Mind Check,
Clear Thinking to Effective Action to a Better World
This is the first essay in the blog of S.A. Saft called Mind Check, Clear Thinking to Effective Action to a Better World. In this blog the writer looks at the principles that all of us may use to shape the way we think to make our individual lives and the lives of those around us better, that is, to do our part to make the world a better place.
The assumption is that we are what we think and that the willful agent of the mind may control what we think. The assumption is that an untroubled mind—a clear mind—leads to a better life for the individual which in the aggregate produces a better world for all. The assumption is that all people of good will will want to act in a manner that is moral, to act in a manner that recognizes the obligation of the individual person to act in a manner that is in the best interest of all.
And who are people of good will? They are those who have freed themselves of self-defeating assumptions, thought-numbing beliefs, obsessions, or the need to control and manipulate others.
People of Good Will
People of good will are able to face and bring clarity to the process of analyzing the issues affecting themselves and their neighbors. People of good will are able to reach their own conclusions and act accordingly. People of good will are committed to pursuing the commonly agreed upon principles of the good. People of good will are committed to avoiding or withstanding or working against the thoughts, habits and actions of evil.
Yes, another assumption is that we may choose to be good or to be bad. These choices are the actions of our willful agent.
As a poet, novelist and playwright, the writer has been pursuing the subjects contained in this blog for many years. For a look at the writer’s creative work, see the website htpp://www.iwillmeanpoetry.com. The writer came to these ideas as a student of the holocaust who found in this tragedy a lesson for everyone, not just a particular ethnic group. Are holocausts and other forms of persecutions, wars and other examples of man’s inhumanity to man to remain a method by which human affairs are conducted in the future, or are we finally going to repudiate them through our words and through our actions for all time?
Seemingly Small Defects
The task of repudiating evil begins with the exposure and the correction of seemingly small defects, not just obviously large ones, in the way we think and what we think about and in how we act. Just as a seemingly small error in one’s genetic makeup earlier in life may develop into the life threatening cancer later so too a seemingly small error in thinking now may lead to gross injustices later. A small error in judgment now, for example, could lead to more Abu Ghraibs in the future. A small error in judgment now could lead to an even more widespread world of renditions and thus the even more widespread practice of torture.
Recently the writer began studying the sacred literature of the world’s religions as a student of the Blue Mountain School of Meditation and its founder Eknath Easwaran, and there is no doubt that this blog will owe a debt of gratitude to Sri Easwaran and the Blue Mountain School of Meditation. The writer also acknowledges his upbringing as a Jew and the lessons learned from an early age of this religion and its practices, but mainly he needs to call attention to his lifelong desire to speak to all people about our common failings and our common needs.
So Much Work to Do
We have so much work to do to make ourselves and our world better, both with respect to its moral and to its literal climates. In the months and years ahead, we need to be working on these goals, not squandering our energies, our moral capital, and our dollars and cents—and the lives of our fellow citizens and ten of thousands of innocent civilians—on ill conceived wars and other negative actions.
And so we begin….
COMIC RELIEF BRINGS NO RELIEF
The recent television show on HBO called Comic Relief was not the enjoyable evening of entertainment on behalf of a very good cause that it was intended to be. Why not? Why did the show so offend this writer that when he turned it off he was disinclined to contribute anything to Comic Relief? Is not the cause of rebuilding
The Issue is Language
The answer to these questions has to do with language. In the choices we make about the language we use, we communicate our attitudes and our beliefs. We also say a great deal about our judgment and inevitably the cause we are speaking for. When the language is inappropriate to the subject, say because the F word and other profanity and too graphic depiction of certain body parts, normally considered private—are used repeatedly, as in this case, a tension is created. There is nothing positive about this tension, and it works entirely against the cause that is being described. Listeners are made to feel ill at ease. They then turn the program off without taking the desired action.
No to Censorship
These assertions can be made without resorting to any call for censorship, and this writer certainly does not do that. The need to use profane language in public discourse, in literature, and on the media where the intent is to enhance the emotion of the message is a cause worth fighting for. However, because profane language is extreme language it needs to be used sparingly. Repeated indiscriminate use of such language, such as occurred on Comic Relief, is akin to pollution, sound pollution, like being forced to spend time without ear protection on the busy runway of a busy airport. Sound pollution is also mind pollution because it cannot be escaped. Our minds are dampened. We cannot think. We are made stupid by it.
The Lesson to be Learned
What is the lesson to be learned?? In other words, what is the morality of the issue? The language we choose in asking someone to do something like contribute to a worthy charity has everything to do with the effectiveness of our message. The leap from this kind of misuse of language and using language to express ethnic slurs is not that great. Sloppy use of language betrays sloppy thinking. Sloppy thinking in turn leads all too easily to the kind of gross insensitivity reflected in the use of ethnic slurs such as exhibited in public recently by the likes of Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and George Allen.
Yes, language is an extremely powerful tool, one of the most powerful we as humans have at our disposal. The words we use, the words we hear have everything to do with how we feel and how we act. Just as the words we use can save us so too the words we use can wound us, even kill us. That is one of the many lessons to be learned from the history of the Twentieth Century. Let us all try to exercise the best possible judgment in the words we use in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Enough said. Shortly the writer will be back with another contribution to Mind Check, Clear Thinking to Effective Action to a Better World. The title of the next essay is What Is Wrong With Passive Aggressive Behavior?
Copyright (c) 2007 by Stephen Alan Saft
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