Author Archives: mleaman@lojong.org

Understanding Reparations

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As a lover of history and an advocate for Karma, I know that our present day is an interconnected and often complicated chain of events stretching back in time, often obscured by misrepresentation, many times repressed to hide shame.

So when a columnist with conservative tendencies, David Brooks, wrote an article this past week endorsing reparations for African American slavery I was forced to re-examine my position and my understanding of this divisive topic. Admittedly, I found that my knee jerk opposition to this concept was not based on any sound argument nor did I have any compelling evidence to support my opposition. On the contrary, deeper examination revealed that my opposition to reparations was based on a combination of ignorance and avoidance behavior… an avoidance of examining a topic that could potentially further polarize an already deeply divided country.

And then I realized… I’m part of the problem. While I post support for Black Lives Matter, while I rage at the hate-filled rhetoric of white supremacists, I am simultaneously perpetuating a myth that we, as a country, don’t need any moral reckoning with our history. Rather, my firm belief was that the road to racial justice lies solely in a present day moral reckoning. And, any efforts to trace the lineage of discrimination beyond my myopic lifespan would distract and divide the political resolve to address racial injustice in its present form.

And then Brooks linked me to a 2014 article in the ‘The Atlantic’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations. Much of the African American history that Coates led me through in his article was not unknown to me. However, when he laid it out, end-to-end, as a pervasive and foundational theme in the history of our country, something changed in my current understanding of why the African American community is still largely excluded from the American Dream. And, as is the case for many epiphanies, my first reaction was “Of course!” How could today’s current economic and political climate for African Americans be anything other than what it is!

African Americans have endured through an unbroken chain of events spanning 400 years that have systematically, in one form or another, deprived them of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And yes, America HAS made progress, but certainly not without a struggle. And that struggle continues today. However, Coates makes a very strong argument that the current political and social activism will always be lacking unless we, as a country, truly understand the full history of racial injustice.

“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”

At the very least, we should have an honest, open discussion about reparations and attempt to understand what reparations could look like. Fortunately there are models that could inform such a debate, even going as far back as Colonial America. Coates highlights the extremely volatile debate around German reparations that occurred in Israel in 1952. The wounds of the Holocaust were still fresh and fears flourished that the German horrors would be laundered. Israel eventually negotiated a settlement with Germany and a significant amount of Israel’s early infrastructure development was directly attributed to these reparations.

“From 1953 to 1963, the reparations money funded about a third of the total investment in Israel’s electrical system, which tripled its capacity, and nearly half the total investment in the railways.”

I’ve been peripherally aware of a ‘reparations’ bill submitted by Congressman John Conyers from Detroit and only just learned that he’s submitted this annually for the last 25 years. I’ve dismissed this bill as some symbolic, divisive financial pay-off resolution. My knowledge and opinion of this resolution relied on inflammatory rhetoric that I’ve just discovered is a gross mischaracterization of the bill and its underlying motivation. This bill has been titled the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.

“People who talk about reparations are considered left lunatics. But all we are talking about is studying [reparations]. As John Conyers has said, we study everything. We study the water, the air. We can’t even study the issue? This bill does not authorize one red cent to anyone.”

Just as the NRA has effectively shut down the mere study of gun violence, so too have both Democrats and Republicans shut down the mere study of reparations. And, I think it’s very important to understand that the mainstream notion of reparations as simply paying money to direct descendants of slaves is a gross misrepresentation of the complex nature of racial injustice in this country. Coates’ article effectively lays out an argument that the insidious damage to African Americans extends well beyond slavery and therefore requires a broader and more thoughtful debate and approach.

The topic of reparations has already been broached within the context of the approaching 2020 Democratic Primaries. Whether or not this issue gains any traction during the debates is yet to be seen. However, I’m fairly confident that the GOP will jump on this issue and attempt to use it to further divide and conquer the electorate. Therefore, I urge anyone who is ambivalent and uninformed on this topic to take the time to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article. In closing, I’ll quote the same passage from Coates’ essay that David Brooks states was the key passage that changed his view on the topic of reparations and that redefines reparations as something much more than simply financial compensation.

“And so we must imagine a new country. Reparations — by which I mean the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences — is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely. … What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices — more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.”

The Optimism of ‘Non-Belief’

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(Posted November 23, 2018)

The rise of atheism in America is no longer a matter of debate and can no longer be dismissed as a cultural anomaly. Although the number of atheists is still a matter of considerable debate, the fact that the numbers continue to trend upwards is unquestionable. Furthermore, recent research suggests that the number of self-identifying atheists is most likely under-reported, perhaps as much as 10 times under-reported. A recent study out of the University of Kentucky used a novel technique to estimate the degree of under-reporting and applied this technique to two nationally representative populations of 2000 adults in each sample. The results were eye-opening, estimating that as many as 26% of US adults identify as non-believers.

Although pleasantly surprised, I don’t find these numbers totally unexpected. As a student of history and a proponent of cultural evolution, the conflict between secularism and religious belief has been a perennial theme throughout human history. Much like a teenager’s indifference, or even hostility towards his parents, our history is littered with doubters, skeptics, and heretics.¹ That indifference often transformed into open rebellion and murderous intent to destroy the divine incompetence, to kill the god that’s failed to deliver on promises of mercy, compassion, and everlasting paradise. And now we’re entering the next stage of human development, an epiphany of sorts… the inevitable realization that trying to kill god is like shadow boxing, like throwing counter-punches at a ghostly projection of yourself. The rise of spirituality over the culture of religious dogmatism is the inevitable progression from human self-awareness towards a cosmic consciousness.

Understandably, the inexorable march towards a more secular world creates a lot of angst among the faithful. However, I would argue that their prophecies of moral anarchy are not only unsubstantiated but are contradicted by the historical evidence of the last several hundred years. As societies began to separate religious belief from public policy, governments began to recognize their responsibility for protecting the interests of all citizens, regardless of religious affiliation. As the laws of man overshadowed the capricious laws of gods and kings, reason and empiricism started to overshadow religious doctrine, myth and superstition. The “rule of law” is the cornerstone of every modern democracy, and no sane citizen questions its value and legitimacy in a civilized society.

By no means am I advocating that everyone abandon their faith. Personal belief is a singular, individual choice. However, inasmuch as the world is becoming increasingly smaller, I am advocating for a world that accepts the alternative views posed by atheism. And, most importantly, I am advocating for a clear demarcation within the public sphere between the personal truths of faith and the objective truths of critical thought. The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries examined religious belief and found flaws in all of the varieties of their day. They agreed that a secular state offered the clearest path to a free and flourishing society.

As non-belief becomes an increasingly more common and viable personal choice, there will be many who will attempt to sow seeds of fear and paint a picture of a dystopian future. One example of many is the spurious claim that lack of school prayer has contributed to moral decay and a host of societal ills. Anyone who has raised a child knows that developing moral character and integrity cannot be accomplished simply by a daily prayer. Easily dismissed is the naïve notion that outsourcing our personal ethics to any church or creed will ensure a more civil society, as evidenced by the hateful outcries of the Westboro Baptist Church.

From a societal perspective, I’m buoyed by the fact that many are choosing to unshackle their minds and are willing to challenge the prevailing views of uncompromising dogmatism. However, there is no guarantee that abandoning faith will automatically lead to a worldview of optimism and hope. Just as parents struggle to guide teenage angst into emotionally resilient, self-assured adults, the spiritual journey of doubt and discovery takes patience, discipline and effort. In his book ‘If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him’, Sheldon Kopp beautifully defines the journey that faces the spiritual pilgrim:

“The contemporary pilgrim is a person separated from the life-infusing myths that supported tribal man. He is a secular isolate celebrating the wake of a dead God. When God lived, and man belonged, psychology was no more than ‘a minor branch of the art of storytelling and mythmaking.’ Today, each man must work at telling his own story if he is to be able to reclaim his personal identity.”

For those struggling with their own nagging doubts and skepticism, a secular world does not assume a less moral world. A secular world does not assume a less spiritual world. Atheism is not the denial of god. On the contrary, atheism is the freedom to see the divine in everything at every moment. But, like any freedom, there is always a choice… and sacrifice. And the choice is not a singular decision in time, and the sacrifice is not a one-time bargaining. Like the flowing stream, the choices are never-ending and each moment requires personal resolve.

Do you choose to see and hear the divine in less obvious places? Are you willing to sacrifice the comfort of familiarity, the security of the known, the blissful denial of accountability? Are you willing to accept that there is no pre-constructed wall between humanity and evil? Are you willing to accept that light and darkness comingle within the human spirit and that we are all sinner-saints?

These are the questions that atheism has forced me to confront, and some of the daily contradictions I’m forced to reconcile. However, seeing the world through the clear lens of reason and confronting the daily contradictions with the tools of critical thinking have opened up a world of infinite possibilities. Contrary to conventional wisdom, laying waste to the comforting balm of religious doctrine does not open the door to a litany of neuroses and fears. The freedom to experience the world untethered by dogmatic window dressing has allowed me to view the world more honestly, more optimistically, and more joyfully. My fidelity to science has not stripped the world of beauty, awe and wonder. On the contrary, science continues to reveal to me a world of mystic beauty. The discipline of cause and effect reinforces an interconnected universe of constant, unending change and transformation. We are immersed in a boiling cauldron of life and death, of transformation and rebirth.

Knowing that the rising sun is not the creative inspiration of a singular architect does not diminish the awe and beauty of a new day. We are star dust, created and fueled by the same forces that give rise to the first light of a new day. The spirituality of atheism is an affirmative spirit of union and connectedness, a profound sense of belonging… directly challenging the religion of separation wherein man and woman were tossed out of the Garden of Eden, forced to wander as strangers in a strange world.

Every element of the universe is connected and every human being is part of the same great turning wheel of life and death. There is not a single human being who has never suffered, therefore our suffering is shared… we are not alone in our suffering. The word compassion literally means “to suffer together”. We are all made of the same star dust, we are subject to the same forces of the universe…

“We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean ‘waves’, the universe ‘peoples’. Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.”

Alan Watts

Atheism has not denied me anything. On the contrary, atheism has provided me with profound joy, with a deep sense of connection to everything around me. And, most importantly, atheism has given me the freedom to be kind to everything and everyone, the freedom to experience our shared suffering, and the optimism to know we are surrounded by joy… if we only choose to open our eyes.

 

¹For an extremely comprehensive view on the history of skepticism, I would highly recommend Jennifer Michael Hecht’s book ‘Doubt: A History’.

Livin’ in the Echo Chamber

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(Posted April 23, 2018)

In “Zen Guitar” by Philip Toshio Sudo, the budding guitar enthusiast is asked… why play guitar? After a laundry list of varying reasons to pick up the guitar, Sudo concludes with the overlooked and simplest of responses… you play guitar to make a sound.

I would be dishonest if I didn’t admit to a significant amount of self-indulgence motivating my desire to blog. We all want our ideas and values affirmed in the public sphere. However, just like the guitar, ultimately I just want to make a sound, for myself and for anyone who chooses to read. Publishing one’s thoughts and ideas in any public forum exposes them to being challenged or refuted. Therefore, a blog involves some personal risk, if even nominal. Aside from the potential risks of having my ideas challenged, which is not necessarily a bad thing, another potential pitfall of blogging is contributing to the echo chamber of social media.

We’ve all heard of the dangers of the echo chamber… a lack of diverse ideas, reinforcing dubious narratives, a ‘groupthink’ mentality that overlooks evidence-based ideas. While these are certainly negative attributes of an echo chamber culture, I would argue that we all are drawn to live in our own echo chambers, as an inevitable fact of our evolutionary past. A shared ideology and value system greatly enhanced survival in an otherwise inhospitable and dangerous world. I would also argue that our echo chambers have evolved, like us. The echo chambers of 10,000 years ago are different than the echo chambers of 1,000 years ago, different from the echo chambers of 200 years ago, different from the echo chambers of just 60 years ago.

The world has become smaller, more interconnected. Cultures have collided, assimilated, and adapted. Tribes have merged and become more complex… and the echo chambers are no longer isolated and immune from outside influences.

Since we’re wired to accept shared ideologies, as a matter of survival, the challenge isn’t in eradicating our innate desire to live in some sort of echo chamber, the challenge is in expanding our shared ideologies to encompass the widest tribe possible… the tribe of humanity. While diverse ideas and values are desirable, all ideas and values do not share equal footing by default. Just as our earliest ancestors tested their ideas and values based on their impact on survival, so too must our shared ideas and values prove their worth in sustaining a more peaceful and compassionate world.

At best, I hope my blogs will be thoughtful and force me to carefully examine my ideas and values as I craft each post. I make no promises, as this is unknown territory for me. At worst, I’ll make some noise and craft some narratives to satisfy my own indulgences, shared or otherwise.