Absurd Heroism

  I agree with Meg Wheatley that we can't lose sight of our own need for spiritual development and for taking care of the small things around us but look at Gandhi, King or Lincoln and understand that it was their "absurd heroics" that ended the suffering of millions. As Rabbi Abraham Herschel put it, "Some are guilty but all are responsible."  We can, as Martin Luther King put it, bring "together head and heart— intelligence and goodness--" to make a better world, or we at least we have a moral duty to try.  To try is both invigorating, connects us to others, and gives meaning to our lives. It is the opposite of energy destroying!  Gotta have a little faith and hope. :)

 I think there is a language problem of duality here, as in many places. "Emergence" doesn't preclude the saliency and vital importance of collective action, nor does attention to "transforming ourselves".  I think Gary Snyder articulated an exemplary perspective in his " The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East has been individual insight into the basic self/void. We need both."