Today I was asked about politics, power, and justice. "How does it look with ONT?"
Interpreted very loosely and using common terminology, I suggested that left-wing politics focuses on "mind over matter" strategies and right-wing politics focuses on "matter over mind" strategies.
This is interesting in and of itself. But now, what of emotion? Few would displute that mind, matter, and emotion are inextricably linked -- somehow.
What the dominant political factions have in common is that both function (and fuel their mutual struggle) by pretending that emotion is not at play. I'm going to write that sentence one more time and put it in bold so you are sure to pay close attention. 
What the dominant political factions have in common is that both function (and fuel their mutual struggle) by pretending that emotion is not at play.
Any time we pretend something is not there and then defend the pretense that there is no need to be that thing (in this case emotional), we enter what I refer to in ONT as a Bind of Partiality.
To frame some of the political shebang in terms of ONT, partiality in politics can be viewed in terms of love, power, and justice. These are the three zero tension states of cyclic order 7 (1st diagram below).
Its analysis in terms of Binds of Partiality looks like this:
- Right and left wing factions are struggling for control of The Empowerment Bind. (Justice and Power)
- Third party-ers are in The Idealist Bind. (Love and Justice)
- Those who are "above justice," that is, already in power politically or have money to influence it, are in The Mafioso Bind. (Power and Love)
Together we seek the Freedom from Partiality that I refer to as The Manifestation State. (2nd diagram below) That is, Love, Power, and Justice in balanced flow with each other. "Manifestation" may make you I think of Law of Attraction -- I use the word in a broader sense than that.
[For assistance in understanding the role of assumptions and logical omissions in Binds of Partiality, view my page Reality Morphing - a simple visualization.]
It's not always emotions being ignored either. We've all experienced the Binds of ignoring thoughts that matter or things that think (like other people with opinions different than ours). If I am right about the emotionless two-party political firestorm in the US, how is there any hope of making progress to something more civil? The real struggle vexing us is our culturally-divisive attachment to mind-over-matter vs. matter-over-mind strategizing.
Brass Tacks, please
"Hold on. Put on the brakes here. Are you waxing philosophical, because everybody knows philosophy is not practical and we need practical solutions?!" (rhetorical question)
Ironically, dismissal of philosophical issues too requires pretense. Let's pretend there are not deep existential questions that brood, often unacknowledged, below the surface of intransigent perspectives. Given the structure of things like elections (and in some cases revolutions), politics is always a pivotal reflection of current intransigencies. Any place of stuckness, philosophically- or otherwise-motivated, has the potential to play a pivotal part.
A final word on emotion. How did you feel about my use of the word "emotionless" to describe the current political firestorm? Did it sit with you as wrong somehow, or upset you as seeming true but deeply ironic? Let me say a few words more about emotionality at the level of the specific Binds of Partiality at cyclic order 7, were love, power, and justice are intricately at play.
This level requires a meaning of emotions not as purely individual bodily phenomena but as social/cultural phenomena, by which I mean express abstractions that arise in our shared search for commonalities. I am applying it to politics here, but that's hardly the only place it's true.
So, if my specific use of "emotionless" did not bother you, perhaps you instinctively see emotions as layered in relation to self and culture and other systems. If your response was "what do you mean emotionless! I/Others are clearly tied up in emotions over this election!" then perhaps you are caught up in the bodily feelings of dissonance between what is being said and done in relation to Greater Good.
Everyone has their particular desires for justice, power or love that make it hard to push aside the veil. I've been experiencing lately in my precious veil-free moments, that there is room for being enraged even within the responsible, caring, generous individuals we enjoy Being within a reality that reflects the same back.
Good luck with stepping into your choices and fulfilling your civic duties in ways that inspire!
In existential solidarity,
michelle
Original publish date Nov 4, 2016
Test