Spiritual Relativity: What happened to E=MC²?

I think that Albert Einstein was the smartest person of the 20th century, perhaps of any century. Most of us know him for his work in physics especially the famous "relativity" formula that led to the development of the atomic bomb, probably something that Dr. Einstein in retrospect would have rather done without.

What is this relativity theory anyway?

For Einstein and physics, the theory of relativity postulated that as the speed of mass approaches that of light (roughly 186,000 miles per second more or less), that the passage of time approaches zero. Another way of looking at it is that light itself transcends time. Since time as we use it is really a human invention, it is not too tough to get the point that time is not the constant that we believe it is; rather it is very elastic, expanding and contracting all over the Universe such that our invention of time has little utility beyond day-to-day events.

The faster one travels, the slower one ages. This could be an explanation why so many people drive so fast. Shaving off those extra seconds here and there in the quest for perpetual youth, and that if that doesn't work, there is always plastic surgery.

So where am I going with this? Enough with physics and plastic surgery!

There is a spiritual relativity that is probably no more understood by most people than Einstein's theory… and it is much simpler. It states that: the greater the esteem in which one is held, the easier it is to fall from grace.

For example, consider Jesus. He had quite a following - a lot of people saw him perform miracles and heard him speak words of love and forgiveness, and he went over very well. It is fair to say that he occupied a pretty lofty perch among the people within the area in which he was known although limited in media coverage (given Ted Turner had not yet been born). Then one night he gets arrested by the Romans, does nothing to prevent it, and his popularity plummets in the polls so drastically that those who chowed down earlier on the loaves and fishes now wanted his death. It was a radical and fast fall from the public grace - spiritual relativity.

On a less dramatic note, how about two friends who share everything, and then something happens to one that the other "disapproves of," and poof there goes the friendship. Spiritual relativity is there in front of us all the time - we simply don't see "why" it happens. Years ago, someone mentioned the "aw shucks" phenomenon to me. When I asked what that meant, I was told that one "aw shucks" wipes out one hundred "at-a-boys, girls, persons," whatever noun is PC at the moment. Obviously much good work can be destroyed very quickly by one often small remark or incident.

Why are we so quick to condemn others - even people whom we have known for years and with whom we (and they) thought we had relationships that could endure any amount of stress? This has happened to me (and I have done it as well) more times than I care to remember.

Why?

Spiritual relativism is rooted, I think, in the condition that most of us find ourselves most of the time. We are either working like crazy to earn the approval of others, or we are defending ourselves from others finding out we really are not worthy. It is the great human game. We get really good at it, and our proficiency improves with age (well, it's good that something gets better!).

Here it is as clear as I can make it. If you and I are friends, then part of the value of our friendship is making each other feel good about ourselves. Think about it. We like to be around people who make us feel good. There are not many of us who say, "Hey, let's go hang out with the Smiths - I love the way they put us down!" The problem comes about when exchanging kissy-huggy greetings is secondary to the primary desire to discover that another person has screwed up. Wow, does that make us feel superior or what? We didn't screw up (this time) and they did. The slime.

If you don't believe this spiritual relativity, watch or read the news. What is the proportionality of news concerning someone, group, nation, or whatever screwing up, committing mayhem, cheating, lying, murdering, raping, or stealing versus the amount of coverage given to someone doing something loving? Is it 10:1, 100:1 in favor of the depressing stuff? Whatever the ratio, good news is certainly not in vogue.

A journalistic truism is that disaster sells. It sells because of spiritual relativity. We as humans would rather learn about disaster than good news because when there is evidence that somebody's unworthiness got exposed, we feel safe that our secret unworthiness is secure - for the time being. Diversion is the name of the game. I may not be well off but I am better off than the poor souls who got murdered, raped, robbed, flooded, or overrun by lava from a volcano.

Why is this relativism? Relative means that as one thing changes so does something else. Gasoline consumption goes up as speed increases. The higher someone rises in a social hierarchy, large or small, the easier it is to find something to knock them from the top. Doing so is nothing more than securing our own temporary, outward persona of "worthy" at the expense of someone else. Doing so can also elevate us to the top of our anthill, and guess what? We become the number one target. Interesting.

Spiritual relativism still works when the person or people toppled are not at the top of some wobbly media tower but are caught in a flood or hurricane. We can feel superior to those folks because we secretly and unconsciously believed them superior to us because everybody is superior to us so we look for a reason to suggest they are not. How dumb to live somewhere that is prone to floods or hurricanes! When we find that reason, we may shake our heads and lament about what a terrible thing has happened to the victims while inwardly our egos are gloating about how well off we are - for now.

The cosmic joke, of course, is that none of us is better or superior to the rest of us. Our parents, the educational system, religion, and our cultures all tell us otherwise, and we bought it. There is no more presence of the creator in me than in you. In that sense, we are all created equal. Think about spiritual relativism the next time you start to offload your feeling of unworthiness onto someone else.

What happened to E=MC²? Nothing - it is still there and may well be an immutable law of the universe. As to spiritual relativity, well, we invented it, so we can choose to create another way of being:

E=MC²: Everybody = Me x Compassion x Caring