It is not our part to master al the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
R.R. Tolkien
Typical of leaders is the will to make improvements. After all, we are not enjoying the gift of life to see how quickly and effectively we can destroy it. We know, even though we don’t like to think and talk about it, that we are all going to die some day. That knowledge however does not persuade us to commit suicide as human species. We not only try to survive as long as possible but to also enjoy doing so. Perhaps precisely for the reason that we know life is temporary, we live life with the hope to live it to its fullest. And to live it to its fullest includes the idea that something of what we do with our lives will live on after our death.
Not many people will disagree with the statements above. But to stay in such a positive frame of mind, is a different matter. We often disappoint ourselves. We have good intentions about managing our own lives. We want to live more healthy, more caring, more disciplined, more spiritual, more productive, to name a few. But we often fail. Whilst we have good intentions, we find that we have a fight on our hands when we try to make it happen. If it is such a battle to do the good things on our personal agenda, how can we hope to do anything that will make a positive and lasting difference? If we look at the world, we see too much evil. At times, it really is overwhelming. Since we at least have good intentions and see ourselves as basically good rather than basically bad or evil, we expect to see signs of goodness rather than of evil in the world. We therefore often wonder, ‘why is there evil in the world?’. But, as Scott Peck suggests, perhaps we should wonder why there is good in the world. In terms of what we know of science, it is easier to explain evil. ‘That things decay is quite explainable in accord with the natural law of physics. That life should evolve into more and more complex forms is not so easily understandable…If we seriously think about it, it probably makes more sense to assume this is a naturally evil world that has somehow been mysteriously “contaminated” by goodness, rather than the other way round.’
In fighting the wrongs of the world, in trying to ‘uproot the evil in the fields’, we need help. To avoid evil is not as easy as we might feel it is. It depends a lot on our making the right choices over long periods of time. Choices that takes courage. My parents might have taught me that it is wrong to cheat in exams, but when I see my friend cheating, it takes more than the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, it takes a lot of courage to go and report him/her. Then it is a matter of consistently acting in accordance with our moral conscience. From a psychological perspective Erich Fromm explains: ‘The longer we continue to make the wrong decisions, the more our heart hardens; the more often we make the right decision, the more our heart softens-or better perhaps, comes alive.... Each step in life which increases my self-confidence, my integrity, my courage, my conviction also increases my capacity to choose the desirable alternative, until eventually it becomes more difficult for me to choose the undesirable rather than the desirable action. On the other hand, each act of surrender and cowardice weakens me, opens the path for more acts of surrender, and eventually freedom is lost ... Most people fail in the art of living not because they are inherently bad or so without will that they cannot lead a better life; they fail because they do not wake up and see when they stand at a fork in the road and have to decide. They are not aware when life asks them a question, and when they still have alternative answers. Then with each step along the wrong road it becomes increasingly difficult for them to admit that they are on the wrong road, often only because they have to admit that they must go back to the first wrong turn, and must accept the fact that they have wasted energy and time.'
In principal we do have free choices but then the unavoidable question is, in who’s interest do we make our choices. A question that can only be answered by oneself – since other people cannot know one’s deepest motives. In this regard, Scott Peck in his attempt to advance a psychology of evil concludes there are only two states of being: submission to God and goodness or the refusal to submit to anything beyond one's own will -which refusal automatically enslaves one to the forces of evil (from his book: People of the Lie). He defines evil as ‘the exercise of political power – that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion – in order to avoid spiritual growth’.
Indeed, to ‘uproot the evil in the fields that we know’ requires more than will power and focus on personal success. It requires spiritual depth and resilience. The fact that our history is full of atrocities committed in the name of God and religion, is proof that the lie does not limit itself to the secular world. What people say is one thing, what stands the test of time in terms of improving our world, is another. The challenge of the quote that I’ve given as the heading, is ultimately one for every person to answer to him or herself. In the role of leaders we might sometimes fall in the trap of thinking that we can ‘master al the tides of the world’ – at least as far as they can effect us. With such a mindset, disullusion is our foreland. Fighting the evil we know – the lies, the injustices, the immoralities, the hyporicies - in submission to and dependence upon God, surely makes life meaningful in all respects.
I wish you a wonderful spring and happy September.
Best regards
Gerhard
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