“A man who chases two rabbits, catches neither” ~ Confucius
It’s called a split-intention. Boiled down to the bare bone, a split-intention is what ails the USA. We chase two rabbits.
The first rabbit is a higher ideal called Equality. This rabbit represents a government dedicated to public service and focused on protecting equal rights. It embodies values, like “Liberty and justice for all” and “e pluribus unum” (out of many, one). It understands that strength and unity are forged from difference. It is the rabbit of inclusion.
The second rabbit is inequality. This rabbit is concerned with Privilege. This rabbit represents a government dedicated to private interest by channeling wealth to the few. It champions unbridled gain for select individuals. It embodies beliefs like white supremacy and justice for the top-class. It understands strength as a rigged game of dominance. It is the rabbit of caste and exclusion.
A healthy, successful nation, like a healthy successful human, is clear on the ideals it pursues. It chases a single rabbit. It knows without question what it values. It understands that, with a single focus, it is not only possible but necessary to debate how best to achieve it.
We cannot tout equality and pursue exclusion. We cannot have justice for all while rigging the game to protect the few. We cannot be a thriving democracy and an autocracy.
We cannot fulfill the promise of The Constitution by betraying it. We cannot realize the ideal of our Declaration of Independence – that government derives its power and consent from the governed – by allowing oligarchs to purchase autocracy.
Our split intention has never been so clear. We have two opposing media bubbles weaving two irreconcilable narratives, each defining the other bubble as the enemy. We have two political parties: the blues chase democracy while the reds chase the privilege of the autocrat (please examine the detail in the Republicans Big Gluttonous Bill – in addition to stealing from the poor to give to the rich, our right of redress is on the chopping block).
“A man who chases two rabbits, catches neither.”
Proverbs are proverbs because they reveal a simple yet universal truth. We split ourselves in our political dishonestly. We can either serve the people or we can exploit the people. We have wrestled over this choice since our nation’s inception: Who do we mean when we say, “We the people…”?
How do we reconcile the vast difference between our rhetoric and the rabbit-rabbit-tug-of-war of our history?
One rabbit is worth chasing. The other we ought to chase away before we lose it all.
read Kerri’s blogpost about THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR
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The Direction of Intention 