New-Age Politics

by Theo Geste

It is tempting, when putting forward a new political viewpoint, to state principals and rules. This procedure serves to bring a kind of clarity into the discussion, and, not incidentally, helps to facilitate the various kinds of tribal bonding that are so important in politics. First comes the party platform, and then the buttons, the flags, and the caps. In general, a grand old time is had by all, even marching off to war.

New-Age politics cannot claim a complete indifference to principals and rules. But, it is far too tolerant to use them as fuel for the engines of war and domination. To people of the New-Age, the expression of moral and political positions comes not like the clamor of trumpets before Armageddon, but like the scent of new life in the early Spring.

To whatever area New-Age people turn their attention, whether it be in the arts, or science, or religion, they hear the complaint that they are not making a �serious� contribution. We shall no doubt hear this chorus as we learn to express our insights in the world of politics. It is not so terrible to be considered not serious. Why not take up the refrain, and add to it the notion that we prefer to be more sincere than serious. And, in the meantime, as we navigate our way through the structures of principal and rule which others have laid down, we reserve our right to see the various options and alternatives that are not possible within those structures. While we would acknowledge, by way of analogy, that the rules of the road tend toward a smooth and safe journey, we never forget that when driving there is no substitute for using one�s own good sense. There are times when one can�t cross the water by taking the signs to the bridge: notably, when the bridge is down from the storm. Politically speaking, these are stormy times.

Let us, then, agree not to focus on laying down the chapter and verse of New-Age political scripture. Let our approach to politics emerge in a natural way, similar to the way that a human personality develops over a period of time as a result of being confronted with the events of life and the things of the world. The New-Age is young. There are, however, growing numbers of people who are sympathetic to the categories of thinking and being which are in tune with it. In this column, now a regular feature of ORACLE, we will explore from a New-Age perspective many of the issues dividing people today.

Can there be a better place to start than the United States Budget? The Budget may be said to be the �Bottom Line� of all political discussion. Indeed, one cannot help being struck by the wide range of political, social, and moral thought which does obeisance to the Bottom Line, which is, after all, a borrowing from arithmetic, and accounting in particular. The Bottom Line is the accountant�s god, and the extent to which the accountant�s religion has pervaded society as a whole is truly amazing.

Orsen Well�s directed a little known film-gem called "Immortal Story," in which he plays a demented old man for whom only numbers and arithmetic have reality. In this curious tale, however, his accountant messes up his sums by telling him a story that is very far from the Bottom Line. If you wish to be truly confused about what is fact and what is fiction, you must see this film. It will remain for you always as a cautionary tale about what an obsession with numbers can do to a person.

An obsession with numbers has begun to overtake the American consciousness, and conscience. The Budget, and the balancing thereof, has become the object of affection of every prudent and responsible citizen, and he curses and swears his allegiance to the campaign for its accomplishment at every drop of a hat. From an admittedly limited, and unscientific survey of the media coverage of this issue during the last year, it has been revealed that exactly one expert was able to be found on exactly one occasion to appear before a national audience and declare that there is no need, in principal, to balance the budget. His name is Robert Heilbroner, and his apparent advanced age may have explained to some the non-correlation between his illustrious career as scholar and philosopher of political-economy, and this nutty opinion of his, which is so out of harmony with the spirit of the time. Ask yourself, when was the last time you heard somebody say that they would prefer an unbalanced Budget? (Can several hundred million people be wrong?)

Dare we say it? A balanced Budget is a dead budget. But we should like as well to object to using the term �balanced� for anything so lifeless as a sum in which zero equals zero. Rather, balance is the delicate illusion of the dancer who holds his partner in mid-air. It is the innocent joy of a juggler at a carnival, perhaps. Anything but what can be achieved by making receipts equal expenditures.

A civilization is a complex pattern of relationships, constantly moving and changing. It is truly a living organism. And no living organism can ever be in perfect equilibrium until it is dead. In fact, the harmonious evolution of the whole organism is always a function of the subtle imbalances and disequilibriums that exist between its parts. What would a human be without the conflicts of interest between brain and stomach? It is their relationship, ever in flux, which creates the person.

We shall never understand the Budget so long as we think of it as a thing, and not a relationship. The problem is closely related to a similar misconception that we have about money in general. As it happens, money is also not a thing, but a relationship. One great economist has declared that money is a fetish. This is close to the mark. For, there is no doubt that many people regard their money with something like a religious respect for its inherent permanence and absolute value. It is for good reason that we put �In God We Trust� on the dollar. The whole basis of our society is premised on the trust that a dollar when received can be relied on to be a dollar when retrieved.

Money is only the accountant�s representation of a complex set of relationships between people. The money that you have is a representation of the relationship between you and your employer, or your client, or customer. It is a representation of the relationship between any buyer and seller. And most important, it is a representation of the relationship between the person who has it and the person who doesn�t.

This last relationship is crucial to an understanding of what the battle of the Budget is really about. Ultimately, we must recognize the relationship between the money in my pocket and the money in yours. This will immediately become apparent to you if you consider what your money would be worth if, for the most part, nobody else had any. Obviously, if would be worth a great deal. As more an more people get money to compete in the market with yours, it becomes worth less and less. There is, in other words, an inverse relation between the value of the money in my pocket and the value of the money in everybody else�s pocket.

The unspoken dirty secret of all civilized economies is the drive to increase the value of money by decreasing its circulation. Some of you may remember William Jennings Brian and his famous �Cross of Gold� speech, during the years when America was experiencing the disequilibriums created by the coexistence of Silver and Gold Standards for the dollar. The issue was exactly the same in that bygone era. We could use an orator of his caliber on this question.

The arguments for a balanced Budget may be stated in terms of harsh realities, the inescapably fixed plusses and minuses of income and expenditure. Economists today read the numbers on the economy much like medical doctors read cell-counts in lab specimens, and they pronounce on the health of their patients as if it were a matter of inert reactions in a test tube. Beware the charms of established medicine at Johns Hopkins, or at the Office of Management and Budget.

It is not as if there are no alternatives. Who knows but that some ancient medicines might not be more advantageous for our economic patient. It is told in the Bible that God decreed the Year of Jubilee. For all the times this Holy Writ is read from the pulpit, we might consider it a tightly held secret. In the New-Age, however, there is a tolerance for new ideas and old - even for ideas that are old and nutty. Stranger things could happen than a declaration by powers that be that all MasterCard and Visa balances are zeroed out every seven years or so. (Trust me, there are other ways of accomplishing the same thing without making it seem so extreme a measure. We could find a way.)

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