As within, so without.
DEMOCRATS: THE PARTY OF CO-DEPENDENCY
Bill Moyers had Parker Palmer as a guest on his PBS show on Friday, February 20, 2009 [1]. Mr. Palmer founded the Center for Courage and Renewal. While today's political factions were not a topic of discussion, Mr. Palmer observed a correlation between psychological and economical depression. Since I'm a firm believer in; as within, so without, the argument immediately piqued my interest.
Sudden losses can trigger depression. It can be the loss of a loved one, income, wealth, or of country. The inverse is that self-defeating thoughts trigger depression, which in turn triggers behaviors that result in outward losses. This is more likely the chain of events. Des Cartes so aptly wrote that, "except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power." [2] It's reinforced throughout Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich". It's further reinforced in these words: "You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny" [3].
Many others have discovered the power of thought and uncluttered reasoning. Challenging beliefs and precepts scare people. But without challenging our deeply-held beliefs and realigning our beliefs with natural principles, we live at the mercy of our own stupidity. This in turn leads to the Law of Unintended Consequences. This is the ignorance that ignorant people call bliss. That's precisely why the Law of Attraction works against them. So they become co-dependent. In politics, the co-dependent's rallying cry is "Save me, Uncle Sam! Make my countrymen pay for my folly, laziness, hypocrisy and pet projects! Don't expect me to measure up!"
This is the height of irresponsibility and why democracies always collapse in on themselves [4]. As parents well know when correcting their children, shirking responsibilities, leads to the curtailment of freedoms. The kids get grounded. No more floating around in la-la land. Getting grounded is precisely what's necessary to get back on the straight and narrow towards independence.
We should not concern ourselves so much with externalities. This is also the basis of much Eastern philosophy. Attachment breeds the fear of loss of attachment. Fear of, or the actual, loss of the object of attachment, breeds suffering. As within, so without is a principle. Therefore, it can be applied to various situations. Like co-dependency and politics.
Relying on the impeccable wisdom of Stephen Covey, let's familiarize ourselves with the levels of dependency. There's dependency, independence, co-dependency and interdependency. Total dependency is the state of infancy. An infant supplies none of his own needs. The first need that an infant learns to fulfill is self-pacifying: he locates his thumb. In the absence of self-reliance, the infant's only recourse is to cry out, to communicate. An addict of any description supplies none of his own happiness. He is dependent upon some external source for gratification and pacification.
Codependency enables an addict to remain addicted to this role because the codependent is equally addicted to the enabling role. They avoid the upheaval from changing roles and growing to a higher level of maturity. If the addict is addicted to dishing out abuse, then the codependent is addicted to receiving abuse. Neither is doing the work on themselves (where it matters), to end the abuse. They are not imagining themselves in different roles and therefore are not aligning their desires and deeds towards changing their roles. All the world is a stage [5] and all the men and women merely actors. What we need to remember is that we CAN and MUST choose roles based upon our importance as individuals. If we don't choose our roles consciously [6], then our roles will be chosen for us. The danger of rule by majority voting, starts to crest over the horizon.
Independence is the next level to which we transition. Here we decide our role is to provide for ourselves. A healthy measure of egocentricity and selfishness is required. It's when we realize that we are not someone else, not living someone else's life. We are not sovereign over our neighbors, parents, friends, enemies or anyone else. We are not living in someone else's body. We are not seeing the world through someone else's eyes. Our own life is our own and sole responsibility. It is a challenging stage to master. Master it we must or we can never truthfully say, I know myself. Parts will remain foreign territory. Gnothi Seauton.
Interdependence is to co-dependence as federal union [7] is to incorporating union [8]. A true federal union recognizes the integrity and wholeness of the individual members, or states. It's a marriage of whole parties. An incorporating union is a merger in which one is subsumed into the other. These levels are better described on the individual level in Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and "The 8th Habit".
Nearly all of us are familiar with the phrase, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." My father, who was a lifelong registered Democrat, said the Democrats will give you a fish. Republicans say they'll teach you to fish for yourself. I wanted to be a Republican. Then my father said that the truth is, Republicans won't teach you to fish. Once they find an abundant fishing hole, they hide it so no one else can find it. Then they'll sell you the fish and make themselves rich.
So who doesn't want to be rich? Even so I didn't want to be greedy or hide the keys to the kingdom from anyone. At least I'd get a fish for nothing from the Democrats if I got hungry. When I turned 18, I registered Independent.
But there's no such thing as a free fish.
Everyone pays taxes for those government-dole fish. Those dependent on those free fish are not learning how to fish for themselves. The longer they get something at someone else's expense, the less incentive they have for finding their own fishing hole. There are plenty of abundant fishing holes, but you can't find them if you don't bother to look.
The more of our earnings taken in taxes, the less we have available for saving, investing and business building. Let's not forget the costs of maintaining the bureaucracy and administration for government-dole fish. Forms for determining eligibility. Supervisors for approving the forms. Clerks for filing the forms. Auditors for reviewing the forms. Inspectors to make sure the forms are filed in good order. Warehouses for ancient forms. Subcontractors for procuring the fish. Drivers for delivering the fish. Code enforcement to chase down fish malingerers. Committees to determine the effectiveness of the free fish program. The IRS to make sure that the nation's independent fishers are coughing up their "fair" share. This is silly make work that doesn't contribute to the economy [9].
All this to discourage anyone from fishing for themselves. To keep the poor poor, because there's big tax revenue [10] [11] in it.
All this to say that I'm Libertarian now.
[1] Bill Moyers Journal on PBS online
[2] Rene Des Cartes Discourse on the Method Ch. 3
[3] Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5
[4] Quote widely attributed to Ben Franklin, though not confirmed. 10 min 37 sec video on the spectrum of government power
[5] William Shakespeare, "As You Like It"
[6] Eckhart Tolle "A New Earth" book and online course on Oprah
[7] Federal Union http://www.federalunion.org.uk/federalism/index.shtm l
Federal Union http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/federal
[8] Incorporating http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/incorporating
[9] Henry Hazlitt Economics in One Lesson education series on Campaign for Liberty
[10] International Society for Individual Liberty educational pamphlet
[11] Aaron Russo and the taxes we pay
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