LET THERE BE THE ONE is the universal commandment of life and the cosmos that must be obeyed. There cannot be two ONE. If you look at the screen this is written on, there are not two screens (unless you have a walleye, that is) Even Yahweh says for there to be no gods before him. Truth is the One that has no second.
But there are two ONEs. Look at a google map. If you zoom in you keep going within until you come to the One that cannot be divided. And if you zoom out you come to the One whole that cannot be divided. At least one can do this in imagination.
The two forces at work here are exclusive, or reductionism that cuts away all that is not the One. The other opposite but equally valid force is inclusive: you reach the One totality by including, not eliminating what is perceived. The exclusive way is that of science and the intellect; the inclusive way is that of art and intuition.
In MLK quote, the personal way is that if exclusion and reduction where you cut away all that is not You. And the social way is that of inclusion, where you keep including more and more persons to fit your social One.
MLK is speaking to the balance between the drive to the ONE through both ways, inclusion and exclusion. Inclusion is a centripetal force going outward and exclusion is centrifugal force expanding outward.
A balanced system is both forces in balance. The cosmos is always a balance of these two forces. If the cosmos wasn’t in balance it would explode or implode. The but balance is dynamic, not static.
Our American society is a dynamic unity of these two natural forces. The balance points is always shifting between the Person and the Social. We can say the Right leans toward the Person and the Left towards the Social. Our political struggle is always a shifting game of restoring balance. When we lean too far to the Right, the Left restores balance. When we lean too far to the Left, the Right restores balance.
Today it is obvious to everyone that we are in a period where the imbalance between the two ONE’s has built up great tension, like an earthquake fault line that is ready for the big one. 2020 will either maintain the tension of too much Yang (exclusion) far past the breaking point, or it will release the built-up tension to restore our dynamic unity of the ONE.
The True ONE is a dynamic unity of the two Ones, the Person and the Society. Dynamic means that it is always creating balance, and not resting in a static position. The See-Saw keeps moving as the Two One struggle to meet in a dynamic ONE.
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