The Politics of Power

                          The Politics of Power

                      

"Illusion holds power over you 
when you are not able to remember that you are a powerful spirit 
that has taken on the physical experience for the purpose of learning. 
It has power over you when you are compelled by 
wants and impulses and values of your personality. 
It holds power over you when you fear and hate and sorrow 
and fester in anger or strike out in rage. 
It has NO power over you when you LOVE, 
when compassion opens your heart to others, 
when your creativity flows unimpeded joyously into the present moment. 
In other words, the illusion had no power over a personality 
that is fully aligned with the soul."

~ Gary Zukav ~

Unfortunately, 98% of human transactions, interactions, transmissions, and behaviors seem to be on the level of amoeba. That is to say we often are purely a stimulus/response, go toward what we perceive as pleasurable, and away from what we perceive as pain. 98% of these perceptions seem to be distorted, that is to say, what we perceive as pleasure often turns out to be pain and vice versa.

This is nowhere more true than in the arena of politics. So considering the fact that we are far away from the Greek notion of polis (which means acting toward a common good), when engaging in political behavior, we would do well to consider the nature of what political power is really about vs. what we think it is about.

                        The World is a stage…

                 All the world's a stage,
                And all the men and women merely players;
                They have their exits and their entrances,
                And one man in his time plays many parts,
                His acts being seven ages.

                                                   William Shakespeare

In theater, a good actor learns that anything that is written in the script, given as stage directions, and worked out on stage, is about one actor wanting something from another. No group were more aware of this than the Greeks, who originated theater as a spiritual, psychological, and political expression of human tragedy, comedy, and drama.

The Greek chorus was a group of actors on stage, that would provide a collective voice that gave commentary, and was a meta-awareness of an actor’s dialogue or inner monologue. The chorus was a narrative on the narrative, or meta-narrative, much like film noir (dark film), would always have a narrator telling you about a meta-perspective, i.e., the bigger picture.

So every action and word an actor is saying or thinking is about wanting something. In this wanting lies the source of political power. We are merely players on a political stage enacting wants and needs albeit mostly unconsciously.

As we all know, what a politician says they want, or says they will do, is purely a means to getting what they really want, which is to get elected. 

This is the realm of power, purely for power’s sake, which is pathology, because it excludes the greater good, just as a cancer cell excludes the greater good of the body. Authentic power is a genuine desire to serve that which is bigger than one’s self, and this is indeed rare. The 2% of human beings that come along and are actually embodied, political and spiritual leaders are beings like Buddha, Christ, Moses, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Hildegarde of Bingen, etc.

These beings are literally keeping the rest of the herd from falling over the cliff. This is because they have a power and influence that is exerted against the negative default status quo, which carries more power, even though it is a minority. So here we have a perspective of the power differential and where  authentic power is located, which is not in the masses.

                                Majority rules…not!

There is a great misconception about democracy, which is misinterpreted as majority rule. If we had the majority ruling, we would be dead! Democracy is more about the common good, and checks and balances than it is about majority rule.

In the case of the US constitution for example, the fifty-five members of the constitutional convention decided that the constitution would be considered adopted if nine out of the thirteen colonies approved it, with the constitution simply being imposed by force on the remaining four colonies. (As it happened, only two colonies refused ratification at the time, North Carolina and Rhode Island, both of which had ratified by 1789, and 1790 respectively.)

We can also see countless examples of how a majority wanted something and yet it was not enacted, such as the abolition of slavery. These days, we are seeing a surge of popularity consciousness whereby we are coming to believe that because something or someone has a high frequency of likes, hits, sales, views, and sound bites, that it is somehow better or more powerful. This is the consciousness that more is better, which is addiction consciousness. This is the mind set of social media, which is really anti-social, because it is encouraging anything but actual human contact.

                

I am saying the opposite of more is better, which is that the rarer and more subtle something or someone is, the more powerful and the higher their quality.

We live in a society of bigger is better and if at first you don’t succeed, use a bigger hammer. But, as in physics, the most power lies in the most subtle aspects of nature as in a laser, or the splitting of an atom.

                                Authentic Power

Authentic power, in the human dimension, is an alignment with the soul or the part of our individual and collective selves that seeks a higher purpose than our individual or collective ego, this is what gives meaning, balance, and fulfillment in life.

In the 12-steps, this is the 11^th and 12^th steps which seeks consciously, through spiritual technology (such as prayer and meditation), to maintain a constancy of contact with that which is higher than our ego, and seeks help for a context and power to give our gifts.

Practicing these step results in a spiritual awakening that is ever expanding and includes a desire, and responsibility to give away what we have been blessed with, this is the only way we can keep what we have!

This is the opposite of our cultural values which says; get as many toys as you can, build huge fences and security to protect them, and bask in the glory of your ego, knowing that others can’t touch what you have. This is what our materialistic society defines as success. I would define success by how much you are able to help others be successful.

Marx said; “Producing many useful things makes useless people.” This describes perfectly our current society. Our culture is one that thinks we need 42 different types of toothpaste, and is greatly offended when it is brought to our attention that we actually don’t need that many, and that actually, other people in the world don’t eat because of our greed for 42 brands of toothpaste. Herein lies one of the main sources of terrorism.

                                What is Power?

In physics, power is the ability to do work, we can also use the term energy, and we should here invoke the law of the conservation of energy to show the forms and manner in which energy and power can be transformed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.

                           

Psycho-spiritually and politically, I would also say that power is the ability to manifest, to create, to get shit done efficiently!

"The human emotional system can be broken down into roughly two elements: 
fear and love. 
Love is of the soul. 
Fear is of the personality."

~ Gary Zukav - from "Seat Of The Soul" ~

If we are using power wisely, skillfully, and efficiently, we will be aligned with other forms of energy that will reinforce our intentions and result in creative manifestations. We will not have to push, force, or coerce our own agenda, there will be a natural flow, and it will seem effortless at times. In Taoism, this is called Wu-wei which is a kind of action-less action, it is non-doing. But it is not doing nothing, it is the most skillful means that requires the least energy and produces the maximum effect.

                        

Wounded Healer Archetype

                            Wounded Healer Archetype

                                 

"One who knows his lot to be the lot of all other men is a safe man to guide them. One who recognizes all men as members of his own body is a sound man to guard them.”

Lao Tzu

It is important to recognize the significance of the Wounded Healer Archetype to try and bring more compassion into our world. Indeed, Com-passion (feeling with) can be seen as synonymous with one who, although they are wounded, is trying to help another. Christ said “Physician heal thy self..,” he is telling us healers to first take a look at ourselves!

It is mind-boggling to me that there are so many psychotherapists and schools of psychotherapy in which the idea of a therapist in training, getting their own therapy or doing a fearless moral inventory, is either not mentioned, or only mildly suggested. I consider this to be a breach of professional ethics.

The reason for this is because there is an overwhelming percentage of helping professionals (according to Alison Barr’s research, 73.9%), who have suffered the exact kind of psychological wounds they are being trained to treat.

So the obvious deduction is; if a therapist hasn’t worked on their own issues, they are avoiding their issues by “helping” others. This is a recipe for malpractice.

So this should be the first question you ask a therapist you are considering seeing; “To what extent have you worked on your own shit?”

If it can be established that they have indeed, worked on their own shit, then you can proceed into the benefits of accessing the wounded healer archetype, and therein lies the potential curative power of a therapeutic relationship.

               

The Wounded healer is a term created by the psychologist Carl Jung. The idea states that an analyst is compelled to treat patients because the analyst himself is "wounded".

Understanding the dynamics of the wounded healer provides a theoretical and practical understanding of the importance of empathy and mutuality in the healing process. It is through the common humanity that the therapist is able to contact within themselves and convey to the client, that the client’s own ability to heal is ignited.  In the 12-steps, this is called a “me too” experience, or an “I’m not alone” experience.

 The archetype of the wounded healer is valuable in acknowledging cultural diversity, as well as universal parallels between healing practices, this is the value of working with archetypes, because they are truly cross cultural and universal in terms of human experience. Indeed, this is a good working definition of an archetype.

According to Jung, for the wounded healer, the therapeutic encounter should be regarded as a dialectical process "in which the doctor, as a person, participates just as much as the patient."

This is the opposite of the classical Freudian approach of the therapist as a blank slate that sits behind the couch not even facing the patient. A dialectical process is an engaged, related, mutual, and equally respectful dialogue in which questions and answers are explored and mutually worked on. It is a collaborative process in which each party has accountability and responsibility. Of course there is a power differential, but a good therapist minimizes this power difference in order to maximize the client’s empowerment.

According to Jung, "a good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply, consists in the doctor examining himself, for only what he can put right in himself can he hope to put right in the patient."

This means that the therapist must be able to track the nature of what the client is presenting, and have a real time experience of any and all correlates within themselves that are comparable within the client. It doesn’t mean the therapist has to reveal what is comparable within themselves, but they sure as hell better be aware that it’s there! Otherwise, they will enter into a dangerous territory of counter-transference and potentially be meeting their own needs through their client. Herein lies malpractice, and the importance of good supervision for therapists. 

In the therapeutic encounter, the healer tries to activate the wounded patient's own healing powers. This is comparable to the naturopathic philosophy of healing which states;

“All living beings possess an intelligent, living energy which gives us an innate ability to heal. Naturopathic Medicine, calls this energy the Vital Force. Oriental Medicine traditions calls it  Qi or Chi (as in Tai Chi); Ayurvedic Medicine from India refers to it as Prana, Wilhelm Reich called it Orgone Energy. Every traditional culture from around the world has their own term for this phenomenon, and more than 95 different names for the Vital Force have been recorded.”

Just as there is a Vital Force relevant to physical healing, so too is there a psychic Vital Force, for the mind and body are two sides of the same coin.

        Greek Myth-The origins of Western Mind

As I’ve written previously, the study of the Greek culture gives us in large part the genesis of our Western Mind, this is certainly true in terms of psychology. The Greek myth particularly relevant to the Wounded Healer is the myth of Chiron.

                                            

Chiron was the eldest and wisest of the centaurs, a tribe of half-horse men. The meaning of the Greek word Chiron is "hand" (noun) or "skilled with hands" (adjective) and it is closely related to the Greek word chirourgos (surgeon). So we can see right away, etymologically, healing is involved here.

Unlike the rest of the centaurs notorious for their drunkenness, vulgarity, and violent behavior, Chiron was an immortal god, civilized, learned, peaceful, and gentle. Son of the Titan Kronos and half-brother of Zeus, Chiron was a renowned and revered teacher. He was especially known for his great skill in medicine, mentoring many of the great mythological heroes, among them Heracles, Achilles, Jason, and Asclepius. Again, referencing Asclepius we are invoking healing;

Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia, from which we derive our word hygiene, ("Hygiene", the goddess/personification of health, cleanliness, and sanitation), Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (the goddess of the healing process), and Panacea (the goddess of universal remedy).

According to the myth, Chiron was wounded accidentally by Heracles's arrow coated with the poisonous blood of Hydra. The unbearably painful wound was incurable, but Chiron, immortal because of his divine ancestry, could not die. The agonized centaur roamed the earth and continued to heal the sickly and the injured. He thus came to embody the paradox of the great healer who can heal everyone except himself. Eventually, he wandered to the place where Prometheus was undergoing his own agony. Here, at last, he found freedom from his pain: he volunteered to give his immortality to Prometheus and now could die. Instead of being consigned to Hades, Zeus gave him a place amongst the stars as the constellation Sagittarius or Centaurus.

                

So we see here, in this myth of Chiron, several central motifs  associated with the wounded healer: 1) The wounded healer is kind, gentle and intelligent, 2) He is a gifted man of medicine, 3) He is a teacher to many students of medicine, 4) His wounds are arbitrary and meaningless; they occur accidentally, 5) He does not welcome his suffering, and does not embrace pain voluntarily; the tradition of martyrdom is thus ruled out from the Wounded Healer narrative, 6) His suffering is endless and hopeless; although a great healer, he cannot cure himself; he is immortal, so he cannot wish for death to end his suffering, 7) He keeps healing and teaching others despite his suffering, and 8) The end of the healer's suffering endows it with meaning, and involves saving the life of someone else (Prometheus) and achieving his own freedom of agony.

                              Hannibal As Magus

The Wounded Healer archetype is connected (all archetypes are connected, which parallels an integrated psyche), to the archetype of the Magician (The Magus).

We can begin with three wise men. Who were the three Magi that came to visit the Christ infant, and why? The answer to this draws attention to the blending of East and West, and certainly connects Christianity with more esoteric practices and knowledge. This is especially true in the gaping gap of Jesus’ biography that leaves his entire adolescence and early adulthood unaccounted for.

The ancient Magi were a hereditary priesthood of the Medes credited with profound and extraordinary religious knowledge. After some Magi, who had been attached to the Median court, proved to be expert in the interpretation of dreams, Darius the Great established them over the state religion of Persia. It was in this dual capacity whereby civil and political counsel was invested with religious authority, that the Magi became the supreme priestly caste of the Persian Empire, and continued to be prominent during the subsequent Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods.

So the Magi (which we derive our word magic), were a priestly cast that possessed extraordinary psychic and esoteric knowledge.

The Magus archetype is the archetype of the psychotherapist or the artist because it is the realm of secret, esoteric, healing, radical, and transformative knowledge, it is the modern equivalent of a Magician, Sorcerer, or Shaman.

The word Shaman comes from the Siberian language, and means “person of power.” Shaman were the ones that did the cave paintings 40,000 years ago and led initiatory rites of passage transforming boys into men.

Shaman were always the fringe of a tribe, they were often very different, odd, homosexual, radical, dangerous, and didn’t fit in to the status quo, however they possessed tremendous power and were sought for their healing, divination, and astrological advice on matters ranging from planting, marriage, and war.

                

Its true most training programs or graduate schools would have a hard time marketing themselves as; “Come to Harvard school of psychotherapy, and we’ll train you to be a modern Shaman!”

Still, psychology deals with psychic energy, and that is the realm of the Magus. But it is volatile energy, not unlike radioactive isotopes and should be handled with extreme caution.

There is a definite danger and risk when client’s and professionals start digging around in the gritty underground world of the psychic playground. Jung felt that depth psychology can be potentially dangerous, because the analyst is vulnerable to being infected by his client’s wounds by having his wounds reopened. To avoid this, the analyst must have an ongoing relationship with the unconscious, otherwise he or she could identify with the "healer archetype", and create an inflated ego.

When someone is identified with an archetype instead of accessing or relating to it, they are certifiably insane. These are the people that get locked up because they think they’re Jesus.

Archetypes are sources of pure psychic energy, so we cannot get too close or involved, lest they will fry us! The story of Icarus flying too close to the sun, or when, in the Bible, God says; "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" This is referencing the intensity of archetypal energy that is wise to approach with caution. Artists are very familiar with frying themselves with archetypal energy, that’s why so many of them die so young.

We can reference my favorite shrink Hannibal Lector here. Hannibal, as portrayed in the movies and books, was an awesome therapist to the extent that he could empathetically and intuitively "read" any and all cues and signals the patient was presenting. He could smell Clarisse’s perfume and “know” that she had a silence of the lambs’ fetish. But Dr. Lector was not in touch with his own woundedness, so he became inflated and grandiose with his skills to the point of eating his patients, this is very bad for business!

In summary, we can see the Wounded Healer archetype as a very powerful source of vitality and integration of the psyche that requires one skillful in the navigation of others as well as one’s own woundedness.

The competent therapist is consciously aware of her own personal wounds. These wounds may be activated in certain situations especially if the therapist’s wounds are similar to her own.

The client’s wounds affect the wounds of the therapist. The therapist either consciously or unconsciously mirrors this awareness back to her client. If the therapist is consciously mirroring, it will engender a healing relationship between client and therapist, if the therapist is unconsciously projecting her own wounds and needs onto the client it can be very harmful.

Greek Polis

                                            Greek Polis

 

               

 

We are living in times where we are being challenged to come to terms with what it means to live in healthy, balanced relationship with other people. More than ever, we are charged with implementing the democratic values that we espouse, and supposedly form the bedrock of our society.

More than ever, more people than ever, are marginalized and treated as expendable by the institutions that supposedly are organized to help. This is all a pattern in history that Marx wrote brilliantly about as a repeating cycle that can only be remedied through revolution.

There are many public health crises in our country and the world, one of them being the American Medical Association, coupled with the Pharmaceutical Industry, collaboration in contributing to an epidemic of prescribed pain medication addiction, over doses, and ruined lives and families.

Another health crisis is suicide. Every year there are 800,000 people in the world that die from suicide; one suicide every 40 seconds! Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death among those aged 30-49, and the second leading cause of death in the 15-29 years age group.

 

                                                                     Walking Dead

                                     

The proliferation of zombie, apocalypse, and vampire movies, books, and T.V. shows corresponds to how dead, drained, and hopeless people feel. It is fascinating to me how a show like Walking Dead forces us to look at some of our deepest needs, instincts, and values of surviving, living, and thriving in a threatening world.

The characters must face issues of sacrifice, raising children, making hard choices, trust, and working collaboratively and democratically as a group. I think the show (going in to its 7^th season), is a brilliant portrayal, on a visceral level, of how people are feeling as we are pursuing our inherent drives toward the pursuit of happiness.

 

                                                                Go Greek!

                               

There are three main influences that make up the Western mind, they are the Hebrews, Romans, and the biggest influence in my view, are the Greeks. The Greek influence on our world view can be simplified in terms of Logos, Eros, and Ethos, The True, The Beautiful, and The Good. These represent respectively; Logos is the rational principle, which includes verbal and mental constructs- “In the beginning was the word,” (Logos). Here Logos and language is seen as the creative principle in which God manifests the universe.

Eros is the vital and relational principle in which erotic love, aesthetic sensibilities, and the passion for life exist, it is the archetype of the Lover, the one who appreciates and expresses beauty and compassion. And finally, what I want to write about today; Ethos- the principle of goodness, justice, morality, and the ethical dimensions of living in accord with others in the way we consider civilized.

 

                                           

 

                                                    The City and the Civic Life

Poleis literally means city in Greek, this is where we get our word politics. It can also mean citizenship and body of citizens, in which we derive our word civic, civil, and civilization, so we can see right away the nature of the Greek mind in relation to city, civic, and politics as being about a body of people living in a relationship to one another that is based on kindness, cooperation, and compassion.

In modern historiography, polis is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as "city-state."

In Plato’s Republic, he considers the highest form of government as ruled by a benign philosopher king, who is an enlightened, wise leader who visions and enacts the highest good for the collective. The idea of one Philosopher King, that is the sovereign ruler, may seem foreign to us, but just consider what we are envisioning, intending, and desiring when we’re voting for a president, it’s just that, one who will lead with an enlightened wisdom.

 

                                             

 

The best form of government of the polis for Plato is the one that leads to the common good, this is the essential point that is truly Greek. Now we should also add that part of the reason the Greeks could envision such a high ideal as the common good, is because they had the slaves and wealth to do things like sit around and philosophize about this shit!

 

The philosopher king is the best ruler because, as a philosopher, he is acquainted with the Form of the Good. In Plato's analogy of the ship of state, the philosopher king steers the polis, as if it were a ship, in the best direction.

 

                           

 

                                  Tolstoy, Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, and M.L.K.

In order for a true leader to become acquainted with the essence of the common good, she must achieve a common good within herself. This is only accomplished through the guidance of one that has journeyed that journey and become, as Joseph Campbell wrote, “Transparent to transcendence.” In other words, one has quelled the opacity and hold the ego has on one’s life, and become translucent to divine guidance.

In the 12-steps, this is the 11^th step; “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”

The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy was struck by the description of Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu ascetic renunciation as being the path to holiness. He saw deeply into the nature of being human, and lived in simplicity and humility. Modern society teaches and conditions people to live in complexity, greed, and arrogance, this is the opposite of the common good.

 

                                         

When Jesus says; "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God," or “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven,” he is not so much talking about material wealth and poverty, as he is the psych-spiritual poverty and simplification of the ego.

The same is true of Buddha, who grew up in extreme material wealth, and went to the other extreme of asceticism before he formulated the “middle way.”

Once Buddha had his awakening, he was the common good that he took out into the world to teach. Just as Gandhi said; “Be the change you want to bring into the world.”

Just as Martin Luther King lived the dream he had;

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

All this is pointing toward the actualization of the common good in a leader before he or she is capable of actually leading.

 

                                                                      Identity

                                       

 

Identity based solely on what you have, what you do, what you know, or your social status, is doomed to failure. Identity should be about who a person is, her character (see my essay on character), her inner core, her essential nature. If you have contact, and have awakened your essential Buddha nature, then you will naturally do good works, be very wise, people will be attracted to you, and you will succeed.

 

This is what a good therapeutic process is about- awakening and recovering your essential, good nature, which a lifetime of abuse and conditioning has overshadowed. It takes a therapist or mentor that can mirror back to you your goodness until it becomes internalized and your core identity. 

This is the process that ideal parenting engenders, but as a society, we have given such little value to how a human being is made (i.e. parenting), that we basically suck at it, and we’re seeing the consequences!

The ancient Greeks’ strong sense of identity was grounded in civic life, to the common good. One's loyalty went mainly to the polis. The most tragic figure in Homer is the “stateless” man—one who lacked a civic grounding or identity. The ancient Greek poleis were never controlled by an official religion, but they were also never wholly secular. This is a natural separation of church and state, and we can see the seeds of such wisdom that we have adopted (some of us).

The Greek pantheon was a brilliant psycho-social mythology in which all the strengths and foibles of being human were personified in their gods and goddesses, so people could understand and cathart over the tragic/comedic drama that is human life. When religion came to embrace monotheism is when the real shit hit the fan!

 

                                     

 

Greek culture had a strong psych-social milieu due to having a pantheon with very human gods and goddesses replete with all our human strengths and weaknesses personified and dramatically amplified. This type of polytheistic culture, compared to the horrendous harsh monotheism of a judging, vengeful male god, is the difference between mental health and mental illness sociologically speaking. 

                                       

The historical record shows a remarkable unity and integration of the religious, civic, familial, and personal dimensions of life. Great and highly defined individuals come to the surface throughout this period, but individuality was not to be won at the cost of the polis. To set oneself apart so as to give greater importance to self than to polis was a hubristic act deserving severe punishment.

The status of slaves and women, moreover, was markedly different from that enjoyed by the free, property-owning citizens of Athens. Contradiction and moral confusion are not unique to the modern world! But the Greeks had a brilliant embrace of the contradictions of human life and they celebrated it in the context of the common good polis.

 

                                         

 

                                                           Differences

We must be careful not to idealize Greek culture and recognize they struggled with many of the issues that attempts at modern democracy does, however, we do owe them a great deal as the progenitors of ideas, philosophy, and practices that we hold to be so dear. 

It is important to note that the Greek Polis had a very modest size and population. There is a critical mass of population density in which you cannot enact what the Greek expression of the common good must have been like. So we can forget about the common good (in the Greek sense), in large, industrialized, metropolitan cities, they will remain a hotbed breeding ground for crime, poverty, addiction, and violence. A lot of infrastructure will always be to put out fires, and turn down the volume. We can see this as the Modus operandi in all large bureaucracies.

 

Ancient Greece also had a degree of ethnic and cultural homogeneity that would be impossible to attain in the modern world, nor should we try. But we can get people on the same page of music in a solidarity of what a common good might look like.

The ancient Greek world exalted individuality but condemned individualism. This is something that is very foreign indeed, for we are all about individualism, even to our own detriment.

For the Greeks, gods and the Homeric heroes are highly individuated, however, individuality was not to be won at the expense of the polis. The claims of individuals could not take precedence over the needs, desires, and wishes of the community. One who set himself in opposition to the polis would become an outlaw and subject himself to ostracism, which was felt as a penultimate punishment (as it was in Rome).

We have certainly evolved beyond the Greeks in the sense that Greek slaves and women,  had very limited and revocable rights. The democracy that resulted from Greek culture was ever fragile, with oligarchs waiting in the wings to restore the initial rigid class system in times of strife. We see this being played out in contemporary times, which is certainly historic patterns repeating themselves.

The ancient Greek polis was the first political community to debate the very terms of civic life at both a practical and abstract level. Plato’s dialogues and Aristotle’s political treatises closely examine the relationship between citizen and state, individual and community, and the personal and the public good.

 

                                                              Aristotle

                                      

Next to Socrates and Plato, Aristotle would come to expound the essential nature of the Greek polis.

The law was seen as friend, as Aristotle would expound, making clear that all personal and collective initiatives point toward a political community controlled by the rule of law and pursuing the mutual benefit of the  collective.

Aristotle would even regard the polis as prior to the family and the person! For Aristotle, the polis creates and sanctions the various forms of family life and the duties and rights of the individual members. The polis thus grounds the very civic identity of the person and preserves that identity in its memory of him.

Finally, the polis and only the polis guides human development, nurtures virtues, punishes vices, and otherwise realizes those human potentialities by which we have a flourishing life. This relates very much to our idea of the right to pursue happiness.

Aristotle explains that law has the property of philikon—a friendly quality. He identifies three possible grounds of friendship: pleasure, utility, and perfected friendship (i.e.,telea philia). The last of these obtains between those who want what is good for the other for the other’s sake (brotherly love).

Perfected friendship is possible only among people who are comparable in virtue and are thus able to render to each other what the other deserves. Montesquieu identified particular qualities as appropriate for those who live under various political regimes. Those who live under a tyranny should be inured to fear. Those who live under monarchy should possess a sense of honor. Those who live under republican government should cultivate virtue.

Civic life is most possible among those who live in friendly relations with each other. The right kind of law evokes the best qualities of the citizen and eliminates the worst. It is like a friend in that it seeks what is good for the other as other.