Seems like everywhere I look, people are expressing their opinions very strongly! The path of their life has helped them forge their beliefs on which they hang their opinions.
Yet sometimes, I wonder if people truly understand the underlying causes of their strongly held argument. Do they really know what their basic intention is?
What do I mean by their basic intention? By that, I mean do they see everything as interconnected and all “one” or everything as separate and apart?
Recently I wrote about the fact that there are two kinds of people – those who see everything as interconnected or part of a oneness – and those that see everything as separate and apart. Although I like to write and talk about Spiral Dynamics and Integral Theory, both of which outline a series of worldviews through which humanity evolves, it seems to me that most of our differences can be boiled down to these two groups of people.
In a way, Spiral Dynamics does acknowledge these two groups of people – as the “spiral” swings back and forth between a focus upon individuality and a focus on the collective. But beyond this focus, Spiral Dynamics speaks to a higher level of consciousness, where we start to sense and know that everything is connected. Yet I believe that people at all levels of consciousness have within them a sense of this oneness. Consider that all of the major religions have some form of the Golden Rule as a basic tenet – which has been around a long time!
OK – Think about this – and yes I know you can accuse me of oversimplifying here – but when we look at the arguments for and against the recent healthcare bill, and a lot of reasons have been put forth both for and against it, at the heart of every argument is a basic feeling that either collective care and concern for all is more important or an individual person/company/country is more important. If we believe that we are all connected, then we would want everyone to have access to affordable quality healthcare without any strings attached.
Recently a disturbing trend has come to my attention – there is a rise around the world in human slavery. When I first heard this, I thought how could this be in this day and age? Recently, I saw one of those Ted talks by an individual who was reporting on this phenomena. Then in the past few days, I received a blog I read routinely calling its readers to action – to do something about this disturbing trend in human slavery. How could there be slavery in the the 21st century? If we all saw ourselves as all “one”, then there wouldn’t be.
This past weekend, I went to my first “protest” rally in decades. Mary and I marched down the streets of Denver to the capital building where about 150 of us gathered on the steps to protest against the expanded use GMO food. Now at first blush, it would seem that the use of GMO food could be construed as being for the collective. After all the companies that have promoted GMO food say that its expansion will allow us to feed more and more people around the world. But the facts don’t bear that out. Here’s a website if you want more details on that.
For me – although I’m not in favor of GMO food – an even bigger issue is why any corporation would push back against the labeling of such food? There have even been companies fighting against the labeling of any food as “GMO free”. Why? If we are all “one”, when would we not want all of us to have access to that knowledge? If we see ourselves as separate and apart from one another, then I want my company to succeed and have greater profits even if it means a loss of freedom for you.
So here’s an assignment for all of us – as we look at people disagreeing on an issue – push behind their arguments to see if they can be divided into these basic intentions. Does one argument serve to continue a sense of separation and divisiveness? Does one of the arguments tend to support seeing the unity among all people? Which position are you going to be favoring?
Something to think about…
Mark Gilbert
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