Refer to YinYang This is a Chinese philosophy dating back to the 14th century B.C.E. I still have a long way to go in my desire to understand this philosophy properly but it does serve as the most relevant reference that I can find to the importance of BALANCE in our modern society.
It is a complex philosophy/belief/attitude which is very relevant to our understanding of the complexity of our society and our environment.
Like many philosophies YinYang attempts to identify without evaluating. YinYang has however provided me with the basis for the following deductions.
Nature derives its energy (or purpose ??) by striving for the balance of opposites. Yang was identified with the sun and yin with the moon. Yang is identified with heat Yin is identified with cold. Thus temperature is based on a PERCEPTION hot OR cold. If hot and cold were in perfect BALANCE they would not be perceivable. We would not be aware of or be able to describe temperature so to all intents and purposes temperature would cease to exist. Thus the universe is PERCEIVABLE because of the swings between Yin and Yang.
If one were to consider the grandfather clock as an analogy then the pendulum swing from left to right and right to left (or back and front if you are viewing the clock from the side) is what drives the mechanism which displays a perception of time. If the pendulum is in perfect balance the time would be meaningless because there would be no energy to drive the clock.
Thus the existence of all of opposites in the universe is what gives us the perception of reality. Opposites like good and bad, sun and moon, hot and cold and pretty much all of the antonyms that we are aware of, exist because of the interaction between them. The existence of one depends on the existence of the other. And this is what causes, pretty well all of, the dissention and strife on the planet.
I will make further attempts to justify this deduction in posts. More to come!
Thank you, Keep safe and keep communicating,
Jude