Approaching dualities
Ilya Shambat
The Western thinking and Eastern thinking is both dualistic; however
the dualities are treated in West and East in completely different
ways. Whereas the Western thinking posits valued dualities, in which
one side is good and the other is evil, the Eastern thinking posits
value-neutral dualities that interact with and interpenetrate one
another. And whereas the thinking of Eastern philosophy concerns with
achieving balance among the dualities - and the thinking of Taoism is
concerned with seeing past the dualities to the nondual reality - a
thinking more pertinent to the world would be concerned instead with
maximizing the positive outcomes for each side of the duality and for
their interaction, while minimizing the negative effects of both.
The value-neutral dualities - such as male and female, nature and
civilization, business and labor, private sector and public sector,
thinking and feeling, self-interest and altruism - are made value-
neutral by the fact that they both exist, not by moral choice based on
values, but simply as parts of reality. Not existing by moral choice,
they have zero correlation with moral judgment. Zero correlation with
moral judgment means: Tendency toward good; tendency toward bad; and
tendency toward indifferent; will be found in each side of the
duality. And the process of maximizing the positive outcomes and
minimizing the negative outcomes will consist of - each side checking
the other's harmful tendencies; leaving each other alone where the
direction is positive; and collaborating with each other when such is
beneficial.
The non-valued dualities can interact in these ways:
- One can impact the other positively;
- One can impact the other negatively;
- One can impact the other in a mixed or neutral manner;
- One can operate independently of the other toward either positive,
negative or value-neutral outcomes;
- The two can collaborate in a positive manner;
- The two can collaborate in a mixed or neutral manner;
- The two can collaborate in a negative manner.
A viable approach toward maximizing the beneficial outcomes and
minimizing the negative outcomes will see all these potentials and
work to enhance the positive ones and minimize the negative ones.
In addition to value-neutral dualities such as the preceding, there is
also such a thing as valued dualities. Dualities such as health and
disease, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, are neither equal nor
are they of equal value. In valued dualities, one is good and the
other is bad; and the benefit comes from maximizing the good side and
minimizing the bad side. One of the greatest errors one can commit is
to confuse value-neutral dualities with valued dualities and to claim
value-neutral duality like "man and woman" to be comparable to a
valued duality such as "good and evil." There is no room for this
error, as it results in horrible wrong - either that error be of
claiming men good and women bad, or of claiming good and evil to be
equal in value. In both cases a terrible error is committed, and
pursuant it a great wrong is done. The non-valued dualities are only
similar to valued dualities in their dualism. Beyond that, similarity
between them ends.
This error has been taken to variously disastrous ends by various
forces in society. Whether misogynists claiming men to be good and
women to be evil, Republicans claiming private sector to be good and
public sector to be evil, socialists claiming workers to be good and
business to be evil, rationalists claiming reason to be good and
feelings to be evil, or groups claiming civilization to be good and
nature to be evil, nature to be good and technology to be evil, spirit
to be good and physicality to be evil, self-interest to be good and
collective interest to be evil, or collective interest to be good and
self-interest to be evil, in all cases a giant error is committed and
a great wrong is done.
All of the above-mentioned forces are value-neutral. They are all
capable of action good, bad and indifferent. Claiming one to be good
and the other to be evil results in wrongs condoned and
institutionalized on the part of the first side of the duality, and a
brutal and hideous oppression against the second side, including its
capacity to produce positive effects. And while we see many movements
on the part of the second side in either of these (and many other)
dualities claiming their side to be good and the first side to be
evil, the truth of the matter is that neither side is either good or
evil. Both are value-neutral; both are capable of right, wrong, and
indifferent.
The valued-duality approach, when applied to value-neutral dualities,
is therefore disastrous. This is the kind of thinking that leads to
creation of ever-growing hostilities, ever-growing abuses, and ever-
growing waste of potential. The correct approach to dealing with value-
neutral dualities is to see their capacities - to destructive
outcomes; to neutral outcomes; and to beneficial outcomes. And then to
- reduce the first; leave alone the second; and encourage the third
where possible. All are there; all are legitimate; all are capable of
both positive and negative outcomes. The goal in all cases is to
maximize the value for each and of benefits of both while minimizing
the negative effects.
The public sector and private sector are both there because they serve
demand - the first at the poll booth, the second in the marketplace.
Business and labor are two components of the production process.
Nature and civilization are both parts of the world - the first of the
world as not created by human being; the second of the world as
created by human beings. As for self-interest and humanity-interest, a
being that exists both as individual self and as part of its species
will have natural inclinations toward benefit of both, with different
levels, in different people, and at different times in their lives. In
all cases, we see value-neutral dualities that can either injure each
other, leave each other alone, or work together. And in all cases, the
interaction must be aimed at reducing the negative effects and
maximizing the positive ones.
This is achievable in a three-tier model. At the bottom level, each
side in the duality has right to protect itself from the negative
effects of the other side. Civilization has right to protect itself
from viruses and harmful bacteria; people concerned for well-being of
the world and the future generations have right to protect rich and
essential environments from destruction. Business has right to protect
itself from Luddites and robbers; labor has right to protect itself
from brutal and corrupt business practices. Private sector has right
to protect itself from excessive regulation; public sector has right
to protect itself from those who think that it is evil while they are
benefiting daily from the science, infrastructure, policing, defense,
and the Internet that it has put into place. Finally, individual
interest has right to protect itself from oppression, tyranny, and
similitude, as does humanity-interest from those whose self-interest
demands planetary destruction or mass murder.
In the middle level, each side in the duality should accomplish the
most of itself while leaving the other alone to accomplish the most of
itself. Civilization should blossom, and so should nature, as human
intelligence makes it possible to fulfill the needs of humanity in a
manner that less impinges upon the natural world. Public sector should
leave the private sector to do its work of producing prosperity, and
private sector should leave the public sector to do its work of
defense, law enforcement, education, infrastructure, and facilitation.
Likewise, the humanity-interest should leave people to define who they
are, become who they want to be, and express to fulfillment their life
and liberty - just as individual interest should leave humanity-
interest to do its work of protecting human rights and creating a
livable world and a livable future for humanity.
At the top level, the value-neutral dualities should engage in
positive collaboration that makes possible what either cannot do
alone. Implementing high-technology, high-intelligence clean energy
and water solutions, greening the cities and suburbs, creating
synthetic life-forms to clean out landfills, producing
nanotechnological devices to clean arteries or extend life, and
planting forests and farmland in places such as Sahara, Gobi, and
deserts of Australia, Arabia and American Southwest, will see humanity
using its knowledge and technology to create a better future for
nature and humanity both. Private sector and public sector have worked
together in the past, with public sector providing science, education,
policing, defense and infrastructure that facilitate prosperity – and
the private sector creating the wealth to finance such work. As such,
they should work together now on putting in place sustainable and
effective clean-energy and clean-water solutions for the world. As for
self-interest and humanity-interest, the benefit is maximized when
people are given the freedom both to have meaningful choice over their
lives and to contribute to humanity what they have to contribute. In
this situation, both the self-directed aspect of human being and the
humanity-directed aspect are served and work for mutual benefit,
resulting in the complete solution - as opposed to either pure
individualism or pure collectivism, both of which create only a semi-
solution, or necrophilic arrangements such as ones of Myanmar, Burundi
or right-wing towns in which there is neither meaningful liberty nor
meaningful contribution to public good.
In the integrative solution, the negative effects of collective-minded
beliefs (oppression, tyranny, and similitude) are checked by
affirmation of individual life and freedom; the negative effects of
individualist beliefs (isolation, cruelty, short-sighted destructive
rapacity) are checked by affirmation of the needs of humanity; both
individual interest and humanity interest are acknowledged and are
served; and, at the top level, the two work together on matters of
interest to both individual people and humanity itself - matters such
as, for example, creating a livable and sustainable long-term future.
This approach to dualities recognizes, once again, their value-neutral
nature and as such their capacity - for harming the other (which is
checked by each protecting its prerogatives); for doing their own
thing (which is made possible by leaving each other to do their part
without negative interference); and for working together with one
another (which is made possible by collaboration where such is
beneficial). In this model, the negative effects are minimized, and
the positive effects are maximized - both for each side of the duality
and for what it requires them both to create. Checks and balances,
freedom, and collaboration, all exist in this model - and are applied
where they are applicable.
Further, care must be taken by entities external to each duality to
reduce the negative-collaboration potential. If, say, public sector
and private sector decide to join forces to create a fascist state
such as Franco's Spain or Pinochet's Chile, to wage unjust wars for
corporate interest, or to oppress and tyrannize people, the result is
negative collaboration: The dualities working together toward a
negative outcome. The negative-collaboration potential cannot be
corrected for from within the duality, but can be corrected for
externally to the duality - by voice of those who come at the
receiving end of the negative collaboration or those external to the
duality who see what is going on.
Whereas positive collaboration should be encouraged wherever possible.
The public sector and private sector working together on projects such
as the Interstate and the Internet have been the source of huge
economic boom and prosperity for the country. When thinking and
feeling work together, the result is insight and understanding
attained faster and deeper than by either of the preceding acting
alone, as well as intelligence informed by human experience that has
the possibility of actually being beneficial toward human existence.
When the needs of both nature and civilization are taken into
consideration in creation of economic benefit, the result is a
sustainable development that fulfils the needs of the man-made world
of civilization while leaving intact and wholesome the world of nature
that man has not created and cannot at this time recreate. When women
and men collaborate on creating and raising new life - when business
and labor work together to produce international economic prosperity -
when art and business work together to create embodied beauty - when
public sector science, Internet, Interstate and education are used by
the private sector to create technological prosperity - the results
are such that neither part would be able to accomplish alone.
Similarly there is potential for collaboration between altruism and
self-interest - to improve life both for individuals and humanity, as
people, by nature both themselves and part of humanity, are allowed to
strive according to that nature to improve both their lot and that of
humankind.
For more see
http://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatwritings/integrative