Societal connections
I'm currently reading Late Bloomers: the Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement by Rich Karlgaard. I'm not very far into it, but it is proving to be an interesting book. For some reason, as I was beginning it, I flipped around to look at the end pages. (I love bibliographies because I like to add to my reading list.) Anyway, I found myself glancing at the epilogue and came across this:
"... America and many part of the world face a crisis of untapped and undiscovered human potential. I wonder whether today's angry populism, seen at both ends of the political spectrum, is a misdirected cry of pain from those who see themselves as untapped and undiscovered. Large swaths of people in this country feel unacknowledged, unappreciated, and disrespected. They want us to see their pain but also their potential. This shouldn't happen in an affluent society like ours. But out of ignorant good intent, we've designed a human sorting machine with a conveyor belt to early success that guarantees this unhappy result." (p. 226)
If you live with anyone who has been hurt, then you know that anger is a much more available and "safe" emotion than opening the well of deep fear and pain. Behavior is communication. It's an interesting thought, isn't it? A society that is deeply hurt and deeply afraid becomes one that is overly angry.
One person cannot fix this alone, but one person can begin to see the humanity and value in other people and treat them accordingly. It's an interesting concept... connection on a larger, societal scale. It is certainly something I have found myself pondering ever since I read it.
"... America and many part of the world face a crisis of untapped and undiscovered human potential. I wonder whether today's angry populism, seen at both ends of the political spectrum, is a misdirected cry of pain from those who see themselves as untapped and undiscovered. Large swaths of people in this country feel unacknowledged, unappreciated, and disrespected. They want us to see their pain but also their potential. This shouldn't happen in an affluent society like ours. But out of ignorant good intent, we've designed a human sorting machine with a conveyor belt to early success that guarantees this unhappy result." (p. 226)
If you live with anyone who has been hurt, then you know that anger is a much more available and "safe" emotion than opening the well of deep fear and pain. Behavior is communication. It's an interesting thought, isn't it? A society that is deeply hurt and deeply afraid becomes one that is overly angry.
One person cannot fix this alone, but one person can begin to see the humanity and value in other people and treat them accordingly. It's an interesting concept... connection on a larger, societal scale. It is certainly something I have found myself pondering ever since I read it.
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