People of all persuasions and affiliations usually agree on one thing: it is good for people to be employed; excessive unemployment is a drag on society. The purpose of this article is to look at unemployment from the Back-to-the-Body Perspective and ask the following question: What does the body tell us, that can help us solve the problem of unemployment?
The promise and hope of the Back-to-the-Body Perspective is that “the truth is within you”—in other words, whichever problem we happen to be dealing with, we will find suggestions for solutions through just observing the human body. Our body is our “tree of life,” a “philosopher’s stone,” a “revelation,” our “true home,” an “earthly paradise.” Wisdom consists, then, in understanding the body and applying what we learn to the world around us. This includes society, nation, government, and the economy.
Not a Dogma
The Back-to-the-Body Perspective is not a dogma but rather as a hypothesis. This hypothesis could be stated as follows: if we observe the body as a unity composed of billions of living parts, where each part contributes to the whole and benefits from the whole, we can find the way to create a society in which all people can contribute to the common good, and all people can benefit from the common good. The body, then, becomes our master, our university, our library, our research field. Books are only as good as they reveal the inner truths that people have in themselves.
In the Back-to-the-Body Perspective, therefore, we find no dogmas that people must believe without evidence or in contradiction to evidence. Teachers and prophets are “judged by their fruits”—in other words, by comparing the results of what they do with the paradigm of the body.
The Beginning of a Journey
Are we there yet? Do we have such a deep comprehension of the body that we will be able to apply its wisdom to society? I think we are at the beginning of this journey. I believe the body’s wisdom is inexhaustible. In fact, I think all the great writers, all the great prophets have imparted their wisdom as a result of observing what happens in their own bodies.
Moses, for example, spent 40 years in the Desert of Midian after killing the Egyptian slave-master. Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting before initiating his public work. Buddha fasted under the Bodhi Tree. Muslims fast in the month of Ramadan. Fasting brings a person in contact with his/her body. This brings wisdom and enlightenment.
What About Unemployment?
Work is a blessing. Unemployment is a scourge. The original question of this article is whether the body can help us solve the problem of unemployment in society. I believe the answer is “yes”: in this case too, “the truth is within you.”
Within the body, every part has a function; every part works at its function; and every part is taken care of by the body. In our society, some people do very well, but others feel disconnected, alienated, uncared for, ignored, abandoned. They search for a way to engage their activities in society: “Sorry; we are not hiring,” they hear. They move on, like drifting wood. They get discouraged. They stop looking for work. When able-bodied and willing workers stop looking for a job, some people actually rejoice: “Hurray!”–they proclaim. “The unemployment rate has gone down!” Meanwhile, lives are left astray. Does anybody care?
Therefore, a social system in which people are left abandoned in squalor is not a good system. I can be improved; it should be improved; whatever we do, that must not be allowed to happen or to continue. Perhaps this is one lesson we can glean from observing the physical body.
I conclude with a quote:
You concede too much power to the state. It may not demand what it cannot coerce. But what love gives, and spirit, cannot be coerced. Either the state leaves that untouched, or we take its law and nail it to the pillory! By heaven! he who would make the state into a school of mores does not know his sin. The state has always been made into hell because man wanted to make it into his heaven. (Excerpt From: Friedrich Hölderlin. Hyperion. iBooks.)
Photo Credits:
Photo: Food Line
Author: woodleywonderworks
Source: http://bit.ly/WoWcds
Creative Commons License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Photo: Einstein_hypothesis
Author: QuotesEverlasting
Source: http://bit.ly/1xoGVLd
Creative Commons License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Photo: Moses_Michael_Angelo
Author: Shadowgate
Source: http://bit.ly/1rj0cVJ
Creative Commons License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Photo: Men working in the Field
Author: Queensland State Archives
Source: http://bit.ly/1upvUVa
Creative Commons License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Photo: Woman by the Sea
Author: torbakhopper
Source: http://bit.ly/Yk3j90
Creative Commons License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Paulo-Juarez Pereira 
What do you think? ... And thanks for sharing your thoughts...