What We Do Next [part 2 of 3]
Leadership in The Divided States: Us and Them: Currently, the political divide illuminated by the non-cohesive leadership and mixed messages in the media played out like a game of telephone among family, friends, and colleagues starkly reveals a deeply fractured American culture. With a focus on solutions that are both projected outside of ourselves and disconnected from our basic human needs, we seek absolutes from elected leaders who are unwilling to say they do not know what the future holds.
In the recent article, Red and Blue America Aren’t Experiencing the Same Pandemic, journalist, Robert Brownstein, reports that “the outbreak’s early stages are unfolding very differently in Republican- and Democratic-leaning parts of the country. That disconnect is already shaping, even distorting, the nation’s response to this unprecedented challenge” (Brownstein, np, 2020). In his book, Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman addresses these same divisive issues as he describes how “[t]he gulf that divides Us from Them builds with the silencing of empathy. And across that gulf we are free to project onto Them whatever we like” (2006, p. 299). The political gulf between Us and Them is fertile ground to arm ourselves in anger and self-righteousness to battle out the uncertainty and the suffering.
Some of Us see the president of our country taking the opportunity of the Coronavirus to do exactly that: bully the weak, lie about the things he cannot control or fix, encourage division and hate, blame others, and rally his supporters, all with the goal of bolstering his own ego. However, for Them, his actions are statements of his power and control reaffirming security and certainty in a frightening time. While I may disagree from the standpoint of what I consider rationality and logic, when I approach Them empathetically and compassionately, I can understand Them and their needs and perspective.
In the recent Wired article, The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What's Coming, epidemiologist Larry Brilliant eloquently and practically offers his medical expertise on the pandemic. Beyond his practical advice and insights steeped in years of medical training and experience, Brilliant concludes a potential outcome may be that Cornoavirus pandemic “will cause us to reexamine what has caused the fractional division we have in this country. The virus is an equal opportunity infector. …we would be better if we saw ourselves that way, which is much more alike than different” (Levy, np, 2020).
Father Richard Rohr mirrors Brilliant’s conclusion and summons the spiritual seed of Ubuntu as he encourages us to learn from our collective pain. Uncertainty and suffering are discomforts most Americans do not tolerate for long. However, if we are to begin to see ourselves as more alike than different, we will have to indulge our own suffering.
Rohr contemplates what God might be empathetically offering us in this pandemic. Rohr suggests we not run from pain, but allow suffering to be our teacher as we tolerate it for a while. For “[i]t is the way through, …When we carry our own suffering in solidarity with humanity’s one universal longing for deep union, … We know that we are all in this together. …our healing is bound up in each other’s.” (Rohr, np, 2020). We can understand our deeper connections beyond the Us and Them, and find spiritual transformation in moments we otherwise might skip over to spare ourselves the pain.
In a fractured society, looking for a leader who reflects our world view and has the capacity to hold a path for Us and Them is a tall order. However, the time for looking outside ourselves to be rescued is over. We must go inward and take ownership of our participation, omissions, emotions, and unmet needs.
The leadership for this culture shift—this paradigm shift— in this moment is community. We must find our inner voice and knowing and take our next steps from intuition, connection, and as a community. However, before we can lead as a community, we will have to find greater awareness of who and where we are. Most of us are standing outside looking in, judging, blaming, and shaming all that has gone wrong. It is time to step into our own view as part of the circle of community.
If we disengage from our suffering, we abandon ourselves and that spark within us. Being in the discomfort of our own internal landscape is radical activism that has the potential to lead us back to our spark.
