Complications and Contradictions...

   A nation that cannot accept complications and contradictions is ripe for the simple answers of an authoritarian.

And so here we are... but I begin with myself: I love the study of history! I actually revel in the contradictions that each person before me has lived. Most of us humans live our normal lives of small circles: we are born, we live, we study to varying degrees, we work, we want intimacy, maybe we want a family, we hope to stay as healthy as we can for as long as we can, eventually we all suffer, and, of course, we do stop breathing... But, a few from our number live in big circles: impacting perhaps, generations and nations...

​Thomas Jefferson lived a big circle: writer of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. He also founded a University. More American streets are named Jefferson than with any other name... But, he was also a slave owner. Had sex with one or more of his slaves. And had a slave family... How is it that the man who penned the words all men are created equal could not free himself from the contradiction of owning other human beings?

​It is likely now that most Americans know some of the secrets of many of our national heroes (and international one's as well). Obfuscations, distortions, blunders, and lies are part and parcel of our national history. Indeed, of our human condition! We can't do anything about Washington, Jefferson, Fr. Serra, Lincoln, Roosevelt (Teddy or Franklin), Kennedy, Johnson, King., and on and on... And it is equally clear that we can even do very little in managing our own complicated lives and contradictions...

To one degree or another, though, we prefer to be around people who, at the least, give the impression that they respect us and, again at the least, are relatively honest. Most of us, if we were a boss on a job site, would fire an employee who was a frequent liar, overtly disrespectful, or was simply failing to honor and support the team. This is pretty much across the board, isn't it? But what about institutions of power that obfuscate, distort, or lie? And what about individual persons who ascend to positions of power but who, as a matter of course (if not of policy), indulge in similar behaviors and tactics?

Any analysis, even a superficial one (like this one), of our history, our current events, and our climate of information-knowledge-sharing and dialogue (both lacking), inevitably must wrestle with all of the obvious complications and contradictions: not giving them a pass, but engaging in the requirements of a rugged honesty is a beginning. But there is still more! And this more really gets to the crux of the matter. Our sense of community has been all but lost: we no longer live as much for our neighbors as for ourselves...

​Neighborliness (yet not forgetting the complications and contradictions) was the foundational principle of Jefferson's democratic idea: as it was for Fr. Serra, Mahatma Gandhi, and other now vilified thinkers and activists. Their faults and failures notwithstanding, they have something important to say, especially to struggling democracies... Neighborliness requires an open and honest relationship... Relationship always means a sharing of neighbor-to-neighbor-interest-and-regard... Neighborliness conveys itself through the daily evidence of caring...

​Indeed, the "creed" of a good neighbor is I care, therefore I am... In other words, the good neighbor finds her core identity in the continuing good of her neighbor... I can hear someone from the back row muttering, "Well, who is my neighbor?" At the very least, an American who aspires to good citizenship will say, "Everyone who lives in my country is my neighbor!" One could say that the perfection of our common humanity lies precisely in this neighborliness... Simply put, if I genuinely care for my neighbor, I will listen, I will learn, and I will apply what I have learned to better our relationship: when needed, I will forgive: when I have wronged, I will with gratitude accept forgiveness... Further, I will actively pursue the conditions that will improve the lives of my neighbors! 

Surely, you can imagine all of the possibilities inherent in neighborliness! And if you have not yet made the connections, neighborliness is the solution to racism, sexism, systemic injustice, greed, the eco-destruction of our neighborhoods (world), policing, violence, etc. And note: no authoritarian will plead for an increase in neighborliness. Rather, he will inevitably amplify every possible complication and contradiction: because it suits his basic lust for profit and for power. And note again: neighborliness is loving our neighbor (our neighbor is our "other self")...