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The Revolution of the Dialectic: 1. Integral Well-being

1. Integral Well-being

We need integral well-being. We all suffer, we have bitterness in our life, and we want to change.

In any case, I think that integral well-being is the result of self-respect. This would seem quite strange to an economist, or to a theosophist, etc. What could self-respect have to do with economic matters, with problems related with labor or with the labor force, with capital, etc.?

I want to comment about how our level of Being attracts our life... We used to live in a very beautiful house in Mexico City. Behind that house there was a very large lot of land that was empty. One ordinary day, a group of “parachutists” (a term used in Mexico to name those people who come to land on large lots of sparsely settled areas) invaded that land. Soon they built their cardboard huts and established themselves there. Unquestionably, they became something dirty in that colony. I do not want to underestimate them, but if their cardboard huts were kept clean, I would not object to them. Unfortunately, a frightening lack of hygiene existed among those people.

I observed the life of those people very carefully from the roof of my house: they insulted each other, they hurt each other, they did not respect their fellowmen; in synthesis, their life was horrifying, with miseries and abominations.

Police patrol cars were never seen there before; now the police were always visiting the colony. Before, that colony was peaceful; afterwards, it became an inferno. Thus, in this manner I was able to verify that the level of Being attracts our life, obviously.

Let us suppose that one of those inhabitants resolved from one day to the next to respect himself and to respect others; obviously, he would change.

What is understood by respecting oneself? To abandon delinquency, to not steal, to not fornicate, to not commit adultery, to not envy the well-being of one’s fellowman, to be humble and simple, to abandon laziness and become an active, clean, decent person, etc.

Upon respecting himself, a citizen changes his level of Being and upon changing his level of Being, he unquestionably attracts new circumstances. Thus, he will relate with more decent people, with different people, and possibly, those types of relations will provoke an economic and social change in his existence. What I said about integral self-respect provoking an economic well-being has been fulfilled. But if one does not know how to respect oneself, one will also not respect his fellowmen and will condemn oneself to a wretched and unhappy life.

The beginning of integral well-being is self-respect.