As a human collective in a developed country, do you ever feel like a puppet? Being played by a wealthy minority? The wealth mantra being: if middle majority is split, nothing changes. The game of dominant wealth and power remains. Played by a few. Fueled by the many.
An inflamed organism is unable to recognize itself. Hence, the inflammation. Untreated, the maladaptive structures replicate themselves. The organism can right itself, because the organism can write itself.
We each have our own story, our own integrated collection of beliefs, experiences, interests, abilities. And we are part of a human collective. The human collective is intelligent enough to recognize a natural diversity; is there an established dominant story desperate for a retell?
The power is in a collective majority establishing common ground.
in case you failed to notice
in case you failed to see (…)
these foolish games are tearing (us) apart.
jewel
Stories are powerful. So powerful.
In finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified. In infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint. – Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game
I’ve always known that laws are merely expressions of a society’s dominant beliefs. It’s the beliefs that must shift in order for outcomes to change. – Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us.
Thinking like a scientist involves more than just reacting with an open mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong—not for reasons why we must be right—and revising our views based on what we learn. – Adam Grant, Think Again
Everywhere I went, I found that the people who had replaced the zero-sum with a new formula of cross-racial solidarity had found the key to unlocking what I began to call a ‘Solidarity Dividend’, from higher wages to cleaner air, made possible through collective action. – Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us
I have been spending this past week in South Florida. I love to paddleboard, and there is a lot of water here. I do not paddleboard in S Florida because I am scared of alligators. I’m as fascinated about the alligators as I am fearful of them. I enjoy spotting them in the ponds, and even seeing them at a distance as they lay in the hot sun.
Earlier this week the ‘neighbors’ were sharing a story of animal control being at the main pond. The first story I heard was there were eight alligators spotted and they needed to be removed because they were not ‘subordinate to man’. How this was defined was that they did not return to the water when ‘man’ walked by. In this first story, a neighbor whom was present at the pond reported that two alligators were removed and one was ten feet long. A day or so later, I was walking on the other side of the neighborhood, 2.5 miles away from the prior day’s conversation. While I was walking, I overheard a woman on her phone telling a story about an 18 foot,185 lb alligator being removed from the ponds.
I wonder if inflamed communities consider it honorable to treat human beings like animal control. Make a call. Remove. Tell and retell. I wonder how often inflamed communities rethink and unlearn stories that dehumanize difference based on unsupported ideologies.
A paradoxical mirror. Easy to see when curious enough to look.
We are better.
day. 