Archives for posts with tag: fear

Rand Paul: Pandering to Fear for Political Purposes?

May 20, 2010 //
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Regretfully, there’s a strong undercurrent of fear percolating in a vocal minority of Americans.  I don’t want to feed it, the media is already doing a good job of that, but I do want to acknowledge it so we can consciously make a higher choice.

The latest incident: Kentucky Senatorial candidate Rand Paul states that the Civil Right Act of 1964 was flawed in that it made it illegal for private businesses to discriminate on the basis of race.  When questioned yesterday on the Rachel Maddow show about his position, he tried to walk the line between saying he’s against discrimination but believing that a private business has the right to discriminate based on race.  He equated a restaurant owner having the freedom to choose to prevent guns in his restaurant with a restaurant owner denying service based on race.

Unlike the media pundits, I’m not going to claim I know what Rand Paul’s true beliefs are on this issue or his intent with his statements.  However, we’ve all seen that a politician who wants to get elected frequently tries to read the political tea leaves so as to position himself to appear favorable to the mood of the populace.  It certainly appears that Paul is doing this and it just might get him elected.

This event coupled with Arizona’s new immigration law and the so-called tea party people certainly points towards a lot of fear in parts of America.  Why is there so much fear?  Reasons put forth by others include: racial pushback against a black president, shifting demographics as whites move into the minority, the economic problems of the past few years, jobs moving to other countries, the never-ending wars, gay marriage and ecological disasters such as the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf.

I think we can all agree that Americans and all of humanity are in the midst of massive change.  Although change brings growth, it also brings fear.  One basic need we all have is for safety and security.  Meeting that need is threatened psychologically when we are moving from the known into the unknown.  A common response in facing the unknown is to retreat into clinging on to the old.

Much of the “take back my country” chants are driven by a psychological drive to retreat into the known of the past.  The political posturing of folks such as Paul are recognizing the motivations behind these chants and are using them for political advantage.

The question facing America is this: during this time of momentous change will our ultimate motivation be based on fear or on a higher purpose?  

As we look to the future of humanity, what is it that we really really want to see?

Do we want to retreat into the past where we felt safe?  A past where whites were the majority, Spanish wasn’t spoken here, businesses could discriminate on race, gas was cheap, legitimate relationships were only between a man and a woman, we could continue to use natural resources up faster than the rest of the world and so on?  If we are truly being honest, then we know that this past wasn’t truly that great for many segments of humanity.  Is going back to the past really in our collective best interest?

I don’t know about you, but I know that rather than retreating into the past, I would rather move forward into a better future where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  I wish to live in a world where people are motivated by love rather than fear.  I wish to live in a world where we look beyond skin color and ethnicity and only see our common humanity.  I wish to live in a world where there is no need to build barriers between us because everyone everywhere has the opportunity to succeed.  I wish to live in a world where politicians no longer pander to our fears but rather inspire us to our highest possibilities.

Mark

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Categories Culture, Featured Article, Politics, Uniting U.S.

What Do You Think of the UN?

May 12, 2010 //
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Which of the following best describes your thoughts regarding the United Nations?

A. I don’t think about the UN. It’s just one of those institutions in the background of life have always been there and has no relevance for me in my day-to-day life. I got more pressing matters to think about… I’m not exactly sure why you’re writing on this “UN kick”… I’m surprised I’ve read this far in your article.

B. It was a great idea when they created it but the UN has never quite lived up to its original idea and vision. I still believe there is some potential usefulness to the United Nations, it does do some humanitarian good, but it could do a whole lot more.

C. The UN is a bad idea and it needs to be disbanded. I don’t agree with its political positions. My country needs to pull out its support.

There is no “none of the above”… you might have a slightly different opinion, but I suspect that one of these choices comes close to your thoughts. Pick one.

In my last article, I outlined how we are spiritually evolving and a potential vision for the future. I also described my belief that the United Nations is currently one of our best options to serve as a tool to assist us in moving up that evolutionary path. I recognize you might not agree. I’d love to hear your opinion.

If you believe as I that our thoughts create what we see in life, then you might consider that our thoughts about the UN have played a part in its level of success. How can it be a tool for our spiritual evolution if our beliefs about the tool range from ambivalence (choice A) to disappointment (choice B) to distrust and hatred (choice C)? No matter which of the above opinions you hold about the UN, you and your thoughts play a role in its potential success.

It seems that the loudest voice comes from those who would choose item C above. Recently I searched Twitter posts looking for any comments on the United Nations. The bulk of the tweets fell into two categories. There were a lot related to actor Don Cheadle being acknowledged by the UN for his humanitarian work. (This probably relates in my opinion to our fascination with celebrities, but that’s another topic.) The other category of tweets were variations on the theme of distrust, dislike and hatred of the UN.

These strong negative emotions regarding this global institution (as expressed by primarily American voices) point to some of these issues as their concerns:

  • America has financial issues and the UN costs us too much money.
  • The UN is too liberal.
  • The UN is all talk and no positive action.
  • America is the strongest country in the world and we don’t need to listen to the opinions of those other countries.
  • The structure of the UN is all screwed up giving too much power to countries that don’t deserve it.
  • The UN is a front for a movement towards “world governance” (just like the European Union and the talked about” North American Union”) where we are going to lose our power to a small elite group.

I want to be perfectly clear, whether or not any of these beliefs are valid is not my point here. My reason for describing the most vocally negative opinions (which I personally believe represent only a minority of Americans) is to highlight the high degree of fear about the UN that exists in parts of our culture.

Although we could analyze the reasons for why people would choose A or B above and how holding onto ambivalence or disappointment holds us back from creating a UN that can be a tool that truly “unites nations” and moves humanity in a positive direction, it is this strong emotion of fear that may be our greatest barrier to lifting the UN to its highest possibilities. As Roosevelt said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

When you as an individual sense that you are acting from fear, it’s useful to pursue the underlying beliefs that are giving rise to the fear. By bringing these subconscious beliefs into our conscious awareness, we can hold them up and examine them. We can see if the beliefs still serve us or not. Then we can make a conscious choice. In many cases the old belief that gave rise to the fear is seen to be invalid and we can make a new and better choice, one no longer driven by subconscious fears. If America were a person who wanted to heal its fears, then it would have to look at its underlying cultural “collective consciousness” beliefs and determine if they still serve us. (Of course as always, the first step would be to move out of our denial that we are operating from fear. No healing is possible while we continue to point at our reasons “out there” as our justification for our beliefs and continue to deny that fear is our real motivation.)

So why is there so much fear? Is it fear of change? Is it fear of the unknown? Is it fear of a loss of control or power? Is it cultural hubris? It’s probably all of these and more. What you think? I would love to hear your opinion.

Next: a few thoughts and some questions for all of us on how we can move forward.

Mark

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Categories Culture, Featured Article, Politics, Uniting Nations

Your Opinion of the Health Care Bill-Coming from Love or Fear?

March 22, 2010 //
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What is the emotion behind your belief?

The healthcare bill continues to be big news having passed the House and now heading into reconciliation with the Senate.  Seems like everybody I talk to, most people I read on the Internet, and just about every TV commentator, all have some opinion about the legislation.  I suspect you do too.

I’m not going to debate the merits of the bill the House passed.  I’m sure most of us would agree, it’s not perfect.  Of course, I’m sure that each of us would also have our own idea of what the “perfect” bill might be.  But let’s be honest, all legislation that works its way through our process of checks and balances would have a hard time meeting that standard.

What I want ask you is this — setting aside specifics of the bill and whether you’re in favor of it or not, what is the underlying emotion that drives your opinion?

Love or Fear?

Now, I suspect I know what you might be thinking… you may be thinking “emotions have nothing to do with this… my opinion of this legislation is based on fact, logic and reason”.  I agree that we all have specific logical reasons that we can point at as the justification for our position.  What I want us to consider is that behind our rational thought is an underlying emotion that serves to direct our conscious belief.

What is that emotion?  You might come up with lots of words for it… happy, disgust, relief, anger, etc. It is my opinion that we could take all these emotions and plot them on a continuum with fear on one end and love on the other.  I recognize that you might not immediately agree, but I’m asking you to consider for a moment that underlying all our opinions on the healthcare bill are the two emotions of either love and fear.

The other night on television I saw a clip of some protesters of the healthcare bill shouting at a person with Parkinson’s disease who was there in favor of the legislation.  The display of anger (screaming, throwing dollar bills at him, etc.) directed at this fellow human being simply because he held a different opinion shocked me.  I sat there wondering what could lead a person to be so disrespectful towards another person simply for holding a different political belief?  Of course, I’m not naïve, I know this goes on all the time… I’ve written about this level of disrespect before… about radio and TV commentators who seem to stir up angry confrontation.  Yet still I wondered, what drives people to such rude behavior.  Then it struck me — these protesters were afraid.

How We Look at Life

Now I recognize that I am about to oversimplify this, but for the sake of brevity and posing the question about our underlying emotion, I want us to consider that there are two general ways that we look out at life and other people.

In the first way, we see ourselves as this distinct individual who has needs to meet.  We look out at the world and see limited resources available to meet those needs.  We see other people who are separate from us and in competition with us for those limited resources.  Therefore we are fearful that if we don’t grab what’s “ours”, others will grab it.  Our basic motivation is fear.

In the second way, we see ourselves as individuals who are part of a greater whole.  Yes, we have needs that need to be met.  But we also see our interconnectedness to other people and recognize they have needs as well.  Our level of care and concern has expanded beyond ourselves.  We want to meet our needs, but not in such a competitive way that we win and others lose.  Our basic motivation is love.

Which way do you look at life?  You may see a little bit of yourself in both descriptions.  Which one is prominent in your thinking?  Which one is important for humanity’s continued survival and further evolution?  I hope you agree that ultimately humanity needs to be acting more out of love.

What Would Love Do?

This is always a good question to ask when faced with a dilemma, so it seems like the proper question to ask as we consider our opinion on the healthcare issue.

We could take all of the pros and all the cons and all our concerns and all our questions about the bill Congress is considering and weigh them all against the question “what would love do?”

As I have considered it, the motivation of love would move us beyond the fear that we would lose while others win.  Love would pull us to finding a solution that allows everyone to have access to affordable health care.  Love would take us outside of any selfish concerns (don’t raise my taxes, don’t mess with my healthcare, my political party needs to win, my opinion needs to prevail, etc.) and move us to solutions that work for everyone.

So as the debate continues and you find yourself discussing healthcare with others, I am suggesting that you stop and ask yourself “how would love respond in this moment?” That is, how can you honor people and their variety of opinions in this moment?  How can you shift the social discourse from negativity and fear towards the direction of what’s best for everyone?  What suggestion can you offer that comes from the heart of love?

In this moment and every moment, the choice is yours: are you choosing fear or are you choosing love?

Mark

PS in case you’re interested, recently I have written a couple of other articles about the healthcare bill.  In one, “Heathcare Deals and Our Greatest Ideals” I expressed my concern over how Congress was making certain deals which I felt were not in our collective best interest in order to get enough votes to pass the bill.  In another, “Killing Time with President Obama” I pointed out, how I felt that the effort made by President Obama to reach across the aisle and move us beyond this overly partisan environment in which we are mired was worth the time and effort even though it caused a delay in the passage of the legislation.

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Categories Culture, Politics, Uniting U.S.