I started watching the series Cobra Kai on Netflix this
week. It takes up the story thirty years later of the characters from the
Karate Kid movie. It starts showing us
the defeated bully’s life as full of suffering and bitterness. And it shows
Daniel the youth who overcame the bully as a seemingly happy successful person.
(I look forward to see how this develops). To some this may have seemed like a satisfying
life trajectory of the two protagonists of that movie. It would have been my
hope in seeing Cobra Kai that Johnny the bully would have learned compassion
after losing. He seemed to acknowledge it at the end of the first movie. But
then we would not have had a plot line for the new show Cobra Kai. But it
started me thinking how often we get stuck in our way of being and find it hard
to transform ourselves. How the impact of trauma and early life experiences so
often mold us.
When we are young we just accept as experiences as they are because
that is all we know of our world. And often we live our whole life with that
same mindset of those childhood experiences. I know growing up in the Bronx and
New York City there were potential dangers at every corner. In truth for the
early part of my life, I did not care why the dangers were there, I just wanted
to be protected from them. Being of short stature and little physical ability I
learned that humor, negotiation and allyship helped me survive. Even once I
would have to say that providence intervened via the help of total strangers to
save me.
As I got older, I kept looking around corners for dangers. Although
some of that fear is bias conditioned from a young age, some of it is real.
There is real danger in the world. Some
people live their whole life in this protection mindset. If I have enough money
I can move far enough way. I can build a wall around my housing development. I
can be protected by the police from danger.
This mindset of protection can infect every aspect of peoples lives and
they see every interaction as a battle to protect what they have and they use
lawyers and a sense of shared loyalty to protect themselves from any challenge.
Many people live their whole lives this way. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Somewhere along the line I changed. At some point, I started
asking why is there danger? Why is there poverty? Why are drugs illegal which
caused so much of the violence in my neighborhood (did we learn nothing from prohibition?)
Some of my change was due to my Jewish upbringing which stressed helping the
most vulnerable as we often were throughout history. I was raised with a penchant
for critically thinking and to question everything. Some of my change was due
to my Unitarian Universalist tradition that opened my heart and mind to new
ways of thinking. A large part of my
change was the adoption of my children who are Korean and seeing how they were
treated differently as they grew older. I protected them where I could, but
there are things I could not protect them from. Another large impact on my
thinking was my interaction with people who were different from me. I learned that their experiences with the
government were not the same as mine and I learned how systemically people were
kept oppressed. But mostly, I would have to say I experienced that love overcomes
fear. So I combined all of this and I learned and I changed.
We often shy away from the word evil in this life. But it is
clear people do evil things. Time and awareness has changed my world view as to
what were the evil things being done in the world. For me it is to cause harm
to others for no reason. Those who would accumulate wealth at the expense of their
fellow citizens causes harm for no reason. Not providing adequate health care
even though we can afford it causes harm for no reason. Not providing adequate
housing and education for our citizens (while people are building mansions) causes
harm for no reason. Not providing enough food for those in need even though we
have more then enough causes harm for no reason. Locking up people in jail for
drugs (while we have easy legal access to much stronger pharmaceuticals) causes
harm for no reason. Remember evil spelled backwards is live. I know that is trite
but it gives me hope that things can be turned around. We can choose to live.
We can choose to make things in this world better. One thing that is certain is
we will all die. So how we live matters.
And so the question that comes to me now is how to combat People Who Do Evil Things (PHODETS).
I was raised being taught that non violent action to appeal to the conscience of
Americans was the way to achieve change. We saw it used by Gandhi in India. He
had some victories with it, but in truth I believe World War II had more to do
with ending Britain’s occupation of India. We saw it used successfully in the
South to end Jim Crow laws by Martin Luther King Jr. He and many others died
for it anyway. King also had the benefit of having the Black Panthers and Malcom
X as an violent alternative that led White Americans to side with MLK Jr.
History shows us more often then not, dictatorships crush non violent resistance.
There are exceptions of course. Ultimately it comes down to the armed services.
Now we are not a dictatorship in America yet. But the PHODETS keep talking as
if they would not object to America being a dictatorship. So I can not rule out
a violent response completely in the future. It is true fear of violence will put
people in protection mode. But fear of violence can also bring people to an alternative.
A Middle Way.
A Middle Way is not a compromise but rather a better higher
alternative. Imagine the top of a isosceles triangle. In the middle, but higher
then either polarity. I believe most people do not want violence. It is not too
late to avoid this catastrophe that is approaching. We can and MUST VOTE. We
must do whatever we can to make sure this election is legal. We must stand up to
every indignation and malfeasance that PHODETS put forward. Every single one. We
must use what our unique skills are and use them to promote a better way of
being and living to confront Americans with an alternative to the PHODETS.
We must adjust our values in this country. Our values should
not be to have the biggest house and car and every contraption known to
humankind. Our values as a country should be Justice, Equity and Compassion. We
can grow and change. We do not have to suffer catastrophe to transform. We can
choose to learn and be open to change and thus transform. At least that is my
hope. Look around. Learn. Awake. We can reduce physical suffering by generosity
of our spirit and our wealth as a country. We do not have to be bitter and
suffer just because someone else is getting a little help. There is more then enough
of creation for everyone. We do not have
to live always looking around corners for danger and figuring out ways to
protect ourselves. We can choose to change. We can choose love. We can choose
the Middle Way. The alternative is catastrophe.
