Republic of virtue, 1/08

The limits of democracy and individualism

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Wednesday, 16 January 2008 09:21

Part 3 of the speech to Malaysian and Indonesian Muslim students of North America and Canada, Washington DC, December 2007. A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE Dr Azly Rahman aar26@columbia.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/ I begin with two familiar quotes: "A life unexamined is not worth living," said Socrates. "Work hard as if you are to live forever, devote your beingness to the Creator as if you are to die tomorrow," goes a saying attributed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) In this third part of our discussion, we will talk about the world within and this relates to the limits of democracy and individualism. I use the word "personacracy" or "deeply personal democracy" to describe what is it that we need to know about ourselves in order to navigate through the politics of representation of the modern world and signs and symbols of the postmodern environment we inhabit. We need, as an American social critic Frederic Jameson called a "cartography of the self" or a GPS system of our inner and outer world to function in this environment. But first, what does being and "individual" mean? Let me offer a perspective that you can build upon. I need you to listen carefully to the concepts. They might make sense. Individualism How limiting can the term "individualist" mean if it hovers merely within the realm of one's beingness in relation to this world wherein information is mistaken for knowledge and propaganda for truth within the assumption that what we know can merely be grasped by the senses five? If one's entire beingness and becomingness is shackled by it being shaped by the apparatuses of the modern state, as the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci once said, and if one's understanding of the world is merely a mimic of what politics, culture and scientism has dictated, then the word "individualism" is but a term coined so that the personhood in each and every one of us becomes an object to be studied through the process of Othering. Within this delimiting and shackling context then, I must name myself less as an individual and more as a "personacrat." My personacratic self primarily aims at understanding first and foremost my inner world with its attendant beauty and self-government, evolving personhood, destroying of paradigms and perpetual awareness of the supraconsciousness of what lies within. I am a personacrat derived from a conceptual meadow I coin as "personacracy"; a government (kratos) of the self, by the self, for the self. I reject all forms of democracy; the illusionary system of government which has lost its meaning since it was first conceptualised. Personacracy allows me to be in this world of illusion, of Maya, but not be and become part of it. I am thus in this world but not of this world. Personacracy The government I have created in my wakefulness entails me to mediate between the I and the Thou-ness of the scheme of things. I conjure Existence as the highest ideal, going beyond merely thinking therefore I exist, rather believing that I exist within a universe of Existence. I persist to exist within this encapsulated notion called mind and body and persist to believe that when this body rots, death becomes the beginning of perpetual existence. I am eternal within this form and shape of beingness, until eternity calls upon me to be me with Nature and to be a witness to the Truth I have longed to meet. I am truth within a Truth of greater magnitude. I am one and indivisible within a greater design of Oneness and Indivisibility. I utilize my senses five with guidance from my Inner Self in turn guided by a counter-balancing self within. And within these faculties and the political organs within, my entire personhood is a government in itself to be ethnically mastered and maneuvered through the oceans of mercy I call the world outside. I am thus as such, closer to my Self than my jugular vein! In what ways then, am I not individualistic? Here are a few: I once wept when I had no shoes, until I saw a man with no feet; I once believed that man can rise to become Superman, until I sank deeper within myself to become a vicegerent of the Supreme Spirit; I once believed that life is to be lived until I heard one say the life unexamined is not worth living; I once believed that we live once and then die, until I discovered that death to me comes by every nightfall and I live a new life by every break of day; I once heard of a distant heaven and hell, until I name them so as I can be in them; I once let time pass, until I became it and gave what it asked for; I once thought loneliness is bliss until I began to desire of its unspeakable beauty; I once asked who should govern and why must I be governed until I found the ways to govern those within me who longed to be governed; I once marveled at creation, destruction and sustenance until I found that I am all in one Creator, Destroyer and Sustainer. I am this world within and the world without but not with it. Because if I am part of it, I will be apart from the Thou I longed to be part of! I am a traveler passing through time. In my journey I have met mice and men, savages and savants, politicians and philosophers, economists and eco-feminists. In my journey I have met Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre, Foucault, Al Ghazalli and Al Arabi, and philosophers beyond the type of individualism I have been told to mimic. I am taking to the road not taken, for it should make a difference and as I pass through, I kept looking at open windows lest I be oblivious of what this world may teach. Life and death And as I pass through I become more subdued in my anger of what has wrought this world and made men wretched of the earth as I know that this journey is an arduous one; one which begins with a web of guess but will end at a point of certainty. And at the moment of death, the end of the road, I am meeting a self of whom I am familiar with, who I once met before this journey begins. I create the rock I choose to roll so that one should imagine me happy. I can soar among eagles and dwell among sparrows. Life, to me is not an end game but a journey towards Light, which has neither a beginning nor an end. And hence, why am I not an individual and democrat? Because the world is too much for me. If all the world's a stage, I insist not being a mere player but to create one for myself so that I can, in the end hold it like a crystal ball – the world and the stage and its players in all. Is there not beauty in personacracy, than in democracy? I believe, therefore I am a personacrat! I hope you have questions on this part of the lecture and I hope you will be able to understand a perspective of the self better. In the last part I shall talk about your role as students, by way of learning from your environment, by naming it, and transforming it when the time for change requires you to do so. [Part 4 will follow] Comments (7) ... written by Tornado, January 16, 2008 13:04:46 In human life, there only two things beside many things to do and follow no matter what, who or which role and believe being choose:- 1. Good, or 2. Bad report abuse disagree 7 agree 2 ... written by The dragonheart, January 17, 2008 02:42:51 Aristotle said "He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or God." What Aristole meant was that man is a social animal. Man is born in society and he lives in it. Man is a gregarious animal, affected by sympathy and desire for sympathy. Man prefers company to solitude. Man admires and imitates others and also like to be admired and imitated. Man need necessaries in social life as no man is self-sufficient. Man needs are many and his purposes are numerous. Man must associate with his fellows men and seek their cooperations for his diverse needs and to fulfill his purposes. Man at times, is selfish and qurrelsome too. Therefore man is social by nature. Therefore the instinct of living together and cooperating with one another require adjustment of behavior according to some accepted rules which prescribe a course of conduct based upon the needs for one another. The most important rule of social conduct is to do unto others as you would have others do unto you. All conduct in society must conform to certain set rules of common behavior. When Men are territorially organized they develop an organized society with a uniformed behavior. The society then organised into what is called the state, which have higer rules which are called Laws of the state. Individuals who enforce the laws is called the Government. Therefore Man is the one who govern himself. This is Aristocracy (Greek: Aristos means the best and Kratos means power). This what we see the UMNO is trying to do and claimed its as democracy. In other words the UMNO is aristo-democracy which means they claimed that they few good men shall wield power to rule and no others. Ketuanan Melayu... Only the few selected rules, the rest should obey. People used to say that a fool lives to eat and a wise man eats to live. But then the question remains: for what purpose does the wise man live? Living is not an end by itself. There has to be a purpose for man to live for. So what is this purpose? where did we come from? Where are we going? And why we are here? Those who only believe in the material world and who do not believe in a Creator- the atheists- only believe in sensory data. They say that this universe and everything in it came by itself. All its order is simply due to blind coincidence. They say that man is simply like an animal or a plant and that he will exist for a short period and then end like any other animal or plant. Just like what Aristotle said. Those who believe in the Creator can answer the questions: where from? And where to? They know that they have come into existence by being created by the Creator and they also know that there is an eternal life after death. But what about the answer to the third question, that is: why have we been created? If we had been created by the Creator, shouldn’t we expect that He would tell us the purpose of our creation? Shouldn’t He tell us on what basis He is going to judge us on the Day of Judgment? continue.... report abuse disagree 7 agree 1 ... written by The dragonheart, January 17, 2008 02:46:09 For the Muslims, Allah states in the Quran that He created man to be His Khalefah, His trustee on earth (Quran 2:30). Mankind’s basic trust, our responsibility, is to believe in and worship Allah: "And I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship Me… " (Quran, 51:56-5 Allah states that He made this life in order to test man so that every person may be recompensed after death for what he has earned:"[He] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed - and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving." (Quran, 67:2) The Quran draws attention to the importance for man to “remember” and to “recall”. The significance of the two being: to “give thought” is to increase or acquire new knowledge, whereas to “remember” is to recall and remind oneself of relevant knowledge and events that may have been forgotten, but which are important for one’s faith. Allah praises people who use their mind: "Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding - Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], “Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”" (Quran, 3:190-191) About the Quran, Allah Says:" [This is] a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that they (i.e. people) might reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded." (Quran, 38:29) In the Quran, the words that can be formed from the term “know” or “knowledge” is to be found 865 times. In one verse Allah says: "Are those who know equal to those who do not know? Only they will remember [who are] people of understanding." (Quran, 39:9). Also: "And so those who were given knowledge may know that It (i.e. the Quran) is the truth from your Lord and [therefore] believe in it, and their hearts humbly submit to it. And indeed is Allah the Guide of those who have believed to a straight path." (Quran, 22:54). On the other hand, the Quran strongly rejects certain mentalities that are driven by myths, illusions, absurdities, ignorance, blind imitation of others, assumption (conjecture), prejudice, whims and desires. In fact, Allah in the Quran confirms that most people on earth have gone astray because they follow assumption, conjecture and ignorance. Allah says: And if you obey most of those upon the earth, they will mislead you from the way of Allah. They follow not except assumption, and they are not but falsifying (out of ignorance, conjecture and assumption). (Quran, 6:116) So where are we going? Allah says: "Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned." (Quran, 21:35) Muslims believe that the present life is a trial in preparation for the next realm of existence. Muslims know that man was not created merely for this worldly life; rather this world was created for man.So, if a fool lives to eat and a wise man eats to live, then a believer lives to worship Allah. Dear fellow Muslims in Malaysia, are our purposes to live is to corrupt and to destroy? report abuse disagree 7 agree 2 ... written by Dr Azly Rahman, January 17, 2008 03:50:26 Dear all, Let us speak of the "self" from your own religious/spiritual perspective so that we may find the Universal within the Particular... we have gone too much into the path of disagreements of what must constitute the Truth in an age wherein our common enemy lies in front of us in broad daylight -- an enemy that is perpetually building structures upon structures and layers upon layers of power. The question remains... what is the nature of Evil and where does it reside? report abuse disagree 5 agree 1 ... written by hiro, January 17, 2008 17:40:46 I'll just make it simple. Vote out UMNO for a vibrant democracy and transformational creativity, progressiveness and dynamism to take root in Malaysia. report abuse disagree 5 agree 1 ... written by Dogboy, January 17, 2008 22:36:48 Every one of us have a choice in the coming GE. Do not waste your vote. Go for the unknown (opposition)or go for the known (known corruption and nepotism of BN) report abuse disagree 4 agree 0 ... written by Alan Tan, January 19, 2008 13:27:02 About limits, ours are too limited! report abuse disagree 4 agree 1 Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment. You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.

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