The world is flux, and people by their very nature want--and even maybe need--stability. The world is a question that's always changing, and no answer can be commensurate with it for long, or for many, or deeply.
I'm not sure that "justice" is possible. Perfect justice is almost certainly not possible. But I know that without some kind of definition, some attitude or set of precepts, no matter how sketchy, even the very imperfect human justice is impossible.
Likewise, compassion is not an emotion that people tend to feel towards everyone: without a good story and some justification to universalize things a bit, compassion tends to be only for compadres--people feel with people who are like them, who they can see themselves in.
Naturally, conceptual structures can't be adequate to the flux of experience. But a constant progress of . . well, I've heard it called "perches" and "flightings."
The bird doesn't live in its nest all the time. One nest is not good for more than a season. So you settle down and rest, and then, when the place where your resting isn't adequate anymore, when the season gets too cold for where you built it, you get up and fly again.
So, build a system. Tear it down and move on. And if you're going to try to systematize on the long run, you can try to build the process of moving on into it.
To reject systematic thought generally on the ground that it might perpetuate injustice is a little like saying, 'I shouldn't cut a walking stick. Someone can use it as a club.' Of course they can. But you still need the support at times.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-06-05 05:51 pm (UTC)The world is flux, and people by their very nature want--and even maybe need--stability. The world is a question that's always changing, and no answer can be commensurate with it for long, or for many, or deeply.
I'm not sure that "justice" is possible. Perfect justice is almost certainly not possible. But I know that without some kind of definition, some attitude or set of precepts, no matter how sketchy, even the very imperfect human justice is impossible.
Likewise, compassion is not an emotion that people tend to feel towards everyone: without a good story and some justification to universalize things a bit, compassion tends to be only for compadres--people feel with people who are like them, who they can see themselves in.
Naturally, conceptual structures can't be adequate to the flux of experience. But a constant progress of . . well, I've heard it called "perches" and "flightings."
The bird doesn't live in its nest all the time. One nest is not good for more than a season. So you settle down and rest, and then, when the place where your resting isn't adequate anymore, when the season gets too cold for where you built it, you get up and fly again.
So, build a system. Tear it down and move on. And if you're going to try to systematize on the long run, you can try to build the process of moving on into it.
To reject systematic thought generally on the ground that it might perpetuate injustice is a little like saying, 'I shouldn't cut a walking stick. Someone can use it as a club.' Of course they can. But you still need the support at times.