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The Hogs of Entropy 0045
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| | Hogs of Entropy Text Files Present... | |
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| | "The Meaning of Life and How to Hack it" | |
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| | By: Mogel | |
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Last week I was watching TV. This is something I rarely do. I was
doing the ultimate symbolic action of my generation: channel surfing. I
figured, if I was going to be doing something with a pre-requisite of
Short-Attention spanedness, then I'd might as well go all out with the
channel-flippin' action. Anyway, it had been about 2 years since I had
actually sat down and just WATCHED television.
I saw a speech being given to the press on CNN. Some politician,
didn't catch the name (didn't care), but he was a blatant Republican babbling
the usual Republican doublespeak. Not that the Democrats don't do it either,
but this time it was really bad. His speech actually consisted of him
mouthing off to the press about how "this" person said that and it was
"wrong," and "Clinton was wrong", and the media was "too liberal"...and so
went the speech.
In the midst of this speech, the _Campbells Chicken and Rice_ I was
eating, suddenly sent a bolt of pure indigestion to my brain that made me
realize what everything in the world was about. I think.
It all seemed to suddenly make sense. Have you ever had those brief
moments where you are sitting alone and out of nowhere you get some
incredible thought and for that brief moment in time.. everything in the
world seems to make sense? This has happened to me more than once, but this
particular time, I remembered the point of it. The Lefts, the Rights, the
Republicans, the Democrats, the Ups, and the downs -- The all had purpose.
If I needed to pick one idea, or if there were one central truth in
the entire universe that I could search out and understand in the world that
we live in, full of billions of competing ideas, it would have to be
balance.
EVERYONE in the world has a truth to speak and deserves to be heard,
but without a discerning ear we can easily get lost in the babble and either
fail to hear an important corrective from an opponent or blindly follow a
guru into his personal fantasy. We all need to know how to find the balance.
The ancient Greeks sensed this when they said that virtue was the
balance between opposing traits and called it the Golden Mean. Jewish and
Christian thinkers saw the need for Balance in relationships when they said
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And they called this
the Golden Rule. Our Founding Fathers saw that proper government required a
"balance of power." And Justice is portrayed by our judicial system as a
blindfolded woman with a balancing scale. Taoism claimed that all
creativity springs from a balance between the female and the male principles
of Yin and Yang, Buddhism calls this the law of Cause and Effect, Hegel the
Philosopher saw this as the search for the ultimate truth and the dynamic
process resulting from a balance between thesis and Antithesis.
It seems that no matter where you look, the same theme of balance
permeates our experience and our knowledge. Whether it is the "balanced
budget", or a "balanced approach", or a "balanced line", or the balance of
the human body, everyone speaks of the value of balance. This idea is
neither my creation, nor my insight.
And even now in modern psychology there has been a new twist to the
concept of a "balanced personality" with its revelation of the different and
somewhat opposing modalities of thinking that emanate from the left and the
right lobes of the brain. The left lobe with its linear, logical, literal,
verbal, matter-of-fact approach is in direct contrast to the right lobe's
spatial, intuitive, figurative, non-verbal, once-upon-a-time approach.
Neither halves of ourselves is capable of being a full person by itself
because each contains a point of view that the other needs to remain
balanced. Balance within ourselves, balance with others, balance in
politics, and balance in the universe.
Once we understand this great truth, we begin to understand that we
need our opponents, even more than our friends, to help us keep our balance.
In a world of competing difference, we will never find peace until we
understand that the differences that are around us, are part of a dynamic
tension that results in balance or harmony. We should be happy for the
differences in others and we should and often in history do, honor those
who exemplify and strive to keep a balance around us. I hunger for more
balance in my life.
This idea is a path that someone could not-so easily live their life
by, but THIS is the message that we should pass to the Extremists...that the
need for balance is what keeps the earth intact. Literally. One might say
that this idea is obvious and simple, but at the same time it is indepth and
complex. It is, as many things in life...simplex. If we go through life
keeping our motives loving and our methods wise, there is nothing wrong we
can do. Except, of coarse, watching the _Power Rangers_.
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Copyright (c) 1994 HoE Publications and Mogel #45 --> 02/04/95
All rights Reserved.
