Sunday, June 6, 2010

Revolution and Retreat

Our country was created by men who had very varied lines of communication and education, but they were still limited to the WASP mindset, which was their only frame of reference for ruling. The world of communication and education today encompasses the wide world of ideas and ideologies. Some are frightened by this; others are energized.

I find it exciting that I can exchange ideas with people that I may never meet from places that I may never visit. My friend Susan can find some degree of connection in every encounter she has. I’m quite convinced that she could find someone who knew someone she knows in the snow banks of Siberia. I have learned from her to look for areas of agreement in every encounter.

What makes our country so vibrant is our ability to accommodate and assimilate. The changes since the Second World War expanded our technological and industrial capabilities, while opening our eyes to the horrors of hatred and the wealth of the world views beyond our borders. This happened mighty fast for easy assimilation, which has many of us reeling to regain our footing.

Our only hope to conquer our fears is constant communication. We must talk about what we fear in order to learn how to handle it. We must also learn to discern truth from a distillation of all the varied voices in the cacophony.

I read in Time Magazine about a study of how people choose their leaders. This article stated that those who speak most forcefully and loudly are followed. This seems to be the case in most of today’s society. My Richard is fond of telling me that just because I can talk louder than he does, it doesn’t mean I’m right.

I don’t think our founding fathers were a bombastic bunch. They seem to have been a very thoughtful, possibly even soft-spoken, group of guys. And they sure could construct a concise statement of their mission and position.

Society doesn’t wrap their heads around revolution without much anxiety about the unknown. We don’t change our way of life in a vacuum. All of our changes create a domino effect down the line of all our networks.

Those of us who are blessed with many unrelated spokes coming off the hub of ourselves in our sphere of influence may be better able to handle more rapid change than those who have all their people in a straight row from the center of their lives. Many voices may make new ideas easier to understand.

There’s an adage in business that, in order for a business to succeed, one shouldn’t invent something new, but should improve what already exists by ten percent. I come from a very malfunctional family. I have spent my life attempting to improve the functionality of the generations that come after me in ten percent per generation increments. Some have soared and some have stumbled, but I do believe that patient persistence is better than retreat to the safety of our past.