The Pendulum of History

The pendulum of time and history and balance swings to and fro, fueled by human greed, need, suffering, ideals and sometimes love. Extravagant empires fall, replaced by committees with high ideals. Demagogues rise and fall. Noble causes, initially bringing good results deteriorate and must be ousted or overpowered. Branches sprout from the tree of life, flourish, bear fruit, then die and rot and fall, while new branches, more suited to the time or responsive to the discontents of human hearts take their place. Evil and good, like intertwining vines, bearing good and poisonous fruit, compete for the sunlight of a place in human experience. The pendulum swings too far in the direction of imperialism, and communism pulls it back. Communism pulls the pendulum too far, distorted by the darkness in human hearts [the force that always pulls the pendulum too far, reacting against the darkness that had pulled the pendulum too far in the other direction] and it too becomes a dead branch, falling to rot in the soil, leaving, perhaps, some seeds or nourishment useful for future growth—the ongoing evolution of human experience.

Industry brings new products and work opportunities, but greed and unbridled power abuse the laborer with long hours, unsafe working conditions, poor wages. The pendulum swings back in the power of unions, empowering workers to gain a fairer wage and decent working conditions. The unions then become corrupt. Entitled workers, indignant toward the white collars, demand conditions that make production unprofitable. Union bosses get fat. Worker strikes and walkouts neglect the common good. Garbage piles up on the street. Some good has come, but the pendulum swings too far.

Women are neglected and suppressed. They vie for attention and their rightful place. The pendulum swings and they can vote, earn money, choose to give birth or not, run companies and governments. But the momentum continues and career is esteemed above motherhood, women begin to look and act more like men, “patriarchy” becomes the invisible enemy, the “glass ceiling”. “Femi-nazism” emerges. Manhood itself is denigrated. Some good has come but the pendulum swings too far.

The Civil Rights movement was a pull against the pendulum swung in the direction of racism. Fueled by the power of truth and justice, it succeeded. Reactionary indignation against white supremacy along with the addictive grasp of power, however, breeds entitlements and reactionary discrimination against the invisible [perhaps now imaginary] enemy of “white privilege”. Social programs that are prejudiced toward blacks geared to re-balance the societal injuries of racial suppression take on a life of their own and push beyond the limits of their need. Good has come, but the pendulum swings too far.

Advocates of any worthy cause are by nature pulling against some other societal force deemed by those advocates as pathological. There seems to be a tendency in this struggle to become blind to the actual or potential pathology inherent in that for which one is advocating, and a concurrent blindness to any good that might exist in that which is advocated against. If we could recognize this tendency, it would certainly advance civility and diminish pathological polarities.

A guiding principle to aid this more enlightened exercise of power is to remain mindful that the line that separates good from evil goes through the heart of every human, and therefore every nation, party or people group. In almost every ideological struggle, there is truth and error on both sides. In our struggle for our ideological preference/s, we must not lose sight of the over-arching pursuit of ultimate Truth, which by definition is good for the whole of humankind. If we do lose sight of it, we will neglect to acknowledge the dark side of our own ideology, and we will exaggerate the dark side of our adversaries.

Jesus addressed this issue succinctly: “Why is it so easy for you to see the speck in your brother’s eye, and so difficult for you to see the beam in your own eye. Don’t be a hypocrite! Get the beam out of your own eye first; then you can see more clearly how to help your brother [opponent/adversary] get the speck out of theirs.” Pathological polarization is manifested when adversaries focus exclusively on the specks and overlook the beams.

An interesting phenomena currently evident in America is the tendency to morbidly over-emphasize the “beam”, that is, the problems and failures of our nation; and to see America, in an exaggerated way, as a perpetrator of evil in the world. This takes healthy introspection to a pathological level and erodes the healthy sense of nationalism. There is much about America that we should be thankful for and healthily proud of; while we continue to acknowledge and overcome our dark side, which always exists in every nation and individual. We should neither exaggerate nor minimize our own or others’ faults or virtues.