There is a confusion afoot here. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do it justice now, but I'll sketch the outline quickly:
It makes a huge difference whether you are viewing from the AP of the 'people of the path' or of the general public. It has been well recognised by almost all traditions, that public teachings differ markedly from the inner teachings, reserved only for those who dedicate themselves to the essence of the tradition.
General Public.
If you travel, you will notice that different places have different social vibes - some are healthier than others. The same applies to countries, with different social agreements, bringing very different moods between countries. This means that the way in which a community interacts makes a huge difference to the lives of individuals, which an individual of that community does not fully comprehend unless they travel between communities.
The current political debate that has swept Western nations, and is also becoming significant in Developing nations, is the divide between what is known as the Neo-liberal (NL) agenda (the new Right of politics - the old Right was more about status-quo structures) and the old socialist impulse, now seen more in terms of what I call 'Domain' political agenda.
Neo-liberal began after the Depression/WWII/New Deal, when Socialism finally won across the Western democracies - it is too late to go back, despite the massive effort of the Right, we still now all live in essentially socialist/humanist cultures. What came to be known as Neo-liberalism began with meetings in Europe, then got a stunning ascendancy under Reagan in the US with the snow-balling power of what the US calls Movement Conservatism (MC).
There are many associated grouping of this agenda. But the critical thing is that they had access to vast sums of money, with which they set up piles of right-wing Think Tanks. One of their primary objectives since the start was to roll back the socialist impulse, and in the US, especially the hated New Deal. They have been financially successful (if not completely culturally successful) - we now have returned in most Western democracies to 18th century distributions of wealth - 90% of wealth in the hands of 10% type of graph. There has been an engineered massive shift of wealth away from the middle ground, away from the 'Domain' we all mutually inhabit.
The most focused mechanism in this, has been the changing of language, to a NL/MC based platform, such that even when we talk of community or personal values we talk in terms identified and purposely pushed out into the public sphere - eg. 'Social Capital' instead of just 'community'.
In every country, the new right is on about personal wealth - they despise the whole concept of giving away personal wealth to foster the wealth of the shared domain. They also always want voluntary voting, because the disadvantaged/uninformed classes can't be bothered to vote. The wealthy classes know this perfectly well, and so it serves their interest to have a voluntary system. They want to do it in Australia also, but our constitution won't allow - we have compulsory voting.
The jewel in the crown of this struggle, between left and right politics in the USA, is the National Health scheme. Both sides readily admit, it is no secret believe me, that the success or scrapping of the National Health scheme will decide the final outcome of this battle. Whoever wins that one, takes all. The vehemence with which they have plotted and activated to achieve success or scrapping of this scheme, is beyond all other issues.
However, a distinct shift is being observed in Australia and the USA - a distaste for the consequences of NL/MC. Cyclone Katrina, and then the collapse of that bridge, were watersheds in a deeply felt nausea by the public for extreme right wing agendas. It is very likely the Republicans in the US have reached their use-by date. Such a revulsion to their political influence will relegate them to the sin-bin of public credibility for long enough for the major shift in global political sensibilities, brought forth by the environmental disaster sweeping the world, to make them irrelevant to the future survival of any nation.
Voluntary voting causes the dis-enfranchised classes to not vote because of two main reasons:
1. Apathy - they simply can't be bothered.
2. Cynicism - to politicians, politics, the voting system, and in fact to the entire system.
The general public should be encouraged to participate in voting and being informed of the politics of a country, as they have nothing else. Their own mechanism as community or social class for survival, is through their elected government - there is no other avenue they as a group can pursue to ensure they are not totally ripped off. Every other mechanism, is not democratic, and as such becomes another disenfranchisement, as power by vested interests always has access to leadership of all groups.
The argument that 'my personal vote is meaningless' is accurate from an isolated individual's point of view. But it becomes a tool in the hands of those seeking the lower classes to remain out of political championship. It is the same argument, of saving electricity, water, of not using plastic bags and of planting trees in one's back yard. Nothing an individual can do environmentally will make the slightest difference to the environmental catastrophes occurring around us. The only reason to be personally environmentally responsible is to 'show the flag', to participate in a ground swell, to lend one's support for a wider change - the hundredth monkey effect.
In the end, with the imminent collapse of civilisation as we know it, breathing down our necks, our only chance for survival in the worst-case scenario, will be community solutions, not individual.
People of the Path.
This is what we are really discussing in this thread. Not the general public AP, but the AP of one who is "in the world but not of the world". And that makes all the difference.
The reason is that we have a fall back position - an alternative home. We can't be tossed out homeless from society, because we have the edifice of the Path, with its sangha. We follow the dictates of Spirit, or God, or whatever other word people use, and are only 'passing through' the social, environmental and economic world.
This question, of how much participation people of the path should take 'in the world' has been agonised over by all traditions. Christian monks, Taoist recluses, Buddhism, Toltec, you name it - any tradition which values personal enlightenment or spiritual freedom as primary, has had difficulty in finding an answer to this issue.
The first rule, is if you are destined to participate, then it's your personal road, and off you go - no one ever complains on that basis.
The second rule, is that almost all 'path' traditions have at some time been slaughtered by the general public, whipped up by the politics of the day. So they had to acknowledge if they were to be allowed the personal space and freedom to do their practices, they had to keep an eye out for societal insanity.
However Toltecs came up with two remarkable tenants - controlled folly, and stalking. What these mean, is that by participating in the 'folly' of the world around us, we will find tools of immeasurable value for our own inner journey.
Controlled Folly does not mean we see the world as folly so much, as that we act in the folly of the world as if it wasn't folly. Stalking was a brilliant realisation, that although we are peerless sages in our own little cave, as soon as we step into the world of our fellow humans, we immediately lose all our precious composure, and before we know it, we are frothing at the mouth like everyone else.
Thus the practice is to participate in the ups and downs, the excitement and depressions of the social world we live within, knowing it is madness - not in its own terms mind you, reference my previous section for the general public, but in our terms, seeing from our structure of priorities, from our realisations about the nature of life and death, and our opportunities within that.
By such practice, a doorway appears, which we can mine with wondrous profit for our ultimate purpose. So long as we don't forget to keep hold of the sacrificial bowl and spoon as the I Ching says - so long as we don't forget who we are and where we are going, and become lost in the 'mind of the world'.
So long as we remain in the world and not off the world.
One of the first gifts on offer, is awareness. Most people are uninformed of the forces and processes of the world they live in. Awareness has many facets, but one important one is the simple awareness of the world we inhabit. In all it's physical and abstracted extensions.
One reason I specifically included topics of political, environmental and economic issues in the Board of 'Action', is because most uninformed people on the path are uninformed not by choice, but by laziness.
But the real reason I included this area of Action, is because I have a deeper agenda. I can't launch into this now, but I have a strategy beyond my own spiritual road - I have a strategy for the sangha. And that strategy calls for the application of adventures into worlds of action - for everyone occasionally, but for some as their primary field of activity - the field through which their personal spiritual path passes. Politics is only one of unlimited fields of action.
This is about my position in the Red Root Race - 'reds' are almost always at the forefront of action fields, as their potency of individuality (red) naturally throws them into the height of every battle. Underneath this lies a doorway to freedom, if it can only be grasped. Enough of that.
So, for people of the path, the first question, is are you not voting out of laziness, of laziness towards awareness of the world? Or out of an evolution in understanding your own path of awareness in the world?
There is no point in fooling yourself, or fooling us - you have to decide, are you stepping up to your tasks of awareness, or sitting back, pretending with your mind that you are holy, instead of just apathetic.
Remember, there is no place on this path for those without passion.
