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The Daily Attentional
Meditations for a Divided World
Vol. 1, Week 3: Dropping Our Illusions
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"Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability."—Percy Bysshe Shelley
The promise of many political leaders is that we can control a changing world without changing ourselves.
We try to manage life by controlling it. We plan, predict, and attempt to secure outcomes. When uncertainty intrudes—as it inevitably does—we tighten our grip. The pursuit of control promises stability, but often produces anxiety. Studies show that anxious people vote for leaders who they perceive to offer order and control.
The allure of control is nonpartisan, and illusory.
The English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley captures his and our lack of control over the vicissitudes of life in the final two lines of his glimmering 1816 poem "Mutability": "Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability." Life is not static. It moves, shifts, and unfolds beyond our command.
The nineteenth century woodblock print, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai captures this truth in motion, and portrays a deeper wisdom. The work is one of the most recognizable images in global art history and is a defining symbol of Japanese visual culture. Seething waves rise above the fragile boats with overwhelming force, but the waves are not the problem. The fishermen do not control the sea, they interact with it. Their survival depends on their skillful response to changing circumstances.
This is democracy's proffer: interaction over control. We propose, debate and vote on the best course for a given time but we can't impose our own fixed response. The strength of a fully democratic society is the ability to move with life instead of against it.
Consider where our civic debates are gripping tightly today. When we release the need for control, something shifts. We become more responsive, more resilient, more alive to the moment as it unfolds.
We become a stronger.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Mutability," 1816.
- Katsushika Hokusai, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," 1830-32.
