Dialectic

Occupying the Chessboard of the Dialectic

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are born out of frustration in an attempt to protest what people think is the problem. Accusers who divide opposing forces into Wall Street on one side and brain-dead zombies of the Flea Party on the other, suggesting that they should be targeting George Soros instead, are as blind to the solution as they are to the problem and are little more than brain-dead zombies of another party. In being little more than opposition to a perceived problem groups will gather and joust complaining with little understanding of the difference between problems and symptoms.

The result of any protest, whatever it may be, is seldom tied to a solution but only to a personal perception of what the problem might be, which in this case is often labeled as capitalism. "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit from investment, usually in competitive markets."

The term capitalism used here to define a problem in the economy is a misnomer if not a missed diagnosis for several reasons. The first being that there has been almost no true capitalism in America since 1933, if not 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and fractional reserve banking. Once America went down that road we were dealing with debt-ism not capitalism.

Of course debtism leads to despotism which is not the result of capitalism but rather Capitolism if I may coin some new terms.

We know that there is a problem because millions of people are feeling the pain. They have lost everything and millions more are losing daily through a declined economy and inflation. It would be easy to point fingers at everyone from the rich to the politicians who serve them. Are banks and greed the problem and if it is greed which dictator do you want to elect and grant the power to stamp it out? Are these things the problem or the symptoms in a sick society?

The Federal Reserve is not the problem either, but merely a symptom. Even if treating the symptom could provide a solution, which it cannot, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are really only gathering in oppositions. Creating an opposition is most commonly a part of the dialectics of manipulation by those already in power.

Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement. Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus stated that Hegelian dialectic, an important precursor to Marxism, comprised three dialectical stages of development:

• a thesis, giving rise to its reaction,

• an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis, and

• the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.

The Hegelian dialectic by its nature of creating opposing sides forms a framework to guide the thoughts and actions of society “into conflicts that lead us to a predetermined solution.... When we remain locked into dialectical thinking, we cannot see out of the box."

The truth is most people do not even know they are in a box. Keeping them focused only within the interior of the box is of primary importance to the practical puppeteers of a democratic society. Some have discovered the walls of the box and bash themselves against them demanding their freedom. While most are content to battle amongst themselves. Only a rare few recognize their imprisonment and realize that the box is of their own making.

"Today the dialectic is active in every political issue that encourages taking sides. We can see it in environmentalists instigating conflicts against private property owners, in democrats against republicans, in greens against libertarians, in communists against socialists, in neo-cons against traditional conservatives, in community activists against individuals, in pro-choice versus pro-life, in Christians against Muslims, in isolationists versus interventionists, in peace activists against war hawks. No matter what the issue, the invisible dialectic aims to control both the conflict and the resolution of differences, and leads everyone involved into a new cycle of conflicts."

This taking of sides with this faction or that will make you little more than a chess piece on a chessboard of conflict. It will lead to the idea that "...the State 'has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State... for the right of the world spirit is above all special privileges.'" It is the tyrant in all of us seeking to rule over others that gives rise to tyranny. If it was not the state it would be our religions, doctrines, philosophy or just ourselves as supreme.

If we believe there is a creator and that divine intelligence is the God which is Supreme then we should seek to be free of the dialectics of the world and seek the righteousness of that God/Creator. This was the gospel presented by Christ.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

We were and are to seek to be ruled by God in our hearts and minds and therefore in our actions. This righteousness comes with His Spirit living in us but for that to take place we must become compatible with His name or nature. This is why we must forgive and give but also resist not evil.

This does not mean that we take no stand against evil but that we take that stand outside of their three dimensional box of the dialectic, we take no side except righteousness. We are called to “occupy” but not as we see them doing in Wall Street protests. What we see there is merely those who come to complain. They want everyone else to change but themselves. They think occupying means standing around opposing.

In Luke 19:13 we see the master give his people some capital to work with and he told them occupy, meaning to be occupied in anything including business. This was not the business of robbing with inflation, cheating with unjust weights and measures or devouring widows houses with inheritance taxes and the like. It had nothing to do with oppression but service and the laborer being worthy of his hire.

God wants all men, without taking dominion over his fellow man, to be fruitful and multiply his dominion of the world. Even the parable about the three servants given some talents each as capital to work with concludes with the unproductive soul having what was given taken away and given to another because he did nothing.

This act of multiplying and making fruitful use of your labor is capitalism but debtism merely produces more and more debt and bondage in the world.

The real solution is not taking sides with dialectic groups who think occupying is standing about shaking your fist but it is in seeking an alternative to the apathy and avarice that brought the whole world back into debt and bondage. The solution is not on Capitol Hill but in the hearts of every man who seeks righteousness in its virtuous and pure state before it becomes an “ism”.

This might appear as a man who honors both formal and constructive agreements, forgives debt and the tension created between opposing ideologies or groups, lives by the perfect law of liberty and gives freely to those who he is walking with and even those he is not with if there is a true and righteous need. They do not need credit from a bank because they love one another and peer-to-peer lending in the interest of love and is what people bank on in hope and charity. It is a society that is composed of cooperative doers not debtors who love one another as Christ loved us. They are minutemen for righteousness and their doing is not dependent upon an opposing force but virtue alone.

Such people will not be found engaging in any form of idolatry worshiping objects like statues, monuments, flags or symbols, nor written agreements he has not signed, nor ideas and philosophies he has not consented to or acquiesced to.

There is no acquiesce in them because they are doers daily willingly sacrificing their own selfishness for the sake of righteousness. As individuals they make a choice in their spirit to conform to the will of the Creator and then they are drawn in mind and body to that which they love.

This change involves individual repentance because it is a change in direction and requires enough humility to recognize that they are going in the wrong direction. It also requires enough humility to realize that you cannot change yourself or modify your own thinking. You must realize that there is a Spirit that is superior to that tree of knowledge we call our mind and without the guidance of the Holy Spirit of the Creator of life we could and would be tossed to and fro.

This realization of the presence and power of the Spirit of the Creator to guide us could be called being born again. Unfortunately many who think they are born again have accepted a dialectic approach to being born again and simply have entered another state of conflict and superiority rather than equality and love. How do we tell the difference?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.”

“Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Galatians 5...6

Instead of occupying someone else's right or way you should come together and be diligently busy in love as doers. Why do you seek their blessings, banks and benefits? Why are you not sowing the seeds of righteousness, setting the table of the Lord of Love instead of the lords of the world.

If you want to attend to what Christ called the “weightier matters” start seeking to gather with others who are seeking the "way" not of the world and found outside of the box.