“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
–Matthew 12:25 (KJV)
Tag Archives: civil society
Walking the Talk
Big corporations often seem to behave with disregard for the humanity of citizens and community. Geared to function with a singular profit-making intensity that is resistant to compromise, these are not human creatures.
Living with a dominant corporate culture, we find ourselves perceived as economic units, “consumers” pressed into service by a materialist mindset.
And so we have been isolated from one another, forced apart by social forces that are difficult to overcome. The personal experience of meaning and interconnectedness that civil society depends upon has evaporated.
Americans need not submit to such a sorry destiny.
Independence is always relative, but it is an attitude and a choice. Self-sufficiency could actually become a matter of life or death. It can mean food security or financial stability or being a good parent. Its’ meaning will take on new dimensions when crises strike. But, there is much more to it than survival.
It is in community and in the quality of our active relationships that we form the matrix of a free society. Freedom is realized in serving a principled purpose, and in the vitality of lives that are engaged and in motion.
It is in productive interaction with others that ideas are shared and problem-solving is most effective. In trustworthy relationships, self-sufficiency gains strength and dependability.
But, are we willing to take this on?
We might not want to put up with community. A few try to avoid it all together. But, it is impossible to completely ignore it – unless we take snowshoes, an axe and a rifle, and walk into the wilderness.
I know how attractive solitude can be. I also know that it would deny me the opportunity to grow as an individual, as well as the honor and adventure of dedication to the country I love.
Historically, the basic building blocks of the American Republic have been communities. And, the bonds that held everything together were the personal relationships that make communities work.
Communities are formed by the inspiration and determination of individuals and families, interwoven into mutually supportive networks, and networks of networks. And, no, it will not be easy to regain what came to us so naturally in the past.
Let me state again, however, that the ultimate visionary force can only be that loyalty to the American Idea that welcomes diversity and rejects hostile divisiveness.
Americans are accustomed to contentious politics and unconstrained partisanship. There will always be value in the clash of differing opinions. However, we have entered a period of instability and potential danger. It is time to rise above our differences in the interests of ensuring the balance and cohesion of the Republic.
We face the instability of extraordinary complexity, deteriorating infrastructure, and institutions that are trapped in the past. Things are not going to work the way we think they should, and there will be no one to resolve the problems except ourselves.
If we are to rebuild a society in which the foolishness of the past is not repeated, we must think constructively about the qualities and principles that are needed. Generosity and good will are essential human virtues. We must keep them strong in our hearts, but help one another to understand why they are not enough. Some things just don’t work.
Finding solutions to community problems will demand that we put our heads together. It will require consultation, deliberation, and creative imagination. And, it calls for the most diverse range of minds and perspectives possible. The way to maximize effective problem-solving is to include people with a broad range of experience and practical skills.
This might sound idealistic. In fact, it is the only way to restore a broken society. Learning how to do it will be hard work, but people of good faith will always have the capacity to succeed.
We must hold our personal beliefs clearly in mind, while keeping in mind that we can expect less conflict and far greater security if we connect, listen and learn, understand and influence.
Holding ourselves apart from one another in disagreement while hurling insults can only reap destruction. Engaging with one another can be extremely challenging, but there is no other way.
Tom
Next week: Foundations for security.
Common sense…
“Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finding Courage in Crisis
The courage to step forward constructively in a time of crisis depends on our readiness to meet pain or frustration as a positive personal act. This is not easy, especially when the world around us is self-destructing.
To persevere at such a time, our values and sense of personal integrity become very important. And, beyond this, we are in need of a vision of the future that embodies our hopes and a purpose we believe in.
However, the immediate problems confronting us will usually present themselves in a social context. The deterioration of civil order will be a great challenge for us.
In my view, a commitment to the integrity of civil order is a commitment to ones’ own personal integrity. Both commitments are guided by our values and sense of responsibility. Both are essential components of a free society.
Each of us needs to think about who we are and what integrity means to us. And this will require that we strengthen both our sense of self-sufficiency and our sense of purpose.
Self-sufficiency and purpose give us self-confidence, so both are important. Self-sufficiency is about practical matters and will power. But purpose has to do with ideas, and ideas can be problematic. So, let’s think about this.
Purpose needs to remain responsive to change and creative thinking, as well as to our personal views. Like the world around us, we are constantly responding and growing. It is easy to attach ourselves unwittingly to ideas that are rooted in past circumstances and which no longer hold true.
There is both strength and danger here.
Most of us develop a firm commitment to certain ideas. This has value, so long as we keep our minds open. We need the capacity to stick to our beliefs and to follow through with plans. Otherwise nothing would get done.
However, at a time of extraordinary disruption and change, when the future is hard to imagine, our intended direction will sometimes take unexpected turns – or disappear temporarily into a fog.
We know what kind of world we wish to live in, at least in general terms, but the details of the future will be veiled from view. Why? Because the emerging reality of the future is in constant motion.
This is why shared moral values and social principles in our communities are important. A vision for the future needs to be built upon mutual respect and understanding, rather than on the assumptions of a crumbling past.
Even in the midst of chaos, “constructive action” can be understood as the means by which we progress toward our intended goals, not away from them.
So, let’s keep two priorities in mind: First, to hold firmly to values capable of guiding us through turmoil. Second, to stay alert, allowing flexibility of judgment and adjusting our thinking as conditions change.
If we believe in freedom we cannot allow presuppositions to set the future in concrete. That is not what freedom is about.
Let’s be clear. Assumptions that we carry with us from the past are dinosaurs that threaten our ability to create the future. Our values and principles must be permitted to guide our way, based on the realities at hand.
We may dislike the conditions in which we find ourselves at any particular moment. We may determine to alter them. But, to be rigid and inflexible would court disaster. Our independence as free people depends in large part on our capacity to engage effectively with ever-changing circumstances.
We are challenged to keep our balance at the vortex of an historic turning point. Our values will support personal integrity, and our vision will determine the direction we seek as we traverse the storm.
If we wish to exercise our liberty fully as citizens, we must hold to a principled compassion, resist absolutism and bigotry, and adjust effectively to the flow of change.
To be free in the tumult of a great storm we must summon our courage to spread our wings and soar on the wind.
Tom
Next week: Walking the talk.
A note to new readers: Blog entries adapted from the forthcoming book are posted on most Fridays on both this site and the Facebook page. To receive alerts by email you may click “Follow” on this site.
From Darkness to Light
Without safe communities, and neighbors we can depend on, how will we find security for our families or begin to create a future we can believe in? Tell me, please, in what other place do we have the freedom and the opportunity to build a stable civil order?
Do we imagine that a shining superhero will ride to our rescue? Or will we, as I asked last week, pick ourselves up and do what needs to be done?
This is an uncompromising question. Not to answer it, or to defer commitment, is in fact to answer it. Failure to rise to necessity is to accept defeat.
Whatever our personality, our political philosophy or religious belief, the individual has an unavoidable choice to make. Either we retreat into ourselves, accepting what is given as beyond our control, or we step forward to engage hardship and purpose with constructive intent.
This is a very personal choice, but at a time of existential crisis for the United States it takes on great importance – not only for ourselves, but for America and the world.
The United States has served as a model for governance and an engine of creative vitality that is unparalleled in human history. The American idea has been a beacon of hope for people everywhere. There has never been anything else like it. And, the world is watching.
To hesitate here would be to respond as victims rather than as citizens. It would be to choose loss over promise, helplessness over responsibility. We may be temporarily intimidated by difficult circumstances. But we must never give in and never lose sight of the dawn of the new day that even now lights the horizon.
Living with purpose gives us courage and inspiration.
I never said it will be easy. It will not. What I am saying is that we have no choice. Without the courage to begin anew, we will join the slide into chaos.
Standing firm in the context of community does not isolate us from uncertainty. It will provide only limited protection from the confusion around us. What it does is keep us close to trustworthy and dependable friends and neighbors.
It positions us to best keep our balance, mentally and spiritually. And, it keeps the potential for an American future alive.
Working with people is probably the most challenging part of life. Choosing to take control of our destiny will require perseverance and forbearance – a readiness to exercise tolerance, patience, self-control. Communicating effectively will become a necessity.
There will always be difficult people to test us.
Our job is not to be heroes. Our job is to win over hearts and minds to the cause of safety, mutual respect, and rational governance. Only then will it be possible for fear to give way to curiosity, for judgmental attitudes to be replaced with genuine listening and compassionate understanding.
Progress will come just one step at a time, and will often seem painfully slow. Making a commitment to stay positive can require considerable resolve. But, holding to the truth in our vision, focusing on productive purpose, and building trustworthy friendships – can make a very big difference.
The negativity that surrounds us may appear powerful, but in reality it can only exist in the absence of constructive action, and it only has the energy we grant it. When we set out on a practical path and offer encouragement to others with a radiant spirit, we become as a light that pushes back the darkness.
If we are met with overbearing negativity, it may be wise to take our energy elsewhere. But, we must never allow our vision to dim or our compassion to be compromised.
Darkness can always be countered with light. Darkness is the absence of light and has no substance of its own. The light of a small candle defies and defeats even the darkest night.
Tom
Next week: Finding courage in crisis.
A note to new readers: Blog entries adapted from the forthcoming book are posted on most Fridays at both this, the main blog site, and on the Facebook page. To receive alerts by email you may click “Follow” on this site.
Never doubt that a small group…
“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
–Samuel Adams
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
–Margaret Mead
Turning the Corner
Whether our ancestors came to this continent by choice or in slavery, or were forcibly separated from their indigenous American roots, all of us are estranged from the lands and lives of our forbears.
Cut off from the cultural foundations that provided previous generations with the basis for social stability and moral integrity, we refined our values and forged new standards.
For some the escape from oppression or deprivation has taken great determination and willpower. With a strength rooted in the individualism of the survivor, Americans reconstructed human society on the basis of association, reciprocity, and principle: freedom of thought, economic independence, and a new sense of belonging that often transcended social and religious differences.
Early on our communities formed on the basis of cultural commonalities. But our naturally inquisitive nature and the inclination to range far and wide across the North American continent took us away from our physical roots and led to a society characterized by mobility, homogeneity, and economies of scale.
First railways, and then a proliferation of highways, industrial enterprises, and shopping malls facilitated unrestrained pursuit of economic productivity and material comfort. Cheap energy made many things possible. Big always seemed better, or at least more profitable.
Somehow we lost any sense of proportion or real purpose. A society once anchored by small businesses and community cohesion soon fell apart, morphing into urban sprawl, broken families, and lost dreams.
Unfortunately, and paradoxically, the resulting loss of social coherence and community has led to diminishing independence and self-sufficiency among ordinary Americans.
Many of us have a haunting awareness of this loss of social integrity. Others have responded more inchoately and angrily, with less comprehension of the historical context or economic forces that contribute to their sense of unease.
Mostly we have accepted our dependence on centralized corporate power to manage our lives for us. We are now only dimly aware of the tenuous commercial supply chain stretching thousands of miles across the continent for the benefit of profitable efficiencies. Do we understand the extraordinary social and economic change we are experiencing?
Most of us have little knowledge of the vast size and immense interlocking complexity of the financial markets. Even the financial power-brokers appear oblivious to the systemic risk embedded in the complexity they themselves have created.
Cut off from dependable information and unaware of the larger picture, we assume that every day will be like the last.
Do we accept this state of loss? Do we understand our heritage?
How carefully have we thought through the principles of justice, the respect for diversity, the distinctive balance the founders envisioned? How confident are we in the ideas and values that give validity to our ideals?
In recent months this blog has explored some of the elements of a national character that is deeply rooted in our history. We now find ourselves at a turning point where the original ideals that brought us here are partly veiled from memory, and the need to reconsider and clarify the American identity has become clear.
The foundations of the American past remain firm and valid. Yet, we find ourselves today with little concept of community – that foundation of civil society that we must depend upon for a sure footing.
Community is the single context and condition that offers us control over our destiny. Yet, we know very little about how to make it work.
This presents us with a formidable task. Without trustworthy communities, how are we to engage with others, uprooted and disorganized in the wasteland of a broken society? How will we build dependable relationships, a stable civil order, and security for our children and grandchildren?
I do not address this question to America as a whole, in all its pain and dysfunction. Rather, I address it to my readers directly, as thinking, caring, self-respecting individuals.
Do we have the vision and patience to work with our neighbors, meeting needs and resolving problems? Will we rise above our differences, to find security in the diversity of our experience, knowledge, and practical skills?
Are we prepared to rethink our concept of community, and to build together from the ground up?
It won’t be easy.
Tom
In the coming weeks: Community; the home we have the freedom to build.
A note to readers: This is the first post to be adapted from Chapter Nine: The Individual and Society.
Finding Our Balance in the Storm
The passion for freedom challenges us to rise to the best of our ability as human beings. Whether or not institutions fail us, we are fully capable of giving life to our values when we engage with society, strengthen our communities, connect and collaborate with others.
It is in serving a purpose that each of us discovers the potential in ourselves for strength of character, generosity of spirit, and the inspiration to reach for a better place.
The practical limitations imposed on our personal freedom by moral responsibility and a complex world can be quite challenging, and crisis conditions make things all the more difficult. For the mature adult, however, these constraints provide a springboard for a meaningful and productive life.
Naturally, it can be difficult to find our place and focus our energy constructively. At times our courage can fail us. The demands made on us sometimes feel impossible, even without consideration for others. Without self-confidence it is difficult to be supportive of others, many of whom we seem to have little in common with.
Preparing ourselves will be important as we navigate through one of history’s great turning points. Our ability to function responsibly in difficult circumstances will be challenging.
I believe we have entered a period of upheaval that will be unprecedented in character and global in its dimensions. In my forthcoming book I explain why we will face “a confluence of crises” in the coming years, a series of consecutive and interrelated crises, both natural and man-made.
Preserving the Republic and holding to the core values of the American Idea will be our great responsibility as we transit the upheavals of a great storm. Our belief systems are already being tested. Civil order and economic stability will be shaken.
It will be imperative that we meet our tests with dignity, resetting our vision of the American identity based principle rather than watching it descend into chaos.
Our future depends on the survival of core human values and our commitment to retrieving a humane and sustainable future from the wreckage of the past.
Any alternative is too terrible to imagine.
We will prevail if our actions are constructive and the means we employ are harmonious with the ends that we seek. We must keep our balance in the storm, keep our hearts and minds focused on the greatest good, and not allow ourselves to be dragged down by fear.
And so I offer you a metaphor here for freedom’s truth, a physical reflection of the metaphysical reality. What follows are the final lines of a eulogy I gave for my father at his memorial service, and a testimony to what I learned from him:
“He gave me one truly great thing above all else…. And, this he did by teaching me the ways of sailing boats. He taught me to fly on the wind. He taught me to sail, to ride high on the blustering gale!
“Without fear we ventured out on the running tide, suspended between liquid and ether, to know the snap of the rigging, the sting of salt spray, and the unyielding rush of a steady keel straining against the wild. Together we embraced the untamed and raced across the sky. He was my Dad.”
Throughout life we are subject to the vagaries of a capricious human world that seems similar in many ways to the fickle nature of wind and sea. Yet, core principles, laws, and standards remain firmly in place in both worlds, if we have the eyes to see.
Understanding and embracing this truth, we can spread our wings and learn to fly.
As with a sailing vessel at sea, our identity as human beings can only be realized in action. And so we are free to discover the world we are given, learning as the sailor learns to engage a fluid and often unpredictable reality with wisdom and flexibility.
Failing this, we will beat ourselves against an implacable and merciless resistance. An unwillingness to learn will expose us to the storms of life in a rudderless ship and with our rigging in disarray.
Tom
Next week: Turning the corner.
A note to new readers: Blog entries adapted from the forthcoming book are posted on most Fridays at both this, the main blog site, and on the Facebook page. To receive alerts by email you may click “Follow” on this site.
America at a Tipping Point
To speak of rebuilding the foundations of the Republic is not to suggest deficiencies in the structure and process of governance provided by the Constitution. On the contrary, the founders created a structural bulwark for stability that must be defended vigorously whenever necessary.
The foundation many of us are concerned about is that of integrity: Justice, trust, responsibility, and a mutual respect that transcends differences among citizens.
A reader commented on this blog’s Facebook page last week that, “America is at a tipping point because every tenet [and] moral fiber of this nation has been diminished, so that no one is held accountable. [There is] no moral compass because the foundations are removed.”
We do not have to agree on all the details to recognize truth in this view. And, we cannot wait for somebody else to fix it. It is time to stop complaining and to step forward to engage with those around us in securing the safety and well-being of our communities.
Changing our attitude does not require changing opinions or compromising principles. Addressing people and problems with dignity and kindliness will win respect, not harsh or derogatory words.
If we wish to be heard, to share our views and represent our principles, we must do what is necessary to make this possible. Communication and understanding will not be easy until we are cooperating shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors to make things right.
No, it will not be easy. But this is how mutual respect begins and the ability to listen becomes genuine.
We will talk more about this later, but the important thing to recognize is that when the going gets tough, relationships count. I don’t just mean next door neighbors, as important as they are. If we find ourselves under threat, directly or indirectly, the last thing we need is neighbors down the road or over the hill who are an unknown quantity.
And, we are not simply talking about making acquaintances here. This is not about borrowing a cup of sugar over the back fence. To create safe communities – to rebuild the nation – we need dependability. And that means trust.
Yes, well, in the midst of this crisis we find that trust is not something that Americans know much about. Mostly we do not believe in it any more. This is a big problem.
We cannot simply start trusting people because we wish to be trusting. The reality we live in is decidedly untrustworthy. Most of the people around us do not have a clear concept of what trust means, much less an understanding of why it is important or what to do about it.
Change will take time. The challenge begins with our willingness to take initiative, to be patient, to accept differences, and, most of all, to listen to others with interested curiosity. If we wish to be heard it is usually necessary to first convince others that we are actually hearing them. Only then will we be heard.
In his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People“, Stephen Covey wrote:
“If you’re like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you’re listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand.”
We can all see that the loss of trust has accompanied the loss of civil order and security in this country. We know there are serious structural problems that must be addressed, but I hope we can also see why trust will serve a vital role in recovering stability and prosperity.
Learning how to build trust will come in the context of practical experience – teaming up to work closely with one another, resolving practical problems and meeting needs in our communities.
Without trust the American republic faces existential danger. And, without personal cooperation and understanding no trust is possible and no progress is attainable.
Tom
Next week: Finding our balance in the storm
Dear readers, I would appreciate your feedback: ideas, viewpoints, and observations. Expansive reader engagement on the Facebook page has been quite helpful.
The foundational principle…
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”
“When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.”
–Stephen R. Covey
Living with Integrity
I have suggested here that liberty is closely related to justice, and that both depend upon moral responsibility. How can we think about these things, and find integrity in them and through them?
By responsibility I mean active engagement with the people and institutions around us as interested and caring citizens. Responsibility gives meaning and order to our lives. It is a partner to liberty, which cannot exist without it.
I refer to moral responsibility more specifically as our ability to respond on the basis of conscience, using personal judgment regarding what is right and wrong in human behavior, and acting with respect for the dignity of those we encounter.
A friend once pointed out to me that the meaning of “responsibility” might be found in the compound word, “response-ability.” Without this ability, justice cannot be realized and liberty has no purpose.
We heard from Viktor Frankl several weeks ago in a post entitled: “The Resilience of Inner Freedom.” Dr. Frankl emerged from his World War II ordeal in a Nazi death camp with the firm conviction that freedom can only be secured through responsibility.
“Freedom,” he wrote, “is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.”
For many of us, seeking freedom in our lives is a gradual process of maturing, letting go of dependencies, and trying to make a go at life with what resources we can gather or create.
This is meaningful for a time. However, we soon begin to realize that the society in which we live, and the material limitations in our lives, impose themselves on us in uncomfortable ways.
Do we then give in to anger – or feeling sorry for ourselves? Or, do we seek dignity in the face of limitation, asserting control over our personal vices, and engaging constructively in our community and the wider world beyond?
Many of us find it necessary to construct the lives we wish for from the wreckage of past mistakes, our own and those of others, and are grateful simply for the opportunity to do so. Even cleaning up a mess offers a certain satisfaction.
There is no happiness to be found in complaining. Self-respect cannot wait for things to change. We are each capable of responding to the world around us with dignity and creativity.
Contributing to problem-solving in collaboration with others is a choice that can bring great gratification, however difficult the challenges.
Accepting responsibility can mean many things depending on our circumstances. Usually we think of responsibility as the act of responding to what needs to be done. I suggest, however, that a core responsibility underlying all others is the imperative to build and ensure trust.
Without trust, the fabric of this nation will continue to disintegrate. Trust is the substance of integrity and the single most essential factor making it possible for us to build the future.
Can we find ways of thinking and being that are consistent with the foundation of justice we have considered in recent posts? The integrity of such a framework supports our endeavors in the same way that a sound physical foundation is required to construct a building.
A principled integrity gains primacy in our very identity: our character and way of being. But, it can easily be squandered in a moment of carelessness.
So, there you have it: Integrity is the quality of being; trustworthiness is the substance of that quality; and, responsibility is the action with which we make it so. And, finally, justice is the beginning and the end, the matrix that holds it all together.
Responsibility follows immediately from integrity and is the expression of it. Stability and order depend on this. When responsibility is understood and applied to the challenges we face, progress is possible. Otherwise the integrity of intention is lost.
There is no middle ground. Either integrity and responsibility are wholly present or they are compromised. Without them no civilization is possible.
Tom
Next week: On dependability and trust
A note to regular readers: I wish to express my gratitude for the interest and constructive feedback you have shared on the Facebook page. I could not reasonably proceed without this. Those of you who have taken the step of clicking “Follow” on this site are also serving a significant role. When it comes time to publish, the numbers really can make a difference.
An uncharted land…
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
—Helen Keller, who lived her life both blind and deaf.
Liberty and the American Idea 