Fast IV

The Spoken Republic; Fast Times Diary, Part IV

By John Taylor; 2007 Mar 19

During this fast, on Friday, an old friend, Ruth Augustine, died. Let me pay tribute to the woman who sponsored Marie when she came to Canada to marry me and thereby enabled this family to come into existence. May her soul be accompanied by flights of angels on its rise to the Abha Kingdom.

If you go onto the US NSA's public relations website you will find an article about the Baha'i blogosphere. I was interested to see that there are so many other Baha'is doing this; one site they recommend is actually a map of the world with the locations of Baha'i bloggers mapped according to the blogger's residence. This is just like what the Guardian used to do with a world map and pins and flags, marking the far-flung pioneers, NSA's and LSA's around the planet. If blogging can be compared to pioneering (I know, it cannot) then this Badi' Blog definitely would not qualify as "far flung," since my home in Dunnville, Ontario is jammed into perhaps the world's most crowded place for bloggers. We have Baha'i blogs coming out of our ears around here.

One blog recommended in this Baha'i blogging article specializes in mentions of the Baha'i Faith in locations outside the bounds of the Faith itself, in the non-Baha'i press, though it also contains many Baha'i resources too. This site is on blogger.com just like my blog, so when I saw this fellow's blog plastered with lovely photos I emailed him to enquire how to do that in Blogger. It seems that when I signed up they still wanted extra money for blogs with graphical content, but now that blogger is owned by Google they no longer could care less about that income stream. But that does not mean that I know how to put pictures on my blog. Blogger does not advertise how to use graphics on it, either. This Baha'i blogger, whose posts seem to be almost as frequent as mine, very kindly gave detailed instructions as to how to do it. So, expect my blog entries to be a little more graphical in future (by the way, for those only on my mailing list, the Badi Blog has a new look; check it out on http://badiblog.blogger.com). He also asked if I had seen the mention he gave this Badi blog about a year ago. No, I had not seen it but I was so pleased with this plug that in reciprocity I plug his site now.

Judging by the many entries by loyal Baha'is referenced on his site talking about the fast, the time of the fast is a wonderful experience with bounties and joys abounding, a time to prance with Bambi through the enchanted forest of the love of God. For me, that is a bit optimistic, to say the least. Fasting is, not to put too fine a point on it, hell on earth. It is dancing with the devil through a trackless wilderness of vain and hateful illusions until, just after seven in the evening, I at last break out of zombie-land. Yes, if you count suffering and being tested to your limits and beyond as a bounty -- and anyone who has seen the Iqan has to agree that it is -- then fasting certainly is a bounty. But for someone as weak as me it would be hypocritical to pretend that it is a joy. Quite the reverse. But as I mentioned in the last Fast Times Diary entry, I am still extremely grateful to be healthy enough this year to make it through the fast at all. My physical strength and robustness, inadequate as it is, is much greater than it has ever been before, even in the bloom of youth. For many years my cursed migraine attacks prevented me from fasting right through to Naw Ruz.

Once I enter into the impaired state of a fast afternoon I have a choice of a very few activities that I can do at all, and even fewer that are remotely useful. Non-useful ones include sleeping and sitting back on the couch watching films, especially comedies (to combat the grumpiness chronic to this time). Or I can listen to audio books, if the material is not too challenging. Or I can putter around on the computer, or Web surf. One project that combines several at once is trying to get my downloaded audio books onto MP3's so that I can listen to them on an MP3 player. I have spent much time on this during the fast.

The mother-of-all-time-sinks, though, is the Net.

My latest Inet discovery is StumbleUpon Video, which acts as a sort of supercharged television remote control, only instead of the few dozen channels you get on television this gives you the veritable universe of choice of videos on the Net. It asks you what your interests are and then directs you to short videos related to that. No more channel surfing for me.

I had hit the StumbleUpon option for politics as one of my areas of interest (which means US politics, of course) and it stumbled me onto a video that posed a pointed question: is George W. Bush senile? It showed his diction in a speech given in 1994. Bush used long, complex sentences, including a command of details that exceeds my own (not saying much, I know); and then the film contrasted his stilted, crippled expression today. Bush even makes a joke of it. It is pretty clear, a doctor informs us, that the poor man is well advanced on the road to the same fate that Ronald Reagan suffered, premature Alzheimer's Disease. Poor America, too. Both Bush and Ronald Reagan were long-time winners in the American political process.

The only other President in recent memory to have such long-term success in being re-elected was Bill Clinton. Clinton too suffered from a severe cardio-pulmonary condition; not long after his period in office he was felled by a massive infarction that probably would have killed you or me outright. There are serious problems with the American diet. Clinton had been a long-time fast food and junk food user. When are Americans going to recognize the need to change their basic habits?

True, there are also serious problems with the American political process, too. Clearly, it is meticulously selecting for leaders who can exude an almost hypnotic air of dignity and reassurance when they present themselves in public. Myself, I have never been able to watch an American president of right or left speak for more than a few seconds. I have to switch the dial or suffer an attack of the creepy-crawlies (I am not the only Canadian who has that reaction, by the way). But that kind of oily stance is what the American people seem to need from their head of state at this historical juncture. But, as the medical condition of all of these presidents demonstrates, they are quite literally defective at heart. I was reminded of my quote for the day the other day, which was:

"All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway." Harry S. Truman (1884 - 1972), Letter to his sister, Nov. 14, 1947

In other words, a president does Queen Elizabeth's job, he acts as a constitutional monarch without real power, using mostly prestige and influence to prompt his fellow citizens to do their job. The selection process of many-year-long primaries weeds out original, independent thinkers long before they can veer from the party line or the will of the people, no matter how benighted either may be. Also like a constitutional monarchy, this convoluted electoral system favors family dynasties. Sadly, Canada seems to be going the same route with the recent grooming for power of the younger Trudeau.

What we really need from our leaders is a separation of powers like what you see in the Baha'i Order. In the Commonwealth of Baha'u'llah, all actual power is put right where it should be, exclusively in the hands of small groups, that is, Assemblies and eventually Houses of Justice. Individual leaders, the learned, are not burdened with the additional stress of decision making. In view of the tendency of the body to decline physically with time and stress, that is the only way to go.

Yes, there are charismatic, influential individuals in the Baha'i system. That will always be a need, one of the most valuable services possible. But these servants of Baha'u'llah, called by Baha'u'llah the "Learned," are permanently excluded from power. And better still, they are just that, learned. They stand for knowledge, not pull. They are not elected but appointed, originally by the Universal House itself. Their policy is that of the House. Prestige and what Baha'u'llah called "words of milk" are their sole tool. If these learned agents vary substantially from the rulers, there would be an immediately-perceptible disconnect. God willing, that will never happen.

Plus, the rank of the learned is higher than all institutions except the House of Justice, so there is a permanent moral obligation to take truth to power, for the rulers to meet with and, one hopes, listen to truth from these learned persons. In this capacity they act not as individuals but as an institution whose spiritual head is the Guardian. But the obligation to the institution of the learned is moral, not imperative. The learned in future will specialize in forging the agenda, propagating public policy and the public relations aspects of Faith's guidance. That is, they will do what Truman says is a president's job, they will flatter, kiss and kick people to do what they should do anyway. If as Shakespeare said all the world is a stage, the learned will take the spotlight while rulers are freed to do the nitty-gritty, the behind-the-scenes stagecraft of organizing, directing and lighting up the heart of our world.

I know, I am stating the obvious about the Administrative Order, but its merits were driven home to me yesterday during the long fast afternoon as I listened to a beautiful spoken version of Plato's Republic, lounging listlessly in bed. I was very sleepy and kept dropping off, but some of it stuck, subliminally. Once, I woke up to hear Plato compare stupidity of the brain to the emptiness of an unfed body. Yes, thought I, fasting and an empty brain go together inextricably, like love, marriage, a horse and carriage... then mercifully I dropped off to sleep again. Plato must have said more. Next time maybe I will remember what it was.