Theatres of Wisdom

August 29, 2010

Theatres of Wisdom

(More from section two of Citizens Without Borders)

We have seen that Comenius proposed hiring coaches and advisors to assure that each and all do the right thing at the right time. Like Plato, he thought that wisdom is best taught through the arts. Comenius suggested for this what he called "theatres of wisdom,"

"I mean that all men should be wisely guided from the earliest age and constantly thereafter through the theatres of wisdom, and should all have endless opportunities of exercising their senses, their reason, and their faith." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 11, pp. 146-147)

These theatres seem to be combination of drama, simulations, games and experiments designed to allow each new generation to see the world with all their faculties of sense, mind and faith. Once we see all aspects of life from a balanced perspective, wisdom will come naturally. In that way, theatres of wisdom would inculcate an intimate appreciation of what he called pansophy, being universally wise.

Since Comenius' time, Buckminster Fuller experimented with what he called the World Game, a simulation using data about global resources designed to help youth grasp the complexities of running an entire planet. More recently, Jane McGonigal, director of games research for Institute for the Future at Palo Alto, California, has suggested that we tap into the vast pool of time and talent expended by gamers -- according to her there are now half a billion gamers who average 25 hours a week solving difficult problems. (Serious Fun, by Samantha Murphy, New Scientist, 22 May, 2010, p. 37)

McGonigal points out that we would do well to tap the resource of games and the vast army of gamers who have sprung up along with computers and the Internet, to solve some of the technical challenges of the present hour. For example, stopping climate change demands painful sacrifices -- right now -- for benefits that are long delayed, uncertain and all but invisible. This demands major lifestyle adjustments and offers few immediate rewards.

This problem was mastered long ago by the authors of computer games. They know how to tie long term needs with short term incentives in very compelling ways. So effective are their techniques that many find the games addictive.

Some computer and video games are already available specially designed for directly solving global problems. These include "Chore Wars," an online game designed to bring the clever incentives of computer games to the domestic problem of persuading family members to help with housework. Other games in the works include World Without Oil, which helps people think how to adapt to oil shortages, Food Force, for disaster relief, and Fate of the World, where players steer the planet through 200 years of a warming planet.

Undoubtedly, this is an excellent suggestion. Enlisting a vast army of clever problem solvers may well help alleviate some of the dilemmas caused by creeping climate de-stabilization. But the problem is that they attack a purely technical aspect of the problem. We cannot ignore Plato's crucial point in "The Laws" that we must above all concentrate upon becoming wise.

Once we grasp the harmonies of wisdom, we find joy in implementing justice. Long term thinking will become the default.

What is Wisdom?

Wisdom describes what happens when how fits why, when partial knowledge somehow comes together to form a harmonious whole. For most of us, an entire lifetime is barely enough to learn wisdom.

Wisdom is also a positive force, an energy source that induces love, attraction between the whole and its parts, between each part and its whole. In the Republic, Plato says, "Him we call wise who has in him that little part which rules, (which has) knowledge of what is for the interest of each of the three parts and of the whole." These three parts are found in both the soul and the state, and each must reflect the other in order for there to be life. "How can there be the least shadow of wisdom where there is no harmony?" Wisdom takes us beyond questions of directives and obedience; rather than force, its watchword is love and common feeling, the conformity of the dancer to the music.

Towards an Infrastructure of Wisdom

The next section of People Without Borders will be about the infrastructure that will result from the foundation of a democratic world republic. The first object of such a government will be to house every human being, and to see to it that everybody has all the necessities of life at hand. In order to do this they must initiate a globe-encircling building project with wisdom designed into the very brick and mortar of every home, structure and road. In order for this transformation to come about, we must be very clear on what wisdom is, and what wise leadership implies.

Why Elders are Excluded

In the West we tend to value the energy and skills of young people while marginalizing the old. We arrogantly proclaim that the reason we do this is because we put such a high value on technological progress. Old folks value a past that is dead and gone while young people break the bounds of what used to be thought impossible.

While nobody can deny that knowledge is exploding, or argue that technical progress is not proceeding faster than ever before, the fact is that we are not doing what we must to survive. We can make our handcart to hell move faster, but we have no control over its direction. Leaders refuse to respond to the destruction of the biosphere that keeps us alive and the heating up of the planet's climate. Instead of banning burning and all use of hydrocarbons outright, as a wise, sane leadership would do, we sit back and watch as our world leaders dither and stall in summits and international climate talks.

Why are we so paralyzed when survival requires quick, decisive action? I would argue that the real reason we have been putting young people first and ignoring the lessons of our seniors is simply that we are corrupt. The first sign of a corrupt society is to value youth before age, technicians before statespersons. A wise elder knows that it is foolish to concentrate power and wealth into the hands of a very few. A sage would suggest democracy. The wise, who ask "why" instead of "how," are the last people an oligarchy wants to set the agenda.

We associate wisdom with the sunset of life because in retirement a certain calm often sets in. We see what is otherwise obscure. The turbulent waves beating the pond of life settle into a smooth surface that reflects the whole of experience. Plotinus wrote that,

"Wisdom is a condition in a being that possesses repose. Think what happens when one has accomplished the reasoning process; as soon as we have discovered the right course, we cease to reason. We rest because we have come to wisdom." (Plotinus, qi Wisdom, Mortimer Adler, the Great Ideas, p. 939)

However, it would be a mistake to think that because the weak, sickly and old become wise that wisdom is weak, or a sign of weakness. The reverse is the case. Wisdom, like the sunlight hitting the earth, could -- if only we learn to use it -- become a far more powerful energy source than the dirty hydrocarbons we now burn.

Theatres of Wisdom

Theatres of Wisdom


(More from section two of Citizens Without Borders)


We have seen that Comenius proposed hiring coaches and advisors to assure that each and all do the right thing at the right time. Like Plato, he thought that wisdom is best taught through the arts. Comenius suggested for this what he called "theatres of wisdom,"


"I mean that all men should be wisely guided from the earliest age and constantly thereafter through the theatres of wisdom, and should all have endless opportunities of exercising their senses, their reason, and their faith." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 11, pp. 146-147)


These theatres seem to be combination of drama, simulations, games and experiments designed to allow each new generation to see the world with all their faculties of sense, mind and faith. Once we see all aspects of life from a balanced perspective, wisdom will come naturally. In that way, theatres of wisdom would inculcate an intimate appreciation of what he called pansophy, being universally wise.

Since Comenius' time, Buckminster Fuller experimented with what he called the World Game, a simulation using data about global resources designed to help youth grasp the complexities of running an entire planet. More recently, Jane McGonigal, director of games research for Institute for the Future at Palo Alto, California, has suggested that we tap into the vast pool of time and talent expended by gamers -- according to her there are now half a billion gamers who average 25 hours a week solving difficult problems. (Serious Fun, by Samantha Murphy, New Scientist, 22 May, 2010, p. 37)

McGonigal points out that we would do well to tap the resource of games and the vast army of gamers who have sprung up along with computers and the Internet, to solve some of the technical challenges of the present hour. For example, stopping climate change demands painful sacrifices  rightnow for benefits that are  long delayed, uncertain and all but invisible. This demands major lifestyle adjustments and offers few immediate rewards.

This problem was mastered long ago by the authors of computer games. They know how to tie long term needs with short term incentives in very compelling ways. So effective are their techniques that many find the games addictive.

Some computer and video games are already available specially designed for directly solving global problems. These include "Chore Wars," an online game designed to bring the clever incentives of computer games to the domestic problem of persuading family members to help with housework. Other games in the works include World Without Oil, which helps people think how to adapt to oil shortages, Food Force, for disaster relief, and Fate of the World, where players steer the planet through 200 years of a warming planet.

Undoubtedly, this is an excellent suggestion. Enlisting a vast army of clever problem solvers may well help alleviate some of the dilemmas caused by creeping climate de-stabilization. But the problem is that they attack a purely technical aspect of the problem. We cannot ignore Plato's crucial point in "The Laws" that we must above all concentrate upon becoming wise.

Once we grasp the harmonies of wisdom, we find joy in implementing justice. Long term thinking will become the default.


What is Wisdom?

Wisdom describes what happens when how fits why, when partial knowledge somehow comes together to form a harmonious whole. For most of us, an entire lifetime is barely enough to learn wisdom.

Wisdom is also a positive force, an energy source that induces love, attraction between the whole and its parts, between each part and its whole. In the Republic, Plato says, "Him we call wise who has in him that little part which rules, (which has) a knowledge of what is for the interest of each of the three parts and of the whole." These three parts are found in both the soul and the state, and each must reflect the other in order for there to be life. "How can there be the least shadow of wisdom where there is no harmony?" Wisdom takes us beyond questions of directives and obedience; rather than force, its watchword is love and common feeling, the conformity of the dancer to the music.


Towards an Infrastructure of Wisdom

The next section of People Without Borders will be about the infrastructure that will result from the foundation of a democratic world republic. The first object of such a government will be to house every human being, and to see to it that everybody has all the necessities of life at hand. In order to do this they must initiate a globe-encircling building project with wisdom designed into the very brick and mortar of every home, structure and road. In order for this transformation to come about, we must be very clear on what wisdom is, and what wise leadership implies.


Why Elders are Excluded

In the West we tend to value the energy and skills of young people while marginalizing the old. We arrogantly proclaim that the reason we do this is because we put such a high value on technological progress. Old folks value a past that is dead and gone while young people break the bounds of what used to be thought impossible.
While nobody can deny that knowledge is exploding, or argue that technical progress is not proceding faster than ever before, the fact is that we are not doing what we must to survive. We can make our handcart to hell move faster, but we have no control over its direction. Leaders refuse to respond to the destruction of the biosphere that keeps us alive and the heating up of the planet's climate. Instead of banning burning and all use of hydrocarbons outright, as a wise, sane leadership would do, we sit back and watch as our world leaders dither and stall in summits and international climate talks.

Why are we so paralyzed when survival requires quick, decisive action? I would argue that the real reason we have been putting young people first and ignoring the lessons of our seniors is simply that we are corrupt. The first sign of a corrupt society is to value youth before age, technicians before statespersons. A wise elder knows that it is foolish to concentrate power and wealth into the hands of a very few. A sage would suggest democracy. The wise, who ask "why" instead of "how," are the last people an oligarchy wants to set the agenda.

We associate wisdom with the sunset of life because in retirement a certain calm often sets in. We see what is otherwise obscure. The turbulent waves beating the pond of life settle into a smooth surface that reflects the whole of experience. Plotinus wrote that,

"Wisdom is a condition in a being that possesses repose. Think what happens when one has accomplished the reasoning process; as soon as we have discovered the right course, we cease to reason. We rest because we have come to wisdom." (Plotinus, qi Wisdom, Mortimer Adler, the Great Ideas, p. 939)

However, it would be a mistake to think that because the weak, sickly and old become wise that wisdom is weak, or a sign of weakness. The reverse is the case. Wisdom, like the sunlight hitting the earth, could -- if only we learn to use it -- become a far more powerful energy source than the dirty hydrocarbons we now burn.

::

Silvie’s picture about not treating your dog better than your kid.

Silvie (John's daughter) speaking.

Updated title because:

1. I have always hated PETA. Don't know why dad chose that title...
2. Dad utterly missed the point of the drawing. It was drawn out of outrage after seeing someone treat their dog better than their kid. Sure, it was a cartoon. But some people probably actually do that in real life.
3. No mislead person would see fit to comment on a drawing that was misinterpreted to begin with.

Thank you and goodnight.

Silvie’s Impression of Her Father’s Problems

Dunnville's Commemoration of the Master's Visit to Montreal

Today's Badi' Blog Essay

Message from badijet@gmail.com:

We are having our annual commemoration of the Master's visit soon. Here is the letter to the editor sent to the local paper announcing this event by Betty Frost on behalf of the LSA of Haldimand.


To the Editor

 

This coming Wednesday, September 8^th marks a very special time for the Baha'is of Canada as it is one of the days in the 11 day period which 'Abdu'l-Baha, Son of the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, spent in Canada in 1912.

 

From His early childhood he had suffered prison, being exiled on four occasions and undergoing innumerable trials and difficulties. It was not until the downfall of the Ottoman empire (Turkish) and the subsequent release of all religious and political prisoners that He was able, in His 69th year, to make the eagerly anticipated visit to the Americas. For many months He visited various parts of the United States often giving two or three talks in a day to people coming from all different backgrounds and religions eager to hear His voice.

 

Although only a short time could be spent in Canada, His visit to Montreal was a memorable one. He spoke in some large homes and in a number of Churches and other halls where people gathered to hear the "Apostle of Peace". Many newspaper articles appeared describing His talks, one of which said:

 

"'Abdu'l-Baha has preached Universal Peace for fifty years...In a word, 'Abdu'l-Baha is the great protagonist of Peace in the world today. To bring about its accomplishment is the practical corollary of the two tenets which are the foundation of his creed - the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. For forty years he was persecuted for preaching it...." The article goes on to say that although He preached peace, He was very much aware that Europe was a tinder box and that a war would certainly break out.

 

Despite the fact that He had never spoken from a public platform before, His talks in the various places He visited are remarkably diverse and form a large body of inspiring literature. In fact our community has been advised to concentrate this year on the specific concept of the need to regard all of humanity even as one family. 'Abdu'l-Baha said: "See ye no strangers, rather see all men as friends, for love and unity come hard when ye fix your gaze on otherness."

 

When He was leaving Chicago in May of that year He said to the believers: "Be in perfect unity. Never become angry with one another.... Love the creatures for the sake of God and not for themselves... Humanity is not perfect. There are imperfections in every human being and you will always become unhappy if you look towards the people themselves. But if you look toward God you will love them, and be kind to them....Therefore do not look at the shortcomings of anybody; see with the sight of forgiveness. The imperfect eye beholds imperfections...."

 

This, of course, is only part of what was said. When we meet together next Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. in the Garfield Disher Room of Dunnville's Library, we will no doubt hear many other inspirational words. We hope that you will join us. A social hour and refreshments will ensue.

 

Betty Frost

Haldimand Baha'i Community

AROUND TOWN

Wed. Sept.  8

 

You are warmly invited to enjoy the commemoration of the visit of the son of the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, 'Abdu'l Baha in 1912.  The meeting will take place in the Garfield Disher Room of Dunnville's Library at 8:00 p.m.  The talk and slides will focus on His teaching about the need to regard all of humanity as one family. 

::

Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Universal Consultancy

Pansophy

Pansophy and the Right to Counsel

By John Taylor; 2010 Aug 28, Asma 08, 167 BE

 

As an educator, John Amos Comenius believed that a world government could only persist if it is upheld by universal education. We all are born with brains, so school must be for all, young and old, rich and poor, throughout life. In developed nations this no longer sounds as radical as it did in the 17th Century; however, Comenius even asserted a kind of "right to counsellors," where even those who are not full time students are obliged to take full advantage of the best advice available.

We already recognize a limited version of the right to advice if a person is threatened by serious illness or a long prison sentence. Court systems in most developed nations today recognize a right to counsel if an individual is charged with a serious crime. Poor or disadvantaged persons get a court-appointed lawyer, paid for by the state, to defend their life. What Comenius suggested was that we broaden this right to counsel so as to make wisdom universal.

At first glance, paying for advisors for the poor seems like an extravagant expense. However, it could be justified for the same reasons that preventive medicine is known to be cheaper and more efficient in the long run. As the documentary film "Sicko" dramatizes, the American health care system is the most expensive in the world because it waits to intervene only when health is in rapid decline. Meanwhile, the much poorer Cubans are healthier overall because their doctors work to keep the people healthier in the first place.

 

Thus a wise society would retain advisors all the time, cradle to grave, in order to help the populace avoid choices that lead to disastrous decline. It is cheaper to teach people to avoid situations where crime can occur than to pay for trials, restitution and prisons. A universal right to advice would also put us in a position to completely avert other clear and present dangers to life and limb, such as accidents, illnesses, suicide and even unhappiness.

Of course, the roots of this imperative are found in Biblical wisdom literature, "Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end." (Prov 19:20-22, KJV) And, according to Plato, it is a basic aim of the rule of law to uphold wisdom.

"... it was ignorance, in its greatest form, which at that time destroyed the power we have described ... it follows that the lawgiver must try to implant in States as much wisdom as possible, and to root out folly to the utmost of his power." (R.G. Bury, tr., Laws, 688e)

Another translation puts this passage in the Laws more emphatically:

"A legislator's aim must be to create all the wisdom he can in a community, and with all his might to eradicate unwisdom." (Laws, 688, Collected Writings, p. 1283)

Comenius agreed with his predecessors that our chief aim must be to establish wisdom and to steer away from folly. The way to do this, he believed, would be to uphold what he called pansophy, or universal wisdom. Pansophy is an order of magnitude more powerful than just wisdom for a few. The services of experts and the wise are for everybody, not just a wealthy few; they must be available all the time, not just on special occasions. If each and all had the benefit of many advisors, everybody would become an active advocate of wisdom. We would know our own dignity, we would defend ourselves from error, and corruption would be completely eliminated. This, Comenius believed, would clear our perceptions, since folly corrupts both mind and soul.

"Since human nature has been blinded by its corruption, my Universal Education discussed how it should be safeguarded from downfall by wise guidance, and all its senses kept open to everything..." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 11, pp. 146-147)

Nowadays science allows us to clarify and magnify our senses with great efficiency. We can set up an almost unlimited array of sensors, RFID devices, dials, readouts and other indicators to enhance our senses and memory. As electronics becomes more miniaturized and sophisticated, these sensory devices become cheaper and more common. I think Comenius would point out, though, that this is not the same as wisdom. Indeed, having a flood of sensory data at our fingertips only increases our need for wise intervention by human sages. Each of us needs a skilled teacher at every stage of our development to dispense the right advice at just the right time.

Establishing a universal right to good advice would empower each new generation to put a final end to dangers that now seem to be engrained in human nature. For example, the World Health Organization says that the two most common dangers to human health are tobacco and alcohol (including other substance abuse, legal and otherwise). What youth, properly guided, would voluntarily choose to sacrifice their own well being by becoming an addict in order to perpetuate a blight to human health? Indeed, even if tobacco, alcohol and other substances were only substantially reduced, the expense of paying for advisors for everybody would be more than justified.

What then would a broader right to counsel entail?

It is axiomatic that the more complex the task, the more one stands in need of wise consultants. Modern life is complicated, so whenever we take a step, we should keep at hand at least one advisor. Today we call them by various names, consultants, tutors, mentors, fitness trainers, life coaches and guidance counsellors, but the point is that the first thing we hear about any decision must be nothing less than the best advice available. What is more, that advisor needs to be there when a choice is taken. She needs to be standing nearby, as it were, as every future smoker considers lighting up his first cigarette.

The Right and Obligation to Tutelage

The right to counsel, Comenius further held, entails at least one generalist advisor for each of the three main tasks of life, to maintain a good relationship with oneself, with other people and with our God (or, for non-believers, with our future, with long term considerations). Each relation must be well maintained in order to live a balanced, creative life. Plato recognized that this internal three-fold responsibility extends out into our social relations,

"A legislator should have three aims in his enactments -- the society for which he makes them must have freedom, it must have amity with itself, must have understanding." (Laws, 701d)

 

A good consultant in one of the three areas needs to be a generalist, wise in dispensing advice but also trained to recognize when more specialized advice is required.

 

The Comenian right to advice makes a slight but crucial adjustment to the criteria by which we call upon an advisor.

Today we operate on the principle that the more important the job, the greater the need for advice. Those with the most responsible positions retain entire counsels of advisors. Meanwhile, the poor, whose jobs if they exist at all, tend to be manual and inconsequential, are deemed to be in the least need of advice. A Comenian system takes on a slightly different operating principle: the more difficult the job, the more we stand in need of advice.

That way, since poverty is by far the most difficult human condition, anyone in danger of poverty will be understood to be in greater need of the best advice. The rich, whose lives are easier than the poor, need fewer advisors. The indigent and those in danger of falling into poverty will get the best counselors first.

::

Mixed Bag

Mixed Bag

By John Taylor; 2010 Aug 26, Asma 11, 167 BE

========== 

 

More on Wayfinders

Astrophysics and My Son

Uniqueness and the Master

Prayer is a Dangerous Thing

 

==========

More on "The Wayfinders"

Lately, I featured here a review of Wade Davis' The Wayfinders, wherein he discusses the latest findings in anthropology, as well as the rapid disappearance of ancient cultures and languages. An anonymous commenter to the Badi' Blog had this to say,

"If even some of these small unknown tribes had a vote in some international forum, it would be interesting to know what fruits their collective wisdom would produce. It reminds me of what an old professor hoped for in the 60's and 70's, as a diplomat, when he witnessed the emergence of many former African colonies. He said that there are no preconditions for being greedy. These small tribes have just as many of those as they have gentle unassuming shamans."

I think the point that Davis is trying to make is not that traditional peoples are morally superior or that they are exempt from normal human failings. Rather it is that their cultures are uniquely valuable, having survived many orders of magnitude longer than the West has. Indeed, the West is straining the limits of ecologies around the world and does not look capable of making it much longer, in spite of its vaunted knowledge and technology.

As for a vote in an international forum, it would be nice if you and I had a vote there, never mind the aboriginals. As yet, democracy is unknown anywhere beyond national borders. Can you name an international institution where people actually have a vote? That astonishing deficit is probably the main reason why we are going to hell on a handrail.

==========

Astrophysics and My Son

Last night the Taylor nuclear family attended a lecture at the McCallion planetarium at McMaster University. My twelve year old son has been dunning me with questions about black holes, space travel and other astrophysical ideas for so long that I am right sick of giving answers based on very scanty knowledge of an abstruse discipline. It was good to hear an explanation of the stars and their effect on humans throughout history coming from a real astrophysicist. He gave a very brief, clear explanation of what dark matter is, for example.

To my annoyance, at the end I asked Thomas if he had any questions for the expert, and he said, "No." So I asked about Wade Davis's thesis that the Polynesians knew more about navigation than James Cook did with his vaunted astrolabe and the new way of measuring longitude invented by John Harrison. To my surprise, the astrophysicist had heard of it, and gave a clear explanation of what the South Sea Islanders knew at the time as well. I was impressed.

==============

Uniqueness and the Master

Since the commemoration of the Master's visit to Canada is coming up in September, here is another note about His Western journeys. It is noticeable from His talks that towards the end of His time in America the Master was suddenly concerned to demonstrate what is unique and distinctive about the Baha'i teachings.

In a couple of talks on this subject given in November, 1912, He pointed out that all of the dozen or so Baha'i principles are distinct, not that the ideas were unheard of but rather that they were stuck up like ten poles holding up the tabernacle of a major world religion. The greatest of these distinctions was that signed and sealed Covenant by the Founder of the Faith. It is interesting to note that the Master counted covenant as a principle of the Faith. I suppose that means that we can treat the revelation of Baha'u'llah as a sort of constitution for everything we do, one that is reliable beyond anything before.

I am studying Plato's Laws right now, and in it Plato says, "In very truth to make a legislation or found a society is the perfect consummation of manly excellence." (708e) He goes on to point out that human constitutions are chaotic and inherently flawed because they are always reactions to some problem, accident or circumstance. A flood comes and washes away the old, but the new constitution attempts to solve the problems of the flood, or of the old ways, but not the universal human condition. The uniqueness of the principle of covenant, then, is that God has given us a solution to our spiritual need for this entire age. It is not a reaction to some specific disaster, it is a gift for the next 100,000 years. At last, we do have a perfect constitution. And note, even the super-ancient Aboriginals of Australia only made it to 60,000 years!

I just ran across this segment from the Master's last visit to Paris, not long after leaving America. Here too, he explains the principle of economic equity as a unique feature of Baha'i, qua religion, not qua set of ideas in the history of ideas.

"Baha'u'llah's solution of the social question provides for new laws, but the different social classes are preserved. An artisan remains an artisan; a merchant, a merchant; a banker, a banker; a ruler, a ruler; the different degrees must persist, so that each can render service to the community. Nevertheless, every one has the right to a happy, comfortable life. Work is to be provided for all and there will be no needy ones to be seen in the streets. The vocational labor adjustment provided by Baha'u'llah precludes there being people too poor to have the necessaries of life on the one hand, nor the idle rich on the other. In which sacred book do you find this provided for? Show me!" (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, pp. 83-84)

 

==============

 

Plato: The Wrong Kind of Prayer is a Dangerous Thing

Here is a passage from the Laws, which I believe is Plato's greatest work, not the Republic, which everybody seems to think. Here Plato explains why prayer, like any powerful instrument, can be used for evil as well as good. How much better an understanding Plato, who was not a conventional believer, had of prayer than scientists of today.

 

I am thinking of the researchers who set up the experiment to see if praying for someone with a heart condition improved the patients or made it worse. Their finding was that it had no effect, except when they knew that somebody was praying for them. In that case the patients recovered much more poorly, probably because such an expression of concern as having strangers pray for them implied that they were in deep danger.

Instead, Plato identifies here the real power of prayer. Prayer is the engine of our moral advance, or our decline into immorality and vice. My hope is that someday some legislator will read the following and ban advertising forever. Every advertisement we are exposed to is like a little prayer of the devil, tempting us to jump into the slough of moral decrepitude. One result? The main cause of death today is heart disease; researchers wonder if prayer helps heart patients, without wondering why we tolerate advertising for foods that cause heart disease in the first place. What we should pray for is changes in lifestyle that will eliminate the causes of such moral and physical preconditions of human ills. We need, that is, prayer is a way of writing a personal constitution or covenant that takes us beyond knee-jerk reaction to specific problems.

 

 

ATHENIAN: And, again, when a man's notice is attracted to a great fortune, or pre-eminent family distinction, or the like, and he expresses the same commendation, he speaks from the same point of view; his thought is that the advantage will enable its possessor to gratify all desires, or the most numerous and considerable of them?

MEGILLUS: So I should suppose.

ATHENIAN: So it follows that there is a certain desire, that indicated by our argument, which is universal in all men, as the argument itself asserts.

MEGILLUS: And that is?

ATHENIAN: That events shall fall out in accord with the bidding of a man's own soul, all of them, if possible, but if not, at least those which depend on human agency.

MEGILLUS: Of course

ATHENIAN: Now if this is what all of us, from boyhood to age; are wishing all the time, it will necessarily also be our standing prayer.

MEGILLUS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: And, again, I suppose, our petition for our dear ones will be that they may receive what they ask for themselves.

MEGILLUS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: Now a son, who is a boy, is dear to his father, a grown man.

MEGILLUS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: And, mark you, there is much a boy prays to befall him, of which his father would beseech heaven that it may never fall out as the son prays.

MEGILLUS: You mean when the petitioner is thoughtless and still young?

ATHENIAN: Yes, and what of the case when the father is old, -- or only too youthful as you please to consider him -- has no sense of good and right, and prays from the heart in a passion akin to that conceived by Theseus against his unfortunate victim, Hippolytus, but the son has such a sense? Will the son, think you, second the father's prayer in such a case?

MEGILLUS: I see your point. You mean, I apprehend, that the object of a man's prayers and endeavors should not be that the universal course of events should conform to his own wishes, unless his wishes further conform to his sober judgment. It is the possession of intelligence [reason] that should be the mark of prayer and aspiration for the community and every individual of us alike.

688

ATHENIAN: Yes, and I am particular to remind myself that it is this which a statesmanlike legislator should always have in view in framing his enactments -- as I would also remind you, if we have not forgotten how our conversation began -- that whereas you both agreed that a good legislator must devise all his institutions with an eye to war, I, for my part, urged that this is an injunction to legislate with a view to one single virtue out of four.

He should keep them all in view, I said, but chiefly and in the first place that virtue which brings all the rest in its train, that is, judgment, intelligence, and right conviction attended by appropriate passionate desire. So our argument has come back again to the old point. I, its mouthpiece, say once more now what I said before, in jest or earnest, as you please to take it.

I look on prayer, I say, as a dangerous instrument in the hands of the man without intelligence; it defeats his wishes. If you please to consider me in earnest, pray do so. I have every confidence that if you follow up the story we have just set before ourselves for consideration, you will directly discover that the cause of the ruin of the three kings and their whole design was no cowardice and no military ignorance on the part of commanders or commanded; what ruined them was their abundant vice of other kinds, and, above all, their folly in the supreme concerns of man.

 

Plato, Collected Dialogues, Laws, 687-688, pp. 1282-1283

::

With Casuistry to All

On Charity and Casuistry

"In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity."

For many years I had in mind a quote that I just knew I had come across somewhere in the writings, "In essentials unity, in non-essentials variety," or something like that. Recently I stumbled across a possible answer to my bothersome piece of "kitab-i-hearsay" floating around in memory. Here is how it happened.

A friend doing some research asked me a question about sources on the life of Kieth Ransom Kehler. After some surfing, I was unable to answer her question. However, in digging for this information, I came across the following pilgrim's note from KRK's visit to Shoghi Effendi, sometime in the 1930's. She reports the Guardian as answering a question about that annoying sort of person who up and reads long prayers at random times during meetings.

 "In many places the believers use healing prayers continuously in regular meetings. Many object to this practice."

 S.E.: "No one in any assembly [community or meeting] should insist upon saying healing prayers, but we must acquiesce if some one should want one. When we have general rules, we become dogmatic and inflexible. But friends who do not care to sit through long prayers regularly may go or stay as they wish. This does not determine anyone's spirituality, but there must be no criticism or controversy on the matter. Great patience is required to unite the differing elements in our Faith. Time is the best healer. These differences of opinion will disappear with time. We might remember the words of Saint Augustine, in essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity." (http://bahai-library.com/ransom-kehler_haifa_talks)

 I wondered about this saying, commonly attributed to St. Augustine, and after some more netsurfing came across this comment by Christian academic Mark E. Ross,

 "Philip Schaff, the distinguished nineteenth century church historian, calls the saying [In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity.] ... "the watchword of Christian peacemakers" (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7, p. 650). Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century, Rupertus Meldenius. The phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (c. 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. The saying has found great favor among subsequent writers such as Richard Baxter, and has since been adopted as a motto by the Moravian Church of North America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Might it serve us well as a motto for every church and for every denomination today?" (http://pietist.blogspot.com/2009/10/who-said-essentials-unity-in-non.html)

The same pilgrim's note starts off with a very amusing exchange about the ever vexed question of infalliblity in the Central Figures (the phrase "central figures" is itself a term that somebody came up with to get around having to lump four leaders of the Faith, with vastly different stations, all together in one reference). At one point Shoghi Effendi says that he is a man like anybody in the room, and KRK points out that if she ever said that in America that she would be booted out of the faith for saying such a thing. And here I thought this kind of argumentation started with the Internet!

Anyway, I wanted to quote the whole thing but had to pare it down to the following small excerpt, which I think is helped by having the definition of the world "casuistry" defined first. Essentially, what we need is to get past casuistry, endless babbling about doctrine, and get down to constructive conversation about what we can actually change with our beliefs.

casuistry \KAZH-oo-uh-stree\, noun
1. Specious, deceptive, or oversubtle reasoning, esp. in questions of morality.
2. The application of general ethical principles to particular cases of conscience or conduct.
The popular objection to casuistry is similar to the popular objection to the maxim that the ends justify the means.  -- John Dewey, Experience and Nature and Human Nature
"And how will it work in infinite time? It's nothing but casuistry, casuistry. It's a way of explaining my own impotence." -- Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Seance
Casuistry comes from the French casuiste and the Latin casus, "case," perhaps related to making a case or justifying behavior.

Shoghi Effendi: How far does my independence extend with the House of Justice, and what is my relation to it?

KRK: You are its chairman and interpreter of the Book of laws, the Akdas.

Shoghi Effendi: Yes, but as chairman I have only one vote as has any other member. If my vote happens to be with the minority I must cheerfully follow the will of the majority though it be contrary to my wish and conviction.

KRK: Your word is infallible when it comes to interpreting the text.

Shoghi Effendi: Yes, the GUARDIAN alone can determine whether any piece of (legislation] can be undertaken or whether the condition is covered in the holy text. It is promised that the Guardian is protected by God from making mistakes in these decisions. But apart from that I am like anyone else.

KRK: I have been teaching that it is wrong to think of you as a human being. I have been teaching that you know the end from the beginning and have a spiritual status that endows you with superhuman knowledge.

S.E.: This is entirely wrong. I am a human being endowed with the unfailing protection of Bahá'u'lláh. To claim for me a station different from that of humanity or to consider me endowed with superhuman powers is quite unjustified. For example I have no idea what is going on in America at present. I must depend upon information for such knowledge.

KRK: The Master tells us your utterance[s] are infallible.

S.E.: Under certain explicit conditions. In many instances I give human opinions and suggestions.

KRK: Undoubtedly you speak with unchallengeable authority and we must consider your words authoritative and infallible.

S.E. (Smiling): I leave that to your own judgment.

KRK: If I mentioned this conversation to any of the friends who like me have looked upon you as divinely endowed they would at once say "How utterly lacking in spirituality she is, that Shoghi Effendi completely conceals his station from her. If she was spiritually awake he would without doubt reveal his true divinity to her. Abdul Baha used to say the same thing to the believers. They had themselves to know his station before he confided it to them, so likewise the Guardian is testing you with his denials."

S.E.: (positively amazed) Do the believers believe Abdul Baha would deliberately disavow himself and mislead them? When I make these statements categorically I mean them. You must utterly disregard such casuistry on the part of the believers. 

(http://bahai-library.com/ransom-kehler_haifa_talks) 

::

Wayfinders

Finding My Way through "The Wayfinders"


 By John Taylor; 2010 Aug 23, Asma 03, 167 BE


 The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, by Wade Davis, Anansi, 2009


 Such is the pull of many competing media, and the energy it takes for me to keep a wife and two computer addicted kids away from screens at least a few hours each day, that my reading has diminished far more than it should. This spring I slowly worked through just one book, The Wayfinders, by Wade Davis. I was very impressed with it. How did I stumble across it? What happened was that I was writing some essays about wisdom and I thought of searching for the word "wisdom" in the titles of books in the local library. This was the only one available, and it was on the "New Books" shelf. I read the first few pages and was disappointed to find that I had already heard much of the book on the radio. But I plodded on regardless. Here is how one reviewer started off assessing this book,


 "It seems odd that we need to be reminded that there are many ways of knowing the world, and that all of them are valuable. I know a carpenter in Ontario who has built dozens of houses, and yet is illiterate; one of the most successful farmers in our area has never read a book except the Bible. These are everyday examples. Wade Davis, in the 2009 Massey Lectures, now published in book form as The Wayfinders, goes further afield and presents many more striking cases of so-called primitive cultures that made mind-boggling contributions to the sum total of human knowledge, before being overrun by the juggernaut of progress." <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-wayfinders-by-wade-davis/article1379145/>


 Davis describes how these far flung islanders in the Pacific figured out how to navigate the hugest ocean on the planet, using only the knowledge and dead reckoning of one "wayfinder," sitting silent at the rear of an outrigger. He describes the strange world view of a tribe in the Amazon whose shamans tell them, "Do not fish or hunt here because the gods say we should not." Unlike the West, for which nothing is sacred, these untouchable areas allow the local ecology to recover from the impact of their hunting and fishing in other places.

 He tells of the Aboriginals of Australia, the hunter gatherers of South Africa, each of which has a unique and amazingly ancient heritage -- the South African tribe is more diverse, genetically and linguistically, than anywhere else. The Australian Aboriginals have been in the same place for some sixty thousand years, by far the oldest continuous language and culture in the world, all the more tragic because they were hunted to the brink of extinction by white English speaking newcomers in the 19th Century. The above reviewer adds,


 "The aboriginal peoples of Australia, once a million strong, now reduced to about half that, spoke 270 languages. They are the closest descendants of the first human beings to leave Africa and so represent one of the great experiments in human thought. But they were hunted like animals by white settlers. Today, we are losing those languages at the rate of one per year; only 18 are now spoken by more than 500 people."


 The story of this loss of languages reminded me why I am an Esperantist. We think of English as the international language and universal culture, and forget that we are speaking the language of imperialism, the language of genocide.

 If the international language were Esperanto, local languages like these would be free to thrive without angering speakers of nationalist languages, which are in direct competition with far older and richer aboriginal languages. For example, where I live the tribe who were here originally, the Neutrals, were wiped out completely by the non-neutrals living around them, and their language is now long dead too. Most folks around here could not even name the tribe, much less speak their language.

English and other national languages are the tongues of the perpetrators of cultural, linguistic and literal genocide around the world. I speak Esperanto to my kids not because it is useful but as a political statement. Nobody is listening, least of all my kids, but it is a statement nonetheless. We cannot afford not to have a neutral language internationally. We cannot afford to say, with Zap Brannigan, "Your neutrality sickens me!"


 "Why does ancient wisdom matter? Because these people lived on Earth for millennia without destroying it, whereas Europeans have been improving the New World (having already trashed the Old) for barely 500 years, and have brought it to the edge of ecological extinction. The entire purpose of humanity, according to aboriginal thought, Davis writes, is not to improve anything. It is to engage in the ritual and ceremonial activities deemed to be essential for the maintenance of the world precisely as it was at the moment of creation."


 As I got into the book, I thought that surely this is one of the most important books of our time. It is the book that Ruhiyyih Khanum would write if she were around today. It even traces the sad story of the Mentawi, a nomadic tribe in Borneo among whom one of my favorite Hands of the Cause, Dr. Muhajir, cut his teeth. I plan to scan in the two stories, one of Dr. Muhajir among them and the other Davis' account of what happened to the Mentawi in the 1990's -- when I get my scanner going again.

 Davis speaks of one proposal in British Columbia to extract hydrocarbon by utterly trashing the headwaters of three major rivers, a place sacred to native peoples for millennia.


 "Environmental concerns aside, think for a moment what these proposals imply about our culture. We accept it as normal that people who have never been on the land, who have no history or connection to the country, may legally secure the right to come in and by the very nature of their enterprise leave in their wake a cultural and physical landscape utterly transformed and desecrated." (Wayfinders, pp. 117-118)


 Unfortunately, since this book is based on Massey lectures on the CBC, and considering the fact that Wayfinders was published in Canada, I figured it hardly likely that Davis' book would have the impact on the world that it deserves. I was wrong. The latest Scientific American, September 2010, has a photo essay based on The Wayfinders, called, "Last of their Kind, The world's cultures have been disappearing, taking valuable knowledge with them, but there is reason to hope." If you cannot get ahold of Davis' book, at least check out this brief article on your local magazine rack.


"By their very existence the diverse cultures of the world bear witness to the folly of those who say we cannot change, as we all know we must, the fundamental manner in which we inhabit this planet."

::