Monday, May 25, 2009

Lingering effects of slavery

New York Burning


By John Taylor; 2009 May 25, Azamat 09, 166 BE


Before continuing with Comenius, science and the elimination of prejudice, I want briefly to discuss an audio book I am auditing, "New York Burning; Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth Century Manhattan," by Jill Lapore. Although primarily concerned with a particular rash of fires in New York which may or may not have been set by slaves, this book also offers some insights into the early childhood of the party system that were new to me and I think should be general knowledge.


It seems that the idea that factionalism and political parties are a good thing, or if not good then perhaps a necessary concomitant of democracy, arose in the early years of the 18th Century in America. In England party and faction were still synonyms, and both were thought of as evil compared with the system that they later replaced, patronage based on nobility and aristocratic privilege. Two movements came about in America that helped change peoples' minds about party politics. One was the spread of secret societies, especially freemasonry, and the other was the "institution" of slavery, and in particular the slave revolt.


Secret societies were popular among the elite and trained rising young professionals in how to learn and accomplish things by working together behind closed doors.


The slave revolt movement started off with a startling early success in Jamaica where black slaves actually won out. The colonial government was forced to free a group of rebellious slaves and give them the land they had taken by force. This shocked, terrified and humiliated Englishmen everywhere, especially in America, where slave labour was building the new continent. Reading about the hysteria that gripped the inhabitants of the 2000 member colony of Manhattan after some slaves (maybe) used arson to get back at their oppressors, one is strongly reminded of the reaction in New York and across the nation to the 9-11 attacks. In America and the West generally, the mentality of master and slave is embedded in the cultural DNA. Liberty means freedom for a few rich men and oppression for many, and anything that threatens the elite causes a frenzy of abject terror.


Not that there was not good reason in early days to be afraid of a slave revolt. Unlike a modern opposition party that takes power, whenever slaves won over their masters there followed an orgy of revenge where white men were murdered and girls and women raped, then murdered. Bad as the contention of a loyal opposition party is, it was nothing compared to the alternative, a successful slave revolt.


Slave-owning America was obsessed with this threat.


In contrast the new party democracy growing up did not seem so bad. Since then England and other modern democracies took up the party system and, more broadly, the adversarial model for law. The adversaries of master and slave became the paradigm for politics and, in the form of predatory lending and unfettered capitalism, for economics as well.


If 9-11, and the anti-communist hysteria before it, had not happened, it would be hard to believe that slavery could continue to pervert the culture of America for so long after it was officially abolished back in Lincoln's day.


But I recently read of another cultural hang-on in Hong Kong, Singapore and other Far East nations. Students, even average students, in these places earn the highest marks in the world in calculus and similar scientific disciplines. Studies found that this is because the challenge of learning calculus is very similar to what confronts a rice farmer every day. These farmers have to systematically approach a major engineering as well as agricultural challenge. In order to succeed they must believe that a person of average intelligence, working long, hard and with much patience, can do great things as a matter of course. Most of these spectacular students do not come from rice farmer stock for many generations. But the rice farming mentality long ago permeated the culture and today's students continue to benefit.


Now that I think of it, our opposite belief that only a few of us are "brains" who have "mathematical minds," while the majority are wasting their time trying to understand mathematics also probably comes out our slave-owning cultural roots. The slave owner could only rationalize the gross injustice of "owning" a human being by clinging tenaciously to the belief that some have a "gift" and others simply do not. There was no choice but to believe that an indicator like skin color can reliably predict natural gifts. That is partly why we cling so tenaciously to the myth of IQ, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. For example, studies have proven that anybody whose IQ is 120 or higher has an equal chance of winning a Nobel prize. But that fact does not stop universities from systematically weeding out applicants on the lower end of this scale.

Combine slave mentality with the cronyism of secret societies, who believe that power is and should be wielded by an elite few based on underhanded manipulation, and you get the modern party system.


The mirror opposite of the competitive party system is the compassion of Abdu'l-Baha's principle of the oneness of mankind, and the reconciliation principle put forward by Comenius. Both propose that we treat human failings and conflicts the same way that a rice farmer does his field, moving heaven and earth in order to nurture a finicky crop. We should not exploit or enslave the weak, ignorant and powerless, we should help, free, strengthen, teach and empower them, like plants in God's garden. As Comenius said,


"The easier it is to fall into error in this respect, the more considerate we should be, since it is easy for those of us who believe that we have some advantage over others to please ourselves. Inferior number, a humbler lot in life, difference in nationality, race, language and the like, are excuses for reviling our fellow men. But these must be set aside in such a holy task, and we must guard against appearing to despise our fellow-men for any reason. It is a grievous obstacle to the Reconciliation for which Tolerance paves the way, if one of the parties sees or suspects that it is being brushed aside with contempt." (Panorthosia II, Ch. 8, para 12, p. 113)


Our lives are gifts of God, Abdu'l-Baha taught, and it is His concern before it is ours. Any insult to the dignity or gifts of anyone is first of all an insult to the Creator.


"Man is the temple of God. He is not a human temple. If you destroy a house, the owner of that house will be grieved and wrathful. How much greater is the wrong when man destroys a building planned and erected by God! Undoubtedly, he deserves the judgment and wrath of God." (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation, 498)


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