FREEDOM FOR
In 2024 our VOTE is for the type of political system (democracy or fascism) America will have and the global neighbors many Americans will have chosen for partners. Alexei Navalny, in PATRIOT: A MEMOIR, offers,
I wonder how you would get on as a politician if, after every meeting in an electoral campaign, you were placed under arrest for a month. It is as if I were priding myself on living in an environment so grim, and where politics is so very real, that I absolutely have to go to prison…You don’t need to be a great psychologist to recognize what is at the root of this: Russians yearn for a normal life, fully aware that we have invented all our existing problems for ourselves. We can’t admit to being fools, though, so we look for something to boast about, where in fact there is nothing to be proud of. (41-42)
Sound familiar? Gobs of media, nurture ego, fear, blood baths, and intimidation; illusion, confusion, mindless chatter, no debate, no compromise, border security, autocracy, fascism, and absolute power. Demagogue, use other peoples’ money, do nothing to contribute to the personal health, wellness and well-being of others; disrespect, eat pets, home grown terrorism, international crime, opioid epidemic, tariffs, unfair trade, taxes, and racism (intersection of racial prejudice and power); gutter games, smears, lies, false stories, twisted stories, demanded (vs earned) loyalty, street mentality, divisive rhetoric, media attacks, chaos, and make up anything to attack a person’s credibility if not agreeable; anti-tax, anti-climate change, discrimination, narcissist, insensitive, Putin puppet, love starved, infidelity, cheats, steals, NRA, white supremacists, cult leader, anti-muslimism, launder money, no vision, no leadership, hate, exaggerations and fabrications, spin, re-spin, create stories, us vs them, bully, and bigot.
Michael Brown offers,
As children, we entered the world of order, routine, and “appropriate” behavior through the guidance, encouragement, and insistence of our parents. Initially, this predicament of lacking personal will was the consequence of our relationship with our mother. We ate, dressed, bathed, and behaved in a manner that was first initiated and spoken for by our mother. Then we acted according to what we perceived as appropriate in the eyes of our mother and father. The consequence is that today, on an unconscious level, our motivation for the way we eat, dress, bathe, and behave is almost solely sourced from the reflected presence of others. We unconsciously use these “others” as ongoing reflections of our mother and father. Through the presence of others, we are attempting to please and appease our mother and father in order that we may gain their approval and unconditioned acceptance.
This initial motivation to do this and that for mommy and daddy was inevitably transformed and transferred as we moved through our childhood, teenage years, and into adulthood. When we were young, this compulsion to act in a manner that we believed would enable us to gain our parents love and approval was automatic. During our teenage years this behavior transformed into an automatic desire to “fit in” with our peer groups. By the time we entered our adult experience, this need for outer validation became cloaked as a desire to be responsible, or to “get ahead.” Therefore, let us call most of our behavior what it is: a desire to get a reaction, a drama staged for the purpose of gaining outer attention. For some of us this desire may have manifested as its polar opposite. In other words, we desired “not” to fit in or get ahead. This resistance is also a reaction and can be traced to our initial interactions with our parents (or their substitutes). (The Presence Process, 129)
To create a grass roots infrastructure—kids, parents, teachers, ministers, grandparents, families, and communities— with purpose and connections with a foundation of authentic compassion, ego-mind is dead. Some food for thought to help re-route the ship: Rachel Kleinfield and Aaron Sobel (USA Today, Friday, July 24, 2020, page7A) offer, “7 ways to reduce political polarization: Destroying the other side cannot be our goal.”
- Call out your own party: speak truth to power and challenge your own tribe.
- Avoid bad jokes: words matter, and they can perpetuate existing violence and cultivate preexisting grievances.
- Make social media kinder: remove hateful messages, reduce the spread of hateful memes, and avoid prejudiced or polarizing speech.
- Downplay the fringes and highlight the median: provide information that overturns party sorted beliefs and that reduces polarization. There may be less disagreement on policy issues than thought.
- Emphasize disagreement within parties: most policy issues have a range of opinions within a party.
- Help others imagine empathy: stories that encourage others to take the perspective of the other party can reduce prejudice.
- Avoid repeating misinformation, even to debunk it: repetition leads the brain to think things are true; and there is a tendency to seek information that agrees with how one believes.
Partisanship is shaking the mighty pillars of our democracy; and destroying the other party is not a reasonable objective. The chaos, confusion, and disaster we see unfolding daily is about destroying the other group of human beings, the other tribe. As The Honorable John Lewis offered, get in “Good Trouble” and become a master of uniting. Whether Democrat, Republican, Independent, or other, America The Beautiful is the goal!!! Let us evolve together, not apart. Some folks wonder what happened; some folks watch what is happening; and some folks make things happen. Make things happen!!!
