clue what i was talking about. Why would they?
All our lives we are taught to "take sides"? What if both sides are right and wrong? What if both sides are the exactly the same? What if the choices we are offered are redundant? We make judgments at grocery stores, voting booths, temples/churches, restaurants, workplaces, parties and as we watch news reports.
The senate in ancient Greece and Rome was a circle for a reason. Modern parliaments in Britain and Canada are constructed in a very different manner. Even the US house of congress betrays the circle it is set in, with two “sides of the house”. Why two? Why sides?
Why do we have to choose between being democratic or republican, conservative or liberal, supporting Chelsea or Liverpool? Why do I need to be British or Canadian or American or Indian? When did identity get wrapped up in duality? To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson - am I not big enough to encompass all of these concepts and more?
The current furor over the Danish cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed is an example of the iron fist grip duality on our sense of what's real and what is nonsense.
I am neither a Muslim or a Christian. I respect both faiths.
I respect that Moslem's are against any form of idolatry. They abhor idolatry even a positive image their Prophet Mohammad is against their law. They take the commandment “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” very seriously.
It is difficult to build a comparison, Christians, Hindu's and Jews love to create images, statues, paintings and even big budget movies about their creator/phrophets. But imagine if a group of Moslem's were to create an image of Jesus on the cross with his phallus hanging out? Imagine if they were to publish this and then claim that it was their way of standing up for their 'freedom of expression'? I think this would create a stir, probably bigger than people burning and jumping on records because of a casual sarcastic remark by John Lennon and the stink that occurd when Sinead O'Conner tore up a photograph of the Pope!
Attending a mosque is a very unique experience. I remember the first time I visited the London Mosque (the largest in Europe) I thought I had walked into the wrong building. This holy place is an empty shell full of worshippers. No images. No statues. Plain walls. High dome. Plain white sheets where people sat and bowed to a higher power. Lots of men washing feet, arms and faces. This experience untied a knot inside me, it helped me see how my assumptions about what constituted a temple or church were so very limited.
The creator and publishers of the Danish cartoon went out of their way to make a deliberate point about something that mattered a lot to them. They are expressing a deep personal hurt. They are protesting their freedom of expression. What is the root of this protest? What are they trying to change or improve? Why have they not taken on issues such as child prostitution, aids, government corruption, poverty, aids and environmental poisoning with the same venom? Are these issues not worthy platforms to celebrate their freedom of speech?
The Danish publishers had no intention of changing anything. They are not protesting a freedom of speech, they are trying to prove their power but they are not aiming to improve anything. They are doing this for themselves. My view is that they are acting like petty minded children who protest because they can. This is nothing buy false bravado.
The people who have hit the streets across the world with such venom are expressing a deep personal hurt. They feel violated for very a just reasons. But, what is the intention of their protest? Where are the marches in protest against child abuse, aids, environmental destruction and poverty? Are these not equally worthy causes? Most of the men, women and children dieing of aids in Africa are Moslem's. What would Mohammed be concerned with today, a picture of him in a paper that no one reads outside Denmark or the senseless corruption and loss of innocent lives? Get real.
The Muslim protesters have no intention of changing anything. They are not protesting a freedom of faith. They are trying to prove their power but they are aiming to improve anything. They are doing this for themselves. My view is that they are acting like petty minded children who protest because they can. This is nothing but false bravado.
The real story is "Why is this story even a story in the first place?" Why has this drawn so much time and attention in the media? What role has the media played in perpetuating this distraction from reality?
There is no difference between these two faction. If we peer under the music, we find the same ugly stream that connects the two sides of this story. This story is big because it is grounded in sensational duality. We watch like voyeurs as polarized political junkies draw lines in the sand and scream at each other. The spectacle of duality keeps us entertained.
I went to Belfast in 1985 at the height of “the troubles”. I witnessed two militant groups of Christians destroy their communities for the same petty reasons.
The end of “the troubles” in Northern Ireland came to a close because the daughters and mothers of all the dead sisters, husbands, children and parents stood up, they took to the streets to get their towns and communities back from the power junkies. These women stood shoulder to shoulder to send a message, that the struggles in London Derry were not about Catholic or Protestant, they were about nothing – they were a meaningless duality being played out in the streets by power junkies and being festered by the media. The price of his show of false bravado - the lives of the ones they loved and the freedom to walk and live in their own community. Today, you will see very few headlines about Belfast. Has the city disappeared. Why are we no longer paying attention to something more important - the reconstruction of a city by is noble inhabitants.
In 1977, a handful of women assembled on Plaza Del Mayo in the Argentinean capital Buenos Aires carrying photographs of their missing children and husbands. It was the beginning of a long "march of resistance" which has taken place now every Thursday, for 1,500 weeks (27 years). These mothers of the Argentine resistance (an average age of 80) are symbolic of the dignity and suffering not only of the victims of military rule in their own country but of the victim hood of their generation of all South Americans.
Two weeks ago these incredible women held their last march. It ended it with a single statement from their 77 year old president Hebe de Bonafini: "We no longer have an enemy in the houses of government, with the changes in South America, the elections of Fidel, Chávez, Lula, Tabaré, Bachelet. Now we must defend them" Kirchner's government has offered these mothers the fullest redress possible for the crimes committed during the Argentine dictatorship and the "cover up" in the following regime
The sisters, daughters and mothers of Ireland and Argentina did not take cheap shots and poke fun at their enemy, they did not riot to draw attention to themselves. They did not posture in media interviews.There was no duality in what these mothers were about. This was no media circus act. They stood up to make a difference.
A Zen Master once said “Freedom does not mean being untouched by joy and suffering, love and hate, but feeling both of them intensely and yet remaining independent, not losing yourself in them, not being consumed by them." These women took a stand for freedom.
These stories of true courage have gone largely unheralded in the mass media. They have been side-bar rather than a headline. Why is this? Why hasn’t every single media outlet, rushed down to the main square in Buenos Aires? Why have the daughters and mothers of Ireland been largely forgotten whilst politicians polish their Nobel Peace Prizes and buff their hollow reputations?
The mothers and daughters of Derry and the mothers and grand mothers of Plaza Del Mayo engaged in a protest that was too pure, too deep, too real to matter in a world addicted the sensationalism of duality. Pop stars (like Sting) did more to bring the story of these mothers to the forefront than the blessed media that we rely so much on.
Bono has brought the story of Ireland to the forefront in a way no reporter has ever been able to. Sting and Bono are great artists, they have a common bond between them that is deeper than the sound they make. They concern themselves with these people because this is reality, these are the true stories of dignity, courage and freedom.
I was so glad U2/Bono walked away with five Grammies last night, not for the music my children enjoy to dance to, but the truth these guys stand up for in the real world.
The blinding grip of duality is not a theoretical debate for philosophers, it is something very real. What makes it powerful is that it cannot be seen. We are intoxicated with duality and denial. Even as the media becomes more global it does not seem to be getting any wiser. It seems as if the mind-lock of duality is only deepening its claws into our sense of what's real. In the end, duality shoomality, these shows of false bravado make for a 'good show'.
Sir Toby. I’ll make the motion. Stand here; make a good show on’t: this shall end without the perdition of souls. Marry, I’ll ride your horse as well as I ride you. I have his horse to take up the quarrel. I have persuaded him the youth’s a devil.
Fabian. He is as horribly conceited of him; and pants and looks pale, as if a bear were at his heels.
Sir Toby. There’s no remedy, sir: he will fight with you for his oath’s sake. Marry, he hath better bethought him of his quarrel, and he finds that now scarce to be worth talking of: therefore draw for the supportance of his vow: he protests he will not hurt you.
Viola. [Aside] Pray God defend me! A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man.
Fabian. Give ground, if you see him furious.
Sir Toby. Come, Sir Andrew, there’s no remedy: the gentleman will, for his honour’s sake, have one bout with you; he cannot by the duello avoid it: but he has promised me, as he is a gentleman and a soldier, he will not hurt you. Come on; to’t.
Sir Andrew. Pray God, he keep his oath! [Draws.
Viola. I do assure you, ’tis against my will. [Draws.
Twelfth-Night
Act III. Scene iv.
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