Yin/Yang Power of the Middle

With the war raging between the political left and the right, the blues and the reds played out on MSNBC and FOX News, you’d think that either Keith Olbermann or Sean Hannity will one day rally their forces to ultimate victory. Liberals on one side, Conservatives on the other constantly pulling for our attention with often heated, angry rhetoric as their battle cries. W supporters brawling with fans of O, preparing for “hand-to-hand combat“, you’d think conflict is never ending?

But, just how do we survive the dog fight and aftermath of these clashing titans of the political realm?

Perhaps it’s the mick in me but I still take solace in the chalice, so to speak. In the Arthurian legends we learn that the Holy Grail was forged and protected by the Neutral Angles, those that took neither side in the Lucifer Rebellion. These middle path angels later delivered the chalice to earth and the story begins.

A few years back, while studying at a Daoist Monastery in China, I often reflected on a second symbol of the middle path, revered for its power and purpose. The Yin/Yang highlights the extremes continually blending back into the middle ground. Understanding a philosophy from half a world away shosw us that the ultimate power comes from the middle, comes from our core both personally and collectively.

Now, the middle does not mean milk toast, it certainly does not mean feeble or inadequate. The middle path only uses its power when its action will be most warranted and effective. Its potency lies in its dormancy, until the need for proper action. No flailing about at the fringes or screaming at the extremes, the middle path has no need for brazen political gymnastics. As Robert Frost put it, “We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.” Perhaps the words of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto while reflecting on the attack of Pearl Harbor work as well. “I can run wild for six months … after that, I have no expectation of success.”

While so many these days busy themselves blaming President Obama or President Bush for all the ills that have befallen us, many are choosing the middle path. Perhaps, unlike any time before, they are beginning to stir; as well they should. It’s time to reawaken as our common futures depend on the silent majority beginning to take a stand. As it does, someone will be held responsible.

As I read the stories of “too big to fail banks” or bailouts and waivers for one politically connected group after another, about our Constitution being treated like an annoying inconvenience and I think back to these words attributed to Yamato, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Keep pushing us, keeping robbing our futures, keep protecting your cohorts instead of your constituents, keep listening to the Sirens Call.

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Join me at The Brian Brawdy Show, Liberty’s Line in the Sand

In a day when the 24-hour news cycle slathers our TV and computer screens with thrashing political points of view and screeching bias, you wonder what happened to debate and cordial discourse. Today, screaming one-sidedness steals the show. Frothing-at the-mouth-while-finger-pointing gets the Nielsen.  Winning “the Book” is all about ear-piercing partisanship.

The war of words and insults fills our airwaves, websites and blog posts. Politics, Religion, Economics, Climate Control and the list goes on. Little discussion, tons of dispute. Mostly conflict, no conversation. Bipartisanship? Talk about folklore. What a joke. There’s way too much blame being thrown around by both pundits and politicians for any real bipartisanship.

Why is that, do you suppose?

I don’t blame “the Media” as much as I blame you and me. Most media outlets simply cater to our culture.  It may be entertaining; I’ll give you that. But with the uphill battles we are facing as individuals and as a country, shouldn’t we be looking for a bit more articulation and a little less ass-inine attitude. Don’t get me wrong. I like a good fight as much as the next guy (I’m a Irish, beer-loving, brawling ex-New York cop) but do these political hotheads truly, genuinely help the process by highlighting their impulse control disorders? Some are crying for the President to “go gangsta” and channel his “inner Al Capone” while others lament he isn’t going “Chicago-Style” enough. Please. Save it for the pizza.

So as we prepare to watch President Obama, Senator Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi  “go Nuclear” over health-care, using reconciliation as a tactic,  clearly there will be a new “R-word” making the news cycle.