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Political Evolution and the Healthcare debate in America

Posted March 25th, 2010 by Jim ONeill

 

Political Evolution and the Healthcare debate in America
 
 
Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny. I was taught this principle by my comparative anatomy professor at LaSalle College in 1971. He was a rather wild and unconventional man. I remember him showing up for class on St. Patrick’s Day with his hair dyed green. I can still picture him saying with a wild gleam in his eye, “Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny that means to cut your head off”. This wild man really got my attention. And the concept has been kicking around in my head ever since. Biologically speaking the concept means that the development of a singular organism follows the same path as the development of all organisms over evolutionary time. I have always been fascinated by this concept. My own personal development follows the same patterns of all living things before me. In other words, there are stages of development that all living things go through. No stages can be skipped. Deep cosmic patterns of development have been laid down over vast amounts of evolutionary time. My own personal development is somehow guided by the experience of all living things before me.
So what does this have to do with Political evolution? Well, as I look at my own personal development over my lifetime, I can see that I have progressed through at least 3 political stages. I have named these stages, Pre-Rational democratic, Rational Republican, and Trans-rational democratic. Let’s take a close look at my own development through each of these stages.
 
Pre-Rational Democratic:
I am using this description to capture all of my early stages of political development. It includes my childhood when I did not understand anything at all about politics and the unconscious influences my family environment had on my yet unexpressed political views. It also includes up to my college years and the first few years of my working life.
 
Rational Republican:
This stage began when I actually registered to vote and declared myself a Republican. By this time in my life I had struggled to pay bills, started my own business, and worked 2 jobs to make ends meet. I worked hard to support my wife and children. I went to church. I paid my taxes, mowed my lawn, shoveled my sidewalk and I voted in elections.
 
Trans-Rational Democratic:
It is difficult to pin point when I entered this stage. Somewhere after the age of 50 I suppose. I had had a successful business career. I had been active in my church for decades. I had slowly come to a greater understanding of paradox and I took a more contemplative inner turn. My relationship with church stated to change. My relationship with God (Ultimate Reality) became more experiential and closer. I felt out of step with the Nation after the 9-11 attacks. I began a yoga and meditation practice. I eventually changed my political party to Democratic so I could vote for Barack Obama in the democratic primary.
 
So what does my own personal political evolution have to do with the Healthcare debate in America today? Well, I think my own evolution places me in a unique position to be present to those who are still in what I call the Rational Republican stage. I can really feel there fear and anger over the passage of the healthcare bill. I can remember my own struggle to do it the “Right” way and I know I would have felt the same way they do now if I were still in my Rational Republican stage. I have no magic answer. All I can do is hold the tension and be very aware of the compassion that rises up in me not just for the uninsured but also for all the rational republicans who feel so threatened by the passage of this healthcare bill. Let me be clear. I support the new healthcare bill. I believe that it a first step in the right direction. It is a move from a focus on the individual to an embrace of the collective. It takes time for this evolution to take place. We can’t skip stages. It is unrealistic to expect all Rational Republican to suddenly awaken to a Trans-Rational perspective. So let’s give this some time to unfold. It seems that that time has been built into the healthcare bill itself. Most of the bill will not take effect until 2014.
Who knows, by that time we may have some pre-rational democrats who have evolved to Rational Republicans and some Rational Republicans who have evolved to Trans-Rational Democrats. The point being that we all win if we support each others evolution. Lets all keep evolving.
 
Jim O’Neill
3-24-10

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I agree

Posted May 7th, 2010 by Mike Breland

Dear Jim:

  I read this blog when it first came out, but have been quite busy since then, so bookmarked it and re-read it again today.  I still pretty much agree with what you have to say and so wanted to add my comment since you put out the effort to write such a nice, and may I say rational, blog.  I too was a Republican (until the second Bush got elected), but was mainly fiscally conservative, but socially more moderate.  Since Bush ended up doing pretty much the opposite of this, I decided to take another look at myself and so presently would probably consider myself an Independent. Most Democrats still seem so naive and Green value meme that I have a hard time identifying with them, even in my Trans-Rational moments. 

  That said, I would be interested in understanding more of why you think a Rational Republican would "fear" O'bama's health bill.  Is it because it costs so much?  Then why aren't there more people protesting how much money we're spending on our two wars?  Or are wars different?  Is it because some people will be "forced" to buy insurance?  We already are forced to buy insurance for our cars, so how is this any different?  Or is it that it is part of the "slippery slope" of socialism and so it to be resisted in any form?  Or is it just ideological and so no matter what O'bama wanted to do, the Republicans would have objected.  Or is it because certain businesses did not want it, so they hired a bunch of talking heads to stir up people by creating irrational untruths such as the "death panels" and that O'bama is not an American Citizen.  Well, I'm starting to diverge, but I would still like to hear what you think a Rational Republican would fear about O'bama care.