In Nature of Good and Evil and The Other

Humans have a propensity to squabble and fight. We look to the animal world as an example of how to live peaceably together, thinking that predators hunt purely to eat and that other creatures fight only during mating season or in defense of territory. Perhaps that's not quite true. Being a lover of all things avian I spend alot of time watching wild birds. I've seen a gang of mickey birds attack a blue-faced honeyeater for no apparent reason. They piled on top of the bird, like players in a rugby scrum, until the honeyeater was on his back on the ground, screeching in anger and fear. Another time grey crowned babblers attacked a crested pigeon, poking out his eyes and pulling blood feathers. That was an awful moment. I tried to catch the pigeon to put him out of his misery but he flew blindly off into thick bush. I hope he was lucky enough to be stumbled upon by a goanna or a fox. Those same babblers attacked a flightless cockatoo we had and bloodied her as well. If I hadn't heard her screaming and driven them off who knows what may have happened? Perhaps they attacked as they thought she was injured and would draw the attention of a hawk. I don't know. But that explanation doesn't work for the mickey birds and blue-faced honeyeaters. When I watch them repeatedly gang up on a blue-faced and drive them away it reminds me of racism. Honeyeaters don't compete with mickeys. Mickeys will drink nectar from flowers, they are mostly insect eaters. The mickeys tolerate Little Honeyeaters, galahs, pigeons, figbirds, pee wees and babblers but not the blue-faced. Is it that that their faces are blue? Is it a colour thing? To mickey birds is blue the black (yellow, red or brown) of the bird world?

All internecine squabbles are forgotten when a true predator arrives. Mickeys, especially mickeys, but willie wagtails, pee wees, magpies and blue-faced will fly screaming to mob a kookaburra or hawk. When the predator is driven off, the birds will resume their feuding.

Perhaps the human race needs an alien invasion to find peace. When I was in school I saw how easily kids could be divided or united depending upon who was named the common enemy. Homerooms competed against homerooms, classes against classes, males against females, even competitions whose teams were formed depending upon the first letter of your surname. Then of course we would be united when competing against another school in sports. There always has to be an Other to hate as common cause. Bananabenders (Queensland) against cockroaches (New South Wales), the Maroons against the Blues. But we are all Australians when it comes to cricket. Or white-skinned Europeans when it comes to Asians or Aborigines.

Yet when the floods of last year wrought such death and destruction, total strangers appeared at victims houses armed with shovels and buckets and brooms. Not just for a day but for weeks. Thousands of them. An army of volunteers. Our Premier, who was a rather lacklustre leader prior to the flood, absolutely shone. She was inspired and inspirational. We had common cause. The Other was the enemy, something we could all agree upon and work to eradicate.

The Other is an interesting concept for it suggests the opposite of the person naming it. The opposite in race, creed, locale, religion, age or sex. The opposite in contrast. Which brings up the nature of good and evil. Something I've never understood. I wonder sometimes if evil exists only because there is good and vice versa. The more good exists, the more evil MUST exist to keep the balance. There is either light or the absence of light. The light may be very dim. It might be difficult to make out shapes but if you can see anything there is still light. Then, finally, there comes a point when there is no light and true dark reigns. Does absolute darkness imply absolute light? Because we have access to global news, Evil is as close as our home technology. And there is so much evil. Homo sapiens is a clever creative creature and when we turn that cleverness to cruelty we are very creative.

Yet we are also very clever and creative in our goodness. As one flourishes, so does the other. Would heaven be boring because contrast doesn't exist? No salty or sweet, no heat or cold, no dry or wet? Is contrast, ie, duality, the admission price we pay to be born, to enter into the richly textured, painful, joyous, confusing and crystalline tapestry of Life?

When I meditate in a vain and failed attempt to know the Absolute, what would I find should I succeed? The Absolute implies One. Non-duality. I am me yet I am also dimly aware of the Watcher who watches me thinking. The duality of existence. The suffering of duality. Yet also the Joy of Being in this frail, confused, rather dim creature that I Am.

July 4, 2009, Independence Day in the States, well, tomorrow. It's not quite the 4th of July here yet. My stepson is on leave from Afghanistan, talked about how patriotic the Americans are. It's a funny thing patriotism. I used to think about it in school, not the flag waving American brand but how quickly we band together against The Other. My home room in a contest with other home rooms, my class against other classes, my school against other schools, my state against other states and then of course, my country against and better than other countries. Sometimes, in my bleaker moments, I think we need an alien invasion to stop us squabbling amongst ourselves and get us to pull together. It's a strange kink in the human psyche that we have this Us against Them attitude. We always find an Other, whether it's the Aryan super race against the Jews, Gypsies, political activists and anyone else who didn't fit their idea of the perfect specimen, or as I see it here in Oz, the *native* Australians against, let's see, 50 or more years ago, the Italians and Greeks and Yugoslavs or now, that the mediterranean immigrants have been here for several generations, those new *natives* against the tide of refugees seeking a new start in this lucky country at great personal risk to themselves. Yet we're so afraid of losing something to them (jobs? culture? race purity?) we attack them; the Indians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Africans, Asians, etc. They are now the Other. White is right.
Another thing that occurs to me is how each country, race, even continent, has their time in the sun. Hundreds of years ago, the Portuguese ruled the world - and the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, the English. Now, for awhile longer, altho the sun is setting on their economic empire, the Americans. Who will be next? The Chinese? The Indians? I place my bet on the Chinese. That will be a bitter pill to swallow. Improved communication, the aforementioned patriotism and our increased tendency to violent eruptions may mean disaster.
On the other hand, there is an increased Self-Awareness. I am not normally pessimistic about the fate of the world. More and more people are turning to Spirit, in whatever guise or label they understand. I'm NOT talking about fanatical evangelical Christianity (Jesus would be spinning in his grave if he had one) as that seems as violent as the hard line Islamics, both determined to wipe the other from the planet. I'm talking about what could be conveniently lumped under New Age, despite it not being very new: Zen Buddhism, Wiccan, Paganism, all the self-help gurus and teachers, the New Age ethos which harkens back to the basic tenet of all the major religions; humility, treating others as you would like to be treated, forgiveness and above all else, love. Violence spreads but so too does this. We may not be able to change the world but we can make major changes to our place in it.
It's something I work on alot. I get angry, impatient, snide, callous, selfish -- all those icky traits. I see them, don't like them, don't even overcome them all the time but I try. I have a problem with a girl at work. I know she is a gift so that I may work on myself. When I resent her I very much doubt she knows. I am courteous, cheerful, etc. but inside I'm seething. Who does it hurt? Me. Who does that help? No one. So I continue to plug away at seeing her, really *seeing* her as another soul who is doing the best she can at this time. Like me.
It would be better if we, the entire human race, saluted one another on meeting, with Namaste - my soul greets and salutes your soul - to keep us mindful of who we really are. And who they really are. *They* are not The Other. They are ourselves looking back at us. When I hurt her (and thoughts are things as far as I'm concerned) I'm not hurting her. I hurt myself. It's so obvious when I think about it. We are all interconnected. The butterfly and the typhoon thing. So when we do violence to them, in thought, word or deed, we do violence to ourselves. Isn't that sad? It's like the human race has a severe self-image problem.
All this talk about love and kindness and non-violence and there's a fly that keeps landing on my face. I want to kill it. Ironic, eh?