CoEternity

Maimonides, Still Serene But Now Silent in Cordoba

Where is the wisdom of the ages, or the aged wise man, when we are in such desperate need of practical encouragement in the face of cataclysmic nonsense? Perhaps we should use the method Maimonides taught --about defining God--to describe the world we now occupy: it's more right to say what the world is not, than to attempt to say what it is. What we are not is anything monolithic, inspirational, aspirational, improving, healthy or fair.

We have always taken care of our own, turned ourselves inside out to please our own, always at the expense of those who have no physical or sentimental power over our being. People in need rise to our caring threshold only when we are directly affected by their presence. Even when a few of us take up a life of sacrifice for others, we still lay down conditions for our service and surrender, all the while building a world of supportive believers around us to feed our need for identification.

 So, when bank money--in any of its financing manifestations--evaporates, we protect our friends who lent and lost the money and blame the borrowers and their false sense of ambition, unless the banker is a smaller player than we, wherein we blame his ineptitude; when we consumers borrow money we can't pay back, we blame the money-changers and minimize our own culpability. We all, therefore, protect our own while holding and passing on to our descendants a vitriolic grudge. 

 It is the universal will of humans to cling to homogeneity; all of the rewards for this loyalty involve safety and fair recognition. Mixing of cultures, races and ages is a daunting exercise. When we are called upon to reach across boundaries of familiarity, therefore, we may swell with idealism in the planning, but shrink with indifference or fear when we actually sit next to the "different" ones. At these times, the invented sameness offered by nationalism, idealism or spirituality can serve us well, giving cover for our best intentions. Yet we still retreat to group, family or cultural duty when we wish to be safe.

 But we are not safe in any evolutionary sense; we are stuck in what we are not: not selfless, not improving, not healthier, not hopeful.

 That is why a Martini, a joint, a Ritalin, a gambling or decorating hobby of masturbatory dimension overtakes all our attempts to be and to know "wise," maybe even engulfing some of the self-important blogger types like....