Wrote an essay a while back entitled Yin. Definitions:
Yin originally meant “shady, secret, dark, mysterious, cold.” It thus could mean the shaded, north side of a mountain or the shaded, south bank of a river.
Yang in turn meant “clear, bright, the sun, heat,” the opposite of yin and so the lit, south side of a mountain or the lit, north bank of a river.
From these basic opposites, a complete system of opposites was elaborated.
Yin represents everything about the world that is dark, hidden, passive, receptive, yielding, cool, soft, and feminine.
Yang represents everything about the world that is illuminated, evident, active, aggressive, controlling, hot, hard, and masculine.
Everything in the world can be identified with either yin or yang. Earth is the ultimate yin object. Heaven is the ultimate yang object. Of the two basic Chinese “Ways,” Confucianism is identified with the yang aspect, Taoism with the yin aspect
I think we are now in yang time, hard power, conflict in activity, aggressiveness, and most of all a fight for control.
Control of the narrative, we are seeing that both in the blogs and in the media. Control of our national priorities. Control of the moral high ground.
We’re receiving a great wave of information about torture, but that information is also about how power was exercised and control taken in the most brutal fashion. The information we are receiving illuminates far more than the past eight years. A lot of chatter has resulted.
Hard power. Yin and yang are not separate, cannot be separate. As the image shows:
