Independent Minds Get Sharper
So just who’s team are you on?
Today it seems that there are really only two teams in town the Republican (Right in Red Trunks) / Democrat (Left in Blue Trunks). But in the remainder of life, most of the time our teams aren’t crisp lines. Am I on Bob from accounting's “team” just because we work together?
Our influencing “leaders” often create the identities we consume. We often act together in society like interlocking super organisms. We form overlapping groups of people who adopt positions that are meant to protect the group. Much of the time these arguments are reduced to oppositional identities, which creates the urge to “Either this / Or this” when the reality is much more “Both this / And this”. But these positions, these dualities are fabricated through the art of persuasion and disseminated through the science of propaganda.
As an example: President Obama AND President Trump continued foreign interventions after saying they would end them responsibly. Yet we might be led to believe that only one or the other did based upon our political preference of Blue Pill or Red Pill. Yet we might ask ourselves, after a turn with blue team and red team, are we still at war in Afghanistan or Iraq or Syria and what are we up to in Venezuela?
In voting and generally in life, I believe in being independent.
While I do not align myself to a party, I do like the idea of progress.
Being independent doesn’t mean you don’t have to know anything, it actually means you need to try a bit harder. It all starts with the realization that neither “sides” are really making the calls, it’s a game of emergent influencers who buy access and leverage with money.
When you realize that “sides” distort reality (lie) and create cover for those people to take actions on behalf of a group, then you realize we must stop with these rigid groupings. These polar identities are only good for those who wish to exert targeted control. “They” are not an all-in-one big team criminal conspiracy (though admittedly, it does seem like that at times). The reality is there are lots of leaders, exerting effort for someone other that you and I. Those undue influencers are a force of corruption and we must end it now.
Align yourself to the reality of the person, who is the human standing before you. What does their individuality tell you about them, this is the person. We do not need to make assumptions.
Be with the person, even when you don’t agree with them.
I think when we look around, we see all the good that humans are capable of. If we are lucky we often forget about the horrors as long as they aren’t occurring near us.
But when we reflect we know…
There are others being left out. The pandemic is making our humanitarian situation at home unacceptable. We must look, we must make demands, we must demand a system that listens to what we demand of it.
We must stand on the side of our humanity, on the side of non-violence, at least as an aspiration and an end goal. Let us be friends and work together on systems and technology that works for all of us. We can demand it of our leaders now (whatever their “team” is) and demand the power back in our future. Let’s get the “party thinking” out of politics.
How will we build those systems?
I don’t know exactly, but I know we are not there yet. Are we making progress? Which way to progress? I think we need to start with the basics. We can start the process now, we can do it transparently and most importantly we can do it together. I think we are going to see our humanity on display this winter, I hope we respond quickly and realize the full cost of waiting to act until now.
We should have a process for making collective decisions that makes us feel heard.
We should each be provided with a path to shelter, and safe places to reside when we have no where to go.
Medical and mental health services should be available to those who need them regardless of ability to pay.
We should easily find path to fulfilling, valued employment suitable for our needs, desires and abilities.
We should each be provided with a foundational education (at any age) for building on our language, art, math, history, geography, life skills, natural sciences, social skills, basic technology, and the reasoning skills one might need to orient themselves to their best reality.
There will be challenges, but we need to find them and account for those specific challenges when they arise (as they emerge). These are just my opinions, and on their own… the mean nothing. We need to exchange ideas, to build a more active narrative towards our collective future. This is the environment in which we live, it’s boundaries are our boundaries.
We are working independently together, collectively.
I’m pretty sure that both You and I want what’s best for ourselves and for each other assuming no additional value is lost. This is the foundation of working together, of human trade. Sometimes we will even make exceptions to this rule and give up something of value based upon care for the other party and the total mutual value being created.
Trade is a powerful good. We have relied upon trading with others for thousands of years, maybe all of human time. We can not each be self sufficient, that is a losing strategy for nearly every human. We may need to refine the structure our lives to work differently based upon our environmental constraints, new technology or our contemporary cultural needs. This must happen, even when our current structure may not provide a path for this rebalancing, this reconciliation, it doesn’t make it less necessary. If it isn’t addressed, society will collapse.
How are we doing?
We should want to build a system that takes care of everyone, and when we make great strides toward this goal, we should share. We should want that system to be freely accepted, adopted and modified for use by all who seek it, with their permission in all instances. We should find ways to open our arms to each other in the ways we would want for ourselves. What are the right social safety nets?
WE NEED TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.
How might we measure our collective progress?
How might we work together in a massively open way?
How might we agree to simple things?
Can we aspire collectively to big things?
As the next cultural generation gains it’s balance could we make a commitment to no more proactive wars, and instead to provide a platform for humanitarian aid and global stability. To slowly work to recognize our system faults, heal our system and mitigate the damage we have done.
Be open to something better. Be open to engaging in this process. Be open to slowing down, to make a more solid path forward together.
Take a deep breath, you might feel a little pinch.
