We: Our Declaration of Interdependence
Introduction to a series published on Medium
You are not alone.
We are connected. We are never alone.
Our feelings of loneliness, alienation, and division may feel natural. There are plenty of forces at work in our culture that feed our sense of separation. Many of these divisive forces are thousands of years old. The energy ebbs and flows. History is the story of cycles of progress and regression.
The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries. — Carl Sagan
Over one hundred years ago, a new science, Quantum Physics, finally began to explain the interrelated nature of the universe. The divisive forces quickly seized on this new science to create the first atomic bomb, an existential threat to all of humanity.
We exist within the Cosmic web of life. We are stardust, simultaneously insignificant and exceptional. Everything we do or think matters within the Cosmic web.
We far too frequently act and think as though we do not matter. We do matter. We can and do make a difference for the benefit of the whole. We can also act or think in ways that threaten the whole. We also may believe the world around us is out of our control.
“We” is not the opposite of “me;” it is the whole of creation, and I/me/you are not separate from creation. “We” does not refer to some distinct grouping or category of human beings. “We” shifts our listening from an individualistic point of view to a collective point of view.
“We” is the opposite of “us versus them.” In this book, “We” is intentionally used to convey life’s all-inclusive, all-encompassing nature. We can overcome the tendency to view life as us versus them.
We are currently experiencing many wicked existential challenges, including the threat of nuclear war, military conflicts, insurrections and coups, gun violence and mass shootings, natural disasters, extreme weather events, extreme economic inequality, and the disintegration or decline of most of the institutions needed to maintain a civil society. Without a highly functioning civil society, “We” cannot thrive.
We are experiencing anxiety at the highest rate in four decades. Increased anxiety is how we, as humans, adapt to a dangerous world. Our anxiety is a wake-up call. We could act like ostriches and bury our heads in the ground, or opossums and freeze up and play dead, or we could faint and fall down like goats. However, humans have more options. In response to wicked threats, humanity, and human beings can evolve.
Social media, elected leaders, aspiring politicians, and major corporate media sources collaborate (knowingly or unknowingly) in disseminating intentionally divisive information. Our use of social media and our choices of news sources contribute to our sense of division. We contribute to our divided world whenever we think “they” are causing our problems.
The ostrich, opossum, and goat view threats as external. Humans also have powerful psychological self-defense mechanisms to protect us from things we view as external threats. Our high levels of anxiety correlate with our belief that the cause of our wicked threats is external and we have no power to protect ourselves. However, most of our wicked challenges are caused by humans. We have the power to address the challenges causing our anxiety because we caused them. We have the ability to evolve.
If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This is one truth we must embrace. Every human is both good and evil. Humans have two powerful primary competing desires: the desire to merge and the desire to separate. Depth psychology sheds light on this internal dissonance and refers to the aspects of our Self that we desire to separate as our “shadow.” We make choices daily to share the warmth of our love or the destructive energy of our shadow.
Our highly individualistic culture starves our desire to merge and feeds our sense of self-importance. In Western Cultures, narcissists are rewarded for their narcissistic behaviors.
When someone declares, “I am the greatest,” that should trigger an assessment that the individual thinks they are special and separate from the whole. The overuse of “I” and “me” (the first-person point of view) correlates with our global narcissism epidemic. Candidates for political office feel free to claim openly and proudly, “I alone can lead us,”; “I am the greatest,” and “You’ll never find anyone as great as me.”
Narcissists often project their shadow (negative traits) onto an “other.” “I am great. Those people who are critical of me are “evil.”
When we choose violence, hatred, or greed towards another person or group of people, it is often because we are projecting our shadow. We can be intellectually and spiritually lazy, unwilling to engage in practices that allow us to embrace our shadow, or we can be self-aware, reflective, and willing to integrate our shadow. At this point in human history, we face many wicked threats, and our tendency to project our shadows onto an “other” prevents us from doing the internal work needed to create a more compassionate and beautiful world.
There is an old and very wise Native American saying: Every time you point a finger in scorn — there are three remaining fingers pointing right back at you.
Finger pointing is another phrase that describes our tendency to project our shadow.
The ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah said:
Then you will call… and God will say, “I’m here. If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech; if you open your heart to the hungry and provide abundantly for those afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness.” — Isaiah 58: 6–14
We have a collective responsibility to integrate our shadows. We can stop pointing fingers and projecting our shadows onto the latest target group and spend more time and energy allowing the light of love, compassion, and connection to shine for the benefit of all.
Scapegoating is a term that describes our tendency to blame a person or group for the wicked challenges we face. Scapegoating is a tool used to divide and conquer. People greedy for power use scapegoating. It has allowed leaders to project their sins onto the scapegoat(s).
Nazis scapegoated Jews. Every instance of genocide has used scapegoating to turn ordinary people into mass murderers, killing their neighbors. Leaders use scapegoating to inspire their followers to exterminate the “vermin” in their midst. It has been used so extensively throughout human history that we seem unable to recognize it as part of our shadow. We participate in scapegoating without even knowing we are doing harm.
We may not be aware that we are projecting our shadow. We may be afraid to do our internal work to understand and integrate our shadow. We cannot integrate our shadows while projecting our evil tendencies onto another person or group. We experience a deeply divided world because we live divided lives.
Learning to integrate our shadow (evil side) is our evolutionary task. We cannot know what is true while we are captive to our divided nature. If we think the cause of our suffering is some other person or group, we tend to feel powerless.
When we fail to understand that leaders have historically resorted to divide-and-conquer tactics to control us, we become accomplices in their destructive scapegoating tactics. Scapegoating always involves lies and projecting the shadow onto the innocent. Since the line between good and evil strikes through the heart of every human being, scapegoating is, in a sense, finger-pointing by masses of people.
Our leaders do not want us to look up (the power pyramid). Instead, we are taught to look down on those with even less power than us and blame them for our problems. The truth is that power that is not shared and distributed corrupts. Absolute power absolutely corrupts.
Authoritarianism grants power to a small number of people at the top of the power pyramid, and it believes asserting power over others is the best, or only way, to organize a factory or large workplace. During the Industrial Age, this may have been useful. In some cases, granting a leader the authority to act on behalf of the community or organization may be helpful. We are evolving away from the Industrial Age and need new ways of organizing collective effort.
Authoritarians want to organize a workplace or a political system. Totalitarians want total control over the lives of the masses of people. Totalitarianism is authoritarianism on steroids. Totalitarianism is a system of government (or leadership) under which most people are allowed virtually no freedom, authority, or fundamental human rights. Totalitarians exert ideological control, and scapegoating is how they get masses of people to grant them total power. Fascism and Nazism are examples of ideologically driven totalitarianism.
In addition to scapegoating, totalitarians depend on propaganda and total control over information. Book banning and censorship are always used. Totalitarians must make their subjects fear the “other” more than they fear being oppressed by the totalitarian leader.
People get seduced into following a totalitarian dictator because they fantasize that they will be able to secure a place within that small, very powerful minority at the top. They don’t realize the dictator has no intention of sharing power, and anyone and everyone who threatens their absolute power will be knocked off the pyramid or even destroyed.
Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it. — Hannah Arendt
We are constantly bombarded with information. Access to and control of information was the defining characteristic of the Information Age and the current Age of Artificial Information. Those of us who are old enough have experienced three distinct phases of the Information Age. The emerging information age has been described as the Age of Artificial Information. All of these phases increased the concentration of power by controlling information. Technology that initially appeared to remove barriers, bring the world together, and level the playing field quickly evolved to oppress and divide.
The people at the top of the power and wealth pyramid are not an ‘other.’ They are part of the We. They are playing the capitalism game, hoping to win, without realizing they are also vulnerable to being manipulated and controlled by the algorithms they invented. Technology monopolists have joined forces with or become totalitarians. We assist them in their propaganda and manipulation when we use their social media platform, listen to their podcasts or radio stations, and watch their channels on television. We cooperate in their manipulation.
We now live with the “Internet of Things.” The sources of personal information currently mined and used include data from our watches, automobiles, televisions, kitchen appliances, and surveillance cameras. Most of us have no real comprehension of the amount of data collected about us or how it is used to influence and control how we think and spend our time and money.
During the years of the worst spread of the COVID-19 virus, millions of lives were lost, and hundreds of millions will suffer long-term health impacts because of misinformation and intentional disinformation. Of the ten wealthiest people in the world, eight made their fortunes from tech companies. The pandemic made the tech giants unfathomably powerful and rich.
Totalitarians will use whatever tool they can to seize and maintain power. Since the intentional use of propaganda and lies is a core tactic of all fascist regimes, we may look back on the pandemic of 2020–2022 as the fascist plague, not because they manufactured the virus but because they manipulated masses of people in ways that prevented an appropriate response to a massive public health crisis. We must recognize this possibility of being less susceptible to propaganda and lies when the next pandemic spreads. We must prepare because there will be more pandemics in the future.
The most significant gift you can give is to be absolutely present, and when you’re worrying about whether you’re hopeful, or hopeless, or pessimistic, or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you’re showing up, that you’re here, and that you’re finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that. That is what is going to unleash our intelligence and our ingenuity and our solidarity for the healing of our world. — Joanna Macy
Our human minds are capable of extraordinary creativity and wisdom. We developed language to work collaboratively to meet our survival needs and evolve as a species. Humanity evolved through cooperation, not by violence or conflict. Developing language/words was necessary to support cooperative endeavors.
Language can bring us together, but it also separates us. Language functions in part to distinguish “this” from “that.” Although the human mind can embrace complexity, our languages have developed to simplify our communication. Simplicity and complexity co-exist. Our language differences constrain our ability to address complexity collectively.
In addition to the Native American proverb about pointing fingers, there is also a Zen teaching, “Never mistake the finger for the Moon.” Our language is not the truth. Language is merely the finger. The data collected by big Tech companies is not the truth. The truth must be experienced. Words are helpful, yet words cannot replace the complex knowledge available when we fully experience creation/life/reality. Our sense of connection can be cultivated by fully experiencing creation.
We are moving from the Information Age to the Age of Artificial Intelligence, or the Data Age (where data holds the most significant power and influence). Since our verbal and written language tends to support dualistic thinking, computers and artificial intelligence increase that dualism. After all, computer data is binary. Everything is condensed to combinations of zero (0) and one (1). We live in a highly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. It is ludicrous to believe technology that rises out of a built-in binary will ever be capable of addressing the complexity inherent in the universe. Consider that the sense of overwhelm and confusion we are experiencing is due to an overload of data, which is not helpful information.
Humans are at the top of the power pyramid of all the life forms on Earth. Hubris (from Ancient Greek) describes a quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence and complacency. In Greek mythology, hubris describes mortals defying the gods or humans trying to be gods. The Greeks believed nemesis (retribution or punishment) was the consequence of hubris. Hubris is the foundation of many myths, and most of the dominant myths of our time involve scapegoating. Some of what we claim as human progress has contributed to our wicked challenges. Hubris would have us celebrate every technological advancement, even ones that create or contribute to our wicked challenges.
When the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project succeeded at splitting the atom to produce nuclear weapons, they permanently changed the nature of our reality. When the Human Genome Project (1990–2003) developed the ability to sequence human genes, it also unlocked the power to create life. Hubris has led us to the point in history where life can be destroyed or created through the technology we created. Our hubris leads to our nemesis.
Greed, arrogance (hubris), and the lust for power are aspects of the human shadow. They are evil and destructive. Indeed, the line between good and evil strikes through the heart of every human being.
We are taking a journey together as we read this book. We explore the wicked challenges (also described as wicked problems) that we face. The term wicked problem is defined as a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fixed, where there is no single solution to the problem, and “wicked” denotes resistance to resolution rather than evil.
We are using a similar term, wicked challenge, which has the same meaning. The use of the word problem creates a closed loop. By definition, these are challenges that cannot be solved. We use challenge or threat instead of problem because, in many cases, we may disagree about whether we are facing a problem or an opportunity. We use challenge or threat because these words create an opening for breakthroughs (challenge) or openings for action (proactive steps to respond to the threat). We will explore the history behind our sense of separation.
In Chapter One, we will follow the development of ideologies and religion and the rise of the first authoritarians (chiefs, emperors, and kings). Hunter-gatherer and agrarian societies were highly cooperative. Agrarian cultures were settled, and larger groups were formed. In both cultures, extended families or tribes had to collaborate to survive. People were connected to the natural world, and their religious thoughts were animistic. Animism is living with the experience that everything (humans, animals, stones, trees, seas, lakes, rivers, mountains, etc.) is living and possesses a soul, spirit, or anima. These early cultures were not dualistic.
Before the monarchy, women were powerful yet not superior to men. The power hierarchy was not needed. As tribes grew, communication and leadership activities became more complex, and language helped reduce the complexity. Words helped primitive cultures find shared meaning. However, since human beings are meaning-making machines, it did not take long before words created their world. Shared language allowed shared stories, and stories began to shape the culture. Today, our diversity of languages and stories is more complex than ever. We feel divided because our stories and languages shape or define our fractured world.
Chapter Two explores how we raise and educate our children as causative factors, or forces behind, the intensity and complexity of our current highly divisive and violent world. How did the evolution from tribes and extended families to our modern-day nuclear family contribute to our world? What is the role of public education in building a civil society with shared meaning?
The Third Chapter explores the impact of authoritarian leadership on our divisions and our inability to address our wicked challenges or existential threats. We are experiencing a global leadership crisis. Why is our trust and respect for our leaders at an all-time low? Even the CEOs of the largest, most powerful multinational corporations admit they cannot address our global economy’s wicked challenges. Why should we trust a small minority of leaders, many of whom realize they are not qualified to resolve the wicked challenges of our time?
In Chapter Four, we examine the divisive impacts of extreme economic inequality. Over 700 million people in the world lack the necessities of life — food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare. People experiencing extreme poverty face harmful, life-threatening impacts, including malnutrition, low life expectancy, high rates of infant mortality, and an overall lack of safety and stability. In a world where we are all connected, some of us have far too much, while others lack the fundamental things needed to survive. When the small minority of people at the top of the power and wealth pyramid lack compassion, how can the rest of us create a world of plenitude or sufficiency for all?
The Fifth Chapter examines the current political environment in the United States, an entrenched divisive and duopolistic system. Money/wealth has always controlled politics in the United States. Yet, the Declaration of Independence, written to inspire the people to take up arms and revolt against the King, includes three basic ideas of democracy: (1) God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; (2) the main business of government is to protect these rights; (3) if a government tries to withhold these rights, the people are free to revolt and to set up a new government. The Declaration of Independence was aspirational. It did not describe the reality of the times when it was written.
Once the Revolutionary War was over, and it was time to create a new form of government with a Constitution, the promises of the Declaration of Independence were broken. Can a nation formed out of violence and division ever evolve into a true democracy? Our Federal Government is disintegrating, and we feel powerless to save it, or perhaps we don’t even care.
The Sixth Chapter, Our Wicked Challenges, provides a cursory overview of a few additional complex challenges that we have been unable to resolve due to our deep divisions. Zeitgeist is a word that comes straight from German — Zeit means “time,” and geist means “spirit”; the “spirit of the time” is what’s going on culturally, religiously, or intellectually during a specific period. The Zeitgeist is a phenomenon of We. We create and participate in the Zeitgeist. We exist within the Zeitgeist. We are experiencing complex, wicked challenges. Those experiences are individual and shared.
How do we address our wicked challenges in a post-truth zeitgeist? Our current Zeitgeist is one of paradox, contradiction, and confusion. A paradox presents conflicting ideas and relates them in a way that forces you to wonder if it’s true or false. One example of the paradox of the current times is the “anti-woke” movement. The initial meaning of the term “woke” described becoming more aware of social injustice. As time passed, the term began to be used recklessly. People subject to the oppression of social injustice and advocates for social justice began to use the term to separate themselves from others (who were not woke). Underneath that separation is our typical us versus them struggle.
Those who participate in supporting racism or deny the existence of racism and other forms of social injustice began to feel criticized by the term woke. Leaders stepped in using “anti-woke” as powerful propaganda and scapegoating tool.
The term woke, originally used to promote greater tolerance and understanding of the impact of social injustice, divided people into us and them. The desire to promote tolerance created a backlash against tolerance.
This is a classic paradox of tolerance. Beneath the conflict between woke and anti-woke, there is a conversation about tolerance. We must be intolerant of intolerance to remain tolerant. This is only one wicked paradox based on the language we use that is actively dividing us.
In the Seventh Chapter, we turn toward the future. People all over the world are fearful of what we sense is coming. The apparent economic, political, social, and environmental trends are frightening. During the global pandemic, some of these paradigm shifts began to accelerate. We prefer slow, incremental progress. However, a review of human history suggests that evolutionary progress is often dramatic and sudden. History rises out of massive social breakdowns and breakthroughs. Every new generation shapes the world. New inventions create dramatic technological advances. We can be hopeful about our future.
We have strong mental filters. These cognitive devices help us survive but make us closed-minded and even stupid. Our confirmation bias restricts our wisdom, so we reject new ideas or information if it conflicts with what we already know or believe. The belief that we experience the real world, our reality bias, keeps us stuck in what we already know, leaving us with huge blind spots.
Like the Captain of the Titanic, we only see the tip of the iceberg and conclude something that small is not a threat. The biggest threats are usually invisible until it is too late to change course. Our power is limited unless we become part of a larger movement.
The Final Chapter is a Declaration of Our Interdependence. It is a call to action. We need a nonviolent revolution with the power to transform the paradigms that support our sense that we are divided into “us versus them” divisions. Like the Declaration of Independence, its purpose is aspirational. It is a call to join a movement of writers with a shared purpose to inspire a mass movement working to overcome the forces that intentionally divide us. It is a call to obstruct those who use divide-conquer strategies with narratives of unite and thrive.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
We far too frequently act and think as though we do not matter. We also may believe the world around us is out of our control. We do matter. We can and do make a difference for the benefit of the whole.
We live in an age where one person with control over nuclear weapons can destroy life on Earth. Yet, mass movements of people working together can transform the paradigms that divide us.
When we overcome thoughts of separation and resist scapegoating and projecting our shadows, we can create a world that works for all living things. The secret is we need to join or develop movements with other people.
This is the introduction to a book, We: Our Declaration of Interdependence. The book will initially be published on Medium. We are publishing as a free Medium publication, so please share a link on your social media accounts, and share it with family and friends. We need to be reminded of the possibilities that are always available if we resist despair, fear, hatred, and thoughts of division.
We are intentionally seeking multiple perspectives. The “finished” product or final book will be a collaborative effort.
Writers are encouraged to submit essays to the Medium Publication We: Our Declaration of Interdependence. Articles should be written in the 4th Person or collective point of view. Avoid using I and me. Experiment with using We frequently. Please avoid divisive language.
