The Serpent
For many, “I am my brother’s keeper” is a strongly held religious belief. It has prodded governments to act ‘on behalf’ of its people and individuals to act ‘on behalf’ of the downtrodden. The concept seems noble at first glance, but the action it requires presupposes many other strongly held beliefs, the primary of which is that no one would choose to be downtrodden. Another is that we choose some things in our lives, but not all things. Another is that we can only control our destiny to a point and then ‘shit happens.’ But possibly the most strongly held belief is that we are nothing more than a happenstance meeting of a single sperm and egg and that what we see in the mirror represents the totality of who we are.
“I am my brother’s keeper” in actuality is a heavily camouflaged expression, for within its lofty idea is hidden a great serpent. It is called the serpent of discounting and it is rampant in the world. This serpent’s mantra is, “I can create your reality better than you can create your reality. I know what is best for you.” On its thousands of leathery scales are imprinted the words, “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Not.” The serpent of discounting was born during the age of Descartes and Newton. It was a time when man and the universe became a machine. As man forgot its connection to spirit the serpent grew larger and as the serpent grew larger mankind took on the mantle of victimhood. More victims required more brother’s keepers and like a snowball rolling down a steep hill the serpent grew to immense proportions. It is the serpent, draped in “I am my brother’s keeper’s” clothes, that sent the US into Iraq and now keeps us there. The serpent screams, “We must save the Iraqis from the tyrant. They prefer democracy, for democracy is better than its alternative.” The serpent screams, “Leave now and there will be a bloodbath in Iraq. You must continue to be “your brother’s keeper.” “You know best what is good for Iraq.” As products of a mechanistic age we can be nothing less than victims, for we are the product of happenstance. We are thrown into this world, not by our own choice, but by the random joining of sperm and egg. We live in the world of The Forgotten Self, where religion has us aspiring to gain admission to a “Better Place,” which takes our eyes off of THIS place. We feel insubstantial, insignificant and lonely, yet there is a small voice within us that cries out, “You are so much more than you believe.”
In My post, “Probable Selves – Many Mansions” I proposed a wider view of who we are and suggested that our ‘purpose’ here is simply to experience. Two days ago our news services reported an incident on Italian TV between an Italian female representative in the Italian parliament and an Italian Imam. The woman decried that Muslim law does not require women to wear a scarf and that it represent the idea of separation. The Imam denounced her and virtually decreed a Fatwa on national Italian TV. The woman is now protected by body guards. Both the woman and the Imam were acting as “My Brother’s Keeper,” each deciding what was best for someone other than
themselves. Both discounted the choices of others and both discounted each other. The mantra is, “I am right and you are wrong.”On a grander scale the US is doing the same thing in Iraq. Because we see ourselves as poor, defenseless beings where bad things happen to good people we feel responsible for the welfare of the Iraqi people, thinking that if they had better sense they would not be killing each other. It is up to us wiser and more enlightened folks of the western world to show them the ‘Way.’
This thinking occurs in every aspect of our daily lives and is a direct result of thinking small about who we are as human beings. All of this is not to say that we should not care, or to offer help when it is asked for if it is our individual choice to do so. But, to unilaterally intervene on another’s behalf because we believe they have no choice but to be victims is an extreme case of non-acceptance. If you can accept a Muslim woman’s choice to wear head cover or a 
gay couple’s choice to marry then you are on the way to acceptance. If you believe you must intervene on behalf of another without being asked then you are in judgment mode. If you judge those that judge you are not being accepting. When you move into acceptance the world you create will respond in kind.Bill Marshall
posted by Bill Marshall at 12:55 PM
4 Comments:
Fear and hubris are stong motivators. Each is born in judgment. Some believe that with power comes responsibility to use that power for some greater purpose. For some, that purpose is to gain more power. For others it is to promote what they believe to be righteous and noble. For others, it is translated into the desire to control. The fiasco of Iraq shows all of these motivations, and more. We each shape our own reality by interpreting and acting on the stimulii that we perceive. Our actions then alter the stimulii that others confront. For many, especially those who have lived in Iraq, the last three years have been filled with near constant pain and fear. Many lives have been altered in the process. While we each create a reality based on our reaction to the stimulii, the stress created by war has so radically altered the stimulii that it has had a corrosive impact on many lives. One easily can be generous and believe that this war of choice was predicated on noble motivations. However, no war is good for those whose lives and property are lost, whose lives are scarred, or whose reality is shattered. Best regards - Bill
Hi Bill. Thanks for your comments. I know you've given them some thought. My only comment to your comments is that it is laced with your own beliefs regarding good and bad. My post, "The Serpent" really wasn't that thew war was good or bad, but rather about the beliefs that generated the action. Some of these strongly held beliefs were those of the need for protection; that democracy is better than dictatorship; that it is our responsibility to save the world, etc. What I was getting at in the post was not that war is bad or good, but that without examining the beliefs that drive us, we are acting without conscious choice and therefore we are without freedom. I suspect that when any of us use the words "good or bad" we use them in way of judgment and surmise that in some way our good and bad are universal truths. They are not, but they are our individeual truths that we turn into absolutes until we come to the awareness that they are merely our truths. Once that realization dawns then we are free to choose differently.
Bill Marshall;
As a counsellor, I'm aware of the tendency in myself to "rescue" my clients, i.e. step in with my own judgement as to their problems, needs and vulnerabilities. In fact, the answers to their perceived problems lie within themselves, and all I really do is help them to see this. Rescuing others, in the therapeutic sense, is ulimately disempowering, even when the therapist is doing it with the best intentions. In the end, my truth might not be my clients' truth...
Hi Alex,
I like your 'take' on this. But, since your patients seek you out then I believe they have drawn you into their lives for their individual reasons. The therapeutic model I see as somewhat different then 'stepping' in on a dispute uninvited and offering your own view of what or who is right in the dispute. Trying to impart in your patients an understanding of their own perceptions must be a daunting task and even more difficult would be getting them to accept that in a dispute both parties are right. Finding a 'cooperation' point in that is a challenge even for those of us that have found the Elias information helpful. Pointing out someone's active beliefs and then offering the paradox that their beliefs are true but not absolute, true but not true at the same time seems at times takes a magician to resolve. Thanks for your comments, Alex.
Bill Marshall
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home