Before proceding
with the presentation of this model, I would like to make a couple
of things clear. Most importantly, my intention here is
to demonstrate "influential thinking" as an alternative
to the more widely known logical models of critical thinking.
Consequently, the most important aspect of this diagram is the
process of creating it and applying it. Following from this
perspective, one should keep in mind that this model is quite
arbitrary and is not to be taken as absolute truth. Rather,
it is created so that it is especially useful for seeing certain
things, but it is blind to others. It is one conceptual
model among many possible ones. The reductive simplicity
of the model is both a strength and a weakness. As you apply
it to various situations, you will see that the main virtue of
the model is the fact that it forces you to think about the multiple
influences on the object in question.
Justice is the most important theme of social philosophy.
Religion too is clearly preoccupied with the question or problem
of justice. Most of the great thinkers on this issue emphasize
the notion of justice as an interaction between humans in the
context of a society. Others stress the importance of
nature and non-human animals in their concept of justice.
This is an old debate that today takes the form of ecologists
and animal rights activists confronting those who put economic
and short-term individual human needs first. In discussing
the diagram I am presenting here I do not wish to enter into
a discussion of this debate. However, it is important
that I acknowledge my own bias toward a holistic perspective.
Any model of justice and success in society must be measured
by means other than profit and wealth. Be that as it may,
the diagram below is not necessarily bound up with my ecological
and economic convictions. Rather, the diagram acts as
a map to help demonstrate how a variety of forces interact to
produce Justice and Community in a society.
By placing Justice and Community in the center of the diagram,
they are portrayed as a function of the interaction of six forces
or "realities." Two of these forces are external
and objective. The other four are utterly human.
To begin with, the entire diagram is built upon a foundation
of two inescapable truths that condition our existence.
The first is ultimate reality itself--which for the scientist
consists of the cold hard facts that surround us. Basically,
these boil down to substances, energies and laws of physics.
For the religious person, there is also a divine or metaphysical
dimension. I refer to these facts with the Hindu
term Dharma, by which I wish to include the Chinese concept
of the Tao, the Egyptian Ma'at, and the Christian
Logos, and Creation itself. One other essential
truth of Dharma is the fact that "there ain't no
free lunch." Work is required for everything.
Technology allows us to move our labor to other areas, but in
reality, work in the sense of exertion, perseverence and concern
for quality is a reality that we can try to escape from, but
somehow the "bill is always paid." Labor, like
Dharma, permeates the entire diagram.
The second objective aspect of reality is Time. By this
I refer to the factuality of the passing of time, the unavoidability
of death, decay, entropy and change. It would also include
the few things that remain relatively unchanged over time, as
well as the laws of growth and evolution (or creation) within
a biological system. Language itself is an extension of
this. It limits and conditions our experience. It
marks time with tenses and creates memory. Memory and
archives of information are man-made, but they are a sort of
inescapable truth that determines our reality. Like the
Kantian categories of perception, our experiences and our creations
are always limited by our perceptual apparatus that marks things
in space and time. These are the proverbial "irremovable
goggles" or our reception of the universe. Within
this model, Time has two primary aspects--objective flow of
time and subjective perception of the flow of time and space.
In other words, experience. Now-Here. Past &
Future.
The four human forces are extreme reductions or "condensations"
of broad impulses at work in our minds and societies.
Violence is meant in the most broad terms as any form of arrogance
or subjugation that is used to create power for us. It
would be more accurate to use the less moralistic term "power"
here, but for political and rhetorical purposes, I am stressing
the negative aspects of power to illustrate the essential imbalance
in modern culture. Power is an inescapable reality of
existence. We cannot eat without doing some amount of
violence to the Earth. Even the most extreme vegan diet
depends on a degree of violence. Meat eating is a more
extreme form of violence which causes repercussions in the
Dharma through pollution, increased resource consumption
and health problems. The very notion of "penal code"
depends on a willingness to imprison or punish people for their
actions. Nationalism and racism are examples of this arrogance--the
ability to favor one group of people over another, which can
lead to war, slavery, colonialism, etc. In other words,
the concept of "violence" in this diagram is extremely
broad in scope. It is the exertion of power over others
and nature.
Hedonism is the force of laziness and escapism--leisure, entertainment,
sex, drugs and rock & roll. It includes everything
from the most sophisticated of the arts--classical music and
poetry, to reality TV shows like Fear Factor and Jackass.
It also includes the "vacation", the "weekend"
and the curious English verb "to party." It's
not hard to see how important this force is in our lives.
It's also easy to see how excesses in this regard cause problems
in the other three dimensions.
Intelligence includes all forms of information, knowledge,
bureaucracy, law and technology. It is the application
of human intelligence to our lives. It is necessary for
all forms of industry and government. The question of
the control of information is becoming more and more important
for society. Interestingly, as people become increasingly
able to access information and knowledge, they also become much
more inclined to Hedonistic escapism. Instead of going
to the Internet and newspapers to find out what is happening
in the world, many people prefer to go shopping, watch reruns
of Friends or Monday Night Football.
Reverence is similarly defined in broad terms. It includes
all forms of tradition, ritual and manners. It also includes
the concept of holistic or ecological thinking. It embraces
the concept of sacredness and the scriptures or myths of a society.
It is the conservative force at work in society, but it is also
the impetus toward environmentalism and human rights.
Every socio-political perspective hinges upon a conception of
what we should be reverent toward.
So, let's take a look at the diagram itself:
