** POLITICS AND SPIRITUALITY **

Eco-Watch

12/20/94

POLITICS AND SPIRITUALITY¹
Transforming Politics
By Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson

Politics is usually the last frontier in the process of cultural transformation. Our traditional but narrow definitions that view politics simply as "the pursuit of power," "the authoritative allocation of values for a society," or "the rallying of wills toward some cause" are part of the problem. Transformational politics is a more wholistic approach, promoting a symbiosis between personal and social change.

A new political paradigm is being developed by those whose minds and hearts have been opened through their own evolutionary development, and/or through the discipline of meditation or other consciousness training. Many of these innovators are working out prototypes for what we have come to call "transformational politics"--in which both individuals and society are transformed on a deep level. This new paradigm is related to emerging ideas in quantum physics, chaos theory, family systems therapy, and Eastern and Western spiritual traditions--all of which embrace a worldview in which everything is interconnected. This perspective embodies a nondualistic approach to politics--a whole-systems approach. A key tenet of the new transformational paradigm is "the personal is political, and the political is personal." This involves a kind of moral accountability where private lives must be lived in accordance with publicly stated principles. We must transform ourselves if we intend to transform the world. This perspective holds that everything we think, say and do has political implications--from consumer choices to personal growth work to how we compost our gardens. "The political is personal" also means that our public policies often reflect our collective psychological issues.

The old political paradigm assumed that events were caused solely by political leaders and public policies. The new emerging paradigm could be called "politics as if people mattered." It addresses causes inherent in our own human psyche, our thoughts and feelings, as well as in the karma of groups and nations.

The New Transformational Politics

The old political paradigm was based on the concept of economic growth, in which societies were thought to be doing well if they were at peace and growing economically. But the new political paradigm is a postmaterialist one, based on the image of healthy human growth. A successful society is one that places the physical, social, and spiritual health of the people above all else. This is reflected in the ancient wisdom of the Chinese, whose word for "governing" is the same as for "healing." A good politician is a healer of collective ills.

Those creating a transformational politics are exploring the deeper causes behind problems, because they want solutions that are long-term and sustainable, not just "quick fixes." This new transformational paradigm is based on certain key ideas:

Respecting the interconnection of all life.
Creating a synthesis out of adversarial positions.
Transcending old definitions of Left and Right.
Synthesizing the best of hierarchy and democracy for real empowerment.
Matching rights with responsibilities.
Promoting government initiatives to develop self-reliance.
Reframing the context of the debate.
Searching for common ground and the good of the whole.
Thinking in whole systems.
Creating nonviolent, win/win solutions to problems.
Building cooperative relationships that respect the highest in each person.
Learning to truly listen to other points of view.
Examining the psychological roots of problems.
Releasing enemy images.
Enhancing self-esteem.
Using intuition and "attunement" in decision making.
Shifting from a mechanistic toward a spiritual, value-oriented perspective.

This new political approach requires a "psychotectonic" shift, as UC Berkeley professor Robert Fuller calls it--a dramatic change in the psychological plates of consciousness, analogous to a shifting of the tectonic plates of the physical planet. It's a shift of our deepest assumptions about ourselves and what it is to be human. A psychotectonic shift is to the realm of moral understanding and human behavior what a paradigm shift is to scientific understanding and behavior. This is the kind of shift that the Bill of Rights created--a new consciousness that ordinary human beings, not just kings and lords, had rights. A similar shift was the one surrounding the issue of slavery.

Transformational politics requires a similar shift in contemporary consciousness: a truly open mind; a willingness to see the humanity in our opponents and the good in their point of view; a measure of humility and compassion; a letting go of being a fanatical "true believer"; and training the mind to be comfortable with paradoxes.

Self-Esteem

California Democratic assemblyman John Vasconcellos, one of the most powerful men in the Assembly and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has developed a reputation as "the conscience of the legislature" because of his "absolute honesty and personal integrity with colleagues, lobbyists, voters, and everyone else," according to Professor Jeff Fishel of American University. A colleague commented that he is "extraordinarily patient, empathetic, and understanding." He has made friends with, helped out, and won over some of the crustiest, stiffest, most conservative Republicans in the assembly. He can bridge and transform differences among some of the most unlikely people, setting aside his ego, ideology, and power stakes to help others reach "win/win" solutions. He is one of the few members of the assembly to whom all factions turn when the going gets rough.

In 1986 Vasconcellos was instrumental in getting the state of California to establish the Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem, to hold public hearings across the state and to issue a report on its findings. It explored the correlation between self-esteem on the one hand and, on the other, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, child and spouse abuse, chronic welfare dependency, and the failure to achieve in school. Vasconcellos believes that welfare recipients aren't the only ones lacking self-esteem. He feels that this lack is reflected in all levels of our society, which is focused on competitive pursuit of wealth, power, and status. Researching how to nurture self-esteem and how to rehabilitate it, the task force received more requests for appointments than any commission in the state's history and helped spin off 47 (out of 58 total) county-level self-esteem units.

Vasconcellos reframed the issue around his Self-Esteem Task Force from a project that needed taxpayers' dollars for support to one that would save taxpayers' dollars. To get the support of the governor of California, he showed how developing self-esteem among population groups that are likely to become drug abusers and pregnant teens would make the need for welfare much less likely in the long run: People who have developed high self-esteem are far more likely to grow into productive, self-reliant members of their communities and are therefore less likely to need government handouts.

Vasconcellos says, "This is truly grass-roots revolution...wherein each of us comes to know that we need no longer look to the government or other agencies and/or authorities for solutions to our human problems. We can and should, instead, look deep into our selves. [It is] the ultimate truly populist revolution, for instead of being a reaction against authority and/or wealth, it is truly pro-active, pro-person."

Mainstreaming the New Politics

Although many who are involved in creating the new politics may not think their small efforts are making much difference, President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, as well as several other heads of state, told one of these groups that their support, coming from the outside, revitalized the entire Central American peace process, especially at a time when they were feeling isolated in their own countries. A colonel from the Pentagon told them that although they may think that government is the best institution to solve many problems, in fact its inertia is enormous and its decision-making abilities are frustratingly slow. But, he said, "You can take risks. You can try things the government cannot try."

These new transformational political groups are like small seeds of a new politics. Although a seed may be tiny, it is nonetheless a potent force. If carefully tended and nurtured, ripened by the sun, watered by the rain, its potencies are unpredictable. When the new plant flowers and scatters it seed, it reproduces itself many times over.

¹From the book Spiritual Politics by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, 1994 (Ballantine Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.), as reprinted in the Yoga Journal, Nov/Dec 1994.

Sidebar: PETRA KELLY²

Petra Kelly was a founder of the German Green Party and a member of the German Parliament from 1983 to 1990. She died in 1992. The following is from her essay in Thinking Green! (Parallax Press, 1994).

The healing of our planet requires a new way of thinking about politics and about life. At the heart of this is the understanding that all things are intimately interconnected in the complex web of life. It can therefore be said that the primary goal of Green politics is an inner revolution. Joanna Macy calls this "the greening of the self."

Politics needs spirituality. The profound political changes we need in order to heal our planet will not come about through fragmented problem solving or intellectual analysis that overlook the deepest yearnings and intuitions of the heart. Some of my fellow Greens have maintained their dogmatic leftist perspectives and remain suspicious of spirituality, confusing it with organized religion. I share many of their criticisms of religious institutions, but I firmly disagree with their dismissing spiritual concerns and wisdom. The long work of bringing harmony to the Earth requires a holistic vision based on mature values and deep intuitions.

Today's politics are based on the mechanistic worldview that prefers assertion to integration, analysis over synthesis, rational knowledge over intuitive wisdom, competition over cooperation, and expansionism over conservation. A few new ideas are not enough. We need an entirely new way of thinking. As we begin to cultivate a rich inner life and experience our connection with all of life, we realize how little of what society tells us we need is actually important for our well-being. We must reduce consumption and not cooperate with any practices that harm the natural world or other humans. This is not a sacrifice. It is the way to sustain ourselves.

Green politics must address the spiritual vacuum of industrial society, the alienation that is pervasive in a society where people have grown isolated from nature and from ourselves. We in the Greens must also address our own alienation. Our social structures shape this alienation, and they themselves are shaped by it. It is a vicious cycle, and our work of healing must address the whole cycle.

² This Sidebar aired with others in the Nov./Dec Yoga Journal in a Special Report on Politics and Spirituality. Other sidebars spotlighted views from The Dali Lama, California Senator Tom Hayden, ex California Governor Jerry Brown, and Czech Republic President Viclav Havel

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From Iverson: Reread this 'sidebar' and substitute "ecosystem management" for "green politics," and, loosely, "management" for "politics" and see if that provides insight into our ecosystem management endeavor.
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Eco-Watch

12/20/94