A Rude Awakening
In the ten days since the US presidential election, many of the people I’ve encountered have been in a “funk” — mildly depressed and/or irritable. Some of my coaching clients — parents who are guided by partnership principles — have found it harder than usual to uphold those principles this week. I’ve been affected, too. What’s going on?
One possible interpretation is that we who fancy ourselves to be open-minded and progressive are in the midst of a rude awakening. We had fallen asleep at the wheel of social progress, allowing victories like marriage equality to distract us from the deeper social dysfunction we have not yet adequately acknowledged and addressed.
The notion of victory itself is a part of that dysfunction. A tiny fraction of the US electorate could have changed their votes and made Hillary Clinton the winner, and it would have been proclaimed a victory for gender equality, multiculturalism, and other progressive values. But that would be ignoring the deep division and tension between the two major value systems that are influencing society and culture: domination and control vs. partnership and creativity.
Understandably, the “losers” in this election are fearful and angry, but to then demonize and condemn the “victors” is both hypocritical and counterproductive. You can’t other-ize the other-ers without becoming one of them. So where do we go from here?
I am personally committed to enacting a new culture of creative partnership, and helping others do the same, beginning with our own families and the choices we make at that level. In doing so, I abandon the vision of life as a battle between winners and losers, right and wrong, good and evil, Us and Them.
And if an all-inclusive human partnership is truly what I want, I must find ways to partner with everyone, even those who are still entrenched in the old story of separation, control, and authoritarian power. They are not wrong, or evil, or “them.” We really are “all in this together.”
I invite you to join me on this quest, and to start by recognizing that the “power” of an authoritarian is an illusion held in place by the belief of those he rules, whether they love him or hate him. But in reality the emperor has no clothes. Your power is yours, not his.
The Daily Groove “Classic”
 |
 |
 |