Liberals, Conservatives, and The Garden of Eden

I’m taking another look into the story of the Garden of Eden.

Generalization: Liberals want to try new ways of doing things. Conservatives want to maintain the status quo. In “Liberals and Conservatives“, I talked about how both approaches have value. Without “Liberals”, we stagnate. Without “Conservatives”, we lose stability.

Balance. I admit, balance is not easy to achieve. So, we end up with a sort of pendulum effect. We surge forward with new ideas, then we swing back to older ways. When this works as it should, things balance out. In the end, hopefully, we get some progress (new ways) integrated into our traditions. But when we forget to respect the opposition’s perspective, we get an awful lot of conflict. Sometimes, the conflict escalates to violence.

Perhaps the serpent represents our urge to grow beyond where we are. Eve, and then Adam, decided to eat the fruit of enlightenment. Perhaps they were the original “Liberals”. God could be seen as the agent of Karma (reaping what you sow). We were created with “free will”, and must decide how to use it. There are always consequences to our actions.

The Garden of Eden represents perfect security. Everything was provided; no worries about food or safety. There was no struggle for survival. We were children. How many of us today do not long for this paradise? I know I do. Sometimes, when life is hard and survival seems such a struggle; I long for someone to just “take care of me”. To stay in the Garden is to be like children. Children have little freedom. To be “taken care of” means to allow someone else to decide everything for you.

Ah, but children must grow up. Children must learn to provide for themselves. To eat the fruit of enlightenment is to leave home and set forward into freedom. Freedom comes with a price and responsibility.

What did we receive in return for our “disobedience”? We received dynamic life. Yes, we got struggle in the bargain – man to earn his living by the sweat of his brow and woman to bear children in pain and blood. Many see this as punishment for disobedience. Perhaps it is merely the consequences of our actions. With this struggle, we also achieved “freedom”. I don’t think we “sinned”, and I don’t think we were punished. I think we used our free will and received the consequences of that action. I think we grew up and left home…

In essence, the struggle between conservative and liberal perspectives can be summed up as the struggle for security versus freedom. Many “Conservatives” long for the safety of being taken care of by “the Father”, often in the form of a leader (king, boss, president, government, etc). “Liberals” long for striking out and learning new things. I think there is a little of both (conservatism and liberalism) in all of us. I admit to being conservative in many ways and to being liberal in others. Balance on an individual level is as difficult as it is important.

I also think that we have already left the Garden. So, perfect safety is no longer available. We are left with learning how to balance one with the other….Certainly, this is not easy. I believe we must use our “God-given” faculty of reason to evaluate when to try new things, and when to maintain the status quo. I believe we need to practice this on an individual level, then on a societal level. I believe we must set aside our conditioned emotional (knee-jerk) reactions and truly look at what we are dealing with. I do not claim to be a master of this process. I find myself getting caught up in my own conditioned emotional reactions just like everyone else. Maybe we can all help each other out with this.