Forgive me, I am delving into a topic I know little about.
Anyway…
If reason is all the thinking woman has to rely on (faith involves something else) then she is entirely dependent on the division of reality into subject and object. She, the subject does the perceiving of the object, which is perceived. From this distinction reality is released and reason can begin to understand it.
It’s a separation that is fundamental to western enlightenment thinking, instinctive even in language. (That language has always placed the male as subject and female as object is a source of annoyance and oppression – I believe Euny may have some thoughts)
Eastern philosophy however, by which I broadly mean Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism and Vedic Hinduism, is slightly different. Whilst recognizing the division it stresses that the role of the woman seeking a true understanding of reality, is to remove her ego (self-awareness) and abandon this split. They argue that subject and object are actually a mutually constitutive whole. To see reality in its true light, this must be acknowledged and understood (enlightenment).
The implication of this unity is that the subject perceiver can project itself onto the perceived object, and vies versa. Both can affect their relationship with each other – mind (subject) can affect matter (object). This a western eye this notion seems the rhetoric of self-help guides, yet further reasoned analysis would suggest otherwise. Mind relates to matter by injecting it with meaning – this shapes what we consider to be reality.
Language, a creation of the subject projects meaning into a matter, and changes the relationship and shape of reality.
Perhaps that is as far as it goes, but basic experimental quantum physics has demonstrated that, at any one time matter can be both a particle and a wave, depending on the decision of the perceiver. That is an example of mind deciding the very make up of matter – and implies that subject and object are entangled.
For me, it’s an interesting theoretical notion but far too abstract to apply to my everyday life. However, in the spirit of self help guides (which I despise) I shall depart with ‘an (un)inspiring personal story’
I recently hired a moped. As a naturally clumsy and gawky person this was a decision of immence fun and stupidity. To get out of my place, I had to ride through a fairly narrow gate. Initially I was fine but a couple of days later I drove my leg straight into the wall. Ever since, when approaching the gate, I panicked and the gap seemed narrower. Inevetably I crashed into repeatedly after that and each time it became more difficult. If I had measured the gap with a ruler it would have always been the same. But under the context of driving my mind projected a meaning into that gate which made it become narrower in its relation to me. I know my mind had not affected the matter, but it completely changed my relationship with it, which turned out to be more important, and painful.
Right now, I’m wandering around India. Having finished my undergrad, I ran out of ideas (or had too many – the effect is largely similar), so decided travel was my only option, admittedly a well worn one.
As with any decision many, especially myself, questioned why I was doing this and what I hope to achieve from it.
Three months on I still can’t answer that. What has occurred to me though, is that at every stage my mind is being blown. I literally mean the limits of my mind were being smashed, and (hopefully) when they form again they will be extended.
Children are in the fortunate position of having their minds as of yet unmade. They can learn, absorb and undertake new experiences very quickly and easily. Then as you travel through education and life you learn/experience more and more, but consequently the boundaries of your mind begin to form. You lead to conclusions, derive opinions. It’s an essential part of maturing and becoming an individual.
The tricky bit starts from there. New ideas, different opinions, peculiar perspectives and understandings become inaccessible. If they cannot be absorbed into the current framework of your learning, they are left out. Systems of thought are lost this way and our education becomes halted.
Travel, I have found, has helped me, just a little, to unlearn these boundaries. Having so many unexplainable experiences and perspectives flung at me has helped to blow these limitations and left me slightly more open to new ideas. It’s a simple concept but there are many people who are much, much smarter then me, but have, as a product of their learning and knowledge limited their capacity for learning more.
This affects all aspects of our lives: politically we decide our ideology and find it difficult to move from that, socially we decide what we like and dislike in people and emotionally we conclude how we respond to metaphysical questions. All of these are judgments we necessarily make in our lives but often without recognizing our limited scope. Our response to the great social and environmental challenges we are currently facing could be fundamentally improved if we allow ourselves to unlearn a little more.
This is a first and fairly tentative step towards writing about the complicated nature of democracy and economics. Bare with me if it gets dull or is incoherent…
Democracy, meaning ‘the rule of the people’ is losing its relevance. As a concept, it remains the best form of organizing society that humans have ever conceived. Sadly, despite all efforts to achieve it, it is proving elusive.
I reckon politics, the means by which society creates and maintains democracy has become separated from political life – how a society experiences democracy. Loosely our political life is experienced when we wander down the road, go to school, breath the air, limp to hospital, watch fellow citizens live/die abroad in the name of our country, almost everything that happens in the public realm.
The role of a government then, is to manage the public realm. Economists call these public goods – those goods which can be accessed by everyone, and which, when one person consumes it, it doest prevent another from consuming it too – like street lighting, clean air or the armed services.
So, if a government’s role is to manage public goods, the political world is irrevocably intertwined with the economic world. Roads, hospitals, trains, schools, armed services are all economic entities. In the past, this has been the case, the political sphere and the public economic sphere were one of the same thing. This however is changing, in the UK and all over the world.
Now, the economic sphere, operating globally and regulated by the laws of the market (capital) has sought and achieved autonomy from the political sphere (operating in a nationally). I’ll stress now that the point I’m making is not one about economic efficiency, those debates are well rehearsed. The point is that through the states retreat from the public goods, the relevance of democracy has been severely tainted.
This separation is a continuing process, we see it everything from the privatization of public goods, to the shaping of foreign policy.
Privatization, of a public good, take water for example, takes the political issues of access, safety, maintenance, and price out of the political democratic domain and into the unregulated, unaccountable domain of the global economy. Hence Thames water can waste tonnes of water, forcing limited usage and higher prices and face no consequences, or internationally, the poorest people of Tanzania can no longer have access to clean water, owned by French companies, and their government can do nothing about it. Democracy loses relevance.
Taking foreign policy, the most obvious example, the Iraq war, the public good of our armed services has been deployed to ensure energy resources and reconstruction contracts for the global economy. With no relevance to the democracy that sent them there.
It’s a simple point, but a fundamental one I believe. If a government does not manage public goods, what does it do?
I invite people to help me revive my faith in our political system. Tell me I’m wrong, tell me my political life is not slowly but surely being stripped of politics.
