Help
Sign In
Genpo Roshi
July 2009 
Responsibility
Posted on Mar 21st, 2008
by 
Chris
Chris
This article captures the sense of taking responsibility vs. playing the victim that I've noticed between Senators Obama and Clinton: http://www.slate.com/id/2187189/ An excerpt:
One of the most laudable things about Obama is that he always elects to rise above the politics of victimization. One of the most troubling things about Hillary Clinton is that she is never above cashing in on it.
I spent two days in New York and DC with Genpo Roshi, and I was reminded of the vital importance of that sense of responsibility. In DC, in fact, it was what Roshi ended with - walking us through voices until we reach the voice that consciously chooses to be human, that consciously chooses to take responsiblity for it all.
Regardless of the worldview that one candidate or the other could bring to the table, that sense of a person owning their own strengths and weaknesses, owning all of those perspectives that they have the cognitive ability to take on, is in my mind vital to becoming a vehicle that can embody the integral worldview (or any other worldview, for that matter). Else, we're playing in shadows as much as we're embodying a worldview.
[Please note that I also fully realize that the campaigns of all candidates have played up perceived grievances in droves; indeed, that's been one of my disappointments with the Obama campaign. I'm speaking here, though, of my perception (and the above article's authors' perceptions, it seems) of the candidates themselves.]
One of the most laudable things about Obama is that he always elects to rise above the politics of victimization. One of the most troubling things about Hillary Clinton is that she is never above cashing in on it.
I spent two days in New York and DC with Genpo Roshi, and I was reminded of the vital importance of that sense of responsibility. In DC, in fact, it was what Roshi ended with - walking us through voices until we reach the voice that consciously chooses to be human, that consciously chooses to take responsiblity for it all.
Regardless of the worldview that one candidate or the other could bring to the table, that sense of a person owning their own strengths and weaknesses, owning all of those perspectives that they have the cognitive ability to take on, is in my mind vital to becoming a vehicle that can embody the integral worldview (or any other worldview, for that matter). Else, we're playing in shadows as much as we're embodying a worldview.
[Please note that I also fully realize that the campaigns of all candidates have played up perceived grievances in droves; indeed, that's been one of my disappointments with the Obama campaign. I'm speaking here, though, of my perception (and the above article's authors' perceptions, it seems) of the candidates themselves.]
Access: Public
