Perils of Reform - Means choking the ends

Apocalyptic Thinking, overzealous reformers and fundamentalism. The three tentacles of a single monster.

In 'The Persistence of Religion', a dialog between Dr Harvey G. Cox and Dr Daisaku Ikeda, one discovers that reckless attempts to seek rapid resolution to complex problems are in factor fodder for making matters worse. The way out of the miasma lies in the core practice of spiritually guided inner reformation. Excerpts from this book follow...

Cox: ... Once people adopt a mentality of social reform, they become impatient with dissent from their vision of what social reform should be. (p 42)

Ikeda: This is a trap facing reformers in religious, social, economic and many other fields. Ideals with the noblest goals lose value if imposed forcibly and violently. (p 42)

Cox (paraphrased): We cannot hope to attain perfect freedom by eliminating [all problems] all at once. As soon as one is overcome, another pops up to take its place. Confronting (rather than deflecting) and trying to overcome them deepens us spiritually, thereby allowing us to reach solutions step-by-step (p44-45).

Ikeda (paraphrased): American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton points to the mental states of Vietnam veterans who often felt that local villages were so hopelessly retarded that the only way to save them was to destroy them. He discovered the same kind of attitude in his studies of fanatical terrorists. The complicated nature of modern day problems makes some people think it would be simpler to start all over again from scratch, a mentally called apocalyptic thinking. (p44)

Ikeda: Religion’s role is to calm impatience and to cultivate a tenacity of will and a reliable, steadfast approach that enables us to stand up against apocalyptic violence. (p45)

Cox: We have witnessed the emergence in virtually every religious tradition of something like a fundamentalist wing that sometimes includes a violent sub-sector. A few Christian fundamentalists tend to believe that violence against abortion clinics is permissible. They have even bombed them and shot and killed doctors and staff members; they try to justify such actions as saving the lives of unborn children. Elements among fundamentalist conservative Jews are perfectly willing to use violence not only against their Arab neighbours, but also against their own people. Indeed, one ultra-conservative fundamentalist Jew assassinated the prime minister of Israel. (p50)

Ikeda:.... many people attribute solely to religious teaching the causes of violence and conflict that actually have a complex background of politico-social conditions. It is a reckless attitude, because these unstable conditions are partly caused by those who simple-mindedly insist on the danger of religion. (p51)

Ikeda: Today the need to listen to each other, recognize our differences and prize diversity is greater than it has ever been. In the moving terms used by Nigerian Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka... the simplest justice is not to do to others things you would not like done to you. He went on to say that the basis of all justice is the ability to imagine oneself in the other party’s position. Without empathy and compassion, there can be no true justice.