ROW Episode 5

In this episode we examine why it is imperative that we forge unity of thought followed by unity of action at every level of society: local, national, and international; and how we might set about achieving this goal.

Transcript

Sovaida: 0:08

Hello and welcome to Reimagining Our World, a podcast dedicated to envisioning a better world and to infusing hope that we can make the principled choices to build that world. In this episode, we examine why it's important to forge unity of thought and unity of action at every level of society, whether local, national or international, and how we might set about achieving this goal. If we want to build an ever advancing society, which is something I think we all aspire to, then there are going to be certain requirements. We need unity of thought and unity of action. When we talk about unity of thought, there are basically two constituent elements. One is unity of vision. We need to come to an agreement as a society or as a nation, or as a people about what kind of people we want to be, what kind of a nation we want to be, who we want to be, how we want to show up in our behaviors, in our accomplishments, in our achievements in our values. And also we need to figure out what the means are that we're going to espouse in order to attain that vision. There'll be a session later on, one of the episodes, will talk about the whole concept of ends and means, but I just wanted to kind of give this as a framework. That's the first kind of unity of thought that we need to build an ever advancing society. The second is a unity of understanding regarding several things. We need to have a unified understanding of the dangers that confront us as a society. We need to have unity of understanding regarding the opportunities that are available to us as a society, regarding the choices that are available to us and regarding our values or global ethics or ethics and national ethics. We covered this in one of the earlier episodes, the importance of people identifying a set of global ethics or national ethics that they can espouse and then implement methodically, systematically in order to achieve their goals and to do so without compromising those foundational principles or ethics Once we have achieved unity of vision and unity of understanding around these four elements, then the foundations are set for us to take unity of action, to then proceed and accomplish those goals and attain that vision. It's very similar to the process of building a house that we want live in, for instance. First you have to come up with a blueprint, right? That's the whole process of envisioning. What is this house going to look like? What do we need to figure out? What is it going to be used for? We need to figure out then what the materials are that we're going to use to make this a house, one that will last and not be susceptible like the story of the three pigs where they build various houses made of different materials, and when the winds come, the house gets blown down, and the wolf is able to come in and eat them. It's kind of a similar approach. It's important to think of the materials that we're going to use in building this home. Part of those materials are really the values, the foundational principles of a society. If we have strong ethical values, then the societal infrastructure that we build, our institutions of governance, our political, economic, environmental, social institutions are strong and won't blow over as soon as we get, one or two people who are determined to wreak havoc. Or if we have systemic diseases in our society, like racism, we can quickly overcome them, because we have these strong values. The other thing to consider when we're building a home also is location, right? Where are you going to build it? You don't want to build it right in a flood zone or where you're going to be susceptible to earthquakes. All of this is very similar to considerations go into designing the kind of society we want to have the kind of people we want to be. Now when you think about the current state of our politics, regardless of which country you live in, it stands in diametric contrast to what we've just discussed. By and large, politics is partisan wherever we go. It's kind of based on an idea of building, but not building systematically, but building something based on ideology, only for it to be torn down when the next party comes into power or the next administration, or somebody else takes over by revolution or the next dictator comes. So we're constantly moving forward two steps and then tearing down our work, coming back two steps. And this process goes on at great cost to human society. The other feature of our politics writ large is that of blocking. You know, if I can't tear down your system, at least I can block you from accomplishing your goals. Neither of these is the very constructive approach to building an ever advancing society. It's really part of our societal immaturity. It's time to get past it and get to the next stage of our development as a human race and to don some new, more constructive habits. So the question is, then, how do we set about achieving unity of thought and unity of action? There are many pieces to this puzzle, and please don't assume that I'm saying this is the only thing we need to do, but one of the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle, if you like, is for us to really examine the concept of the responsibility of leadership. What is one of the key responsibilities of leaders? It's something we need to understand. And to this end, I want to share with you this quote from a gentleman by the name of Jim Rohn, who is a famous author and motivational speaker. And here's what he says,"To lead others is to help them change their thoughts, beliefs, and actions for the better." Three things, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. I think this quote essentially sums up the concept to a large extent of leadership, at least as it pertains to the responsibility of leaders to bring others along. What it essentially entails, what the responsibility of leaders essentially entails, when we look at this quote, is leading people to a unity of thought and action based on accurate information, evolving collective understanding and insight, based on what? On consultation, which is done in the spirit of mutual respect. So these are really key. There are another two quotations that kind of tie into these notions that I also want to share with you. One is by another famous American author and coach, Ken Blanchard. He says,"The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision." Shared vision, right? This was the first leg of the two legs we talked about. Unity of thought, which encompasses unity of vision, and then unity of action. So he focuses on that first component, which is a shared vision. The second quote after is this one by Rosalind Carter that really speaks to the second leg, which is unity of action. She says,"A leader takes people where they want to go." That's the first thing a leader does. But then more importantly, and this is, I think, what we lack by and large in the world today,"A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." This is a fundamental component, I believe, of leadership. Having the ability, the courage, to help hold a vision for others of where they ought to be and where they could be, and then help to bring them along. If we could do that in today's world we would go a long way. So let's examine some practicalities. In order to prove the importance of these particular responsibilities of a leader, I want to examine the two ends. Look at what happens when this quality is absent in our leaders and then look at an example or two of what happens when a leader has actually or leaders have actually demonstrated this capacity and what a difference it has made to our society. Let's look at what happens when we fail. We tend to have this dysfunctional habit of making decisions as societies, again, wherever you are in the world, and engaging in certain behaviors that have far reaching consequences on our well being without the benefit of adequate information. Consequently, we act in ignorance of the dangers we face, of the scope of opportunities that are available, of the alternative courses of action available, and the likely consequences of the decisions we're making. First example is climate change. Despite the fact that scientists have been warning us for years and in increasingly shrill tones, that climate change is upon us and is going to wreak absolute havoc on human society, no matter where we live. Scientists have been telling us that global warming that is caused by the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in large quantities is raising and has been raising the temperature of the planet in unsustainable ways, causing ice caps and glaciers to melt, leading to rising oceans that then flood coastal areas around the world, including entire island nations, which is thereby reducing the amounts of land that we have for agriculture and growing food and for fresh water. And the warning has been that all of this is going to result in increased conflict and insecurity in the world. In fact, the Security Council a number of years ago climate change on its list of the top threats to security in the world precisely for this reason. Despite all of this, and despite accumulating evidence of the droughts and the typhoons and the extremes and heat and cold and, and famine and flooding and fires as we've seen around the world, our leaders have not had the patience to sit down and educate the people about the facts and what's coming down the pike and to highlight the dangers to themselves, their children and their grandchildren, the dangers of inaction, and also the benefits of course correction, even if it means sacrificing certain ways of living, especially for those of us in the West who have more access to material advantages and means. Climate change is a prime example of what happens when leaders fail to take seriously their responsibility of leading a nation or leading a world, a global society to change its thoughts beliefs and actions. A second example that we can all relate to because it's been so much in the news in the last few years is Brexit. At the time when the British people went through the referendum and voted in favor of leaving the European Union, there was a tremendous campaign of misinformation on both sides, whether people were on the leave side or remain side. There were a lot of lies, a lot of exaggeration, and as a result, the truth was obfuscated. The people who were actually voting didn't know, didn't have access to accurate information. So their decision was based on half baked or completely false information. One example of a false piece of information was the fact that people were told that once the UK left the European Union, that the National Health Service of the United Kingdom would have an extra 350 million pounds, English pounds, in its pocket per week in additional income. That was a flat out lie. Just wasn't true. And of course, many people who voted to leave actually were worried about the state of the national health system because it was already weak. And what did they do? They voted to leave based on this lie. To compound that particular lie, what they didn't realize, because they weren't made aware of it, was that a very large fraction of doctors, nurses, and health workers in the United Kingdom actually came from continental Europe. And as a result of Brexit, many of them resigned and left the country. So not long after the vote, they were already 10, 000 people short in terms of doctors and nurses, and this is going back several years. It's you know, it's a real tragedy when these kinds of, of lies and misrepresentations and misinformation lead people to make decisions that actually are contrary to their own self interest, because they've been hoodwinked by people in power who are telling them what they want them to hear in order to arrive at the result, in this case, to leave the European Union. And the worst thing that happened with Brexit, of course, was the polarization that resulted in British society. Now let's contrast these two examples of climate change and Brexit with one example of a successful attempt by leaders to educate the public and to share openly and transparently critical information that allowed them to make a decision that served them well. This particular example has to do with a time in 1944- 1945 in the run up to the creation of the United Nations. As you all will remember, there was a conference in San Francisco to create the Charter and to establish the United Nations. In the run up to that conference, the United States realized that as one of the prime movers in creating this amazing world organization, it did not have the backing of its people. American public opinion was not behind the creation of the United Nations, and particularly the concept of creating a standing force, the idea of using collective force when necessary to forestall a third world war, to forestall the rise of a person, a Hitler type person which was deemed necessary. It was something that the American people were not in favor of doing. So the concept of granting authority to a United Nations and granting it the means, namely a standing force to take action collectively in the face of such a threat, was absent. They quickly needed to move to get the backing of U. S. public opinion, if they were going to be able to sign on to the U. N. Charter, and they needed to educate the American public about the impracticability and the dangers of isolationism in a world that was shrinking. That's funny. We're talking about, you know, 70, 80 years ago and here we are today revisiting some of those same issues, right? In this country, in the United States. So what did they do? This is what I find fascinating because it demonstrates that this is possible and this is what I want us to imagine for a future world and to take heart and instruction from. The Department of State spearheaded a concerted and broad and very systematic campaign to educate the American public. They set about doing several things simultaneously. They held briefings for American academics to educate them on why it was important to set up the United Nations, why the ability to use collective force in the face of a threat to the peace of the planet was essential and what would happen if they didn't, really alerting them to the dangers and opportunities, as we talked about before. They, put a whole bunch of articles in newspapers around the country, and magazines, including women's magazines. They were really reaching to educate everybody. Books were published radio programs talked about this. There was a regular radio program on NBC at the time that talked about the importance of setting up the United Nations and educating people about the pros and cons of doing and not doing. They got Hollywood to create a film to lay out these options. Two million pamphlets were distributed to civic groups in major cities around the country. More than 500 hundred major talks were given in major cities, talks to labor groups, business groups, professional leaders, and churches. So really they blanketed everyone. The result after a mere six months of doing all of these activities was that 60 percent of the population in the United States had either heard of or read about the proposed United Nations. And of those polled, 81 percent ended up supporting the United Nations and the use of collective force, which was a huge shift from where the polling had been before, by a huge order of magnitude. Now imagine what would happen if we undertook a similar program of education that is intentional, mindful, systematic, and that really just presents the facts to people. Here's what is likely to happen, based on past experience, if you don't take this course of action; and here are the benefits if you do and everything in between. To me, this is an amazing example of what could be done. I'm going to leave it at that one example for now. This is an important topic. It's important that we understand that our leaders need to have this sense of responsibility, because only when we can imagine the kinds of leaders that we actually need to build this ever advancing society, can we then make smart decisions about whom we elect. We need to elect leaders who are willing to discharge this kind of responsibility. This whole notion of electing fit leaders is a topic that I'd like to talk about in a later episode. And this is just one element of what constitutes a fit leader in my opinion and the opinion of others. Okay. So I have come to the end of my presentation for today. I will just remind you that for those of you who like the contents of these videos, please take a look at a new book that I've just published, The Alchemy of Peace. It's available on Amazon. It covers topics like the ones we've been talking about and obviously goes into far more detail. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Take care. MAIN CONTENT That's all for this episode of Reimagining Our World. I'll see you back here next month. If you liked this episode, please help us to get the word out by rating us and subscribing to the program on your favorite podcast platform. This series is also available in video on the YouTube channel of the Center for Peace and Global Governance, CPGG.