The Upward Path

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The Upward Path

Politics, peace, truth, and who we want to be

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People's Vote march, London, Oct 2018

Out in the world of current affairs, it feels like things are reaching points of tension before whatever the next chapter is.

On Brexit, MPs have realised that something might actually happen and might have actual consequences. Over in the States, the Republicans are perpetrating ever more outrageous awfulness, and more people are waking up to it.

Things are getting exposed to the light, possibly at an increasing rate. And it’s becoming ever clearer that one of the fundamentals for the people on the controller side is an inability to work together with others. This is… well, it’s good in the sense that their endeavours fall apart, but not so good in the fallout that their repeated self-interest projects keep generating.

There’s also the universe asking us a question: ‘Who do you want to be?’ As each horrible thing is uncovered, we have to ask: are we part of that? Do we countenance that?   [Read more…] about Politics, peace, truth, and who we want to be

Do you belong to the 21st century growth tribe?

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Many hands as leaves on a tree

This is a term that popped into my head the other day. I was pondering ideal clients, niche, etc, as I do every so often.

I’ve always struggled with it, and I know I’d help myself if I were clearer. The thing is, I kind of know who I’m aiming at, even though it’s rather broad and cloudy and – here’s the point – resistant to a short label.

It’s the people who are building the new world, or the new story of the world. The people who are the foam at the edges as the tide comes in.

I keep spotting myself using ’21st century’ as an adjective. It’s a shorthand for the way the world is, with the problems that face us and the trends in society, and for the way we ought to be operating to be in tune with that. So much in society, and particularly in the news, is still running patterns of the late 20th century.

It’s part of what I talk about in my book Crowd/Control, and over at The Upward Path. That idea of living in a time when the human path forks, and we can choose to move into a better potential or a grubby cul-de-sac.

Who are they then?

So, who are the 21st century growth tribe? Creative entrepreneurs, personal development folks like coaches and therapists, thought leaders, social and community enterprises, the ecosystem of creative and ethical microbusinesses, self-realisers, potential uncoverers, compassion leverers, truth tellers, idea makers, tech channellers, crowdsourcers …   [Read more…] about Do you belong to the 21st century growth tribe?

Coffee table Christianity

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Crooked church interior

This has bugged me since I was a teenager. The tendency to social Christianity – claiming it as a badge of social respectability, especially when it’s obviously hollow.

I have an over-developed sense of integrity, and as a young man it caused me great stress that I couldn’t call myself a Christian while my upbringing said I should, and the people I was hanging out with were. Eventually I passed through and realised I was making a mountain I didn’t need to. We’re lucky enough to live in a place and time where you can find the path that’s right for you.

I do value religion as part of our human heritage and a source of wisdom, and I even worked for a multi-faith network for a while.

To me, religion has to be about what you believe and value inside, and how you live your life and act in the world.

So it’s kind of grotesque to see people in politics, for instance, here and in the States, claiming Christianity because they think they have to as part of the price of admission, and then acting completely contrary to its teachings.

You don’t have to be a Christian to know what it’s about and find value in it. And one of the strongest parts of its identity is social concern. Jesus talks about loving your neighbour and helping those in need.

If you’re ignoring people’s cries for help, targeting the vulnerable, creating fear and hatred against those who are different – I’m sorry, you are not a Christian. If you’re responsible for things that hurt people, even after a million photos with your head bowed you’re still hurting people.

The US right-wing alt-Christians are particularly appalling on this. They use the name of the religion as a screen for their bizarrely tangled inner landscape of fear and hate. In the presidential election run-up I saw a clip of a ‘pastor’ ranting about how gays should be rounded up and killed. And no one was throwing him out of his post. (Indeed, some presidential candidates were in the audience.)

You don’t get the Christianity badge just by saying so. Not even if you genuinely believe you’re a Christian. Two thousand years of history and billions of believers worldwide deserve more honesty and respect than that. And to be honest I’d like to see more challenges from Christians to these distortions and delusions. And from the rest of us, challenging these outdated ideas about how respectability works.

If you’re crucifying, you shouldn’t get to hide behind the cross.

Photo by Tim Gray. It’s a local church in the Brecon Beacons, Wales, that’s been affected by subsidence. Quite disorienting to visit.

 

The control reaction driving the world

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There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.
– Robert Benchley

There are a zillion ways to classify people, and one of the most important is by mental elasticity.

Most of us like to know what’s what. If the picture of the world in our head is a good map to what (and who) goes where, that makes us feel secure. Some of us can tolerate a fair bit of bending, twisting and horizon expanding. Some can’t stand much at all, and have a strong need for the world and their place in it to stay simple and consistent.

And some people, of course, want systems and structures and hierarchies to stay put so they can keep their position at the top of the heap.

So when people start talking to each other from anywhere to anywhere, and cross-fertilising ideas, and doing business by going round established institutions, that generates resistance. It comes from people who rather like the old ways of doing things: clear hierarchies (especially with themselves at the top), people divided into distinct communities, and uniform ways of thinking.

The changing world rubs against their worldview and produces reactions of fear and anger. And they respond by trying to create greater control.

The fact that the world is changing creates cultural forces to enforce structure and lock in vested interest.   [Read more…] about The control reaction driving the world

Tribalism – shielding ourselves from an inconvenient world

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Demonstration divided

This is so common these days. People use labels as a form of angry dismissal. ‘You remainers, liberals, leftists, feminists…’

It’s taking refuge in a tribe, using it as a structure to make sense of a world that stretches and inflames us. Tribes can be good, but not when they’re at war with the Other.

The internal process goes like this. ‘They are one of those people, and those people always say those things, so I don’t need to take those things seriously.’ It’s a way of draining power out of input that challenges our worldview or threatens to give us more thinking work.

It operates through a story of implacable opposition between Them and Us. ‘They’ will always oppose/badmouth what is good and right. What ‘they’ are expressing is not real thought, real concern, real fear.

Or it’s just a handy rationale for a ‘chimp response’ outburst to let off a pressure of discomfort-energy.

In UK politics a form of empty tribalism took the place of real ideas for the last few years. It was the Red Team versus the Blue Team, and political debate was too often framed as tribal warfare rather than genuine questioning of ideas. Even petitions crowdsourced from the public got painted by this dismissal tactic.

I was going to post this yesterday, but held off as news of an attack in London was coming through. One man killed and injured a number of people. Before there was any public information about him apart from a glimpse of a brown face, social media was full of the familiar frothing claims that Muslims would destroy the country and they should all be sent away.

Muslims are often the out-tribe, the blame-tribe, that people latch on to when things go wrong. Even if this man does turn out to be an Islamic terrorist, does that mean he somehow represents millions of people who never knew him?

I can understand the appeal of a worldview made of a small number of blocks, but it will never be a good model of reality. People are complex.

The point is, this kind of tribalism stops us engaging with the truth. It’s easier to wrap our energy up in the artificial conflict.

But there are many truths that desperately need engagement. What actually is going on? What kind of world and society do we actually want? What steps will we take to get there? That’s where the action is.

Reality continues down its path whether we show up to influence it or sit in bunkers throwing mud at each other.

I think most people don’t want to be frightened and angry, defending their territory against enemies real or imagined. I think they would love peace.

The only way to get there is to break the pattern, brave a little discomfort and join the tribe of Engagers.

 

Your message matters

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Fingers with faces

The shape of the world around us isn’t great at the moment. A lot of things that should be right are wrong.

That shape comes from how people act, and that comes from how they think, and that comes from their worldview – from deep attitudes to information they just picked up. And that comes from the messages that swirl around them. It’s like the atmosphere for our brains. We breathe it in and out without realising.

There’s a lot of pollution in that atmosphere. A lot of outdated attitudes, fear-driven behaviour and self-interested spin. A lot of people have got caught up in those things, and then they try to spread them and defend them to make themselves right.

We need fresh air to counter that. Messages of compassion, empathy, insight, inspiration, collaboration. Telling us that there really are better possibilities, for ourselves and our fellow humans and our world, and that we really can head that way.  [Read more…] about Your message matters