It doesn’t matter what your politics are. What happened at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 can never be remotely acceptable. When crazies are actually in your house of democracy it’s time to search the soul to find our righteous compass again…and seek new ways forward. Or we contemplate whether democracy even survives slippery slopes of erosion of laws, ethics, and civics.
January 6 was the culmination of convergence of accelerating societal change and challenge, de-valuation of pursuit of US as something more collective in the pursuit of ME-first and only ME, cult of unethical personality, percolation of untruth and hate in social media, and ultimate brainwashing of a small mob of believers who are willing to protest outside law and with arms. It’s a symptom; the illness has been building for a very long time.
But democracy is majority not mob. And majority is not mob.
This can happen in Canada. The underlying forces at play have softer elbows, but they are here. What happens in the U.S. also has strong economic and social ramification for Canada.
As a sensible, decent majority we have been silent too long in ignoring our personal responsibility to contribute to democracy, and to make our own personal contribution to governance. Most of us are extremely nice, logical and pragmatic. We care about others. Why are we giving so much oxygen to the stupid?
Because it’s hard to tell the irrational to shut up in a democracy meant to nurture the voices of the many.
Because we are too busy making our own lives run…on the foundation stones of roads, pipes, parks and places that government has built that we all need to be successful and happy. We just blindly want it to be there. But we have to positively and directly invest in having it there.
Because we take governance for granted….until it’s broken or our basic needs like our lives are under threat….and then wonder in crisis how or why it came to be. Because we don’t value government enough to recommend people serve in it – which means we are draining talent from the very heartbeat of it.
Most of us value government if we scratch our surface, but few personally invest time and energy in its success. Especially those we need most to help…the solution seekers….the good and nice folks of the world. The “Pragmatics”.
Complicating things, our societal set point is to take continual potshots at governance. Too many arm chair critics. Too few solution seekers. Even the Pragmatics are too want to complain.
For the Pragmatics – the vastness of us – absence of personal contribution to making the world around us better is no longer enough. We can create more solutions and generate fewer problems…if WE want to. We are complicit in poor outcomes in our absence.
How do we alter our trajectory? Eight start points….
1) Voting is a start, but we even do that poorly by number and the ideological polarization will be the death of sanity and progress. Politics stinks, because we have allowed it to. Politics is about Sally or Bob worried about or wanting to enable their family’s future. It it NOT about politics feeding its self-centred self – driven by people who respect power not you. Elect sensible solution seekers minus the stench of ideology or party. Call blind ideology out for what it is. Remove incompetence from power. Better appreciate talent. Talent attracts talent….which offers a pathway to a better future.
2) Give disagreement a hug. Polarity and cancel culture is killing us. We can be great friends and disagree, if we remember our mom taught us to open our ears, be kind, be respectful, and be a good citizen of the world. Sorting out disagreement respectfully opens a door to the amazing and the transformative.
3) Have more basic respect for anyone who serves. Value and thank those who are brilliant – elected or working at various levels of government – as if you are polishing a diamond. Respect…and deeper earned trust…are the foundation for anything positive.
4) It’s time to drown out the small numbers of the angry. Start by calling it out on social media. There’s strength in numbers of the pragmatic. Take back our shinier, ambitious, hopeful community-building legacy from the trolls.
5) Do small things for your community. Everyone has something to offer…from mayor to green thumb.
6) For every problem offer five solutions, and be willing to help with your time and energy. Do not be the five problems for every solution person.
7) Smell the narcissistic Drumpf’s of the world for what they are earlier and more strongly. They are easy to spot. They don’t care about you. Real leaders are quieter bridge-builders, who serve YOUR highest aspiration. The best ones do not seek their own spotlight with a tweet every five minutes. There will be more like this to come. It can’t be repeated because stress-testing of democracy in this way is a fool’s game. Don’t elect these personality types. Do not be fearful. Speak truth to power in numbers and truth wins.
8) Think about our kids. Legacy is a powerful word. It reveals the soul of hope and the degree of our willingness to sacrifice to make it happen. Because we get a cold sweat thinking about our kids struggling in a tough world…that we we didn’t do enough to make the world better and can no longer be there to help resolve struggle. Feel the urgency while you still have the ability.
Democracy is constructed in a way that is always vulnerable. It requires an investment from all of us. History shows how badly things can turn out when we lose our collective voice of reason. Please deepen your contribution starting today.