When The Darkness Descends….Live Your Values – Part 2 - Dick Rauscher
We ended our discussion in the previous Stonyhill-Nugget on the importance of embracing reality if we want to embrace hope in what feels like dark times for our nation. Today I want to continue Part 2 of that conversation by taking a deeper look at the subject of value, and the importance of value clarity if we want to embrace hope in what feels like dark times for our nation.
To get us back up to speed, here are the last few paragraphs of Part 1. We left off our discussion at Reality #8……….talking about how values matter.
Reality #8: Values matter.
The potential for hope is present in all of the realities above. But hope will not be nurtured and strengthened until we are clear on what we love and value! Until we have a clear vision of the “possible future” we want to live in. The “possible future” we are willing to stand up and fight “for”. Fighting against Trump, fighting against the darkness we feel, fighting against a particular political party, or fighting against any given future will not be successful. We will need to fight “for” the “possible future” we want to pass on to future generations. Our children and their children. All the children of the world. The only way I know how to do that is through value clarity.
I believe there is great hope embedded in the opportunity we are being offered to rewrite the direction of our nation and the direction of our world. The opportunity to rethink our choices, behaviors, and decisions in the coming days….because they will determine that “possible future” we want to create. The choices are becoming more clear every day. We can choose to fight against the 1% or for a bottom-up rule of all the people….the dream of our founding fathers. We can choose to fight against change (to preserve a past that is fading away and perhaps already gone), or for a “possible future” shaped and created by the wisdom embedded in the values we are willing to support and fight “for”.
Only when we are willing to fight for our core values and defend them with all our strength and passion against those who would have us abandon them for any reason…..only then will we have the strength and courage to manage the chaos created by change and successfully create the “possible future” we dream about creating as a nation, as a world, as a global community.
Here is the beginning of Part 2………………..
I’ve received a lot of emails and comments from readers on Part 1. Most readers thought the realities I talked about in Part 1 were important and helpful, but the majority of the comments I received were focused on where do we go from here? What values do we need to clarify? Which values did I believe will be most important as we create our new “possible future”?
Here are some of the values that I will be fighting for to manifest and strengthen hope in the coming days as we face the disruptive forces of change. I believe these core values have the power to overcome the black swan events that are going to change the world as we know it. They will also guide us as we struggle to cope with the many economic and political change events we have created for ourselves.
But the most important benefit that will come from the core beliefs listed below will be their ability to confront and overcome the dangerous illusion of separateness and the self-focused greed it creates. I believe the unconscious primitive childhood ego illusion that we are all somehow separate from one another, and from the world, we live on, is beyond doubt the most dangerous illusion ever created by our collective human consciousness. It is even more dangerous than our unconscious childhood ego’s compulsive need to be right.
When we authentically embrace and intentionally live by the values listed below, the illusion of separateness and the need to be right will no longer threaten the extinction of our birth mother and all of the species she has created… including us.
Value #1: Mutual benefit/common good.
This value will enter the world when we shift our consciousness from its obsessive focus on “me” to “we”.When we are willing to share the resources of our planet with the “whole”.When there is true equality, mutual benefit, and common good for all of the living species on our planet. Not just humans. When diversity is honored and protected as sacred. When opportunity for all is the bedrock of justice. When we have dropped the illusion of separateness that creates all categories of otherness. When we have dropped the narcissistic need to be “right” and learned to recognize the truth on both sides of every issue.
Value #2: Middlepath Dialectical Thinking.
When we offer our opinions in the imperative voice of absolute truth, we are manifesting a very immature level of human consciousness. It is the consciousness of a very young child. And when used by an adult, it represents a dangerous and disturbing level of ignorance.It is a refusal to embrace the truths found on both sides of every issue i.e., middlepath thinking.
It also reflects a lack of wisdom; an uneducated level of consciousness in that it ignores the importance of negative feedback present in all of nature and creation. Negative feedback prevents any one point of view or living species from becoming too powerful, or out of balance with opposing points of view or other life forms. In human culture, free speech is a form of negative feedback in that it recognizes the importance of opposing points of view in a democracy. Black and white, all or nothing ideological thinking that uses the imperative voice of absolute truth is a very dangerous form of ignorance, especially when it is embraced by politicians or people in power. It is a common indicator of an oppressive government. And it creates enormous levels of violence, pain, and suffering in the world.
Value #3: An Economic system based on sharing, cooperation, and sustainability.
Our current economic system is flawed in many ways. First, it is based on greed and a self-focused what’s in it for me. The roots of injustice, conflict, and violence are all deeply embedded in the black soil of greed. Secondly, it is supported by, and dependent on, carbon-based coal and petroleum….the energy sources creating global warming. Our economic system needs to end the era of petroleum and aggressively support the sustainable green energy of wind and solar.
Value #4: Decency and respect.
We need to support any value that creates respect for others and supports common decency. Our ego’s need to be right reflects the unhealthy opinion many of us have of our own importance. Moral values remind us that true justice is always built on the bedrock of kindness, empathy, compassion, mutuality, and humility.
When these basic, core value systems work together, the human species will be in “right relationship with nature” and our planet’s fragile ecosystem that both birthed us and now sustains us. We are like frogs in a pot on a hot stove. We are headed for extinction. But by the time we recognize our plight and fully embrace the values listed above, like the frogs in the pot, it may well be too late to save ourselves
Hope is not created by wishing. Hope is not sustained by pushing the river and avoiding change. Hope is the by-product of awakened action based on core values and manifested in the “now”. I believe the Trump presidency is an opportunity for our nation and the world to awaken to the core values that we will need to get ourselves out of the pot. More than any change event in modern times I believe the Trump presidency will have the power to awaken our nation’s consciousness. I believe in the American people. I believe that the core values that created our nation are alive and well in our hearts. I do not believe we will let those core values be corrupted or taken away by any person, political party, or President. I believe the more our nation’s core values are threatened, the more we will awaken as a nation to reaffirm them.
I believe we might well be entering that time in our Nations's history.
Conclusion:
I am hopeful because I believe values matter. Morality matters. Cultures built on core values are powerful and enduring.
I am hopeful because I believe that Trump has begun a much-needed awakening in our human consciousness.
I am hopeful because I believe that the core values I listed above are the core values of the majority of people on our planet.
I am hopeful because I believe that people recognize the wisdom embedded in the core values listed above.
I am hopeful because I believe at a core level, the values above represent values that most people would be willing to live for, fight for, and support.
I am hopeful because the despair and darkness so many of us feel following the Trump election, is both a sign of and proof, that people want the values listed above to shape the world they live in.
I am hopeful because I believe the sense of chaos, the suffering, the level of injustice, and the hunger and poverty present in the world have reached a tipping point. It has reached a level of suffering and injustice that most people in the world are ready to confront and fight to overcome. I call this the awakening of our human species.
I am hopeful because I believe that most people are ready to fight for change. They are ready to fight for justice and the right to live with hope.
I am hopeful because I believe that in winning the presidential election, Trump has unknowingly shocked the nation into a long-awaited awakening. It has shocked the world out of its complacency. I have faith and hope because I believe that our nation will hold fast to the values above, and we will be successful in separating out the wheat from the chaff in Trump’s Presidency. That we will fight for justice, equality, mutual benefit, and for the common good.
Summary
As I have pointed out above, we are seeking a new way forward…we need to speak out with courage… not curse the darkness… we need to fight “for” the light, not against the darkness! The metaphor we might embrace would be the lighting of a candle, and then passing the light of that flame to your neighbor’s candle… person to person, town to town, city to city, nation to nation, until the “whole” we-ness of the planet shares equally in the light.
There is no such thing as “the future”.There are only “possible futures”.The future we will experience will be created one choice and one decision at a time… by each of us personally and by all of us collectively… but I believe the “possible” future that most of us would choose to live in… would fully embrace the values above.
Our nation and world are seeking a new path forward. Our future is uncertain. Our human ego resists change and planning. But hating the status quo and overturning the existing ruling class will not alone create a better future… only our values can do that… only our values will determine the kind of people we want to be… how we regard others, other fellow humans, and other living species. That is the fundamental choice each of us has to embrace. And it’s why I am hopeful.
