INTERPLAY OF FORCES IN MAN AND SOCIETY

Yin and Yang

As the contrast of light and darkness provides men with a daily balance of rest and motion, so in the arena of both politics and religion the interplay of forces can best be understood within the framework of the principle of yin and yang. This concept, dealing with the positive and negative polarities of life, also serves to set in relief the meaning of experience, of action and inaction, of thesis and antithesis, the ebb and flow of the tide of human affairs and the individual currents which determine the movement of the larger mass.

From the man in the street to the more complex organizations of business, government, and society, men feel the need to position themselves in interest groups from left to right on a scale of attitudes pro and con the passing events of the times. In politics and religion men are arrayedin many cases fiercely immovablein fixed positions classified as "liberal" or "conservative." At the other extreme, however, unbridled and imprudent use of freedom of choice and uninformed assessment of facts result in an unhealthy fluctuation along the entire range of the scale.