Politics and the spirit

In last week’s podcast episode, I asked: What type of society do you desire? I made a case for the alignment of a belief in the power of the imagination with an appreciation for individual liberty.

It was not a difficult argument to make. The human imagination opens out into creativity. Totalitarian control over all aspects of life, according to those who have either studied the question closely or experienced such a system (I’ve done both), induces a profound stagnation of the human spirit, depression and death.

But wait -- was I misguided or even dishonest in going from what we call a “spiritual” topic in my podcast to what we call a “political” topic? That’s where I hesitated, and actually struggled before doing the broadcast.

Then I reconsidered: Neville insists that the outside world we behold is “you, pushed out”. The seeming independently existing external world is a reflection of the human psyche. In retrospect, I’m glad I tackled the “political” question, because once I set out the argument, with evidence, as best I could within 20 minutes, it made me feel (unexpectedly) as though I were no longer divided against myself.

Any so-called “spiritual” endeavour must come to terms with the nature of evil, and strive for what we refer to in bland terms as “wholeness” or “unity”. I tried, without over-simplifying the matter or being overly-prescriptive, to set out a principled position for desirable ends. What type of society do you desire?