Is Ochlocracy Next?

First, an apology. I failed to offer new year’s greetings in my first post of the year, “Flourishing Together.” Between the events in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and on the heels of the assassination of a CEO in midtown Manhattan, it seemed a gruesome and sad time incompatible with annual revelry even as most Americans—including in New Orleans and Las Vegas—partied on.

So, a belated Happy New Years!  Sort of? Hopefully!?

Whether 2025 proves to be a springboard to greatness, or a gradual slip-n-slide into madness, appears to be an even-odds proposition today. The early twentieth century Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, might characterize this interregnum between regimes of order as a “time of monsters.” As the history of humanity illustrates quite clearly, although we often speak of sudden changes, like the “fall of Rome,” the reality is more subtle; we rarely recognize what has happened until its full manifestation is complete. We humans have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees. There are clear signs, however, that we might pay attention to—that suggest both monsters and madness are roosting on the rails of the front stoop.

It is becoming difficult to be shocked anymore. The outrage machine that has become our media, whether traditional or online, is having an increasingly difficult time creating any wide-eyed gasps from viewers and listeners which, of course, is their stock-in-trade for achieving their financial success. The psychological scar tissue we have built up over the last several years protects us, but also makes us susceptible to a slow degradation of social bonds that might just cause the collapse of civil society. We would be wise to realize that collapse in physical terms is when many little things give way until everything gives way at once. In social and political terms, it is characterized by institutional and systemic chaos (the little things) that precede the final fall.

None of what the rightwing media claimed about the attacker in New Orleans was true. Claims of “Middle Eastern national” that had “crossed the southern border” (FOX) prior to traveling to New Orleans to inflict evil were all false, as was Trump’s mimicking of same. Both of the events in New Orleans and Las Vegas were conducted by decorated American members of our military. Patriots who became terrorists apparently due to theological radicalization and mental illness. They were not others, they were us.

The fires in Los Angeles have, however, proven indeed shocking and offer a reprieve for news outlets that could only make so much of President Carter’s funeral or Trump’s musings over the invasion of Panama and Greenland as among his first conquests. The fires, which appear to have been both predictable and at least somewhat preventable, and which Trump and Governor Newsom have decided are best suited as an opportunity to extend their toddler bickering and blame game, are indeed horrific. Who knew that the emperor Nero strumming his lyre while Rome burned would be relevant again in 2025, or that the L.A. version would be a duet? But here we are. Ancient myths do occasionally mock current events. Our elected leadership and media are in a death-spiral clutching each other’s torsos as they fall symbiotically entwined, cascading into an abyss of sin, a la Dante.

The more important thing to understand is that each of these events—the assassination in Manhattan, death and destruction in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and the fires in L.A.—are evidence of social breach. Individually and collectively, they are screaming for our attention. They are like trees that define the forest that is under attack by pestilence. A few diseased trees don’t seem like a problem until the entire forest is destroyed. We need to pay attention to what is really going on: the destruction of the fabric that social contracts provide that make our societies, societies. Each breach becomes one tile in a mosaic depicting the final collapse; perhaps someday painted on the ceiling of the dome of a new society as a reminder and warning of what happens when you sleepwalk your way off of a cliff.

The concept of social contracts is hundreds of years old, written about extensively by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke in the seventeenth century, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the eighteenth. Essentially, social contracts are the quid pro quo of reciprocity. If those who rule/govern are given the authority and resources to do so, they must agree to serve the interests of the grantors—the people. Societies operate on a set of mutual expectations, both explicit and implicit. It’s a dynamic process, like assembling a jigsaw puzzle as the pieces continually change their characteristics, which is both maddening and invigorating. These expectations-cum-contracts form the glue that holds us together. They are that sticky stuff that keeps our civil web, webbed.

The breach of social contracts requires recourse, which is normally available when the contract is between a government and its people. Recourse is usually achieved through judicial and/or electoral consequences. Things are made right in some manner such that the web of social cohesion is restored. However, when any breach persists and festers—when it remains unreconciled—it can propagate in a manner that weakens society to the point of collapse. This reality highlights the critical value of consequences that both restore our confidence in the proposition of order and increase our capacity to properly assess risk—playing both a restorative and educational role.

In the case of the assassination in Manhattan, we see yet another situation apparently brought on by a lack of consequence—of any prospect of recourse. In the unique (in the developed world) circumstances of U.S. healthcare, the authority and resources granted a government by the people have been delegated or otherwise transferred from the public to the private sector, making recourse-upon-breach less available, or not available, at all. In the U.S., healthcare is a private/public good, rather than purely a public good.

Luigi Mangione (or those he ostensibly represented) was no match for United Healthcare’s carefully crafted systems that prohibit their customers from achieving recourse. Mangione couldn’t oust the CEO, Brian Thompson, but he could shoot him. His apparent frustration and anger—his rage against the machine—drove him to kill Thompson, which is evidence not just of a heinous crime (which it most certainly was), but also evidence of a breach of social contract for which Mangione’s recourse was sought through a Glock-styled 3D printed ghost gun. Like the soldiers in New Orleans and Las Vegas, the Ivy League educated Mangione was not a foreign-born terrorist. He is us, too.

In the case of the fires in L.A., although the issue of recourse is between the people and their government (and not the private sector), the magnitude of the loss makes recourse impossible. There is no way the government can answer for the consequences the people have endured, and the property insurers will undoubtedly behave as health insurers do. The gross size of the breach is irremediable. The integrity of the relationship between those who govern and the governed has been shattered. As the author and podcaster, Sam Harris, who experienced the fires himself, wrote this week on Substack, “We must rebuild, but we must also create a culture of competence and social cohesion‚and transform our politics in the process.” Due to a lack of leadership, the fires in L.A. may create more Mangiones. They are us, too.

Once consequences are marginalized or eliminated altogether, the restoration of meaningful and enforceable social contracts is obliterated along with the prospect of cooperation and compliance. This is when the Greek historian, Polybius, would suggest the existing democracy will slide into chaos and be replaced by ochlocracy: mob rule. In today’s America, consequences are largely reserved for the powerless and forlorn. In the Age of Deceit, fairness has been so severely compromised as both a concept and an application of equitable recourse that we should fully expect more people acting in a manner unthought of just two decades ago. We must not fall victim (as we did preceding the attacks of 9/11) to a failure of imagination. Assassins, murderers, and arsonists may become normative. Burning a person alive on the subway, as happened recently in New York City, combined these offenses into a trifecta. The monsters are us, too.

Now, let me illustrate what I believe may become the grand irony of the days to come. First, by acknowledging the substantial victory of the Republicans last November. Notwithstanding Democratic Party apologists who like to argue the defeat wasn’t so bad, what actually really matters is who Americans believe will serve their interests and who have the strength/power to do so. On these two dimensions—trust and commitment—the Democrats were routed. When asked which party was “on my side” “to fight for people like me,” working class Americans said Republicans over Democrats by 14 points (50/36). When it comes to strength, the Republicans increase their margin to 40 points (63/23). This, among folks who were once the foundation of the Democratic Party. And while many describe the next administration as a kakistocracy (government by the least suitable or competent citizens of the state), through our uniquely American version of democracy corrupted unintentionally by the electoral college, and intentionally by gerrymandering congressional districts, Republicans have won the right to govern.

The grand irony will unfold once the Trump administration is sworn in. Trump is the biggest, most prolific, and most powerful example of shattering social contracts—of violating norms and laws—to come along in the history of our nation. For many who celebrate his swagger as an avatar of their own disruptive and amoral ambitions, he is a (nearly) religious icon. For those same folks, who number in the millions, he has given them permission to behave in the same manner as he, as a morally-exempt and hyper self-interested lout.

But here is the rub—the anvil upon which irony will be hewn from the timber of corruption. Once you are in power your effectiveness is dependent upon the compliance and cooperation of the other side of the contract: the people must behave. Notwithstanding the other millions who will never bow to Trump, what happens when his toadies continue to follow his lawless lead acting in whatever way they please, right when he needs them to support, and comply with, his policies? Will he be willing to swallow his own medicine? Will he come to appreciate the value of social cohesion-by-contract? Of civil society? Does he even have the intellectual and moral capacity to do so? Will monsters and madness leave the stoop and breach the threshold of social and political order causing their collapse?

In next month’s issue of The Atlantic, Derek Thompson writes about this disintegration of social cohesion noting we have entered the “anti-social century.” Among other things, technology has allowed us to detach from each other and the real world. He illustrates that due to screens—first TVs and now smartphones—many of us have become “secular monks.” I wrote my own piece on this in December 2022 titled, “Digital Dementia.” We have replaced humans as a source of enrichment with technological artifice, even including AI-generated intimate partners. Instead of focusing on improving social cohesion, and the many social contracts that codify interhuman expectations, we are shoving off from the shore of society. The implications point to the prospect of ochlocracy (per Polybius) where order may no longer be possible. The techno-optimists would argue that in a perfect world driven by technologies like AI, such traditional regimes of order are no longer necessary. Until, of course, their own home burns down and they need help.

So, Happy New Year, indeed. 2025 may just prove to be a pivotal year when our destiny takes a sudden turn—one way or another.

By |2025-02-01T23:58:41+00:00January 19th, 2025|General, Recent|0 Comments
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Flourishing Together

Although Tonto did all the real work, the Lone Ranger is etched into American mythology as the white-hatted self-reliant epitome of how we independent do-it-all-ourselves Americans should model our lives—as highly idealized rugged and righteous cowboys. Especially those of us raised in the western states grew up with the ethos of pursuing a self-directed life tethered to as few others—whether people or institutions—as we could possibly manage. While we were taught to lend a hand, we were also taught to never ask for one. Go-it-alone was always preferred to go-together. Power and success were simply a matter of will. Joining others in a common cause was a last, not a first, choice.

As attractive and romanticized as this myth of the independent muscular and virtuous American is, it is as true as the claim that the Lone Ranger was lone. Without Tonto, or his horse, Silver, the Lone Ranger would have just been a guy who might have been a better fit for the Village People. The fact that Tonto was a Native American just added a little slice of poetic racism. The reality is that the American frontier was settled by people traveling together in wagon trains and working together to defend forts and raise barns. Cooperation and teamwork have been intrinsic characteristics of human culture since the hunter-gatherers during the Paleolithic Age.

In the modern (post-Middle Ages) era, specialization and division of labor where we each contribute to a greater whole is a fundamental trait of capitalism’s model of economic efficiency. All economic systems require a high degree of cooperation. As for our political system, democracies are “of the people” as a collective voice, not of a person or deity (notwithstanding the delusions of our next president). The reality is that in America we employ different systems depending on which best suits our welfare. Every public good we enjoy—from security to education to transportation systems to insurance—are socialist schemes. Private goods are quite appropriately created through capitalist schemes, but our daily lives require both public and private goods. To advocate otherwise is just ignorant. Ayn Rand was only half right.

In our hyper-divided and increasingly isolated society in America today, with national leaders who unfortunately and inappropriately thrive on these conditions, it is more important than ever that we set a new course to affect our well-being—both individually and collectively. We need to embrace a new model of flourishing together. We need to write a new story—a new myth appropriate to an age of abundance where technology has shifted from enabling our well-being to replacing us as purposeful actors with algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI). We need to reinvigorate both our sense of personal and communal responsibility while asserting our agency as relevant members of society. It isn’t easy, but what is good seldom is.

In the uber-capitalist industrial era of the twentieth century, we Americans were trained toward objective-driven lives. Life was about striving, not thriving. Both the costs and benefits were high, although the benefits often preceded the costs and naturally received much more attention. Climate change is the most obvious evidence-based case of this reality. The costs eventually do arrive, regardless of our stubborn denials. Fundamentally, we Americans need to shift from an ethos of achievement to one of flourishing that assesses the totality of our endeavors including both the results of our actions and the intent with which we take them. The successful organization achieves objectives; the flourishing organization honors values. The trick, of course, is to be the organization that does both.

Balancing objectives and values isn’t easy. Conflicts between the two are a certainty. Most organizations structure acknowledgement and compensation schemes around objectives because they are more easily quantified and measured, which is both understandable and problematic. Many businesses view their nature as one of transactions that produce desirable financial outcomes. Some businesses and many other mission-driven organizations, however, see their nature as deploying resources in a manner to affect the fulfillment of a values-based proposition. The latter organizations often prove to be much more durable.

Values introduce a moral dimension into our endeavors, which is how the now-critical elements of responsibility and agency gain purchase. Values introduce the prospect of holism for the organization which recognizes the interdependence of its people and the role it plays in the marketplace and in society. Without values the organization is simply a mercenary vessel that is destined for premature dissolution. They skip from one sugar high to the next rather than operating from a healthy nutritional foundation.

So, what are some new shifts in values to consider for integration into our organizations to move from achievement toward flourishing in the next quarter of this twenty-first century? Here are six to consider; perhaps even to pin to your mirror, write on the conference room whiteboard, or engrave on a boardroom plaque.

  1. From certitude to curiosity. Healthy organizations know that having the correct answers depends on asking the right questions. Certitude is, however, a more common modality today for both people and their organizations. Divisiveness and isolation have produced this condition as much as any other cause. Zero-sum mentalities arise as a parallel scheme to righteousness. The underlying value of curiosity is based in the truth that every single person has something to offer that no one else does, that each person knows something you don’t know and can do something better than you can do it. Winning organizations that enjoy both success in achievement of objectives and the flourishing of values demand high levels of inquiry combined with a culture of listeners.
  2. From hubris to humility. In America, we are damn lucky. Yes, we are generally better educated and work more hours than most other societies, but we are also damn lucky. Among other things, we are blessed with extraordinary natural resources and a history founded in honorable virtues that has supported the development of institutions of governance and law found in few other places in the world. As I illustrated recently, in “America’s Arc of Moral Madness (and Hope),” we have, however, slipped from our tradition of humility to hubris and now teeter on sliding further into nihilism as our principal cultural identity. If we want to truly make America great again, we need to hoist humility back up onto its pedestal where it belongs. In our organizations, the best way to support humility is by recognizing and rewarding those who know how to say, “I don’t know,” and then endeavor to find better answers to perplexing issues. To moderate confidence with a sincere sense of authenticity that acknowledges that the best answers are seldom held by any one person; rather, that the best answers arise out of humble inquiry and inclusion of varied disciplines and points of view.
  3. From compliance and conformity to creativity. We need to widen the aperture with which we view the world and be willing to throw around ideas with reckless abandon. Further, every legacy convention and rule must be questioned, again. The great paradox of our embrace of new technologies (principally in the digital realm) that we have employed in the last thirty years has acted, over time, to narrow our minds rather than expand them. We are suffering from intellectual sclerosis: a hardening of our neural receptors and synapses. The promise of unbounded creativity due to new innovations in technology have instead resulted in the compression and regression of thought rather than the acceleration of our enlightenment. Current trends in the application of algorithms and AI may enhance productivity and speed decision making, but they do so by marginalizing the role of humans rather than expanding and empowering them. Yes, on the surface our lives may seem better (at least superficially), but a narrower more limited role in our destiny is not in the interest of humanity. Technology should empower us, not marginalize us; this is the fundamental flaw in the value proposition of AI. The creative realm of the human mind should never be sacrificed for the expediency benefits of technology. Organizationally, we must question the givens—all of them. Guardrails and limits must be pushed again to see if their boundaries remain valid. Those among us with wild ideas must be elevated rather than ridiculed.
  4. From delusion to clear knowing—clarity. Seeing things as they are rather than the way we might like them to be is perhaps the most valuable executive skill there is. Over the last twenty years or so—during America’s Age of Deceit—our capacity to live in a fact-based reality has been severely compromised. Gaslighting has become a basic modality in American discourse in all aspects of society. Deceit is the cancer on the soul of America. There may be nothing we can do to affect this condition among our politicians and media, but we still have agency for ourselves and within our organizations. So, vote for someone else and tune out the media sewer pipe, and in the meantime let us all commit to change the ways we deal with each other and our various constituents. We must reject grand complications often meant to support illusion in favor of the sublimity of simplicity. The power of honest simplicity—of aesthetic elegance—is the most durable construct in the history of humankind. Leonardo da Vinci illustrated this centuries ago. We would be wise to exalt the obvious, the honest, and the pure.
  5. From competition to coopetition. In an age of scarcity, which was the state of civilization until the late twentieth century, competition based in the predominant conditions of zero-sum, win/lose thinking, was an essential and appropriate modality of human interaction. In an age of abundance, when there are enough wealth and resources to provide for the welfare of all, coopetition—competing to cooperate—is a more appropriate and sustainable modality. Our current course allows for the continued concentration of wealth, resources, and power which inevitably causes collapse of the existing regimes of civilization. The Greek historian and philosopher, Polybius, mapped out these cycles showing that what follows democracy is ochlocracy: mob rule. Most historians (including Polybius) see catastrophic collapse as inevitable and many of the world’s religions (especially Christianity) claim redemption and rebirth are impossible without a severe reckoning. My hope is that we can be smarter than that; that we can preempt the need for redemption. That the Lone Ranger, Superman, and Batman might join forces to become the Three Musketeers, “all for one and one for all,” or as with the moto inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States of America, E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one.
  6. From contempt to compassion. Empathy and sympathy are not signs of weakness. Concern for the suffering of others and taking appropriate action to mitigate tragic consequences takes much more strength than the contempt and disdain we see spewed like venom today, especially from MAGA Republicans. Remember George W. Bush’s policies of compassionate conservatism? As a former Republican, I pine for those days when conservative meant, first and foremost, to conserve. Compassion conserves humanity. If that doesn’t resonate, how about the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, “by the grace of God I am what I am …” Or how about Buddhism that has as its most basic aim to eliminate suffering in the world? Whether we like it or not, we are in this life and world together. In the organizations we participate in—regardless of their form or function—we must always endeavor to leave things better than we found them. Improving the spaces we inhabit and the lives of those we encounter leaves us all better off. Compassion is a win/win proposition.

Curiosity, humility, creativity, clarity, coopetition, and compassion. These are the values we need to focus on today. This is how we reboot the current trajectory of American culture to avoid slipping from hubris into nihilism. This is how we avoid catastrophe. This is the ethos we must celebrate with new heroes of the good; those who see the best in each other and realize that together we are much more powerful than we are alone. It is highly unlikely these heroes will come from our national leaders given the current roster of those now, or soon to be, in office. Of course, that would not have stopped the Lone Ranger from doing the right thing (if Tonto suggested it). Nor should it stop you. It is up to us, both individually and collectively, to make decisions and take action according to these values. We can allow nihilism to manifest as reality, or we can move aggressively to prevent it.

The Greeks had a word that illustrates the fundamental aim here: eudaimonia, which simply means a positive and divine state of human flourishing. Humans have sought eudaimonia for centuries. At times succeeding and at other times, failing. (We humans do have a perplexing propensity for self-destruction.) The good news today, however, is that for the first time in the history of humankind, we have the knowledge and the means to save ourselves. We simply have to take responsibility for ourselves and each other and protect our agency to act according to our objectives as informed by our values.

By |2025-01-19T02:27:18+00:00January 5th, 2025|General, Recent, The New Realities|0 Comments
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The Divinity Within

Stopping the clock

To let the world hang

Disturbed and fragile

Too toxic to touch

 

To your whims and wants

You bid adieu

Your weight of worries

Cast into the wind

 

No more reaching

No more seeking

No more retreats

No more journeys

 

Settling into your center

A pilgrimage within

Doubts dispersed

You are fine as you are

 

Eternal wisdom

Is not ‘out there’

It arrived at your birth

Eager to serve

 

Ego’s patient sibling

The soul awaits

You will awaken someday

When ‘out there’ fails

 

Peace seems elusive

Yet always within

Permission granted

Compassion for you

 

Slowing to savor

The world is a whisper

Clarity in purity

Calm is your new joy

 

Laugh at the loathsome

Their levers unhinged

Here but not here

You are tethered to grace

 

Moving onward

In the moment of now

The horizon beckons

Without a destination

 

No more noise

No more anxiety

No more fear

No more pain

 

Divinity arrives

As conceits are released

Every dawn smiles

In sweet liberation

 

Restart the clock

A new cadence revealed

Flowing in rhythm

Without leaving a trace

As this year comes to a close, I reflect on the words of the 13th century Sufi mystic and poet, Rumi, who affirmed the reflective nature of looking within when he said, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Perhaps we ought to follow Rumi’s long-ago lead into our own new year in support of what seems to be so lacking in our world today: simple dignity. First, as realized through humble introspection and self-compassion, and then for each and every person we encounter as we pursue our best lives.

As always, my wish for you: May you wake in glory, enjoy your day with grace, and spend your night in peace. Glory, grace, and peace.

As the darkness now yields to the light, Happy Solstice & cheers.

By |2025-01-05T00:17:32+00:00December 22nd, 2024|General, Recent, Spiritual|0 Comments
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A Conceit of Contempt

In the human journey to create the most peaceful, stable, and perfect society, the ancients considered many issues, conditions, and regimes to govern themselves. In Book IV of The Republic of Plato, Socrates, while brainstorming a perfect society with his students, suggests that if virtues like wisdom, moderation, and courage were established in a city there would be no need for laws. Further, that if each man pursued his particular and unique skills to the best of his ability to affect what economists later termed “division of labor” and “economic specialization” while taking care to manage his appetites by his commitments to reason and goodness, that a natural harmony—a state of justice—would prevail.

More than two thousand years later, our founders had a more skeptical view and laid down a Declaration and Constitution to provide a framework within which laws would be made to guide and guard our pursuit of living in peace and harmony. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both maintained lists of virtues they frequently reviewed to assess their compliance and self-govern their characters. These lists and the founding documents of our nation were strongly influenced by the ancients (in particular Cicero) as well as English and Scottish philosophers of the Enlightenment.

Franklin suggested the founders had given us a “republic if you can keep it” at the time of our nation’s birth. In our nearly two-and-a-half centuries of the American experiment we have kept it. In the election of 2024, a majority of us selected a leader who, unlike the ancients and our founders, has no apparent subscription to any virtues (let alone a discernible conscience) and believes norms and laws—in addition to serving in our military—are for “suckers and losers.” My, how far we have fallen.

Trump’s conceit of contempt targets virtues and laws in the nature of elitist arrogance that holds he is above following any rules meant for people lesser than he, what the Greeks called the hoi poloi, meaning the masses. As a result, whether or not our republic makes it to a third century is now a serious concern. A rogue virtue-free leader may appeal to America’s maverick mythology, but also risks all we have built as the exemplar of freedom in the world. In the next four years, we may look more like Victor Orban’s Hungary than the United States of America. One might feel that our founders would be extremely disappointed, but I expect they would also be surprised the republic lasted this long; late-life correspondence between Jefferson and John Adams shows that founders didn’t believe the republic would make it out of the 19th century.

However, in the election of 2024, this conceit of contempt was not only expressed by Trump. It was at the core of the losing campaign by Harris and the Democrats, albeit of a different nature with different targets. Their conceit of contempt was an elitist form of judgment deployed with the blame ‘n shame game, which can be an effective form of manipulation (commonly deployed by organized religions), but not a successful method of persuasion. Their targets were not virtues and laws, they were voters. Trump certainly also aims his contempt at people—his enemies—but not at his supporters. He brings his supporters alongside his own (baseless) victimhood as their protector. He forms a duplicitous yet sturdy bond with them. His contempt acted to attract voters, while Harris’s acted to repel voters.

In my last post, the Sunday before the election, I suggested that “Trump could win—maybe even by a large electoral margin” due in no small part to Harris’s mistakes. Many of my Democrat readers let me know how much they did not like my prediction. Fair enough, but I am compelled by my own center of gravity to write things as I see them—as they are, rather than the way I might wish them to be. I also suggested that “Four more years of Trump will be devastating for our country and the world.” If we consider ourselves proper guardians of our republic, we must understand how to appeal to people in a persuasive manner. Understanding this is really fairly simple; it is based in the nature of how humans support and curate their egos. Then we have to give them a reason to identify (in a healthy way) with better candidates.

At the essence of human flourishing is a healthy sense of self-worth. If this essential element of personhood is not established early in life, destructive behaviors to one’s self and others are inevitable; all in a twisted and nearly-always futile attempt to fill the void where worthiness belongs. In relationships, those lacking a strong sense of self have little hope of ever forming an intimate, authentic, and strong bond with another human. Those so afflicted are like human wrecking balls in social structures, especially families.

Among Americans today, who we are and why we are—our sense of worth—is in abject jeopardy. It is a borderline epidemic and insidious human tragedy; especially tragic (and perplexing) considering that we live in an age of abundance. From anxious to angry to chronically depressed, many Americans feel like victims; they feel unworthy. “Woe is me” is not conducive to a healthy mindset. These people are always looking for external affirmation inasmuch as self-affirmation is difficult to impossible. Incidentally, this condition frames the fundamental appeal of cults, which a number of sociologists have suggested fits the MAGA movement, referring to it as a “cult of personality.”

All humans strive to feel good about themselves. Those with fragile egos often seek psychic nourishment beyond their immediate social support system by a referent. Referents come in many forms through the processes of self-identification that shape and continually curate the ego. They are those things—usually persons or ideas or beliefs—that without acknowledging and understanding make it impossible to completely consider who someone is, or at least who they would like us to believe they are.

Trump (who himself struggles with a fragile ego) has become a referent for many Americans who are fed up with the conceit of contempt many political movements and campaigns—including too often Harris’s—used to target them. Trump identified with voter’s sense of victimhood and offered them absolution through him in much the same manner Jesus Christ offered absolution to his followers. It was a slick con. His supporters will learn soon enough that, unlike Christ, he couldn’t care less about them. He is, and always will be, concerned only with himself. Disgruntled Americans (most bizarrely many evangelicals) might have chosen a deity with a durable track record, like Christ, but opted for a con-man from Queens.

The blame ‘n shame game has been central to many political movements like the environmental/climate change movement, Occupy Wall Street, Me Too, calls for reparations, Black Lives Matter, and others. Mostly considered Liberal movements, or movements of the Democratic Party. Similarly, as we saw in the later stages of Harris’s campaign, the Obamas in particular were dispatched to shame men—particularly black men—to vote for her. Women were also targeted with a sense of gender-allegiant guilt (as they were in Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign) to vote for Harris. These movements and campaigns have another thing in common other than being somewhere between less-than-successful and outright failures: they each prove that a conceit of contempt is no way to affect persuasion in human beings.

This is the subtle yet deep and instructive lesson of the 2024 election. Notwithstanding the proclaimed brilliance of party loyalists, pundits, columnists, and pollsters who have been making their many and varied claims of election omniscience after the fact, none of them I have read have a clue when it comes to this lesson that actually produced the election results this year.  None recognize that this conceit of contempt in America is endemic and toxic—across both political parties and all segments of our society. They apparently are blind and/or numb to its pervasive rampancy.

If you have followed my posts over the last few years, you know I continually advocate for lifting people up to persuade them to follow a virtues-founded course in life. The ancients did get that part right, and while our founders worried about the prospect of divisive “factions,” they also recognized the extraordinary opportunity for a union in a free land characterized by abundant resources. In the political realm, I have recommended Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign of 1984 as a model for politicians to follow forty years later. Alas, what we face now is mourning for America.

In life, we often toggle between enjoy (to be in-joy) and endure (in this usage to be in-suffering). This conceit of contempt—regardless who deploys it—is responsible for much of the social, economic, and political destruction we must now endure. I would say shame on us, but I recognize blame ‘n shame does not put anyone on a path to en-joy.

America today is a sad society. The barbarians are at the gate, although they are not arriving from beyond our borders, they are from within the republic. Socrates would probably call us “feverish” and “unhealthy,” which are inherently unstable and ungovernable conditions. We seem locked-in to our preferences for contempt over respect, suspicion over trust, falsehood over truth, and delusion over reality. Further, we cannot deal with anything except very short-term issues, leaving the substantial but longer-term issues of our national debt and climate change beyond our capacity to consider.

A superpower must lead to maintain its relative power in the international system. In today’s America, we are stuck in a cycle of reactivity swinging our fists at each other and perceived boogeymen that are like ghosts lurking in the shadows. Not exactly enlightened or reliable leadership. We need to get our act together and soon. Our allies are deeply concerned and our adversaries can’t wait to see us fall.

The stakes are high and there is much work to do. We must work on ourselves first—we must heal our own dispositions—then work with each other. Above all else, we need to set aside our contempt for each other. There is no better time to begin repairing and restoring ourselves and our society than in the present moment—regardless of who is president. Waiting four more years may render our republic beyond any prospect of restoration.

By |2024-12-07T23:01:38+00:00November 17th, 2024|General, Recent, The New Realities|0 Comments
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From Resilience to Transcendence

What do we live for?

We arrive screaming pulled from the comfort of our mother’s womb. Whether we leave this world with someone at our side, or alone, we all hope someone remembers us—at least for a while. In the years between our beginning and end, we forge a life we call our own. Failures and victories mark our path which, full of transgressions and glory, defines who we are, then once were.

Soon, we are forgotten. Which is as it should be. But the contribution we’ve made to the soul that offered us its eternal wisdom upon our first inhalation has been made even wiser at its departure upon our last exhalation. Our primary job is to be the vessel and steward of our soul. Although we give our ego much more playing time during our lives, we should revere our soul with a sense of respectful awe—especially in the last quarter of life. Upon our death, our soul moves on to possess another being in their first breath as an older and wiser soul. That is our everlasting contribution—the one true legacy that is ours, alone.

That’s it. That is why we are/were here. That’s all there is. And, it’s grand.

In August, I wrote about how to achieve resilience in your life that included three steps: Know Thyself, Honor Thyself, and Steel Thyself. That if you successfully pursued these steps it would result in a “constitution that is unassailable.” That you might even become “that person that in the face of adversity has a curious grin on their face.” If you missed that essay, or want to review it, go here.

I need to admit now that I was holding out on you; that there is a fourth step that takes you beyond resilience to transcendence. In order to move from resilience to transcendence (what others may call enlightenment), there is another step that is important to enjoy a thriving last quarter of life and to leave this world in peace: Liberate Thyself.

In some cultures, folks in their last quarter of life are revered. They are cared for, respected and, moreover, listened to. I suspect these people have an easier time finding peace, equanimity, and transcendence before they pass as compared to those of us who are more often ignored and discarded in American culture.

Our culture is fast: fast food, fast fashion, fast cars, fast relationships, and fast opinions. We dismiss the rule, “speed kills,” with cheerful ignorance. The wisdom of living more slowly is borderline unpatriotic. As a consequence, liberating thyself is arguably more difficult in America, and also more important to those of us who want to make our exit in peace rather than in a state of suffering.

We can, however, achieve a state of transcendence that assures sweet peace. In America, we may just have to work a bit harder to get there. Among other things, we have to recognize the delicate and often contentious relationship between our ego and our soul.

If you are a long-time reader of these essays, I actually haven’t been holding out on you about liberating thyself as I have written about this before. However, in the face of disturbing unknowns that seem to increase dramatically as our country faces national elections today, and since many more readers have recently joined ameritecture.com, I thought it might be time to pull things together again in one essay with links for you to conduct a deeper dive to suit your own particular needs or concerns. To give you all the steps to understand the path to transcendence.

In “The Identity Trap: Suffering or Transcendence” (click here), I argue that while we arrive in the world as a clean slate—egoless—we should also leave the world as a clean, or relatively clean, slate. That in the first three phases of life, preparation (0-25 years); achievement (26-45 years); and actualization (46-65 years), during which we are creating and refining our egos, our identity serves to both differentiate us as uniquely valuable as well as provide a basis for belonging to places, organizations, and groups. Our egos and attendant identities act to locate us within society. But then there is a fork in the road.

In the fourth quarter of life (65+ years), if we cling to that ego that has defined us, we may spend our final days suffering. That the key to achieving sweet peace and transcendence is to let go of our ego. It is a very challenging process, but like anything else you have accomplished in life, with diligence and discipline it can be achieved. Fair warning: your ego will fight like hell to preserve itself. It has been the alpha actor in your life since a few days after birth. But it is time for the other actor—your soul—to become the touchstone to govern the balance of your life. The desires and aversions and delusions that occupy that ego-driven voice in your head must be expelled to take the path to transcendence—to avoid suffering. This is what some spiritual teachers refer to as living in the seat of the soul.

As I summarized in this essay,

The disturbances and discontents that inflicted others no longer afflict me. FOMO (fear of missing out) has been replaced by the equanimity of missing out. Let the rabble roar. If you have triggers, they are yours, not mine. My awareness is elsewhere. My mind is sucking up knowledge like a kindergartner. It is a very different me than the one I left behind. No burdensome expectations or obligations, no doubts, or fears, or anger. Moreover, no hurry. Death will come when it will and I will welcome it in the same manner I welcomed life: with a sense of optimistic curiosity. Whether it is a door or a wall doesn’t matter, because I have my sweet peace in this world and it is simply magnificent.

In a later essay, I hung ornaments on the tree; I offered “Twelve Contemplations for a Better Tomorrow” (click here) that included practical tools and steps to free yourself from your ego based on my learnings from Buddhism and Stoicism. In this essay, I cover fun things like getting naked, dying to live, discarding regrets and desires, and leaving things better than you found them, as well as eight other contemplations. I’ll add Christ to the mix today including his teaching in John 17: 14-15 which (in my interpretation) suggests that being in the world, but not of the world is what happens when you forsake your ego for your soul. You transcend the world in favor of sweet peace. You live in a spiritual realm that enables what I have been pursuing for the last several years now: heaven on earth, which I suggest is the true Holy Grail of life. (My poem, “Heaven on Earth,” is included at this post.)

Finally, in “Curating Sweet Peace” (click here), which I published in the transition month of November—between autumn and winter—I wrote about “coming to terms with one’s life and inevitable death” and offered the mental gymnastics exercise of considering that “if we knew we would live forever—a deathless existence—what meaning would our lives have?” to embrace, rather than resist, death’s inevitability. Further, I suggested that we recognize the challenges the world keeps throwing in our face and the role of good practices:

Dastardly dissonances come and go with high frequency. This is why we must find a rhythm of practices that support our desire for sweet peace. This is where the process of curation comes in. In your constellation of practices that involve different tools (principal among them meditation) you will, over time, land on elements that prove effective in producing that sense of harmony that literally resonates in a manner to shield your sweet peace from a world that seems determined to disrupt, if not destroy, it. This is what is meant by ‘doing the work.’ There are many so-called spiritual teachers out there. And, as with your formal education, you will experience ones that work for you and ones that don’t. In my experience, it is a highly idiosyncratic process. Sometimes, just an irritating voice can eliminate a teacher, at others you will find more substantive points of attraction or dismissal. The point is (as with any regimen aimed at improving your life) to get started and stick with it.

As we face the coming chaos of our elections while we search for handholds of sanity, take comfort in your capacity to achieve your own sense of peace, regardless of your current age and station in life. The Stoics used the practice of negative visualization to steel themselves in advance of undesirable outcomes. It may be time to deploy this practice before what may be disturbing events over the next few months. I will conclude here with the same ending to “Curating Sweet Peace.”

Be patient with and attentive to others, but be selfish, too. Our country and world have many challenges, but I am a big believer in the power of one, which is to say making the world a better place starts with making a better, more peaceful, you. If your practice only yields glimpses of sweet peace, as mine has, trust me when I say it is well worth the effort. Tranquility is its own reward.

Once you pursue your own liberation, you may add a calm sense of knowing to your “curious grin” of resilience. No more navigating, or calculating, or striving, or becoming. Just thriving in the flow of whatever is in the moment. Whomever inhales your soul next will be a very fortunate being.

My blessing for you (and me) is always: “May you wake in glory, enjoy your day with grace, and spend your night in peace. Glory, grace, and peace.”

By |2024-11-03T13:11:03+00:00October 20th, 2024|General, Recent, Spiritual|0 Comments
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Rebooting American Dynamism

Every day and all day our world, dominated by online media, demands that we stare at our feet. Especially the flames at our feet that politicians, pundits, influencers, family, and friends warn us are ready to consume us all. Most of these folks fan the flames rather than attempt to extinguish them in a twisted attempt to get attention at the expense of our well-being. Fear mongers have become endemic in our society in the last several years. “World War III is imminent!” “Our democracy is about to collapse!” “Immigrants are rapists, drug mules, and murderers!”

Of course, most often what the fear mongers are saying is “Look at me!” to feed their vanity and to influence those they wish to manipulate. And while doomsayers can cause expectations to spin up into manifestation—the proverbial self-fulfilling prophecy—generally all they actually accomplish is increasing our anxiety to the point of our exhaustion. Their claims, while possible, are not probable based on facts and reason. These fear mongers are political and social parasites gnawing at the feathers of our better-angel wings. Their pessimism promotes peril at the expense of prosperity.

We live in an open society by choice with limited guardrails as a democratic republic. Openness, which is also known as (small “l”) liberal, is what our founders wanted for us after escaping the tyranny of religion and monarchies in Europe. Self-determination, which is a concept born of the Protestant Reformation when the Calvinist notion of pre-destination was set aside in favor of the notion that any person could become worthy of a heavenly afterlife through their own volition and perfection, together with individualism born of the same Reformation that allowed a direct relationship between people and God (without, in particular, papal intermediation), became two of the pillars of liberalism.

The ideal of a self-directed destiny is the most fundamental value in our founding documents as well as the foundation of the American Dream. Writers in the 19th century, from Charles Dickens, to Alexis de Tocqueville, to Frederick Jackson Turner, all lauded the spirit of Americans who they considered as curious, intriguing, and at times, inspirational. As the journalist, John O’Sullivan wrote in 1845, it was Americans “manifest destiny to overspread the whole of the continent.”[1] Americans are, after all, an irascible bunch of high achievers.

In America, we decided to embrace capitalism as our economic system and democracy as our political system. Both have served us extraordinarily well. Together with some other basic structural advantages like being on a continent protected from most foreign threats by large bodies of water, and the only industrial capacity left in the world after World War II, The United States under capitalism and democracy became a superpower. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, a lone superpower. We were actually granted the unusual and perhaps unprecedented opportunity to quit staring at our feet to instead look out at a horizon of promise to set the example for the world and affect the advancement of humanity both at home and abroad.

For most of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, we Americans did look at the horizon more than at our feet and ushered in the digital age and the age of affluence which, among other things, marked the transition worldwide from the perpetual condition of scarcity that had been with us since the beginning of time, to the condition of abundance in terms of resources and wealth never before achieved in the history of humankind. It is amazing what you can achieve once you stop staring at your feet.

But then, we traded self-determination for self-absorption. (Affluence does have deleterious effects.) In what I have termed the “Age of Deceit,” Americans sacrificed three founding values in the last twenty years. We abandoned individualism for narcissism; perfectibility (making things better) for entitlement; and, exemplar exceptionalism (setting the humble example) for hubris. This period of crisis, now twenty years old, was marked by the War on Terror, the Great Recession, the pandemic, and now punctuated by a nearly completely dysfunctional federal government. The through-line thread has been our embrace of deceit amplified most shamelessly and hideously by the most prolific liar in American presidential history, Donald Trump.

Great crises do, however, produce great opportunities. By its nature, evolutionary change is a slow process whether you are observing genes, or social norms, or the broader operating systems of civilizations. However, the response to crises can create a moment in time when progress can accelerate faster than what Charles Darwin hypothesized in The Origin of Species. Lifting one’s eyes toward the horizon in the context of new realities and rethinking legacy norms and systems are essential to the advancement of humanity.

Two types of events in American history illustrate how these accelerated periods of progress can occur: awakenings and foundings. The first impacts the character of the citizenry and the second impacts the structures and systems by which those citizens govern themselves. Both are necessary to affect the rebirth of any society and today are necessary to save us Americans from our current selves; to restore American dynamism. Frankly, in America, we are overdue for both a re-awakening and a re-founding.

America’s two so-called “great” awakenings (early 18th and 19th centuries) were based in religious revivalist events. At their essence, however, their effect was to restore and reinvigorate the American character. While organized religion has, at best, a dubious track record (especially among leaders) at representing high moral character, the popularity of these awakenings does illustrate the nature of Americans who, at their core, want to be people of good character. Our prevalent and natural disposition is to achieve consonance between our behaviors and common virtues like honesty, humility, discipline, and hard work. Frankly, in this regard, the Age of Deceit in the last twenty years has been exceptional rather than normative. Although we have recently been exploited by some really bad actors, our history is full of better examples of leadership in all sectors of our society.

These first two awakenings also illustrate the ebb and flow of religion in America by and between the private, public, and political spheres of our society.  When religion peaks, it is in all three spheres as it last did most recently in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Then, it retreats as it is doing today never leaving the private sphere, but back from the public and political spheres.

Although the religious right claims a third period of awakening in the 1980s, this period was not about reinvigorating virtues-based character; that claim is a ruse. It was about politicizing religion to gain power and attract financial support for Bible-pounding evangelists and a cadre of televangelists who preferred Gucci loafers and private jets to Florsheim shoes and Greyhound buses, let alone the sandals and walking staff of Jesus Christ. Their wallets were much more important to them as they swindled the souls of Americans.

Today, the question is where shall we turn to guide us to better behaviors and better days? How can we make a better America?

As for our national character, inasmuch as we are in a period of waning religiosity today, religious texts and preachings may not resonate. Thankfully, we do have a clear option. Our founding documents should suffice when considered together with the inspirations our founders took from classical literature and moral philosophy from ancient philosophers as well as philosophers from the period of Enlightenment (18th century). Cicero, Seneca, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and Epictetus are among the ancients they studied (especially Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations). And, John Locke, David Hume, Edmund Burke, Henry St. John (Lord Bolingbroke), and Henry Home (Lord Kames) were among the British and Scottish philosophers our founders often cited from the Enlightenment period.

Although I will leave it up to our adult population to reestablish their own footings of character today, I do believe we need to demand that civics and moral philosophy return to the classroom as requirements for our children and young adults. Think of what I am suggesting as a second period of enlightenment, al la Locke, Hume et al. We might also include the works of more recent people like William James, Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and poets like T.S. Elliot, Mary Oliver, and Langston Hughes, among many others.

Further, to bind our students to America in a meaningful and authentic manner, I would also suggest (as others have) that we require two years of national/community service of our high school graduates that would qualify them for a four-year college scholarship following their service. Not only would their service help bind them to their country and communities, it would undoubtedly make their subsequent college education much more meaningful and fulfilling. Whether we call it an awakening or enlightenment is not important; our national character most certainly needs a reboot.

On the structural issues, America also needs a reboot in the form of a third founding. After the Civil War, we had our second founding that was aimed principally at achieving a closer semblance to the founder’s aim held in the ideal that “all men are created equal.” In effect, we were recognizing that in the context of that postbellum era we could craft new amendments, laws, and policies to actualize an ideal. In particular, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments (abolishing slavery, establishing due process for all, and voting rights for all citizens, respectively) were directly intended to actualize that ideal that “all men are created equal.” Although these so-called “Reconstruction Amendments” were passed, they were subsequently attacked by certain justices in the Supreme Court and diluted repeatedly by what became collectively known as Jim Crow laws. While not yet fully realized today, they are largely intact; progress is, after all, marked by steps forward and steps backward, which is to say, irregular and ragged.

In all, since the Bill of Rights ten amendments in 1791, we have enacted seventeen more amendments. The point is, dynamism must be embraced to meet the conditions of the day. The First Amendment provides “the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”[2] We should exercise that right.  Without amendments to our Constitution, revisions of law, and the evolution of norms, it is unlikely our Constitution and republic would have survived. Indeed, I expect our founders would be astonished that our republic has survived as long as it has.

In my opinion, we must recognize that our federal government has become locked into an abysmal state of inefficaciousness. Its scope must be dramatically narrowed with authority and resources returned to the states to deal with many issues we have (inappropriately) put on the back of our federal government. At both the federal and state level, we must also consider allowing the private sector to turn some of our issues into their opportunities. I recognize that suggestion is like touching the third rail for many of my leftward leaning friends, but we must all be open to new ideas. In addition, partisanship that has been institutionalized through gerrymandering must be reformed, and an electoral college that does not assure a fair and certain election must follow the lead of Maine and Nebraska to award electors proportionally to the popular vote (which can be done without an amendment to the Constitution).

I am sure others can think of further reforms to revitalize our federal government and heal the union. At some point, all sides will reach a level of frustration and fatigue to motivate them to entertain these discussions. That point may come sooner rather than later as we face election chaos in the next few months that while deeply concerning may also—finally—cause enough of us to demand fundamental changes to our structures and systems of governance.

I acknowledge that these are troubling times for many reasons and that the flames at our feet require our attention. I also know, however, that if we ignore the horizon, progress and greater well-being for humanity will remain perpetually beyond our reach. As long as we are focused on the short term, we will continue to be a victim of circumstance in the long term. Long-held and highly regarded virtues must be placed back on the table to be embraced with fidelity. The usage of “probity,” which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as “the quality of being honest and behaving correctly,” has dropped so low as to be considered archaic, today.[3] Perhaps TikTok can restore its use. Finally, we must ignore the fear mongers in our midst. Like anger and violence, stress and anxiety do not help solve problems; in most cases they make them worse. Lifting our eyes, embracing virtues, and ignoring the doomsayers will also lift our hearts and spirit.

It is our duty as adults and parents to assure that every future generation has the tools to build their own spine of character, and to build an appropriate and effective societal infrastructure through our constitutional, legal, and normative commitments so that they may thrive on their own terms.

If we accomplish this, the American beacon of hope that was once the light of the world will shine brightly again.

 

[1] Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), p. 151. Manifest Destiny and its contribution to new imaginings of America in the late 1800s are also explored in Patricia Limerick Nelson, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987).

[2] See the Bill of Rights here: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript.

[3] To see the usage of “probity” since 1800, see Google NGram Viewer, https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=7&case_insensitive=on&content=probity.

By |2024-10-20T12:49:33+00:00October 6th, 2024|General, Recent, The New Realities|0 Comments
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The Election as Reflection

If humankind survives, someday historians and eventually, archaeologists, will look back at today to wonder how a society that had largely achieved all of its ambitions—that successfully achieved an abundance of prosperity—went to war with itself. That some external threat or cataclysmic event did not do them in; rather, that they defeated themselves. They will study how the greatest empire in the then-modern era—the United States of America—imploded. Jared Diamond’s, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005), that covered the last 15,000 years of history may be followed by Stupidity: How the Smartest Society in the Anthropocene Epoch Imploded.

Each weekday, I rise and turn on the financial markets as reported by Bloomberg Television. I am interested in financial markets, but the real reason I tune in is that it is the only news outlet where the actual news is told without being coated in bias and deceit. All they care about is how the actual news impacts capital markets. They are realists in the spirit of Niccolo Machiavelli as opposed to spin artists pursuing eyeballs and ears with righteous ideological blather. Fox, MSNBC, CNN, Facebook, X, et al, which have far larger audiences will, no doubt, be one factor cited in future cultural analysts’ assessments as prime contributors to the implosion. Financial news outlets are not, however, completely innocent. They are simply assisting wealthy folks and institutional investors in their exploitation of market inefficiencies. Financial opportunity exists in both functional and dysfunctional societies.

As financiers and traders hope, the upcoming election will produce gridlock in Washington D.C. People who make money for a living in capital markets know that the market manipulations, represented by Trump and Harris including his macho “tariff man” bluster and her anti-free market “price gouging” controls, are economically unsound. Capitalists want a congress addled by pettiness to get none of these market manipulations passed. They recognize the benefits of political constipation.

Capitalists also know that a U.S. deficit that is approaching $40 trillion dollars in 2025 is only sustainable as long as the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency. The dollar’s days as such will not last forever. I first studied and wrote about moving to a single global currency in 2008, well before cryptocurrency. My analysis showed that notwithstanding the risk to the U.S. of a non-dollar single global currency, the benefits to both world security and economic stability far outweighed protecting the dollar. My argument then (and now) is that the U.S. needs to embrace the idea to affect a soft landing for the dollar; to manage the transition rather than risking its inevitability. Today, we have cryptocurrency that is the obvious instrument to affect this transition. While much maligned by traditional bankers and politicians, it has the potential to deliver a legitimate global currency beyond the reach of central bank manipulation making it a more stable medium of exchange than the dollar.

Allowing our debt to ratchet higher—in spite of all of our other sources of power—will compromise America’s hegemony and allow the endemic deceit-driven negativity and avarice of our society to tip the U.S. toward implosion. Of course, the solution for the deficit is simple: raise taxes and reduce expenses for decades to come. But we don’t have the character and attendant will power for anything that is simple and clear. We are too immersed in delusion while staring at our loveliest selves on our social media feeds. Omphalos syndrome— the belief that a place of geopolitical power and its currency is the most important place in the world—is our most fundamental delusion. In Greek mythology omphalos represented the naval of the earth. In other words, as a syndrome, naval-gazing is not a particularly healthy condition for world leadership, especially when your own house is not in order.

As the saying goes, “in a democracy you get the government you deserve.” This election, as illustrated through the partisan avatars of Trump and Harris, is actually a reflection of who we are as a people today: profoundly selfish and divided against ourselves. Our allies grimace while our enemies drool. Indeed, as another old saying goes, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”

Largely because of our social media ideosphere and corrupt/deficient/compromised political leaders, reasonable fact-based discourse that favors consensus-driven problem solving that is both inclusive and optimistic has been set aside for fear, hate, violent, and shame-based rhetoric. This rhetoric is aimed at manipulation in the interest of swindlers rather than persuasion meant to serve the common interests and purposes of a stronghold society. Our founding fathers, in particular Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in The Federalist Papers (Federalist no. 9 & 10, respectively), repeatedly warned us of the danger of factions who prefer passion over reason; in today’s vernacular, bullshit over reality.[i] But few of us study these cornerstones of civics and moral philosophy anymore. It has now been decades since they were required courses in student curricula. Optimism and high-mindedness that defined America’s character through the 20th century has been set aside in favor of deceit-driven negativity and avarice in the 21st century.

The manner in which we conduct our lives is so far from the character that produced the most powerful society in the history of the world that it will not take future historians or archaeologists long to write the story of the great implosion—as another chapter in the long history of how empires fail.

However, it is not too late to reclaim the moral high-ground. There is hope. What we can’t foresee may save us, but only if we add integrity of character back into the mix. The unforeseeable always drives history, and in our nation’s first two centuries, the unforeseeable has tilted in our favor. The reason it did was the American character.

My maternal grandfather was born in 1890. In his earliest days on the prairies of South Dakota, his family lived in a windowless sod house. He fought in World War I, raised a family during the Great Depression and World War II, and just three months after his death we landed a man on the moon—the rocket engines for which my father helped engineer. Was any of that foreseeable? Hardly. In my lifetime, the arc of history continued with advances in science and technology that produced enormous increases in the well-being of humankind. From basic vaccines to digital technologies to now the promise of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and fusion-based sources of new energy—a trifecta of extraordinary potential. Just two generations after a sod house, we stand at the edge of unfathomable frontiers of human progress. None of it, foreseeable.

Americans have done amazing things, and can do amazing things again. In spite of ourselves, the quiet diligent explorers, inventors, and innovators of tomorrow may offer us a way out—to save us from ourselves. But we have to add back the advantage that our founders established in the late 18th century, that Tocqueville documented in the 19th century, and that 20th century generations actualized together with dramatic advances in science and technology. We must restore our character. The Roman playwright, Terence, adapted by the Roman poet, Virgil, argued that “Fortune Favors the Bold.” They were only partially correct. Substantial and sustainable prosperity favors those who are bold, but who also have high character. Who honor virtues with integrity.

Regardless of any potential breakthrough solutions, my plea today is that we must drop the mongering—of fear, hate, violence, and shame—to have a chance of doing the right thing together in unison. If we don’t shed these debilitating modalities, the unforeseeable will flip from hope to implosion. Further, that until we start thinking of each other instead of just ourselves, it is unlikely we will be little more than fodder for those future historians and archaeologists.

In their late-life correspondence, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson questioning whether any great society could recover from its curse of prosperity and lost character. He asked, “Have you ever found in history one single example of a Nation thoroughly Corrupted—that was afterwards resorted to Virtue?”[ii] He pointed to Rome which in his assessment had been a “vast empire until it was felled by riches and luxury.”[iii] My sense is that America is at its tipping point and we will soon know if we can right our own ship, or fail as the Roman empire did. Our founders doubt us from the grave.

While we wring our hands and argue over the war between Russia and Ukraine and the future of NATO, or the conflicts between Israel and Iran, or the potential invasion of Taiwan by China, or the many other concerns beyond our borders, the most pressing issue is here at home: the collapse of the American character and the impending implosion of the greatest empire in the history of humankind, the United States of America. If we don’t focus on fixing ourselves all the other issues do not matter. We will have no influence over them, anyway.

In a few weeks we will (hopefully) all vote. Many of us may be holding our noses as we do so, but not voting is simply unacceptable for those of us who claim to be citizens. To be clear, we need look no further than a mirror to see who is responsible for both today and tomorrow. It is not just the politicians—including Trump and Harris—it is principally us. What emerges is our doing. What comes next is unforeseeable, but can once again save us as long as we couple extraordinary developments with a humble, compassionate, and determined sense of character.

 

[i] Hamilton, Madison & Jay, The Federalist Papers (New York: Penguin Group, First Signet Classic Printing 2003), p. 66-79.

[ii] John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, December 21, 1819, Founders Online National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-7287.

[iii] Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024), p. 214.

By |2024-10-06T13:26:17+00:00September 22nd, 2024|General, Recent, The New Realities|0 Comments
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Reverence for Me

As a writer, I am always searching my mind for what I think, know, and believe. Moreover, trying to find patterns between them to explain myself, the world, and the relationship between the two. Then, to write it all out coherently enough to maintain my bearings—my sanity. Finally, to share it if I think it might benefit others.

Painters paint with the stroke of colors, chefs paint with food and spices, and writers paint with words. Writers don’t make a mess in a studio or a kitchen, they make a mess in their mind then try to sort it out to make it informative or even inspiring for a reader. I wish that my favorite Lyle Lovett lyric, “I live in my own mind, ain’t nothin’ but a good time” was always true. Alas, life does present difficult challenges that, if properly considered, allow us to grow into ourselves.

Each of the painter, the chef, and the writer are trying to create a connection with others out of the messes they make. If it only pleases themselves, that is okay too. In my case, I write for myself first and always, but share it to affect connection with others. It is always interesting and informative for me to see what resonates with whom. It is sometimes even humorous to experience criticism from both sides of an issue, which I guess makes me the occasional equal opportunity offender. In any event, helping people think—to understand—is its own reward.

In my process, I have become very fond of both analytical narrative and poetry. I was well trained in analytical narrative, especially in the pursuit of my PhD, which was at its essence a deep dive into learning to write well. An undergraduate degree teaches us to think well; graduate school teaches us how to properly express what we are thinking for the benefit of others regardless of the medium like paint, food, or words.

However, analytical narrative—writing persuasively with high regard for facts and reason—is not as engaging for the reader as is poetry. By its nature, analytical narrative is not designed for interpretation; rather, it is designed to be both clear and persuasive with limited opportunity for the reader to weigh in. On the other hand, poetry is abstract and invites rather than prohibits interpretation, which is its superpower inasmuch as interpretation invites engagement which creates a relationship between writer and reader that can produce a more meaningful experience for both. The reader has the opportunity to make a poem their own. In effect, the poet is saying, “I release this to you to do with it as you wish.”

I have found that toggling between the two—analytical narrative and poetry—while sticking to the same subject/content is challenging and often produces new illuminations as the renderings, while different in form, become intriguing complements to one another. To take verse and turn it into analytical narrative or vice versa, take analytical narrative and turn it into verse. It’s like jazz: synchronicity thriving in asymmetry. Today’s poem, “Reverence for Me” is my last analytical narrative post, “Three Steps to Resilience” expressed in verse. If you missed the last post, you can find it here: https://ameritecture.com/three-steps-to-resilience/. “Reverence for Me” is like a pocket version of the essay on resilience. 221 words instead of 2,483 words.

Now, go ahead: interpret, engage, and most importantly, make it your own.

Reverence for Me

It’s a daunting world

With lurking unknowns

Every day unpredictable

The noise is deafening

 

As well as I know me

There are always distractions

The world wants me

To indulge its seductions

 

Enslaved by desires

And high expectations

Leaving me to suffer

The cost: dissatisfaction

 

Me, I have for certain

If I am certain of me

The best of, the worst of

The honest me

 

The fashionable changes

But doesn’t change me

Soulless influencers

Don’t have a hold on me

 

The high priests offer shame

Trying to heal & heel me

But my heart is full

And my soul is mine

 

Still others have opinions

To suit their needs

To capture me in their web

To suck what they can

 

But my home is here

Wherever I may be

Choosing virtue over vice

With authenticity

 

The world keeps turning

And the treadmill churns

Learning to honor me

My essence, core, and soul

 

That beautiful me

One in billions of yous

Me just for me

Worthy just as I am

 

Body, mind, and soul

Fortitude becomes me

Upright, clear, and calm

Leaning into the moment

 

I stand before peril

With a wink and a grin

I’ll leave when I wish

My home travels with me

 

Wherever I go

There I am again

Finding grace in suffering

I rest in divinity

Living in the moment is not an argument for instant gratification. TikTok is not life. Using your moments to be reflective and contemplative is meant to build your future one moment at a time. We live in a world of seduction and provocation. Succumbing to these petty ploys must be treated as noise—as empty distractions—if we want our lives to be meaningful and fulfilling. Living as a pinball by bouncing around without agency is a waste of the gift you were given the moment you took your first breath when you inhaled your soul. Tending to yourself is not selfish, it is redemptive, and makes you a much more valuable member of society.  Your physical, mental, and spiritual self needs care and compassion. It is the one job we must not ignore. There is always time for you. Use it wisely. You are worth it.

By |2024-09-22T13:12:49+00:00September 8th, 2024|General, Recent, Spiritual|0 Comments
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Three Steps to Resilience

Every so often in America we experience unsettling times. In my lifetime, I recall the late 1960s, late 1970s, and early 2000s as being spans of two to three years when there was decidedly more uncertainty in America than certainty. When political, economic, social, and/or security concerns left my head and heart troubled. Every day had an edge to it and, at times, it was unclear we would come through it. Occasionally existential dread, but mostly just a persistent low-level agitation that is both impossible to ignore and impossible to expel. It leaves your mind troubled and your stomach churning just enough to cause us to take a step back and place life on pause. Relief eventually arrives with little fanfare as, more often than not, life simply moves on thanks to the rule of impermanence: “this too shall pass.”

The Covid-19 pandemic glazed with the chaos of the Trump presidency qualifies, at least for me, as the fourth unsettling period during my lifetime. In my case, divorce and cancer added to the challenge. Yes, there was dread, but mostly just a daily grind that made both mornings and nights—which in the human experience should be joyful and reflective—marked by the stress of unknowns. It was during this recent period that I created my daily prayer: “May you wake in glory, enjoy your day with grace, and spend your night in peace.” Glory, grace, and peace. It makes a nice mantra, too. Not an excited state of joy, success, or happiness; rather, just a stable level of calm contentment. Calm as the new joy. That is enough for me.

Getting to the other side of these unsettled periods requires a level of grit and fortitude that are generally available to all humans, at least for a short period of time like two to three years. However, these periods offer a larger opportunity if we care to pay attention and do the work of building the deeper and wider capacity of durable resilience. A capacity that will serve us under any circumstances we face from unsettled periods to outright catastrophes. It may be because of my particular challenges that I have spent a great deal of time on this subject, but the truth is my challenges are not more profound than what you or your loved ones will endure—maybe even less. Frankly, it’s just life, and as the meme suggests: shit happens.

I have become convinced that the power of resilience is the most important capacity we can develop and maintain in our lives, but probably also the most difficult to understand, which makes its nurturing a lifelong challenge. It requires a mix of what to do as well as what not to do to succeed. Our resilience must be both strong and subtle in its deployment. Like a steel glove covered in soft velvet, it must do its job while not crossing the line into coercion—into doing further harm. We must learn to restore our equilibrium without creating any new disequilibria—for ourselves or others. Resilience requires an extraordinary sense of balance to keep us physically, mentally, and spiritually on an even keel. It is critical to our sense of tranquility that supports our capacity for equanimity. Without resilience, our suffering can cause permanent damage to ourselves and perhaps to others—often to the ones we love the most.

In Stephen Flynn’s book, The Edge of Disaster (2007), wherein he outlines all the threats facing the United States (at the time, mostly external), he offers us a definition of resilience based on Yossi Sheffi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s rendering as: “the ability of a material to recover its original shape following a deformation.” Flynn goes on to suggest that the United States must be able to “match its strength to deliver a punch [coercive power] with the means to take one [resilient power]” which will make it “an unattractive target.”[1] His focus, and our national obsession at the time when the events of 9/11 remained a fresh source of fear, was on outside terrorists. Flynn provided a worthy analysis of how we might refocus our national resilience, but what about resilience at the level of the individual? This has become especially important as the threats in our lives have become more internal like domestic terrorists, the pandemic, and the many threats we perceive and experience from a deeply divided America.

There is actually quite a bit of scholarship out there on the subject of resilience. It tends to accelerate as a research interest during periods of crisis. Of the material I reviewed, I suggest Rick Hanson’s Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness (2018).[2] Hanson’s approach is to remain at all times thoughtfully aware; develop grit and confidence while practicing gratitude; know how to self-regulate your disposition depending on the circumstances; and, be courageous and generous while also being humbly aspirational. Hanson argues all of these factors will assure your safety, satisfaction, and connection to others, which are foundational for resilience. Makes sense, but it seemed to be missing some things that were less abstract and more practical. What follows here is more of a how-to approach.

In my view, developing and maintaining a deep and wide reservoir of resilience is possible in three steps of contemplative and practical work: know thyself, honor thyself, and steel thyself.

Know Thyself

Answering the question, “Who are you?”, is a fundamental requirement to determine the nature and identity of just who it is resilience is supposed to serve. Its importance is similar to the old requirement of strategic planning prompted by the axiom, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” In this case, if you don’t know who you are, serendipity may be your only shot at resilience. Aristotle viewed knowing thyself as a necessary foundation of life. “Know thyself” was, according to legend, also inscribed above the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece.

Knowing thyself is largely a contemplative exercise that should be repeated and refreshed from time to time throughout your life. The ancient Greeks had a word for what Jesus would often do to refresh himself: eremos (air-ee-mose). He would disappear into the forest for contemplative solitude where followers believed he conferred with God. Who you are will and should change. Knowing thyself requires you to examine all the elements that define your identity—the descriptors in your unique and personal profile. How would you-describe-you in an honest, the many ways I am me, manner? You should identify your core beliefs (particularly as to values and virtues) and areas of knowledge that you have acquired through your experiences, education, indoctrinations, and socializations. Also, pay attention to what you inherited through your particular cultural and familial heritage. Don’t judge, just capture. This exercise is for you, alone. Avoid including the opinions/contributions of others. They tend to be generated through the lens of their own identity and, therefore, suffer from innocent corruption.

Next, perform a self-assessment of your strengths and weaknesses (which are important to have for step three: steel thyself).  It is very important to know what you can leverage to your advantage and what you need to work on, or at least be aware of—like blindspots. One way to prompt yourself here is to simply list those things others rely upon you for (strengths) and what areas do you require help from others (weaknesses). Be kind to yourself here. Most of us (who are not afflicted by narcissism) are much more self-critical than is appropriate.  Also, strengths and weaknesses are, by definition, things that are within our control—what an economist would call endogenous variables. Things out of our control are exogenous variables; more commonly called opportunities and threats. Deal with that which you can affect and accept the rest as it is.

Honor Thyself

You are a unique and glorious human being. You are so special there is actually not another person exactly like you in the entire 8.2 billion people in the world. Honor yourself as such. This second step, honor thyself, is probably the most often missed step in the process of building resilience. It can feel like a selfish exercise. But notwithstanding the spike in narcissism in the contemporary era, humans generally think of others as much as themselves; cooperation and service to others has been—throughout the history of humankind—key to our survival as a species and as individuals. To build personal resilience, you’ve got to allow yourself to be important, too. Grant yourself this permission. (This was my most difficult challenge in building my own resilience.) No, honoring yourself is not selfish. Get over that.

Honoring the self that you defined in step one includes respecting the values and the virtues you deem important. Consider these values and virtues as the vertebrae in your spine of character. Be true to them as best you can with the humble understanding you are still human and subject to irregular fealty. “The pursuit of happiness” found in our Declaration of Independence was intended by our founders to mean “happiness” as based in moral goodness. Further, it was intentionally described as a “pursuit” as in an ongoing journey and, therefore, in need of dutiful care, rather than a destination. Without integrity of virtues, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson all argued, there could be no happiness. One might speculate this is why Trump is always angry. Pythagoras (born 580 BC in Greece), whom the founders often referenced, offered us the injunction to “reverence thyself” which included both self-awareness (knowing) and self-discipline (honoring), which brings us to step three: steeling thyself.[3]

Steel Thyself

That steel glove covered in soft velvet is achieved by tending to your body, mind, and spirit. Steeling requires the balance of hard, soft, and flexible. As you steel yourself, be mindful of the strengths and weaknesses you identified in step one.

Americans know a great deal about tending to the body, but not as much the mind and spirit. We all understand the value of diet, exercise, and sleep. There are many—way too many—products and services available in America to affect caring for our bodies. The challenge here is to make your way through that jungle to determine what works for you. Then, stick with your program. The general rule is that if you stand naked in front of a mirror and like what you see you are probably okay (setting aside the psychological distortions some people suffer as they interpret the image in the mirror). It is also recommended you tune into your body so you don’t miss messages it is trying to send to you. A consistent exercise regime is one way to develop this feedback loop inasmuch as the body under stress will behave differently when something is wrong (as long as you listen). Also, body-scan meditations are useful here.

I have found that the mind is best stimulated and maintained by a commitment to lifelong learning. Another mantra of mine (besides Glory, Grace & Peace) is to “Stay curious. Always curious.” Make the question mark (?) your icon worthy of veneration. To constantly challenge yourself to learn more in order to avoid what I call intellectual sclerosis, or a hardening of the mind. Remain open to new ideas and discoveries and embrace another rule of mine: every person I meet knows something I don’t know and can do something better than I can do it. Shut up and listen. Constantly challenge yourself to know more. Every day should include at least one new learning. Stick with it and you will become a very wise person. One more thing for the mind: live within your means in every sense of that word. Avoid burdensome obligations, troublesome dependencies, and unnecessary conflicts. When in doubt, discard.

Tending to the spirit, or what I call the soul, begins with affecting a healthy balance between the ego (largely defined in step one) and the soul. Left alone, the ego will dominate and often suffocate the soul. Mindfulness training achieved through contemplative and meditative practices is the best way I have found to nurture the soul. To remain in a state of open awareness, project a sense of calm authenticity, and enjoy a comfortable level of tranquility. I will further suggest that the ego is more important—should be granted more playing time—in early stages of life, but that balance should be flipped in the last quarter of one’s life. The ego that served you so well in the first three quarters can become your enemy in the last. There is a fork in the road around your mid-60s. Holding on tight to your ego puts you on a path of suffering while elevating the soul sends you on a path of transcendence. It is difficult to let go, but the big benefit is a state of peace and calm that—trust me—you will wonder why you waited so long to discover.

Knowing, honoring, and steeling is the best way to develop and maintain resilience. Pursued with diligence and discipline it will produce a resolute constitution that is unassailable. You will be that person that in the face of adversity has a curious grin on their face. You will know that you will always be okay and you will be much more valuable to those you care about. Yes, there is and will be suffering, but at the center of suffering the resilient find grace. In a world of unknowns and certain peril, you will not only survive, you will prosper. The “pursuit of happiness” will always be in your grasp. You will achieve a sense of dynamic enlightenment and pleasant liberation. You will rest in the hands of divinity.

What more could one want?

 

Finally, a note on the presidential election: The scene is now set. The light versus darkness. Inclusion versus exclusion. Elevation versus humiliation. Persuasion versus manipulation. As a presidential historian, I can predict how this ends. The optimism of F.D.R., Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama all prevailed. Only once in the contemporary era, in 2016, did darkness win when Trump’s “American carnage” won. Frankly, because the Clinton light was dimmed by her dismissive arrogance. In 2024, we need optimism more than ever. While many things could intervene to change the current course, Harris has captured the high ground of optimism, something Trump could never do. Because the only light he supports is the one shining on him.

 

[1] Stephen Flynn, The Edge of Disaster (New York: Random House, 2007), p. xxi.

[2] Rick Hanson, Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness (New York: Harmony Books, 2018).

[3] Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024), pp. 28-30.

By |2024-09-08T12:46:46+00:00August 25th, 2024|General, Recent, Spiritual|0 Comments
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Our Secret Superpower: Intuition

Freeing oneself from the chaos of disinformation in our world today is imminently possible once we learn to nurture and honor our intuition.

One of the great challenges of the modern era is discerning truth from falsehood. In what I have characterized as the Age of Deceit that has been with us now for twenty years, assessing the firehose of inputs we receive each day in our digital era can be overwhelming.[i] This condition has given rise to, among other things, the strategy espoused by Trump advisor Steve Bannon to simply “flood the zone with shit” to disorient and deceive people to affect their manipulation. Overwhelming people with “shit” as opposed to informing them with facts that serve their best interest has become a prevalent modality of many politicians and has, unfortunately, been adopted in other sectors of our society from business, to education, to religion, and even the gaslighting that has crept into opinions rendered by justices of our Supreme Court.[ii]

Manipulation, which is designed to serve the interests of the advocate has displaced persuasion, which intends to serve the interests of the citizen. We can, however, nurture and honor intuitive skills that focus on the energy that accompanies the messages that bombard our lives to quickly and reliably determine what to consider and what to discard. All without having to indulge in comprehensive and time-consuming fact checking that can be extremely challenging in the slick algorithmic-driven messaging we endure today that is often designed to manipulate us.

I won’t get too wonky with you about quantum field theory and energy flows in our universe but, briefly, our world (and universe) is essentially an unbounded arena of energy flows that carry all of the elements that effect our lives.  Intuitive discernment, which is based in these energy flows, is readily available to every human being regardless of intelligence, education, age, gender, or any other of the many ways we attempt to differentiate ourselves. If we nurture our capacity to feel the energy that accompanies the information we encounter and, further, if we pay attention to what that energy is conveying, we can avoid disorientation, deceptions, and our own manipulation. We can recover a sense of stability and calm; perhaps even optimism about the future.

“It just doesn’t feel right” is an example of our intuitive energy receptors flashing a red warning light. Disturbed energy that “doesn’t feel right” escorts information that is deceitful, angry, fearful, envious, etc. Our job is to recognize it for what it is and move on. As fully formed rational adults, however, we often ignore what to our intuition is obvious. We pay for our indiscretion with pain: emotional, psychological, financial, or even physical pain. Correcting this imbalance in our decision making and judgments begins with expanding our awareness and increasing the weight we assign to what we commonly call feelings. It also requires reducing the speed with which we discard these feelings in favor of our rational minds. Not much time is needed—just a few seconds—to honor what our intuition is trying to tell us before it is overruled by our rational mind.

This capacity of intuitive discernment begins with clearing and cleaning our own psychic house. Children generally have higher intuitive capacity than adults for two basic reasons. First, because they have yet to develop much else cognitively, and second because they are filter-free. They neither block nor accelerate inputs based on knowledge or beliefs. Their principal operating system is intuitive based on how the accompanying energy makes them feel. They cry or laugh out of feeling rather than knowing. So, to improve our own intuitive discernment in later life, one way to look at the task is to channel the innocence of being a child, which means shedding much of what we have naturally accumulated throughout our lives. Further, where this stuff that impedes our intuition resides is in the ego, which is where we need to start clearing and cleaning.

Mindfulness gained through contemplative and meditative practices are powerful tools to begin the enlightenment we need to become aware of the role our egos play in our lives—for better and worse. Our egos contain what I have called our cognetic profiles that embody all of our knowledge and beliefs acquired through education, experience, socialization, and indoctrination (the four vectors of cognetics). Our cognetics are what we call upon to conduct what we believe is rational decision making. I designed the system originally in my PhD research to understand and predict the decisions of our presidents and, subsequently, foreign leaders. But it can be applied to any human being. It is also a great tool for personal assessment: to know thyself (as Aristotle suggested) which, when considered in a contemplative/meditative mode, can help each of us understand how our cognetics (in the ego) are both beneficial and detrimental to the decisions and judgments we make.

As we age, I have become convinced that the path to transcendence requires that we routinely challenge our cognetics that become cluttered with many elements of knowledge and beliefs that may no longer be relevant or, in many cases, are just wrong. To get on the path to transcendence and avoid the path of suffering, we must humbly learn to carefully discard many of the ideas and practices we have utilized in the past. To relax and release to rise. Further, this is why some of us are characterized as wise as we age, and others become insufferable curmudgeons. This clearing and cleaning process will affect a rebalancing that allows intuition to regain its footing vis-à-vis our rational mechanisms as we consider the world before us. Embrace the psychic cleanse for your mental health in the same manner you may have cleansed your microbiome for your gut health.

The goal is integrative or holistic decision making. Holism in judgment means blending inputs to decision making in a balanced manner where intuitive feelings are considered first as an initial screen rather than after the rational processes (or not at all). In other words, if the initial intuitive sense is negative, discard the consideration altogether before wasting time on the rational. How the energy that accompanies information feels is often the only thing we should consider. “Trust your gut” is another common dictum that applies here.

As many have adopted Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” approach to making us do what they want, we need to improve our holistic decision making. Intuition, which the Oxford Dictionary defines as “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning,” needs to get much more playing time. The great news is that it is available to all of us—from children to elders—and can allow us a sense of tranquility we could all use much more of today. We really shouldn’t be enduring the agitation that we do, but we should recognize what the energy in the agitation is trying to tell us. All we must do is embrace a little clearing and cleaning—psychic cleansing—and calm our monkey-minds with meditative awareness. To liberate us from the shit-vendors and put a smile back into our lives.

 

[i] See William Steding, Saving America in the Age of Deceit (2020).

[ii] See Jesse Wegman, “The Supreme Court is Gaslighting Us All,” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/12/opinion/supreme-court-psychological-manipulation.html.

By |2024-08-25T12:48:13+00:00August 11th, 2024|General, Recent, Spiritual|0 Comments
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