Foster Harmony seems like it should go without saying. It seems like every culture writes its particular version of this tenet into its various cultural canons. Having been born into middle America in the midst of the 20th century, I was raised with this version, commonly referred to as The Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Wikipedia tells me that this particular version stems from a couple of places in the Christian New Testament. But that is far from its singular source. I have yet to encounter a faith, philosophy, belief system, etc., that does not include this core concept somewhere in the canon of its worldview. It is hardly surprising that it claims first place among the four tenets of my worldview - Distilled Harmony.
There are a couple of reasons that Foster Harmony is the most important and the most trying of the four tenets. First is the notion that Foster Harmony is a 24/7, all day everyday objective. It is not a characteristic we can dip into occasionally, when we feel like it, or when we worry that someone is watching or listening. What I mean by that is that we must attempt to make Fostering Harmony a real part of our everyday language and behavior. We need to guard against reacting to, or seeming to condone, the common, daily doses of discord that confront us. From the person who steals your space in the mall parking lot, to the politician or grocery store clerk who informs you that “Those People always do that!” Assuming that you know who “those people” are and what “that” is. It is those snide little pricks of presumed mutual distaste that pop the balloon of harmony. I should point out that this aspect of fostering harmony, because it is so difficult, needs to be seen as a goal. We should not beat ourselves up over occasional, and probably inevitable, slips toward discord. And it is those slips that reveal a major reason why fostering harmony is so difficult.
Fostering Harmony is a difficult mindset to manifest, because, unless you have been very fortunate, or living in a cave, we have few real models for cultural or intercultural harmony. Far more common, in our nation’s - and our world’s - history, are models for conflict, distrust, war and prejudice - sexism, racism, etc. Even the words of historic pacifists get stolen as motivations for mayhem - holy wars of one strain or another. As I write this the media are all a buzz with several stories: 1) The Olympics, in which the “purity” of international competition unfolds against the threat of one “sort of country” seemingly on the verge of invading another. 2) Suspicion of banned substances being employed by a teenager to gain an advantage. 3) A plethora of stories regarding harassment of some sort or another in a variety of personal, professional and social arenas.
One often feels completely powerless to address this heritage of discord that seems inextricably interwoven with the entire history of our species. So let me posit what might be a helpful first step in helping ourselves down the challenging path to Fostering Harmony: let us try to free ourselves from the frightening notion of “the other.” Again, a rather simplistic notion: it takes two to have a fight. I am not advocating that one simply backs down from bullies, whether they are on the playground, at the office, or charging up the front steps of the Capitol. But I will address that issue in the fourth tenet, Oppose Harm. What I am suggesting here is that we avoid our cultural history's inclination to lump people into convenient groups and assign particular characteristics to all members of those groups, and in doing so "demonize" the entire group - make them "the other" whom, again our national and global history tells us, it is OK to demean, incarcerate, or actually kill. Because, somehow, they deserve it. It is the mindset that underlies all "-ists." Harder, but more harmonic, is the seeking of options to opposition that lead to a third solution which becomes fuller understanding and the chance of win-win.
In closing this particular post let me emphasize a couple of points. Taking a personal role in Fostering Harmony needs to be an objective. It is a slippery slope, narrow path, choose your own descriptor. It is hard. It is often made harder by our failure to recognize discordant inclinations in ourselves. It is so much easier to blame "them" - fill in your own convenient "other." We need to work at Fostering Harmony.
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