The answer is no. Nature is about balance and so is the Harmony. Just like the two sides of a scale, there must be equal amounts on each side for it to balance. In Asian terms, there must be yin and yang. The Harmony needs people to be on all sides of an issue, different personality types, balance against our comfort level, etc., so that it balances and remains in harmony. Diversity is a key component of harmonious balance.
I think of it in terms of what are called "normal distributions" which when graphed show up as "bell curves." If you remember back to high school math or science, a bell curve looks something like, well, a bell (see image at left). The line starts close to a floor (x axis) and gradually rises slowly at first and then faster until it begins to level out at its highest point. It then goes back to the floor or x axis on the other side of the midpoint in an exact mirror of the first side. Under each point on the curve is the number of people who got that particular grade, answered a question a particular way, have a certain characteristic, believe a particular way, etc, as compared to all the othes. The midpoint is the highest point on the bell and more people share this characteristic than any other point on the curve, but that point does not represent a majority of all people. A majority of the people are within this taller part of the curve, but they are all over under that curve and are equally balanced on either side of the center point. See for more mathematical explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution. It is called a "Normal" Distribution because most things in nature are distributed this way. In the current climate, consider politics. Most people are independents and fall in the middle, the bigger part of the bell curve. Most of us are not right squarely in the middle. We tend to feel more drawn one way or the other. On the edges are the more hard core Democrats and Republicans. All the way out on the edges are the true philosphically unusual. All are critical. This balance creates harmony.
The reality is that "Democrat" and "Republican" are concepts far too broad for the way I see the Balance in the Harmony. We need to consider every single issue and way of thinking. One person may be truly pretty far out on the edge on one issue, say saving baby seals, and be quite toward the middle on almost every other issue, perhaps even leaning toward the other party on most everything else. In the grand scheme of things, this balance creates harmony.
It is not all about politics, but about everything. Religious and spiritual beliefs, intelligence, eating and exercise, tolerance, need for power, care for animals, interest in science or art or history, and even speed in the 100 meters. For every Usain Bolt on the very far edge of that curve, there is someone of the same age who cannot walk at all. Most of us lie somewhere in the middle. Speed is normally distributed across the population. While Usain Bolt is way out on the edge in terms of speed, he may be quite in the middle in terms of the vast majority of the other issues in life.
I think of the harmonic balance, the Harmony, as a 3-dimensional bell curve. An infinite number of bell curves around the same central axis (the vertical line above) representing the normal distribution of people on every single issue there is. That is the harmonic balance.
For it to work, there have to be those who set the two edges. They define the issues. They crystalize the concerns, because they care more deeply about them than anyone else. For there to be a 100 meter dash, there has to be someone passionate and gifted enough to want to be the fastest person in the world. For anyone to care about the baby arctic seals, there has to be someone passionate and courageous enough to go up there and document their story. There has to be the driven, passionate small set of people on each extreme or there is no issue. There has to be the gifted and the challenged for us to recognize there is a need. The rest of us listen to those on the extremes and those near the extremes to understand what the issues are, what the concerns are and why we should care. Over time the bell curve may move toward one end or the other as more people gravitate toward, but often not all the way to, one extreme or the other.
Consider a hot issue at the moment - marriage. Not that long ago it would be unheard of in America to marry outside your historic heritage. Irish immigrants married other Irish immigrants. Germans other Germans, etc. Eventually that restriction broke down as those on the edge married outside their herritage. Of course there remained those who hated the idea on the other extreme, but that position lost followers and the entire curve moved slowly toward more lenience in marriage.
Then the issue was marriage outside the faith. Jews married Jews. Catholics were excommunicated if they married non-Catholics. Similar fates, if not as official, resulted as to other inter-faith marriages, even among protestant faiths, and of course even in those situations the woman was expected to convert to the man's faith. Eventually that issue too became less relevant as the curve moved more toward tolerance and away from those who held fast to the old ways. Ther are those who still profess religious purety in marriage, of course.
Then in the 1960s the issue of inter-racial marriage became a hot issue. It was against the law in many places. The government acted to force change in this attitude, but eventually it was the people whose spirits make up the Harmony, who moved the normal distribution farther to allow more tolerance to allow anyone to marry anyone they love regardless of race, creed or national heritage. There remain those on the other fringe who despise all of these marriages as wrong and impure, and there probably always will be.
The next step is Gay marriage. Again the bell curve is moving slowly toward tolerance in allowing anyone who loves someone else to marry that person. Again there are laws against this in many States. The Harmony will likely continue to move the curve in that direction as more and more people follow their hearts and do what they know God is asking them to, and not what their father, pastor or neighbors think.
It takes the activists on the edge to create the issue. Both edges, for and against. For most of us the issue is not relevant and without those passionate few championing the cause from the edges, the issue would not exist.
All the while there is the next edge, it seems. And all the while there are those on the other edge fighting any movement toward that edge. Perhaps the curve will not move. If it does, perhaps that will be as far as it ever goes. On every issue there are many ways of thinking; many arguments; all of which are right for the person who honestly in their heart belives them to be true for them. The balance around everything is fluid. There is no one right answer. There is only what is right for each person, individually. That is the essence of the Harmony.
They key is that what you feel, what you believe, what you do and how you act has to be true to you personlly. It cannot become your belief because your church pastor said so, your mother said so, your neighbors say so, your friends, or peer group say so. There is a lot of pressure on each of us to believe or do whatever makes things easy for us at the moment, and we perceive this as harmony, but we know inside that we have lied to ourselves and it never sits quite right. We ignore it, but living a lie never feels better.
Why is that? Because whenever we fail to do what we know in our hearts is the right thing to do, FOR US PERSONALLY, we are ignoring the voice of God, however you define God. To some that voice is the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Truth through which God speaks to everyone and provides them with the truth for them, according to Jesus at least. For me it is my connection to the "spiritual internet", the Harmony, the spirit that gives us free will, that connects all of us to all others. The spirit that causes everything to remain in balance and thus in Harmony.
Do what you know in YOUR heart is the right thing to do and you will remain in Harmony with all living things.
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