The Time for Radical Humanism is Now....

My soul honors your soul.

I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides.

I honor the light, love, beauty and peace within you,

because it is also within me.

In sharing these things we are united, we are the same,

we are one.

- Unknown

The time for Radical Humanism is now. Every day that we wait to practice it, more lives are afflicted rather than affirmed and each of us becomes just a bit more wounded by the world not healed by it.

What is Radical Humanism, you ask? Essentially, it's a doctrine of my own imperfect formulation, a reflection of my evolving (and hopefully maturing) worldview, a distillation of the learnings with which life has gifted me both voluntarily and involuntarily and a concept that I'd like to share with the world in hopes that it touches and enriches the lives of all who encounter it.

(It's also not to be confused with the concept of the same name developed by M.N. Roy in the mid-20th century, which was primarily political - democratically so - in its focus.)

Let's start with Humanism and then I'll share how I got to the Radical construct that I'm now trying to preach. According to that modern bedrock source of knowledge Google, Humanism is "an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems."

Well, I'm good with most of that except for the "solely rational ways of solving human problems" part because I'm not sure that we humans are capable of solely rational ways. And I believe that "solely rational" crowds out the often higher dimensions of life - like love - which are not always (or ever) purely rational.

In a sense, my concept of Radical Humanism is similar to what that other fundamental fount of modern knowledge, Wikipedia, suggests of the Religious Humanism and Ethical Culture movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, that they were "an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with religious rituals and beliefs that centre on human needs, interests, and abilities." Further, with respect to Ethical Culture, Wikipedia notes that it was "religious in the sense of playing a defining role in people's lives and addressing issues of ultimate concern." In a sense they were non-theistic religions, which is a core component/tenet of Radical Humanism (for reasons that I'll explain momentarily).

Originally I was drawn to Humanism because of its emphasis on our common/shared humanity rather than an idiosyncratic religious orthodoxy that would separate us. Let's face it, in our world, there are literally hundreds of ways to conceive of and worship God or Allah or YHWH or Hu or Brahman or Olorun or....

So starting with a religious premise seemed limiting to me. What I've come to believe is that we need to get beyond or rise above religion as we know it in the modern world, as it constrains and divides us. Think about it: so much of the strife in our world has a religious cast to it, regrettably. For some reason we are not able to allow each other to see and follow God differently ... so we need to find a way to get beyond this limitation so that we can celebrate, affirm and enhance life for all of God's/Allah's/YHWH's/etc. children. Before we are Christian or Hindu or Buddhist or Jewish or Muslim or ... we are human beings and this fundamental equality-in-commonality must be what we value most.

But this does not mean that I favor a solely secular or rational basis for our relations, either. Failure to acknowledge the unique personality-spirit-soul in each of us is a mistake, I believe, because, again, it limits us. When I acknowledge the unique life force that is within you - beyond just the shell of your body - I have a more holistic and thus higher/more profound appreciation for you, for your very being.

I've come to believe that the Hindus have captured this beautifully in the concept of Namaste, which Rita Geno describes in her Yoga Journal article "The Meaning of Namaste" as representing "the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture (of Namaste) is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another." We are more than flesh, we are soul, too, and perhaps even more so....

So, so far I've gotten to getting beyond a sole focus on rationality and/or religion as the basis for how to relate to each other to honoring the whole of our unique humanity (i.e., both the body and soul in each of us) and now for a final component (at least at this juncture of my refining this concept): Passionate Proactivity.

I have come to believe that we need to be passionately proactive in honoring, nurturing, celebrating and protecting each other's humanity. It's not enough for us to wish each other well - although this would certainly be a huge step forward - because this is largely passive. In order to affect real change in our relations and thus in our world, we must act and, in fact, be proactive in honoring, nurturing, celebrating and protecting each other's unique humanity.

It's this holistic positive intent - and, indeed, commitment to action - that then becomes our primary spiritual and behavioral focus. Not only do I have to treat you well actively - which is the physical/behavioral component of this weltanschauung - but I have to be positive in my intent toward you and your soul as well. 

(For example, we've all known situations in which, though we've behaved acceptably toward another, we've actually had malice or certainly less than positive feelings in our hearts while doing so.  This is why the must be positive spiritual intent as well: because these situations represent missed opportunities in that we could have acted/behaved even better toward others had our spirit been right/positive.)

This positive intent/soul force is in fact a tenet of three major (Eastern) religions - Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism - as formulated in the concept of Ahimsa, which means "not to injure." As Wikipedia notes, "Ahimsa's precept of 'cause no injury' includes one's deeds, words, and thoughts." So, to practice Radical Humanism, not only must we refrain from violence physically, emotionally and psychically, but we also must proactively exhibit this positive intent in our thoughts, words and deeds.

So what is Radical Humanism? The belief that we are called to honor, nurture, celebrate and protect the unique person and personality in each of our fellow human beings by being passionately and proactively positive in both our intent and our behavior, our physical force and our soul force.

But what's radical about this, you ask?

Look at our world and how we actually behave. In this sad, violent and too often dismaying time and place in our journey as a human race, conscious, proactive positivity is indeed a radical act. And that it should be all-consuming - our 'True North,' our guiding and animating principle in life, etc. - is as well. Virtually every one of us can agree that we need to behave better toward each other, but few of us see this as our guiding/default approach to life and to all of those other souls - especially those who may be unknown or different or in other ways represent "The Other" - with whom we find ourselves on this shared journey.

And, finally, some of you will want to discount Radical Humanism and say that it's just Love. Maybe. But since we clearly don't know how to do a good job of loving each other, let's try practicing Radical Humanism instead....

When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that

modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit,

which stands in glaring contrast 

to his scientific and technological abundance.

We've learned to fly the air like birds,

we've learned to swim the seas like fish

and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters.

 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Seeing a different world and seeing the world differently....

Not everything can be changed;

but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

- James Baldwin, "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," 1962

Like a moth to a flame I return to James Baldwin periodically, to nourish my soul and steel my backbone, and to emerge, not burned, but fired up both to live passionately in the pursuit of a more perfected reality and also to use this English language to express, deeply, indelibly, accurately, eternally.

And so it is again that I have returned to JAB - the "A" standing for "Arthur" - in this case through the impressive prism of the The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, an outstanding collection deftly edited and introduced by Randall Kenan.  These writings, a diverse compendium of fiction, non-fiction, book reviews, profiles and letters, give us not only a sense of Baldwin's evolution, both personal and literary, but also of a journey through an elevated existence, one raised by the insight and unparalleled eloquence of this singular author and, really, writer.

In the Introduction of the book, subtitled "Looking for James Baldwin," Kenan marvels at the sheer range of his skill and craft: Baldwin wrote fiction (at both short story and novel length), he wrote non-fiction, he wrote book reviews (initially to give himself "discipline" in his writing), he wrote travelogues, he wrote (biographical) profiles, he wrote letters.  He wrote.

And because he wrote we can all both see a different world as well as see the world differently....

Because of his profound gift, I am also inspired to attempt to record glimpses of my own journey, snapshots along the path, so to speak.  I don't pretend to do so as inimitably as the great James Baldwin, but in his honor and inspiration: I write because, through him, I've come to understand and feel what writing can do, can mean and can evoke ... and so I write.

And I regret.  I regret that I really (re-)discovered and began to appreciate Baldwin at mid-life, too engrossed in my own experience to be guided by his in my youth.  I regret that I can only meet the man in his prose and a few videos and documentaries about his life: certainly he was even more in the flesh.

And I regret that, as he paid similar homage to Shakespeare, I will never write like Jimmy wrote ... but I'm so thankful for the inspiration to try.  Not so much to write like he wrote - I'll never reach that unclimbable peak - but to discover my own singular voice and, in so doing, to share with the world my unique perspective.  I'll never speak James Baldwin's language, but I can achieve greater mastery of my own....

I always have to recover after reading Baldwin, literally to take a break to give my mind and soul an opportunity to digest and recuperate.  Reading Baldwin is like starving and then being given free rein at a banquet: invariably one overindulges and needs to be resuscitated, to take some time to come down from the sugar rush of incredibly savory fare (some of which itself can be based on topics most unsavory, actually) and to retreat back into the real world from that glimpse of the eternal one that one experiences in a Baldwin-induced thrall.

As he noted in the 1962 essay, "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," "What the writer is always trying to do is to utilize the particular in order to reveal something much larger and heavier that any particular can be."  And so it is with his own writing: through his gift, invariably we are moved to grapple with the "something much larger and heavier" and in so doing are both ennobled and enervated, raised and yet laid low, by the profundity of his observation, insight and prescription.  I always emerge from Baldwin more passionate and committed ... and then I need to go lay down for a while to prepare for the reengaged and elevated battle....

A large part of the reason that I rest is to gain the strength to address the profundity of his observation and the eloquence of its elucidation.  His framing of issues and opportunities is immaculate, and his address of them is raw, aching and naked such that we are left with indelible, timeless wisdom and reproach.

Cannot one hear the prescience of this 1964 indictment-as-observation resonating today?

Americans are the youngest country, the largest country, and the strongest country, we like to say, and yet the very notion of change, real change, throws Americans into a panic and they look for any label to get rid of any dissenter.  A country which is supposed to be built on dissent, built on the value of the individual, now distrusts dissent at least as much as any totalitarian government can and debases the individual in many ways because it places security and money above the individual....

How incredibly this puts Colin Kaepernick, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and so many other grass roots social movements in our contemporary society into a certain light and relief.  As it did with the Civil Rights Movement and the nascent anti-war movement a half-century ago....

And the range of his piercing insight: so incredible as to be confounding.  For example, in the same piece as that from which the above quote is taken, "What Price Freedom?," and in the very same paragraph, this:

I am trying to suggest that in order for me as a black citizen of this country to begin to be a free man here, in order for that to happen, a great many other things have to happen.  I cannot be, even if I wanted to be, fitted into the social structure as it now stands; there is no possibility of opening it up to let me in.  In the very same way, in the Deep South, Christian churches do not have many Christians in their congregations, and when I move into the congregation, and when the church itself embraces all Christians, the church will have had to change.

He did not describe himself as a "black gay man," but can we not hear in this trenchant plea a theme that survives to this day, that the Christian church will struggle to open itself fully and truly to all, including the poor, those of Color, to women (especially in sacramental roles) and to the LGBT community?

And as we draw to the close of what certainly has to be the most contentious presidential race in modern history, we are essentially called to choose between two very different visions of our future.  Hence, it's prudent that we be mindful of what Baldwin observed so long ago:

Societies are never able to examine, to overhaul themselves: this effort must be made by that yeast which every society cunningly and unfailingly secretes.  This ferment, this disturbance, is the responsibility, and the necessity, of writers.  It is, alas, the truth that to be an American writer today means mounting an unending attack on all that Americans believe themselves to hold sacred.  It means fighting an astute and agile guerrilla warfare with that American complacency which so inadequately masks the American panic.

In the glow of his legacy, perhaps we hear the echoes of his insight in the writings of Coates, Thurston, Whitehead and Mengestu, Danticat, Adiche, Smith and Gay, to name but a few of those of African descent, and many others who challenge the increasingly inequitable and unjust status quo through their writing.  And yet none of them approaches our Jimmy....

So back to Baldwin I go, seeking to be appalled and amazed, alternately crushed and resurrected, by his piercing insight into his topics and his prose, respectively.  And though tired, and occasionally haggard, I will emerge so much the better for it, emboldened both by the struggle and the possibility of liberation glimpsed through his writing, safe in the knowledge that, for me, the Book of Baldwin in my secular bible....

And yet one is compelled to recognize that all these imprecise words are attempts made by us all to get to something which is real and which lives behind the words.  Whether I like it or not, for example, and no matter what I call myself, I suppose the only word for me, when the chips are down, is that I am an artist.

- James Baldwin, "The Artist's Struggle for Integrity," 1963

Seeing a different world and seeing the world differently....

Not everything can be changed;

but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

- James Baldwin, "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," 1962

Like a moth to a flame I return to James Baldwin periodically, to nourish my soul and steel my backbone, and to emerge, not burned, but fired up both to live passionately in the pursuit of a more perfected reality and also to use this English language to express, deeply, indelibly, accurately, eternally.

And so it is again that I have returned to JAB - the "A" standing for "Arthur" - in this case through the impressive prism of the The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, an outstanding collection deftly edited and introduced by Randall Kenan.  These writings, a diverse compendium of fiction, non-fiction, book reviews, profiles and letters, give us not only a sense of Baldwin's evolution, both personal and literary, but also of a journey through an elevated existence, one raised by the insight and unparalleled eloquence of this singular author and, really, writer.

In the Introduction of the book, subtitled "Looking for James Baldwin," Kenan marvels at the sheer range of his skill and craft: Baldwin wrote fiction (at both short story and novel length), he wrote non-fiction, he wrote book reviews (initially to give himself "discipline" in his writing), he wrote travelogues, he wrote (biographical) profiles, he wrote letters.  He wrote.

And because he wrote we can all both see a different world as well as see the world differently....

Because of his profound gift, I am also inspired to attempt to record glimpses of my own journey, snapshots along the path, so to speak.  I don't pretend to do so as inimitably as the great James Baldwin, but in his honor and inspiration: I write because, through him, I've come to understand and feel what writing can do, can mean and can evoke ... and so I write.

And I regret.  I regret that I really (re-)discovered and began to appreciate Baldwin at mid-life, too engrossed in my own experience to be guided by his in my youth.  I regret that I can only meet the man in his prose and a few videos and documentaries about his life: certainly he was even more in the flesh.

And I regret that, as he paid similar homage to Shakespeare, I will never write like Jimmy wrote ... but I'm so thankful for the inspiration to try.  Not so much to write like he wrote - I'll never reach that unclimbable peak - but to discover my own singular voice and, in so doing, to share with the world my unique perspective.  I'll never speak James Baldwin's language, but I can achieve greater mastery of my own....

I always have to recover after reading Baldwin, literally to take a break to give my mind and soul an opportunity to digest and recuperate.  Reading Baldwin is like starving and then being given free rein at a banquet: invariably one overindulges and needs to be resuscitated, to take some time to come down from the sugar rush of incredibly savory fare (some of which itself can be based on topics most unsavory, actually) and to retreat back into the real world from that glimpse of the eternal one that one experiences in a Baldwin-induced thrall.

As he noted in the 1962 essay, "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," "What the writer is always trying to do is to utilize the particular in order to reveal something much larger and heavier that any particular can be."  And so it is with his own writing: through his gift, invariably we are moved to grapple with the "something much larger and heavier" and in so doing are both ennobled and enervated, raised and yet laid low, by the profundity of his observation, insight and prescription.  I always emerge from Baldwin more passionate and committed ... and then I need to go lay down for a while to prepare for the reengaged and elevated battle....

A large part of the reason that I rest is to gain the strength to address the profundity of his observation and the eloquence of its elucidation.  His framing of issues and opportunities is immaculate, and his address of them is raw, aching and naked such that we are left with indelible, timeless wisdom and reproach.

Cannot one hear the prescience of this 1964 indictment-as-observation resonating today?

Americans are the youngest country, the largest country, and the strongest country, we like to say, and yet the very notion of change, real change, throws Americans into a panic and they look for any label to get rid of any dissenter.  A country which is supposed to be built on dissent, built on the value of the individual, now distrusts dissent at least as much as any totalitarian government can and debases the individual in many ways because it places security and money above the individual....

How incredibly this puts Colin Kaepernick, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and so many other grass roots social movements in our contemporary society into a certain light and relief.  As it did with the Civil Rights Movement and the nascent anti-war movement a half-century ago....

And the range of his piercing insight: so incredible as to be confounding.  For example, in the same piece as that from which the above quote is taken, "What Price Freedom?," and in the very same paragraph, this:

I am trying to suggest that in order for me as a black citizen of this country to begin to be a free man here, in order for that to happen, a great many other things have to happen.  I cannot be, even if I wanted to be, fitted into the social structure as it now stands; there is no possibility of opening it up to let me in.  In the very same way, in the Deep South, Christian churches do not have many Christians in their congregations, and when I move into the congregation, and when the church itself embraces all Christians, the church will have had to change.

He did not describe himself as a "black gay man," but can we not hear in this trenchant plea a theme that survives to this day, that the Christian church will struggle to open itself fully and truly to all, including the poor, those of Color, to women (especially in sacramental roles) and to the LGBT community?

And as we draw to the close of what certainly has to be the most contentious presidential race in modern history, we are essentially called to choose between two very different visions of our future.  Hence, it's prudent that we be mindful of what Baldwin observed so long ago:

Societies are never able to examine, to overhaul themselves: this effort must be made by that yeast which every society cunningly and unfailingly secretes.  This ferment, this disturbance, is the responsibility, and the necessity, of writers.  It is, alas, the truth that to be an American writer today means mounting an unending attack on all that Americans believe themselves to hold sacred.  It means fighting an astute and agile guerrilla warfare with that American complacency which so inadequately masks the American panic.

In the glow of his legacy, perhaps we hear the echoes of his insight in the writings of Coates, Thurston, Whitehead and Mengestu, Danticat, Adiche, Smith and Gay, to name but a few of those of African descent, and many others who challenge the increasingly inequitable and unjust status quo through their writing.  And yet none of them approaches our Jimmy....

So back to Baldwin I go, seeking to be appalled and amazed, alternately crushed and resurrected, by his piercing insight into his topics and his prose, respectively.  And though tired, and occasionally haggard, I will emerge so much the better for it, emboldened both by the struggle and the possibility of liberation glimpsed through his writing, safe in the knowledge that, for me, the Book of Baldwin in my secular bible....

And yet one is compelled to recognize that all these imprecise words are attempts made by us all to get to something which is real and which lives behind the words.  Whether I like it or not, for example, and no matter what I call myself, I suppose the only word for me, when the chips are down, is that I am an artist.

- James Baldwin, "The Artist's Struggle for Integrity," 1963

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us....

When the comic strip character Pogo first uttered these eternally insightful words, it was in the context of the first celebration of Earth Day in 1970, when a dawning awareness of the need for our species to live in ways more harmonious with and respectful of our only habitat resulted in a more mindful reverence for our planet.

And yet today, many of a certain political affiliation deny science and the virtually inescapable evidence that the way we live materially impacts our environment in a negative way, even leading to seismic changes that threaten our long-term well-being.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

We continue to struggle to affirm life in our violent society and yet the proliferation of guns has become a secular religion for some and a craven abetting by our ostensible legislative representatives.  Factual evidence be damned, the few who brook no common sense approach to the personal possession of lethal force are protected in their right to endanger the rest of us by politicians who are bought and paid for by an insidious and immoral lobby.

So children continue to die needlessly and more mass shootings occur such that they've become part of the fabric of our daily lives.  Somehow we've chosen to value the prospect of potential protection over the reality of a less violent life.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Thanks to march of technology and our instantaneous ability to communicate, a longstanding problem of police brutality has come to the fore of our collective consciousness.  Even though poor urban communities generally and African-American and Latino communities in particular have experienced often oppressive and overly lethal policing for years, thanks to videos, body cams and FaceBook Live, we now see this unfortunate carnage in real time.

And yet our national nerves are so frayed that a movement espousing the acknowledgement that Black Lives (should) Matter as much as others do is labeled a hate group by too many individuals and a craven right wing media.  It is shouted down by those who claim that All Lives Matter - and don't generally acknowledge the unpleasant and all too evident untruth that this implies - and/or that Blue Lives Matter, as if any of us could or do disagree with this.  All lives do matter, but they are not equally threatened, under attack or disenfranchised in our society now, as data from myriad sources indicates.  That a long disenfranchised group - reeling now after the repeal of much of the Voting Rights Act due to the craven rash of state-level Voter ID laws that have a disproportionate impact on their ability to exercise the most fundamental of American rights - is met with derision, dismissal and attack for seeking to have its humanity affirmed, respected and addressed in our society is both telling and damning.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Most recently, we've become embroiled - largely involuntarily it would seem - in a discussion of what is acceptable personal and public decorum and demeanor.  One candidate for our presidency has consistently embodied many of the -isms that plague our society - most recently taking sexism/chauvinism to unparalleled public heights - and seems largely lacking in contrition (and, sadly, many of his supporters seem to love him all the more for this...).

And yet who among us thinks that it's a good idea to have a different set of personal conduct standards for people that depends on their level of wealth and their gender?  Who among us doesn't realize that this ugly vestige of a slowly dying patriarchy is an all too real affront to half of the population, including our very own mothers, sisters, wives and daughters?  Apologies for the crassness, but which one of our female loved ones would we support being grabbed by her genitals?  And who among us can excuse such inhumane banter - although it's hard to believe that it's just this given the multitude of women who've stepped forward in recent days to attest to their unwanted receipt of such dehumanizing treatment - and yet think that such a person - who has yet to display any real contrition and seems energized in his own defense of such boorishness - should be our leader and, indeed, leader of the free world?

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Truth be told, this is all quite simple, but not easy:

If we want an America - or, indeed, a world - that is better, then we have to begin to act this way.  If we want our society and world to be more humane, then we must act this way towards each other and especially with respect to those who differ from us in terms of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, etc.  If we want all of our children to have a chance to pursue the American Dream, then we must structure our society in a way that affords them this chance.  If we want our daughters to have the same opportunities as our sons, then we have to treat them equitably and demand that others do, too.  And if we want a society that is compassionate and constructive, then we must hold our leaders accountable to making it that way.

But if we choose not to pursue these aspects of our individual and collective better angels, then, indeed, Pogo is sadly proven right yet again:

We have met the enemy and he is us....