The Arc of the Moral Universe...
Reflection given at the Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace (ICUJP) - January 19th, 2018
It seems a while since I gave the Reflection at ICUJP and there is, quite literally, a number of things – no doubt for all of us – upon which to reflect.
I find myself perhaps most overwhelmingly drawn by a couple of recent remarks that have been widely commented upon and, to a lesser extent, the advent of the “Me Too” campaign which in just a few short months has become an international movement that, hopefully, will forever change – at least in the Western world – men’s attitudes and behavior towards women. My intrigue with these things also ties in with an observation by Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday this nation commemorated last Monday, that “The arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends towards justice.”
Regarding the two recent remarks, the one that has garnered the most international attention was made by the US president last weekend about certain countries resembling the most unpleasant kind of latrine. Apparently, it has been difficult for foreign journalists to sufficiently translate the actual word supposedly used. My wife, being Japanese, was unconvinced by the official translation of her own country’s national broadcasting company which was, no doubt in keeping with Japanese formality, much more polite. However, it is hard not to imagine other nations’ disbelief at the most unsavory and derogatory term used, even from a president who seems to revel in shock and with a petulant desire to constantly lower the bar.
The other remark, which might have missed your attention, was made by Jo Marney, the 25-year old girlfriend of the still-married 54-year old Henry Bolton, leader of the UK Independence Party, who tweeted her concern about Prince Harry’s black American fiancée tainting the Royal Family and making way for a black king.
Taking Ms. Marney’s comment first, and to give it some context, last month I signed up with Netflix so that I could watch the truly excellent drama series “The Crown”, which quite accurately portrays the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The story begins with the abdication of her uncle David, better known to us as King Edward VIII, who is forced to give up the throne as a consequence of his determination to marry the woman he loves, an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. Almost 20 years later, and as recently as the 1950s, the narrative continues by re-telling the saga of how Princess Margaret – the queen’s sister – would have been forced to surrender all her royal privileges, emigrate, and be referred to merely as Mrs. Townsend if she elected to marry the love of her life, the war-hero Group Captain Peter Townsend, on the basis that he too was a divorcee. The story goes on to reveal the queen and Prince Philip’s genuine concern for the possible dismantling of the British monarchy should they be unable to quietly resolve their own marital difficulties.
All of which gives one pause to consider how that same institution and the Establishment surrounding it would have reacted to Prince Harry’s engagement to his bride of choice – a divorced actress of mixed, by which they mean half-black, heritage. However, being reminded of Martin Luther King’s statement quoted earlier, this latest royal engagement has instead been met with almost universal praise not only amongst the British public, but also at the highest levels of the very same Royal Family. How times can change…
The other matter of “expletive” countries is at least partially similar. We have witnessed not just a demonstration of social and political outrage that the US president should have made such a crude and racist comment but a much more genuine concern and indignation that America and its allies could shun those very countries that not so long ago were its colonies, and whose ruthless former actions contributed to their present day poverty and dysfunction. Taken together with the “Me Too” campaign, what we are collectively witnessing is the steady erosion of elitism, rooted in a white male supremacy which has stood since so-called “civilization” virtually began, and a corresponding democratization of our global family.
Albert Einstein during a lecture in Vienna in 1921. By Ferdinand Schmutzer.
Albert Einstein saw this transition somewhat similarly to Martin Luther King. It was his belief that “Everything is determined… by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as the star. Human beings, or vegetables, or cosmic dust – we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”
Shakespeare, also, was of a similar disposition, describing an invisible yet overriding force as “… a Divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will.”
While appreciating each of these compatible philosophical perspectives, I understand the concept in more Eastern and esoteric terms as the great overriding Law of Karma, described by Dr. George King (no relation), founder of The Aetherius Society, as a universal Pressure towards Conformity. His explanation of this invisible but ever-active force was as a “Pressure upon you the mind, and you the soul, towards you the Spirit.”
Dr. George King. © 2022 The Aetherius Society.
One might think of it as a great cosmic glacier slowly smothering its way over all obstacles and irregularities, gathering them up and smoothing over everything.
In the end there is no alternative but to give way to this universal Common Good which eventually must smooth over and erase all perceived differences of belief, caste or race; and to dissolve any separation between rich and poor; well-being and disability.
Seemingly, and the older I become, this appears to be our ultimate role in life – our highest purpose – to submit our individual sense to this higher intelligence or force, and to conform to its all-inclusive will which is intuitively attainable within all of us. It can be hard to do, especially when our young and basic nature is so ego-driven; but when it is honored and obeyed it compels us not just to acts of decency and self-sacrifice but, equally, to experience what me might call a satisfied conscience which, surely, is a wonderful and most accurate definition of the happiness we all seek.