Things seem to be out of sync, there seems to be a disturbance of peace either within oneself or within a group. Perhaps it’s only in one person’s perspective of himself or of the group, or perhaps it’s more widespread. In either case, when there seems to be a problem of one-and-many, it must be solved. Nothing goes right, there is discord—either within or among—and it’s good to take a moment to find out why that is so. The reason is profound, but once we understand it, it’s like watching all—and each—of the thousand pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fall into place, like a codex.
All human relations depend upon a mutually-agreed-upon perspective of the codex. All interior peace depends upon it as well. It’s the constitution of a country, the rules, the laws, by which we agree to live, both separately and together. Marriages are founded on it, and friendships. Nations are governed by it. With reference to it, consciously and unconsciously, we speak of “rights,” or “common sense.” Why?
Because it is the only reality we have. Literally. We define anything in a two-step process, not one. The item to be defined (identified) is first placed in a context and then differentiated from that context. Both steps are vital. Neither can be omitted. We don’t think about this continual, from-the-beginning awareness because it’s more basic than awareness itself, since such a concept—like everything else—is only possible within the confining framework of consciousness, which is itself this two-step process. Literally nothing is possible outside it. Except God. No human being can ever say “I am” without saying “I am ….” Only God can say that. Only God did say that. A primitive man in the Sinai desert about 6,000 years ago understood the most profound philosophical truth anyone ever grasped, thereby making all things we know as “good” possible, including sanity. Small wonder, really, that every grandiose atheistic notion that attempts to cancel that human limitation always has, as a fundamental component, a seemingly irrational hatred of Jews. (Traditional anti-Semitism begins with disapproval of the Jewish insistence on being different.) It was the Mosaic discovery that opened the way for the development of human intellect, but that same discovery put a limit on our intellect as well, a limit which we disobey at our grave peril; Nietzsche may be the classic example, but the Greek tragedies also serve as examples. It has to do, not with ethics or morality, but with sanity. There is no sort of intelligence without recognizing, understanding, and accepting it—in that order. Disregard of it leads to personal or social insanity.
Everything and everyone that IS, is both part of and distinct from—not one or the other, but both. That’s why we can grasp the idea of a being both human and divine. It was at once the single greatest revolutionary expansion in the human intellect—occurring, paradoxically, with a boundary that is absolute. We can think now, but only in those terms. All things are identified on that basis, all forms of energy are either fission or fusion, all forms of government, of communal or individual conduct are codified on a continuum of individual-to-collective, etc. Hence, the interior peace of an individual is dependent on right relation to the group, and the societal, tribal, marital, national, etc., peace is dependent on right relation to the individual. (Caiphas: “Do you not understand that it is [expedient] that one should die for the sake of many?” That was a reversal of the Sinai revelation, a denial of it, a regression to the reality of Moloch—the pagan god who demands our children be offered as sacrifices to him. It was utterly un-Mosaic.)
Thus, what I have heard too much, too often, in too many homilies and in too many political speeches is the word “community.” Yesterday at Mass, we were told that if we want to see Jesus, we must look at the community. (The community is Jesus?) And now, We say a man has no right to self-defense. We have a climate, local, national, global, that says Government is our “friend,” not our “enemy,” and that we should put our lives and the lives of our children in its hands. Further, anyone who says otherwise is the real enemy. That means the individual is the enemy of the group. Give up your right to self-defense; give over control of your health and the health of your children. Sacrifice—give up—your belief in the sanctity of life by underwriting the murder of children. Because that’s just your religion talking, and the rights of the many are more important than your personal religious beliefs. And if any of this makes you feel morally uncomfortable, you can get over that discomfort by joining us, by becoming one of us. Just surrender your differentiation, your personal beliefs, your individual nature. Otherwise, you are selfish and deserve expulsion. Community is all that matters.
The pop-psych talking heads add their authority: Anyone convicted of mass-shooting or bombing or anti-social behavior is instantly diagnosed as a loner, as someone who showed signs of deviance via withdrawal. That this description usually turns out to be false (the Boston bombers, et al, had active social lives, and many friends) does not deter them. The demand is that evil be seen as a consequence of differentiation from the group, thereby terrifying people into group adherence—the tighter, the safer. John Lennon’s Imagineland allows no differentiation of consciousness; it is the heaven of this crowd, the crowd that swallows souls alive like Moloch, that crucifies the intelligence the Mosaic revelation gave birth to; it sees the individual as its enemy.
I am not surprised to hear the Gospel of Community from this government (which, not coincidentally, disdains Israel), but I grieve to hear it from the pulpit. Do Catholics follow Community—or do they follow Christ? That question should be nonsensical. If it ever becomes possible to ask such a question, the Church has already left Christ.
You raise some poignant questions, but aren’t we all called to be part of one body? Are we not just different parts of what is to be one? Isn’t unity and oneness perfection? Also, an example I would use that we in fact do not have community at all, or sacrifice for the many, is in the case of the beginning of the aids epidemic. When I was a child, we had scarlet fever in our house and were quarantined…all five children and my mother! My dad was able to go to work, but a sign was on our door to keep away and we were not allowed to have company. That was how epidemics were contained. It was hard, but it was for the good of the many…for the community. It was that way with TB and polio, as well. When the aids epidemic started, there was talk of containing the infection, but because it intruded on “individual rights” the community was forgotten entirely, as was the safety of our future, our children. I never forgot the shock I felt when I saw how our country was changed entirely. And we all know what happened with the aids epidemic. We could leave our doors unlocked and play outside in safety anywhere when I was a child. At school we were taught to get in line, be obedient, think of others and put ourselves last. We had a community where people looked out for one another. We have lost that sense of community in many areas of the country because families have been broken up, communities weakened because it could be said it is no longer about the many, or even the individual, but all about the corporation, about banks and politics because ‘the world is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…” We’re either consumers or potential voters as we continue to be ruled by psychopaths. our humanity and dignity utterly and ruthlessly suppressed…and here’s where I merge back to your premise about insanity. I totally agree. This country has gone completely over the edge, whether it’s the wanton murder of our own children, deliberately creating ignorant and amoral people in our schools or allowing courts and judges to determine what is right, moral or acceptable. It’s crazy! Judges are just sleezy lawyers with robes. As to loners, I do think they’ve always been held suspect, when you think of rogue males in all species, or lone females throughout history.
But, getting back to your sad story about hearing about ‘community’ from the pulpit, that is indeed sad. Did you talk to your priest afterward to ask what he meant by it? Sorry about my convoluted thought processes…I’m very lazy and I just zip out lazy thoughts that probably don’t make sense, but what you wrote resonated with me, and I’m sure Frank Sheed would agree with your premise about insanity.
Dear Dana,
Thanks for your comments–which so perfectly illustrate what I meant to say.
We can get into a righteous rage so easily nowadays, can’t we? It takes so little to set us off. There were riots in Paris last night over a policeman’s attempt to enforce the ban on the veil worn in public by Muslim women. Meanwhile, who knows how many children were being murdered by their parents without a murmur of dissent, much less shock and horror?
Cultural assimilation is enforced at all costs, as majority rule and minority rights morph into minority rule and majority rights until nobody knows anymore which is which. And all the while, our children are dying. We can do nothing. We are not paralyzed by fear, but by confusion.
The formula for understanding, the codex, is missing. The chair at the head of the table of discussion is empty. And “love” as a mere human word is vacuous and trite, too weak to serve, used up by the shallow vessels where it once lived.