Bismillah, and independence — the noble loneliness

I have read, with great interest, of the arguments for and against inclusion of 'Bismillah' in the Constitution of Bangladesh. It got me thinking.

I know a wonderful mild-mannered man. He is wise and grandfatherly. This friend of mine is at peace with himself, and to be in his presence is to experience joy.

And he owes it all to his wife. She is like a porcupine that stands watch over the burrow of some harmless creature, protecting his gentle, defenceless serenity. She makes sure that his life is uncomplicated, and that nothing would harm his tranquillity. He lives his lucky life in the confidence that she always has his best interest at heart. He knows that he is never truly alone. Under such wonderful conditions, who wouldn't be serene?

How fortunate he is! How happy and rare the man that can rely upon the protection of a personal porcupine! Ronald Reagan had his Nancy. John Lennon had his Yoko Ono. Sadly, those of us without such protection are condemned to feel vulnerable and alone.

If I had my own zealous gatekeeper, I don't think my good nature would have gotten me into as much trouble as it has. My ambitions would have carried me far. But I don't have a sharp tongue, or a keen sense of negotiation, and I trust absolutely everyone. I don't mind physical confrontation, in fact, in my youth I welcomed it. But I do so hate disappointing people that too often I over-promise, over-compromise, and concede on points where I should remain firm.

It's so much nicer to be safe than to be alone.

But there is a cost when you have a gatekeeper. The biggest compromise is that you sacrifice some degree of your autonomy in exchange of your security. You must trust that your gatekeeper will have your best interests at heart. You happily trade your freedom for the same reason that a small dog barks behind a closed door— it's easy to express yourself when you're well-protected.

But, once you declare your independence, when you announce to the world that you have become your own gate-keeper, the payoff is freedom, and that's wonderful. But there is a cost. Freedom requires constant vigilance, and a deep sense of self-responsibility. In a world of dog-eats-dog, to remain free, you must learn when to bark and when to growl. Americans understood this when they declared independence in 1776. Suddenly, we were free. And for the first time as a people, we were alone.

The American Founding Fathers acknowledged their aloneness. They realised that America's allies offered support only because they hated our enemies for their own reasons. When you choose an independent path, no one ever supports you for humanitarian reasons. Everyone is looking for the advantage. No one on heaven or earth will act for your benefit.

Well — no one on earth, at least.

Thomas Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence was a strong believer in secular government. Yet, when the Founding Fathers insisted on inserting the phrase, "With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence" in the closing paragraph of the Declaration, Jefferson agreed. Why were those words so important to the revolutionary framers of an independent nation?

Secular or not, a nation must be more than the sum of its programming. It must, especially in times of crisis, in those too-frequent dark nights of the soul, understand that the flip-side of freedom's coin is that you are alone in this world, and that alone you stand or fall.

Except, there's God.

I often annoy my numerous atheist friends, especially those who call themselves "individualists" with my insistence that individualism does not thrive in the absence of religious faith. In fact, the most fertile soil for individualism is adherence to beliefs that emphasises that God has an individual relationship with every one of us. The greatest reassurance a newly independent nation could have, unprotected as it is in the world, is that it is not alone.

What phrases like "In God We Trust" mean to me is that America's most empowering belief is we enshrine Independence as a noble loneliness out of which our unique culture emerges, because we believe that God has a special purpose for us as a nation and will protect and guide our path.

Many on these shores, especially fundamentalist Christians think that "God's special purpose" means religious law should trump secular law. Fundamentalists believe that the legislation of morality is desirable. My position is that legal enforcement of religious conduct negates the idea of free will. If virtue is enforced upon us by government, then the non-believers and the faithful alike will perform, not for love of God, but for fear of government. I would vehemently oppose the imposition of any religious order, but I have no problem with any government which recognises that it aspires to legislate based upon the will of a Merciful, Compassionate creator.

In fact, I shudder to think of being governed by those who do not recognise the Only One Greater than Themselves. Atheistic nations which rely on the tangible are often the least merciful and compassionate of all governments, despite their humanistic rhetoric. Countries such as present-day China or the former Soviet Union inevitably die of loneliness.

What the word Bismillah means to me, as it pertains to your Constitution (which I have read) is that Bangladesh is a nation of flawed laws and imperfect human beings who have declared the right, as a sovereign nation, to a destiny no less important than that of any nation on earth. It solemnifies the document by declaring, that God, The Compassionate and Merciful, will save us from our imperfections by virtue of our faith, our good works, and the compassion and mercy we show others. It binds the Constitution to a cultural brotherhood (I have read that many Constitutions of predominantly Muslim countries use the same word).

As for me, I am an outsider and a Catholic. I am a friend who prays for your well-being. As a man who is free and often turns to God when that freedom feels lonely, Bismillah is the declaration than an individual nation's noble loneliness in a corrupt world is not for naught, and that your People's Republic has a unique relationship ordained by a Higher Source that trumps partisan politics, corruption, and other enemies of the state. Whether or not you believe in a higher source, God, quite literally, will always beat the hell out of the corruption of self-interest.

You may not believe that you have a gate-keeper to protect your defenceless serenity. That is when you are most likely to act mean-spirited. You might not believe you are a people set apart. That is when you are most apt to act petty. You may think that everyone is trying to take advantage of you.  That is when you will be most unwilling to make sacrifices for the common good. You may think that you are least among your neighbours. That is when you will remain quiet in the face of injustice. You may think there will never be enough. That is when you will show no charity.

But you must believe something different. You must believe that you are not just a great nation, but the greatest nation on earth. You must teach your children the same. It is what my countrymen have believed about our nation since 1776, and our faith has made it so. Bangladesh, I can sense your awakening greatness in the wind. I know you can feel the shift in the wind. Your sails are unfurled. All that remains is to cast off the ropes of corruption and partisan politics that have bound you to your shore, and, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, sail off boldly to greet your rising sun.

Happy Independence Day.

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Frank Domenico Cipriani writes a weekly column in the Riverside Signal called "You Think What You Think And I'll Think What I Know." He is also the founder and CEO of The Gatherer Institute — a not-for-profit public charity dedicated to promoting respect for the environment and empowering individuals to become self-taught and self-sufficient. His most recent book, "Learning Little Hawk's Way of Storytelling", is scheduled to be released by Findhorn Press in May of 2011.