| Spellbound Freedom by Michael Maciel In the recent movie Spellbound, a man, whose family immigrated to America from India and whose son is competing in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., expresses his belief that anyone can make it in this country if she or he works hard enough. He emphatically asserts, however, that this is not so in most parts of the world. It made me wonder: What is it that makes the United States the land of opportunity? And why is it that so many people around the globe are locked into their circumstances with no hope of escape? Some of us who are fortunate enough to live here are worried, of course, that our opportunities are rapidly eroding, and that our rights of privacy and speech are in danger. But still, the rest of the world wants the freedom we enjoy, and many of them come here looking for it. Why is it that we are free, to the extent that we are, and they are not? It could be that we are free because we have fought for our freedom. But this is not necessarily true, because many other countries have fought for their independence, won it, and then sunk back into dictatorship. It could be that we are free because our Constitution was conceived by people of high spiritual consciousness, people who knew history and who knew the tendencies of governments to enslave their people, and so they built in the safeguards that would prevent that from happening here. Or, perhaps we are free because we are a wildly rebellious lot who simply will not tolerate being told what to do. Maybe it's all of these. But...there is one more reason, and it's a humbling one, that just might be the one factor that makes the rest possible. A reason that, because it's so dumbfoundingly simple, could one day work against us, because it carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction. That reason is that the United States is a relatively new society and is not bound by a single ethnic tradition. Ecologists like to say that it is diversity in the biosphere that ensures the long-term survival of life on this planet. Perhaps it is the diversity in our own culture that has made the unprecedented levels of personal freedom possible for us, and the envy of much of the world's population. A diverse society is a resilient society, one that not only wants to look toward the future with all of its bright possibilities, but one that CAN look to the future, instead of feeling bound to a past, a history, a narrow and clannish outlook, the only possibility of which is NO possibility, but only a slavish obligation to "carry on" the traditions of its past. I am not saying that we should outlaw traditions (didn't Mao try to do that in China's Cultural Revolution?) but that we need to make diversity the cornerstone of our tradition. We need to say not only e pluribus unum, "out of many, one" but also "within the one, many." We can never lose sight of the extraordinary fact that America truly is the melting pot of the world, more so than any other country in modern history. The ties that bind this family are not those of blood or tradition, but of an ideal -- freedom. The "R" word We've all heard it: with freedom comes responsibility. This is the official mantra that all teenagers are given the moment they slip their leash, and it feels like putting on a 50-pound backpack. At least, this is how the ego perceives it. The ego -- that puer eternis, the Peter Pan in all of us that says, "If it can be done, it should be done." Simply passing one's 21st birthday doesn't eradicate this little devil. The ego is the natural enemy of freedom, because it is passionately devoted to Number One. This, unfortunately, is the most virulent disease attacking the world today -- self-importance. Self-importance is obnoxious in an individual, but it is catastrophic in a society. It manifests as a gleeful disregard for the cultural diversity of others. I say gleeful, because the tendency is to believe that our way of life is the best way of life, and, therefore, everyone else should be overjoyed when we move into their neighborhood. Why shouldn't they love us? We have cable! We have Hollywood! We have McDonald's! As a nation, we have redefined our destiny, and we are trying to manifest it over the entire globe. And when the rest of the world finally catches up, won't they be grateful! We are culture-drunk. It's no excuse to say that everyone is free to like what our culture has to offer, and that if their theocratic society prohibits rock 'n' roll, then...well, they're just wrong, man! We cannot publicly endorse diversity and flood the world with our culture, a culture that, like most teenagers, is ludicrous in its sameness. Blindfold a person, take them to any mall in any city in this country, then take the blindfold off and ask them where they are. It is impossible to know. The entire world is beginning to look the same. This is not diversity, but the opposite of it. The "T" word Tolerance is our only hope for freedom. Tolerance is letting a thing stand, even if it's not making you money. We have to watch our thinking carefully and not allow ourselves to fall into the belief that the bottom line is the bottom line. And when I say "we," I really mean ALL of us, because the dream of materialism is seductive. It greets us with a smile, and then proceeds to bleed us dry. When we blindly let ourselves think that we have the absolute best show in town, we turn into messiahs, or divine physicians rushing to inoculate the world against backward-ism. This is dangerous thinking. Because, who knows, our culture could be just another Roman candle -- brilliant, if only for a moment. Tolerance, the one thing that can ensure our freedom, is more than going out and hugging the Third World -- it's also leaving them alone. And I don't mean some kind of economic partitioning or cultural segregation, but rather to stop pummeling them with our brand of the "good life." Our movies and music, our technology, our fashions, our war bucks and our sophisticated weaponry are not what the world needs. The world is not our target-rich market environment. The final words The word "responsibility" implies two other "R" words: respect and restraint. These are the antidotes for the disease of self-importance. If we abandon our reason, and we believe that if something can be done then it should be done, we discard the primary principle of our civilization, the rule of law. The rule of law says that Right is Might. The law of self-importance says that Might is Right -- we do it, because we can do it. Just because our society, America, is in its adolescence doesn't mean that we have to think like one. The challenge for us, both as a nation of free people and as individuals, is to see the rest of the world as equals, as in all are "children of God." There is nothing on the outside that defines us as a living soul. A Prairie Home Companion's Garrison Keillor says, "Where I come from, smart don't count for much." Intelligence without heart is cold and destructive. Now that we have acquired the ability to reach the whole world with "our way of life," we must be careful not to destroy its rich diversity, either knowingly or unknowingly, either with aggressive marketing or the passive, gleeful belief in our own cultural superiority. Let them be. Isn't that what freedom is? After all, how can we claim to be free when we deny freedom to others? Michael Maciel lives in Omaha, Neb., and is the author of the website INTU, located at www.intu.org. Ordained in 1972, Mike has led seminars and classes in Omaha and Kansas City for the past 10 years. He specializes in the interpretation of ancient spiritual teachings in the light of contemporary scientific understanding. Contact him at editor@intu.org Copyright © 2003 Michael Maciel |
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