HOCUS POCUS WHERE’S OUR POTUS? TIRED OF UNREALITY TV?
So Are We.
Once upon a time every global leader was a baby … their development an outgrowth of Society based upon socio-economic upbringing, friends, teachers, religious influence, media — even personal biochemistry and the weather itself.
In other words, once upon a time global leaders were honest-to-god human.
Somewhere along those developmental lines they strayed from their elemental humanity into professional insanity — an insidious power-club that made it incumbent upon anyone throwing their hat into the brass ring to participate if they wished to maintain their position. Call it peer pressure or group pressure, but like a pack of teens practicing unspeakable hazing to gain entry into the club, on another subtle level this is operative at the highest levels of office.
Leaders are backed by interest groups whose original messages often become distorted through the evolution of Ego and the multiplicity of other interest groups also driven by Ego. Ideally all should cooperate on behalf of the societal whole, yet as well-intended as one may be, all are at the effect of a powerfully innate ego drive that perpetually holds the human condition hostage to its own transcendent growth.
Leadership often drives the message of how a nation should perceive not only others but itself. In misguided hands this becomes detrimental to a country’s psychological health by forcing it to subscribe to a self-image that may not be organically true. Because Mussolini was a horror doesn’t make the Italians horrible. Nor Hitler with all Germans. Nor a myriad of other cultures under the dictates of a dominant voice which claims to be a reflection of the collective.
Thus creates nationalistic identity crises which escalate into global ones and impede the self-discovery of authentic disposition. Maybe nations need to air their wounds … to apologise and be apologised to … to respond to each other with the care that beloved family members ideally do. Maybe then, nations (like individuals) could better discern their true Voice, unearth their genuine curiosity about each other (or not, because that too might be a genuine response).
On the one hand, social media is goading us to explore each other’s worlds and expand. On the other hand, its boomerang effect magnifies the antiquated leadership models that also goad us; in the opposite direction, collapsing us into our respective nationalistic corners of the ring out of fear or frustration or futility or other. Maybe our baby culture has been sucking too long on the pacifier when what we’ve really been starved for is the bottle — one with nutrients that feed our healthy dimensionality rather than stunt us by simply pacifying our tantrums.
For better or worse, leaders are like parent figures. They want their family to prosper — sometimes altruistically, other times egotistically. If we allow them to “specialise” us in comparison to or at the expense of the others (by telling us we’re ruthless or the greatest or the chosen ones or worthless), how on earth can we collectively evolve? We’ll be forever stuck in stereotypes and probably fulfill those values because they’ve been deeply instilled and passed down ad infinitum. Rather than inherit nation-labels about who we are or should be … who do we want to be, personally and communally? Enough of us have choice as to how much we allow ourselves to be reasonably led versus force-fed. It’s worth probing given that Mistrust has now toppled into our young laps asking us to grow up very fast. A herculean baby step awaits and it’s more Simpol than we think.
Caitlin’s green highlighted passage speaks volumes. Let’s walk that talk.
www.simpol.org
