WAR is a symptom of Western Allopathic Psychological Orientation

 

There has always been the Hygiean – Aesculapian Division in how we understand the dynamics of nature.  The Hygiean approach is the cultivating and sustaining of balance and harmony while the Aesculapian approach is to root out and eliminate ‘pathogens’ or ‘trouble-makers’.   If we first orient to the cultivating of balance and harmony, we can use the ‘elimination of pathogens’ as a ‘back-up’ last resort, as in indigenous aboriginal cultures, … but if we move the anti-pathogen (Aesculapian) approach into primacy, it becomes our first course of action.  The Robin Hoods and Jean Valjean’s of the world with their Hygiean ethical orientation INSPIRE us while the brute force anti-pathogen approach associates with the ego of those who consider themselves on the side of ‘good’ with respect to their ability to ‘eliminate that which is bad’.

 

Once we elevate the allopathic Aesculapian approach into primacy over the Hygiean and make it the first course of action, we give no mercy to the Robin Hoods and Jean Valjeans but follow the anti-pathogen course of removing all that disturb the current equilibrium even if that current equilibrium preserves gross imbalance as with rich and poor.  In other words, there is no longer any room for Hygiean recultivating of balance and harmony once the anti-pathogen orientation is given precedence.

 

WAR is the social-dynamic that corresponds to the anti-pathogen approach, which was recognized as problematic by indigenous aboriginal peoples as recorded in the GREAT PEACE of the Iroquois as also in the indigenous aboriginal folklore generally, which is why such folklore accords with modern physics understanding of the way that Nature works.

 

Pathogen elimination has become the first course of action of Western society, rather than the back-up.  Philosophically and scientifically, there is no such thing as a pathogen, but there is relational polarization that can give rise to a ‘short-circuit’ where someone or something ‘gets zapped’.  The natural remedy is as found in the ‘healing circles’ of indigenous aboriginal cultures where the root source of relational imbalance (polarization) is addressed and dealt with.

 

Western culture has largely opted for elevating the allopathic approach to the first course of action, in both the management of relational dynamics within the individual and within the dynamics of the social collective.  This is problematic particularly where the influences giving rise to polarization continue undiminished or are even amplified by the anti-pathogen actions.  The anti-pathogen approach has become the single tool for addressing conflict, and as with the man whose only tool is a hammer, everything is looking like a nail.

 

REMEMBRANCE, for Hygieans, is something we want to be recorded in a picture of the reconciled ‘sides’ shaking hands.  This is the way of the PEACEMAKER, as in the indigenous aboriginal (e.g. Iroquois) legend of the peacemaker, Dekanawideh, does not seek to overthrow or exterminate the evil  (pathogen) Adodarho, but to meet and find re-conciliatory harmony through mutual participation in relational transformation that subsumes polarized tensions.

 

We know, from natural experience, this kind of ’Hygiean’  REMEMBRANCE and how natural and harmonious it feels because it is very often our natural ethic in resolving interpersonal strife, and it has the same topological relational form as in the stories of Robin Hood and Jean Valjean, where ‘rebalancing’ is the first-sought remedy for antithetical polarization, rather than taking the imbalance to the abstract extreme of division into the binary opposites of ‘good’ versus ‘evil’.  As Heraclitus pointed out; in nature, such extreme opposites are the ingredients of harmony as in the pulled string of the Lyre, … the point is not to persist in opposition until EITHER one OR the other prevails, but to move forward so as to transcend the polarization to a new understanding where BOTH the one AND the other are mutually accommodating.  This is referred to as QUANTUM LOGIC OF THE INCLUDED MEDIUM, in modern physics wherein ‘figure’ and ‘ground’ are NOT TWO mutually exclusive things-in-themselves, but only appear so, as with the duning and desert floor, where language and naming is what imputes ontological thing-in-itself TWONESS where there is UNITY that merely gives the appearance of TWONESS, as with figure-and-ground in a fluid dynamic.

 

REMEMBRANCE can thus also come in our acknowledgement of ‘mitakuye oyasin’, ‘we are all related’ by our common inclusion within the transforming relational continuum aka ‘the Tao’ aka ‘the Great Mystery’ aka the Logos’ aka ‘the wavefield’.

 

MEANWHILE, WESTERN CULTURE ‘REMEMBRANCE’ can harden and entrench our Aesculapian EITHER GOOD OR BAD, EITHER WINNER OR LOSER way of thinking by celebrating the ‘defeat of an enemy’ and thus stopping short of celebrating the reunification of brothers who had become polarized against one another.   Do we want to understand the achievement of our fallen-in-battle friends and relatives as their contribution to WINNING THE WAR, … or to the re-establishment of peace and harmony?  Do we want to continue to walk the proud walk of winners and spit on the defeated, or do we want to embrace our war-alienated brothers and rejoice in the healing of a bitter division?  What of these understandings do we want to associate with the REMEMBRANCE of the sacrifice of our fallen brothers, … the Hygiean or the Aesculapian understanding?

 

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HOW DOES ‘POLITICS’ COME INTO THIS?

 

Soldiers tend to be faithful followers of political leaders that represent the ‘sovereignty’ of their nation, and many nations demand of their citizens the solemn oath of allegiance that includes the commitment to ‘bear arms’ in support of their nation, which means, in support of the leader of their nation, whatever sort of individual that may be.

 

Western culture has this penchant for binary thinking in terms of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and the exalting of ‘winners’ and the demeaning of ‘losers’, although political leaders appeal to the noble and heroic spirit of those in their armed services to throw themselves body and soul into the fray in support of their nation and their national leader.  In fact, such encouragement is common to all nations, and citizens swear oaths that they will support their nation’s leader, and that is seen in Western culture as an ‘honourable’ thing.

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