Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly,
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself, especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth,
Nurture strength of spirit shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be of peace with God,
whatever you conceive him to be,
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
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by: Max Ehrmann (1920s)

The Black Family Pledge

BECAUSE we have forgotten our ancestors,
our children no longer give us honor.
BECAUSE we have lost the path our ancestors cleared
kneeling in perilous undergrowth,
our children cannot find their way.
BECAUSE we have banished the God of our ancestors,
our children cannot pray.
BECAUSE the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing,
our children cannot hear us crying.
BECAUSE we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering,
our befuddled children give birth to children
they neither want nor understand.
BECAUSE we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our
gates, an holds us up to the mirror of the world shouting,
"Regard the loveless"
Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our
lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate,
to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things,
knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters.
We ARE our brothers and sisters.
IN HONOR of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues,
and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation, we
make this pledge.

By: Maya Angelou

Equality & Social Organization

Basically, society is a group of people pursuing the common objective of survival. Stripped of all rhetorical excess, this is the point at which social organization begins. However, even at the survival level, this implies the survival of every individual; and if we accept that everybody is entitled to survive, then we have conceded the foundation of the notion of equality.

...The more I have thought, therefore, about social organization, the more I have concluded that here is only one supreme, moral imperative that cannot be affected by time, by circumstance, by the seasons, by man’s moods or intellectual distractions, by the injunctions of philosophers or the sermons of pastors; and it is the notion that social organization exists to serve everybody or it has no moral foundation.

At this point, one has to be clear that the notion of equality in society does not imply either that everybody possesses equal talents or interests, or capabilities; nor that everybody ought to receive the same reward for the function they perform. Obviously, it is of the essence of the human condition that the variations of human personality are infinite. Equally, the fact of specialization within the social organization implies a difference of function, which, in turn, leads to differing rewards. But the fact that society cannot function effectively without differentials in rewards together with the fact that men are manifestly not equal in talent must not be allowed to obscure the central purpose of social organization. This is, and must always be, the promotion of the welfare of every member of the human race. The moment that this intellectual distinction is understood, the concept of equality becomes clear and free from confusions that arise from other aspects of the social mechanism. If you begin with the notion of equality, all the other moral considerations in social organization take their place. Authority ceases to be an aim in itself and becomes merely the precondition of the survival of the whole group. Individual liberty ceases to be a petulant distraction and becomes the extent to which all men may pursue their creative potential within the framework of social survival. And to the extent that the requirements of survival conflict with the trust for individual expression, the notion of equality provides a frame of reference within which a solution may be found.” – (Manley, 17-18)

Manley, Michael. The Politics of Change: A Jamaican Testament. Heinemann Publishers (Caribbean) Ltd., Kingston, Jamaica. 1974, 1990.

Analysis of the nature, causes, and effect of fraction

Excerpt from The Federalist Paper #10: Madison.

There are two method of curing the mischief[s] of fraction: The one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.

There again two methods of removing the causes of fraction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to fraction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes fraction than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.

The second expedient is as impractical as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interest. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors ensue[s] a division of the society into different interests and parties.

The latent causes of fraction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities that where no substantial occasion presents itself the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of fractions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation and involves the spirit of party and fraction in the necessary and ordinary operations of government.