Chapter 2:The Game of Black and White

26 May 2012
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Good News!!! Chapter 2 was easier to get through then chapter one for some reason. Although I will probably have to go over it again in the near future. I really liked the idea of the game of Black and White which begins when we are very small at the insistence of our parents. Making a sharp delineation between opposites: right and wrong, light and dark, us and them, human and animal, creates an illusion that we are all separate being s on a mission to conquer nature. Ancient ideas like “we are one” espoused in the Lion King and its sequel ( I like cartoons) or the idea of Yin and Yang from the Mulan 2 “Lesson #1” There is a poignant quote in chapter 2 which says something like “we try to get rid of the valleys and keep the mountains.” I wonder then if we tried to make the world completely good whether we would know what good is. As Watts says, matter would not exist without space around it. Is it therefore possible for good to exist without evil?

Regarding whether we should continue to play the game of black and white with the idea that white always win, I think it is necessary but correct intensions must be made. We must make clear what is black and what is white. Are they people, nations, animals, nature? Once we have established this as a human race, we can begin to play the game with the common motive in mind. Not playing the game leads to a very humdrum, unexciting life. Going in to it with an attitude of winning opens up you creative side. Its as Watts says: “ I could not have penicillin or modern anesthesia without aviation, electronics, mass communication, superhighways, and industrial agriculture—not to mention the atomic bomb and biological warfare.” We have to take the good with the bad. On the other hand, if I never wanted penicillin in the first place, that is, if I never wanted to alter the course of history, if accepted life and death as they were, at what point does simply living turn into survival?
Our preoccupation with death also opens up our creative side. This preoccupation has created some of the best myths in the world and the most creative afterlife ideals. Should we continue to have this preoccupation? Yes. It gives some answers to some pivotal questions