Bubble Gum on the Sidewalk

 

Ramblings...

TO BE... OR NOT!

Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago describes the dilemma he finally faced when he was in prison... whether to let the intent and direction of his life be good or evil. “And it was only when I lay there rotting on prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good.  Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either--but right through every human heart--and through all human hearts.  This line shifts.  Inside us it oscillates with the years. And even within the hearts overwhelmed with evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.  And even in the best of all hearts, there remains. . . an un-uprooted small corner of evil.  Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions on the world.  They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being).  It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.  And since that time I have come to understand the falsehood of all the revolutions of history: they destroy only those carriers of evil contemporary with them (and also fail, out of haste, to discrimintate the carriers of good as well).  And they take to themselves as their heritage the actual evil itself, magnified still more.”  (Part 4, Chapter 1).  

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The Dilemma in Egypt

Early this week an army coup d’etat in Egypt deposed the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsy.  I’m guessing Morsy’s Islamic Brotherhood affiliation is thought by the majority of Americans to mean that he and his party have been determined to establish Sharia law in Egypt.  Perhaps that’s the case, but I’m not confident that deposing Morsy who was elected by the people is a step forward toward democracy. The democratic process does not include military coup d’etat.  The army rulers who took control after deposing Hosni Mubarac in 12011 were in some ways as ruthless as the former dictator.  When the Army allowed elections, Morsy was elected president, and he soon squeezed and purged the army leaders; but he miscalculated, and when demonstrators called for him to step down, the military establishment reasserted its power and took control again. The dilemma for generals is whether to let the people try again with another election.  If they decide not to have elections, the experiment in democracy will have ended.

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Edward Snowden, Another Dilemma

A couple of weeks ago Edward Snowden’s name was not recognized by anybody outside his small circle of friends and colleagues and his family.  Today he is know all over the world as the man who violated contract requirements to which he had agreed in order to work for a company doing contract tasks for the National Security Agency of the United States.  Under United States law and to many people he is a criminal; to others he is a hero.  He has yet to demonstrate the personal integrity, maturity, and intellectual acumen I expect to see demonstrated by a hero.  Of course, I don’t know the whole story and am not likely ever to know it, but so far I can’t see that his breaking faith and trust with his country has made the country a better, safer place for its citizens. 

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Anybody who doesn’t experience dilemma in politics and religion on a daily basis... isn’t paying attention.

The Republican majority in Congress clearly doesn’t experience any political issue as dilemma.  They are against anything President favors.  No thinking about issues is ever necessary for them.  Without examination of issues they reject every idea and every project that the President supports.  They have become known by the majority of Americans as they party of NO.  A political dilemma which requires serious thought by all parties can only be decided in a process of debate and deliberation that inevitably leads to compromise.  Democracy depends on thoughtful deliberation and compromise.  

The most extreme fundamentalists in any religious tradition avoid experiencing any issue of faith as dilemma because they always believe they are right.  They believe they know the truth.