my great thanx to the ever gracious susanmaneck for asking the question like, in terms of khan's 4 points, how we doing here?
it allows me an on topic means of introducing some comments noted along the line of catching up on reasding, willfully dragging along behind so as to see some currents and not just the waves. ------ i would like to address a couple of overall thematic issues relating to discussions over the past few months and the role of scholarship-- scholarship of all types. the ever perceptive david friedman noted spet4: "I have been thinking about for some time, which is whether we can do anything about the major problems that can be seen in many Baha'i young people (pre-youth and youth) today." it might appear that this is offtopic to the list. imho it is central and critical. for 4 years i have spent 50-100% of my waking moments working to further concrete solutions. stumbling blocks i have encountered often center around david;s 2nd point: "The other is the over-importance placed on acceptance by others." i would offer for scholarly meditation that this issue is widespread and corrosive among all members of the Baha'i Faith. david notes: "Caring overly much about what others think of you is a disease," indeeed, within psychiatry it takes such names as weak i/thou barrier, dystrophic attachment, seperation anxiety, cognitive integrity conflict, and recently william hatcher has offeredthe concept of inauthentic behaviour. the members of the so called "adult" community are as affected and infected as any child. what differs is the hypocritical acceptance of the disease as cultural adaptation, rather than stunted growth. are there behavioural specifics obervable to scholarsand academics of this phenonmenon? :"things related to our ego such as what others think and how cool we are perceived as being." if we review the history of conflict within the academic community over the past decaded, i submit that we are seeing little else as a conflict source. the argument concerning pre-pub review crystallises as "my friends won;t think i'm cool if they see i have to mind my parents." and nothing else. any argument raised in support of the view devolves to the same. if we take the Writings seriously, and tell others that Baha'u'llah is Right, we are left with no choice but to beleive that succeeding generations will be advanced in their capability to discover the underlying laws of nature in every aspect-- including culture, psychology, sociology, art. when our deeds do not match the words, the perceived dissonance serves to further infect those succeeding generations. the parent, lsa member, workshop coordinator who tells a person not to wear a peircing because "the community" won;t think it's cool is advancing precisely the same argument as that advanced by the person who wishes to wear such jewelry because it will cause the perception of coolness. the winner will be the one who escalates the struggle of aggression, power, and/or offer/denial of love. i would offer that this is not a Text-based model. :"if these people lived the life of the Dawn-Breakers, focused solely on the will of God, willingly accepting loss of friends, worldly goods, persecution and even death for their beliefs, growing up would not be stressful." this is, according to the present understading of psychology a poorly formed view. i would offer however that scholars and academics have a duty to research, investigate, publish, elucidate and disseminate examples of that behaviour in reality. and work to increase approaches to that type of understanding, that parents not have the right to stand in the way of this by deed or example, and might wish to trust God once in a while. i would offer that if we hold some keys to the meaning of life, the universe and everything, we would be able to manifest it in such wise that the 2nd generation (and a large chunk of the first) didn't flee. and the world is reasonable enuff to weigh us by this standard. i don;t know how many on this list were at the last reasonable sampling of Baha'i population in action, the nashville conference. or how many of you are in positions to hear the late night talkings, the after curfew dialogues, or step far enuff back to have the view of a stranger in a strange land. using the 4 standards spoken of by khan, i wasn't thrilled. i was deeply impressed by the degree of effort to head that direction, and the degree of damage by not being there already. i would offer to this list (and much of anywhere else) that we are slightly, (like 40 years or so) subtly behind schedule doing that might be simply called the Baha'i thing....acting like all this is for real, and not a hobby. that scholars and academics have either a profound role to play in furterhing the process of >relevance< or will be run over by those who will find relevance in drumbeats and hoofbeats. i would offer that this slow, inexorable movement can be vignetted by the story of 2 music groups. 20 years ago justice league brought Baha'i hip-hop into being, and it weas continually harassed by being scorned, ignored, put down, or considered cute. and at nashville a gangster rap group called ft tabarsi had its lead lyricist made part of plenary devotions. movement how? perhaps from vague social principles to the flesh and blood of This Thing's Story, be it tabarsi, badesht, the Ridvan. but many, many thousands of addresses on the roles went bad during those 2o years. and much of the reason for that loss was the failure to distinguish by deeds the Baha'i community from that around it. deeds. not fashions, styles, manners or mannerisms, but that sense of hmmmmm....radiance? that might coneivabklyu' make a difference to a world that has more than enuff of suffering, martyrdom, moral strictness, moral laxity, community acceptance, standing, peer pressure, coolness... in fact, of everything but His Name. "surely He wants them all, becuase He made them all." --shoghi effendi "3 a.m. in las vegas, who is hanging around; 9 a.m. in manhattan, dust swirls around." --firestorm _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Introducing My Way - http://www.myway.com ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public)
