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If we look at history, I think we can see a constant swinging back and forth between two poles, Right and Left, representing two necessary values. Those two necessary values have something to do with the first task of life (building the container) and the second task of life (filling it with contents), but they also need and feed one another. One emphasizes continuity and authority in a culture (“conservatives”) and the other emphasizes change and reform in that same culture (“progressives”).
The first task seeks order, certitude, clarity, and control. It is the best way to start. But whenever that pattern is in place for too long or is too overbearing, what will eventually emerge is a critical alternate consciousness. Whenever the law-and-order thing is overdone, another group of people will react against it. Once you have an establishment, you will eventually have a dis-establishment. When some have all the power, those who don’t have power ask very different questions, and the pendulum swings back again—eventually. That has been the story of most of history and the sequencing of most revolutions. It is understandable and predictable, although the extremism on both sides could be avoided if we had more initiated elders who held the middle.
Adapted from A Lever and a Place to Stand:
The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer, pp. 96-97
(See also
A Lever and a Place to Stand:
The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer (CD))
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