 Lowerarchy of power
Command and obedience is destroying
us and the life around us
By Roz Omid
August 21, 2003
The Iranian
There are three images in my mind as I write this article. The
first one is the U.S. military controlling Iraq, the second one
is the voices to bring change to the Iranian government and the
third image is my answer to heal these wounds: small communities.
What the United States is doing through its newly
appointed "occupation
minister" in Iraq, is forcing democracy. What an amazing contradiction.
The U. S. is forcing the people of Iraq to shift the
way they think from dictatorship to democracy.
Iraqis are forced to shift from a
clear and simple but harsh and dehumanizing way of life --dictatorship
-- to a potentially more harmonious but more complicated and
vague concept called democracy.
The type of democracy being imported
is from a country
where its ruler - George W. Bush - can be elected not by majority
of votes but because his brother was the governor of the state
that helped him win the election and his father appointed supreme
court justices who voted in favor of his son.
What some of people in Iran and the Iranian immigrants
like myself, living in the "free world" are
doing is trying to create a shift in the consciousness of not only
ourselves but
also in the collective consciousness, for a more harmonious way
of life.
Democracy is not our salvation. However, it has
been a step in our evolutionary process. What needs to happen is
gradual decentralization
in order to create a better life and a better planet to live
on. Taking power back from centralized government leaders,
eliminating high-powered government positions, and giving small
communities the authority to make decisions as they choose -- that is the way back to
a paradise we
deserve to live in.
We, humanity, left that paradise when we adapted
the notion of command and obedience somewhere along our natural
evolution. The
only place the notion of domination and obedience, or hierarchy
of power, exists, is in the human psyche. When we believe in
hierarchy then our interaction with each other and our natural
environment
is based on either controlling others or is controlled.
There are groups of people who make decisions based
on consensus: meaning everyone comes to an agreement before a group
decision
is made. It is a challenging task and at the beginning it may
take longer to make decisions. Just as any kind of withdrawal,
it's difficult, but many of us believe that we need to take that
direction.
We are so used to this system where the boss, the
manager, or the top man/woman makes the final decision or the majority
wins that
we think it's the only way. Not only we go along with the system
of hierarchy but also it has become so ingrained in us that we
have become addicted to it. Some people have become aware of
this addiction and are in recovery, such as people who use
consensus decision making -- at least in one aspect of their lives.
The system of command and obedience is destroying
us and the life around us. I surrender to the fact that I am stuck
in it and I
am addicted to it. I also ask a greater power than my ego and
my mind to help me live more harmoniously with others and within
my
environment.
At this stage of natural evolution we need to become
active in adopting a consciousness that is clear about where we
want to get
to. There is no reason we can't live in clean cities where
we can enjoy a wealth of arts, music and literature. Don't
we have the technology to have clean transportation? We do! But
our
consciousness
is stuck in believing that this is the best we can have at the
moment.
Garden of Eden is a metaphysical as well as a physical
place. It is a physical place where fresh, clean, healthy
food
is available in bounty, where people can live enriched lives
in harmony within their ecology. It is also a metaphysical place.
Garden of Eden is a place in one's consciousness where the
person is content with what life is offering each
and every moment.
Finding the way to a better government in Iran or
anywhere else in the world, including North America, is a task
that takes place
in the here and now. In other words, what can I do in this moment
to be able to live in paradise?
Sometimes I have the perception
that I know the answer, and at other times I don't and I feel
stuck. There are times I am simply accepting
and grateful for what I have available to me. What I have
available to me at the moment is communicating via the Internet.
Having a continuous dialog is the most important
element in just about any situation. The understanding that I would
like to bring
in through my communication is this: we need not to believe that
hierarchy of power is the only way to have a governing system.
I would like to continuously explore ways to replace
the system of command and obedience to a system of consensus decision-making.
That is a system, which by its nature, cannot be forced onto
any one
or any group.
Life is made of paradoxes that we need to become
aware of, accept, and learn our way to move with and through them.
There is no absolute
way of doing something and yet there is. For example if a bridge
is to be built across a river we need the absolute measurements
to build a solid bridge so a truck can safely cross over it to
carry food and goods.
But if the goal is to provide food and
goods for that other side of the river, building the bridge is
not the
best solution, as modern man tends to believe so. There
are many ways of feeding people on the other side of the
river, including helping them to grow food and make goods for
themselves.
If the mind is used to thinking in terms of absolutes
and quick fixes, and is addicted to using domination
and obedience
to solve problems, then we are bound to control
nature and serve the false master. I am referring to the man --
the master --
at the top of the pyramid or top of the game of accumulation
of capital, and the hierarchy of power.
Small communities can have a circle instead of a
pyramid or triangle for its model. A circle or a sphere has
movement
that could be the flow of interaction between citizens
and
the natural environment.
There is more to share about how community
building. Especially small physical communities can help us create
more sane governing
systems. I will continue to write about it with the grace
of the beloved. But for now going back to the image of U.S. governing
Iraq I have this to say: we may think we know the way to
create a better government and we have the right to voice that
opinion.
At the same time we need to practice the fine art
of walking the
thin line between believing what is right and being too rigid.
We need to practice the fine art of walking the line between being
open to hear and
consider
multiple possibilities and being too flexible.
I was absolutely
clear that the U.S. ought not wage war against Iraq. Using my
previous example and metaphorically speaking, that was not a
bridge that
we needed to build. But now that the war has taken place and Sadam's
dictatorship has been toppled, the U.S. doesn't believe that
it has much of a choice other than to force democracy. What about
the
neighboring
countries? Could they have some wisdom to offer?
The
mind is limited in its capacity to understand and experience Divine
Presence and how it works through us. Living a more harmonious
and balanced life will not happen because a few people
have figured out the best system to govern people and natural
resources. Without those few people who come up with a better
system of government we cannot move towards a more harmonious and
balanced life. It is up to us all individuals to voice opinions
and take a stand on what we believe in.
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Lowerarchy of power