A Voice of Wisdom From The Past
Years ago former President Jimmy Carter said, "A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity."
I can't think of any words that more powerfully or more clearly speak to the task that faces our nation; that of re-building trust in America as a compassionate global nation. His words also expose the danger of using an insecure primitive ego thinking process to create a nation's foreign and domestic policies.
We recently explored the danger of mixing the black-and-white primitive ego thinking of religious fundamentalism with politics. In this issue we will take a brief look at the last eight years of American politics to illustrate the problem associated with primitive ego thinking in government, and then we will take a brief look at the role that primitive ego thinking played in the current world financial crisis.
The world's current banking and financial crisis is an excellent example of why unconscious primitive ego thinking can be so dangerous; especially when it unconsciously controls the behaviors of powerful public servants.
A Brief Look At How Primitive Ego Thinking Dominates The Bush Administration
The primary goal of the ego in early childhood is essentially that of achieving a sense of safety and security as we try to navigate and struggle to make sense of a confusing and often frightening adult world. We refer to the ego of the unconscious inner-child psyche that resides inside all of us as "primitive", not pejoratively, but rather in the sense that it developed from the experiences of very early childhood.
In childhood, it is common to search for security by returning to what worked yesterday so-as-to avoid having to embrace the anxiety that comes from an unknown tomorrow. When we see this behavior and thinking process dictating the behaviors of adult public officials, it clearly demonstrates the fear and insecurity that emanates from an unconscious primitive ego.
For eight years, the Bush administration has tried to return us to a time when the nations of the world were isolated and independent; to the consciousness and worldview of a much earlier colonial era in human history; a time when nations were often referred to as "Empires". This administration did not seem to understand that imperial arrogance is an outmoded, pre-modern ideology; a power "over", survival of the fittest consciousness that the rest of our global human culture is struggling to move beyond.
Over the last eight years America has behaved with bluster, boasting, rashness, arrogance, and other signs of narcissistic insecurity. The arrogant unilateral exercise of American power and our imperialistic bullying of other nations has all but destroyed the trust that we once held as a nation; a time when we were known as "a beacon of light on the hill." The Bush administration failed to understand that, regardless of America's military power, it is intellectually and emotionally impossible for other nations to trust a morally and ethically "weak" nation. Fear will work for a while, but eventually it only creates angry rebellion and conflict. People do not like to be threatened.
As a nation, we have insisted on projecting a narcissistic primitive ego consciousness to the world that completely ignored the fact that we have increasingly become a debtor nation that has lost much of its sovereignty. We have systematically given up the authority to effectively govern ourselves as a nation. For example, China alone has extended over one trillion dollars in loans to America. How many of us would self-righteously walk into a bank that holds the mortgage on our home and arrogantly assume that we had the right to tell those bank officials how to run their bank?
I believe that much of the banking crisis sweeping the financial markets of the world is nothing more than a reflection of the extraordinarily low esteem and lack of trust that the American people and other nations of the world currently have in the leadership of our nation.
In a global world, no nation is an island. No one religion, no one nation, no one political party, no one form of government, and no one economic system contains all the truth or owns the master narrative that bestows any nation or institution the "right" or authority to exercise control over others. More than any other recent example, the global financial crisis illustrates clearly the reality that, like it or not, we are rapidly becoming a global human culture.
America has not only lost the trust of its people, we have become a weak nation in eyes of the world. It is time for us to drop our imperial arrogance and once again manifest gentleness and restraint; to extend a helping hand to others. It is time for humility, cooperation, and open dialogue with the other nations of the world.
Not only have our leaders in Washington dangerously threatened and weakened the constitutional guidelines of our democracy, they have all but destroyed our ability, as one of the most powerful nations the world has ever produced, to provide the leadership and moral guidance that the world so critically needs as it emerges from an isolated tribal mentality and moves into a more interconnected global worldview.
But let me be clear.
I am not talking about political, financial, or military leadership. I am not talking about exerting more imperialist power "over" other nations, I am talking about the ability to intentionally evolve our consciousness as a people and become an enlightened nation that leads by example; to once again become a "beacon on the hill"; to earn a position of trust rather than simply assuming we have it because we are America.
I am talking about a nation that becomes a beacon of light for justice, tolerance, and compassion…a nation that cares for the powerless and dispossessed peoples of the world. America is the most powerful empire the world has ever produced, but no empire in the history of the world has ever successfully ignored issues of justice and compassion and survived. It is very difficult to love or trust a bully or a tyrant.
Reflexive consciousness emerged in the human species over millions of years of biological evolution, but given the exponential growth of human technological advancements and our uncontrolled primitive ego exploitation of the earth's natural resources; an exploitation that threatens our existence as a species, we cannot afford to wait another few million years to evolve through biology alone.
The survival of our species will require that the future evolution of humanity will need to take place much more quickly than is possible through infinitesimally small evolutionary changes in our biology. Only through the intentional, and significantly more rapid, growth of human consciousness will we be able to effectively address the crises and challenges that our reflexive consciousness and our collective primitive ego have created for us.
Lets take a brief look at the details of the current financial crisis to illustrate why we have to move beyond primitive ego thinking and undertake the task of intentionally enlightening and evolving our species consciousness.
The World Financial Crisis: A Helpful Illustration of Why Humanity Needs To Become Self-Aware of Its Primitive Ego
The frightening reality is that virtually every adult alive today is unknowingly controlled by the primitive ego of his or her unconscious inner-child. We may appear to function as mature adults, but not unlike a sponge that sheds water when squeezed, we will continue to manifest aggressive child-like survival skills and child-like behaviors whenever we are squeezed by emotional stress.
Our primitive ego is greedy, very "me" oriented, and tends to be impatient…it wants what it wants when it wants it. It becomes angry when someone dares to be critical or says no to something it wants. In other words, our primitive ego is always narcissistically "right" and gets very angry when someone challenges or disagrees with its firmly held beliefs.
Our primitive ego also tends to be very "tribal" in its orientation. The tribe may be a literal tribe, a political party, a religious institution, a particular banking institution, or even a national government. Our primitive ego judgmentally assumes that anyone who is not a member of the "tribe", is emotionally experienced as one of "them"; an enemy to be wary of. This deep sense of "otherness", toward those who are outside of the tribe, fuels the judgmental, "power-over", survival-of-the-fittest worldview so common in primitive ego thinking.
In other words, when a "responsible" executive is promoted in an American financial or banking institution (tribe), and put in a position of financial responsibility where much of the oversight, transparency, and regulatory controls, that would impose limits on their behaviors, have been systematically removed or weakened by the current administration and congress, it should come as no surprise when the narcissistic primitive ego of this executive's inner-child unconsciously takes over.
When this happens, the primary goal of the executive's primitive ego will be to maximize his or her own salary and benefits. So-as-to ensure the first goal, the second primary goal of the executive's primitive ego will be focused on making certain that the financial institution or "tribe" that they work for makes as much money as possible. The long-range consequences of their executive behaviors will be considered irrelevant by their "me" oriented primitive ego. The long-range consequences of their behaviors will be assumed to be someone else's problem. The greater the power and authority exercised by the executive, the greater will be the denial of responsibility.
This analysis is not intended to imply that the person in the above illustration is a "bad" or evil person. It simply means that they are behaving "normally" for someone whose consciousness has not yet intentionally grown or matured. Growth in consciousness comes primarily from an intentional growth in self-awareness. Because they have not learned to pay-attention to the fact that they are being emotionally controlled by the primitive ego of their unconscious inner-child, virtually any executive put in the same position of financial authority and responsibility would tend to behave in a similar manner.
Until we intentionally mature our consciousness and successfully awaken our more enlightened and adult observing ego consciousness, removing financial or public oversight in our financial or political institutions is a sure and certain path to abuse of power and in some cases, national crisis. And given that the primitive ego does not like being told no, it also makes sense as to why the Bush administration has systematically dismantled or ignored legal and Constitutional oversight and limits on Executive power over the last eight years.
Until our human species learns to mature its consciousness and adopt a more enlightened "we" oriented worldview, it will be a difficult or next to impossible challenge for anyone to obtain, and then successfully sustain, the high level of trust required to be an effective public official without equally high levels of oversight and regulatory controls.
I am convinced that the intentional evolution of our species consciousness is the most important task that has ever faced humanity. Primitive ego survival of the fittest thinking did a good job of ensuring our survival when we lived in caves, but the future survival of our human culture, and perhaps even the very survival of our species itself, is going to be totally dependent on our ability to "intentionally" become a more compassionate and enlightened species.
The peaceful resolution of global conflict will happen only when every citizen in every nation is able to confidently trust their political and financial public servants and know beyond a doubt that the needs, rights, and resources of our tiny planet are equally accessible to every human being on our planet.
This level of trust will be created only when we fully understand the dangers of allowing our unconscious primitive ego to emotionally control our "adult" thinking process, and only when we are able as a species to achieve the sustained empathy and compassion that comes from growth in self-awareness.
The Stonyhill Primitive Ego Theory of Human Social and Spiritual Development© was developed to offer not only a coherent theory for the development and evolution of human consciousness, but to also provide the psychological tools and insights needed so-as-to enable the infusion of "intentionality" in the future growth of our species consciousness. PETHSSD is a developmental theory of the human ego that anyone interested in authentic spiritual growth can use to intentionally evolve his or her consciousness.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
I have been listening to the media discuss the financial bailout and on-going crisis in our world banking and financial institutions. They claim that it is a general lack of confidence in our financial system. I disagree. I believe that the problem is a basic lack of trust in America.
We read about the greed and corruption of our elected officials, we read about the greed and corruption pervasive in our financial systems, we read about CEO's earning on average 344 times the income of the average worker, we read about multimillion dollar golden parachutes for CEO's regardless of how effectively or poorly they managed their companies…..so who should we trust?
In one of the most important political elections in recent American history we listen to the media report as "breaking news" what appear to be obvious and intentional lies, gross distortions of the truth, and comments clearly taken out of context……so who should "we" trust?
We read about our current administration as having more dangerously dismantled the rights and laws established by our Constitution than any administration in American history……so how do we stay hopeful?
The world has seen us turn into an arrogant country that unilaterally exercises political and military power around the globe, tortures prisoners, and denies the right of habeas corpus to prisoners regardless of lack of proven guilt……so who should the other nations of the world trust?
We are experiencing the consequences of a rapidly emerging global human culture that no longer knows who or what to turn to for basic moral guidelines. We no longer have a "beacon on the hill" to provide that moral compass. More enlightened issues such as justice, human rights, democracy, freedom, and compassion are in an ideological life-and-death struggle with former tribal loyalties……in national governments, religious institutions, financial institutions, and in our national political parties.
It feels like the world is entering a time of darkness; a darkness that desperately needs some light.
I believe that one of the changes necessary to bring the light of trust back should be significantly tougher laws to deal with those who violate their position of public trust.
For example, elected and appointed political leaders and public officials who betray public trust, corporate CEO's who break trust with stock holders and employees, media reporters and ad agencies that accept money or knowingly report lies, distortions, and comments that are taken out of context and reported as "news", or knowingly report as "news" things that they know are not truthful, especially during political elections, should be held to significantly higher non-negotiable ethical and moral standards than a normal citizen.
They should suffer mandatory and significantly higher legal social and financial consequences when they do choose to knowingly compromise the public trust that they have been given. The social and financial consequences should be severe enough that the majority of public officials would not even consider breaking public trust for personal gain or fraudulent institutional profit.
This may seem like a harsh solution, but a nation that loses trust in its political, corporate, and media leadership is a nation that is one small step away from anarchy; a reality that we are current struggling with in the world's global financial market crisis. Emotionally manipulating voters in a presidential election through lies and intentional distortion of the truth is an exceedingly ignorant and dangerous way to insure the viability of a democratic nation.
If voters cannot trust the words of persons running for public office or the information that the media present as "news", especially in a presidential election, our democratic way of life is in certain and serious danger. Our Presidential election may appear to be orderly, but without a high level of voter trust in the election process and the media, that sense of order is simply a dangerous illusion. Without trust, there is only shallow emotional chaos guiding our future. To survive, a democracy demands that voters engage their intellect, and their intellect requires a healthy diet of truth. Ignorance survives nicely on emotion.
We are not talking about evil or "bad" people; we are simply talking about people in positions of leadership who have not yet learned that they are being unconsciously controlled by their narcissistic primitive ego; that everything in the universe is connected; that what happens in one part of the world, intimately impacts what happens in other parts.
Behaviors that we were able to cope with when our nation was more isolated and "tribal" have become far more dangerous in our emerging global culture. As we move toward a more global culture, the systemic interconnections that we always "knew" existed on an intellectual level, are now being emotionally and physically experienced as dangerous political, corporate, financial, and religious realities that can no longer be ignored.
We can successfully evolve our consciousness only if we are willing to pay attention and grow in self-awareness. We all have the ability to become more compassionate---both as individuals and as a species. There is great truth in the concept that when any one of us grows in self-consciousness, the consciousness of the entire universe grows. We all have the ability to mature our consciousness and change our behaviors to reflect the reality that we "are" systemically interconnected; to live our day-to-day lives in a way that embraces the simple reality that no individual and no nation is an island.
As the consciousness and self-awareness of each of us grows, our psyche becomes increasingly comfortable accepting the reality that the problems that face us as a species are not someone else's problems to solve. They are "our" problems, and each of us is responsible to become part of the solution
The global need for the kind of trust that comes from growth in our collective consciousness is critical, and it is growing daily. Our primitive ego does not like to look at itself, so simply waiting for change is not a viable option; growth in self-consciousness requires intentionality.
Our world is currently struggling to find its way into a successful future. To accomplish this goal, we need to better understand the critical importance of trust and the crucial role that trust will play in the creation of a compassionate and peaceful global culture. There will always be conflict in the world, but the compassionate, non-violent resolution of conflict will always depend on a solid bedrock of dialogue, negotiation and trust.
Because each of us has the ability to intentionally evolve our self-consciousness, to become self-aware and bring light into the world, each of us has the opportunity to literally change the world; to make a difference. Imagine what it might mean for the future of our species if enough of us could intentionally move to this next level of self-awareness. Some believe that it could be a greater evolutionary step for humanity than the birth of reflexive consciousness itself.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Mark Twain once said "the secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
Authentic spiritual growth and growth in self-awareness is a lifetime accomplishment that happens in small steps. Every time we pay attention to our behaviors and thoughts, without judging them, we take another step into an enlightened consciousness. If we don't like what we see, but are willing to be patient and pay attention every time the thought or behavior emerges, eventually the old way will no longer make sense to us and change will come effortlessly.
This is the skill of learning to own our own feelings rather than projecting them onto others. It is the path to true freedom and enlightenment.
QUOTES
"A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity." Former President Jimmy Carter
"The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are." Thomas Dreier
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