Welcome to 2021, and to Living Conscience. This post is a look back at the lessons of 2020: very personal lessons for me, with gratitude to all who participated in the informal email conversations that led to this learning. (The last year’s worth of shared ideas are posted below, if you want to browse through them.)
In the past year, I've learned more about our shared U.S. history than I did in school (to be fair, I've forgotten a lot that I learned in school, too). I found historical context to be oddly comforting, even when it raised disturbing insights. The medium view (centuries) and the long view (millennia) both put our own era in perspective.
One of the most important through-lines in my understanding of our story is the ongoing competition between two divergent worldviews. In one, power is rightly restricted to a relatively small group, due to their "natural" superiority. Whether based on race, nationality, gender, education, wealth, family connections, or a combination of elements, this group is defined as having the ability and responsibility to wield power on behalf of the whole. The rest are considered inferior; at best, they are due a responsibility of care, but not a truly proportional share of power. At worst, they are simply part of a vast economic machine that moves wealth upward. At various times in our history, membership in the privileged class has been somewhat fluid, but it has always been primarily White, male, heterosexual/cisgender, college-educated, and able-bodied. The grotesque epitome of this worldview was given voice in the Trump candidacy and governance, which deemed the leader as "the only one" who could solve the country's problems.
But the exclusive/hierarchical worldview goes much broader and deeper, and some of it hides in all of us. We find ourselves thinking "those people shouldn't be allowed to vote," for example, because of their beliefs or behaviors. As soon as we consider "those people" less worthy of full participation in our democratic and social systems, we align with hierarchy. It is also baked into many of our social, political, and economic structures. Leaders have the right to power because of their status, background, and access to information and networks of other powerful people; the rest of us should step back and let them govern (or lead our organizations and businesses and schools). It appeals to the part in all of us that has been taught to find safety or comfort in categorizing people.
The other worldview is one in which every human (and indeed, the natural world) is due an equal and equitable voice in the governance of our communities. Government itself serves as the structure by which communal voices are represented. It is not an enterprise of the noble taking care of the masses, but rather a messy, vibrant gathering of competing and complementary perspectives. The purpose of government is to provide a basic set of support and safeguards that function to allow the entire community to thrive. In this equitable world view, no single group is due the role of leadership, or the lion's share of resources. No person is owed the ability to amass unlimited wealth or power. The obligation of care is not from the "few" to the "many," it is from all to all, from this generation to past and future generations, and from all to the natural world. In this worldview, profit is abstract and, in its extremes, toxic. True wealth is found in relationships, in sustainable ways of providing for our needs, in meaningful work, and in time to explore our deeper connections to nature, spirit, and one another.
Our country has experienced the tension between these views (which I've oversimplified here, for comparison purposes; they exist on more of a continuum than an either/or split) at least since Europeans landed on its shores. In 2020, political dynamics and the pandemic revealed just how much the exclusive/hierarchical worldview has taken hold, and just how brittle it is, how hard it must fight to prevent any expansion of the equitable worldview. Through political machinations, propaganda, lies big and small, and even violence, the few strive to hold onto their "rights" to unrestricted wealth and power. (I highly recommend this reflection on 2020 and the growing "antimajoritarianism" of the right from On the Media: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/year-right)
So, as I look ahead to 2021, this newsletter is one way I intend to support the growth of the equitable/humanitarian worldview. I hope you’ll join me in this journey.