“‘each for himself’ … cannot but result in violence”
America needs a new narrative with healthier beliefs and an appreciation for sustainable values, without which we will become increasingly fearful resulting in more violence.
Guns are an obvious example of violence. “There are changes I know must come, changes to what types of firearms line the shelves and to the background checks and ownership requirements needed to carry one out the door. And there is an unrelenting fear of what could be lost—a subsistence culture already threatened by the loss of public land, rising costs and a widening rural-urban divide; the right of individuals to protect their own lives and the lives of their families.”[i] Are guns the problem or people using the guns? No, neither one. They are a symptom of a Paradigm-B worldview in which fear is in charge.
Corporate violence is not as obvious as gun violence but many actions by corporations, often hidden, are no different than a burglar breaking into your house! “Everybody knows about the cost of food stamps for the poor, but few people are aware that the median taxpayer is also subsidizing the corporate executive whose elegant French dinner is tax deductible.”[ii] Is the corporation, the executive, the stockholders or the cost of the product the problem? No. They are a symptom of fear in Paradigm-B which causes people to strive for power and control and more, more, more.
Trappist monk Thomas Merton mentions a different form of violence: “There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence [and that is] activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.”[iii]
In all cases, humans are seeking security, sensation and power in P-B, causing violence to others and themselves. A shift to a P-A Oneness worldview changes violence to compassion.
Insight # 90 comes to us from Thomas Troward (1847-1916) an English author whose works influenced the New Thought movement and mystic Christianity.
“Violence is the clashing of individual wills not harmonized by the recognition of any unifying principle. The ONE-ness of the Spirit from which all individualization proceeds is entirely lost sight of, and ‘each for himself’ becomes the ruling principle—a principle which cannot but result in violence under whatever disguise it may be masked for a time.”[iv]
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Additional Reading:
- Violence, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
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[i] Joy, David. “At The Crossroads.” The New York Times Magazine. April 8, 2018, p. 53.
[ii] Kristof, Nicholas and Sheryl WuDunn. “Hard Times.” The New York Times Book Review. January 12, 2019. p. 17.
[iii] Henry, Roy Charles. “Simplicity.” The ABC’s Of Simple Reality, Vol 2. May 2018, p. 238.
[iv] Troward, Thomas. Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning. New York: Dodd, 1913, p. 46.
