Plato, the Greek philosopher, lived about a hundred years after Confucius. He wrote about separatism in his work, The Republic. Plato developed the theory of the Noble Lie. The Noble Lie was Plato’s way of bringing the behavior, and the beliefs of the rulers to the surface of public opinion.

Plato described the concept of the Noble Lie this way: God filled everyone’s soul with gold, silver, and iron, but the working man and the farmer’s soul had less of those elements, so the ruler’s soul was the guardian. Rulers controlled the people using this perceived truth. Our current religious and political leaders are immersed in a current version of the Noble Lie. These religious and political leaders are considered a special breed. They believe it is their duty to control the thoughts of their peers. A new version of the Noble Lie has infiltrated our belief structure, and the message within it is now considered a perceived truth.

The form and delivery of the Noble Lie has changed over the years, but the message is the same: God is a separate entity that sits in judgment, and must be worshiped in order to achieve social and political status as well as religious salvation.

Confucius said: Do not do to others what you do not want to be done to yourself. We elect political leaders that do unto others what they don’t do to themselves. The same can be said for some religious leaders.

The thought of using moral character, self-responsibility, and a united consciousness in politics as well as religion might take us to a place where when the wind blows and the grass bends in informed agreement. That thought is a prime ingredient of change in this age of self-transformation.