Leading with Alignment and Affirmation
As an existential introspective, I spend a lot of time reflecting on our past to answer, or at least understand, modern questions about how this world as we know it really came to be. Not the debate of creationism or evolution, but in how humans — regardless of how we arrived — shape society on all corners of this planet.
In all my reading and traveling and observing, two truths emerged: Fear and Love. People fear with such intensity, fear bodily harm, internal agony, and being shunned, that I have seen it drive us to our worst impulses. Impulses that create mass graves and international tribunals. Once you see the burns on the skin of a man left to die in a burned heap as a child, you do not easily forget the pain we inflict, the pain we ignore.
This is countered with great love, love for people, pleasure, and place, that drives momentum to quell those innate fears. There are many who choose compassion and empathy toward others moving through this experiment of life. That same man left to burn into oblivion, forever etched with scars of genocide, now runs a home to care for others cast aside by fear-fueled notions.
In all human history, the Hobbesian view of the world made sense. Most people to have walked this earth knew nothing of how others lived in parts unknown, knew nothing of how societies formed and fell like waves forever churning a torrential sea. Life is fierce, it is brutal, and it is short, and it can especially feel this way if there is no context to why it is fierce, brutal, and short.
As we move further into this 21st century, we have that context more and more. Today, most people know too much about life on this planet, not just its contemporary movements and rhythm, but its variations and tempo across all time. This knowledge is a two-edged blade, offering illumination while inundating us to the point of inaction, engulfing the light it tries to shine.
We can no longer plead ignorant to reality with the knowledge we possess, but a worse phenomenon took its place. This two-edged blade cut ignorance out with one end and inserted apathy, or willful ignorance, in its place. Apathy breeds inaction at a time we need not just action but sweeping, transformative measures to propel us into the equitable utopia we seek to build.
Just how do we break the cycle of inaction? We dispel fear and leverage love.
How do we do that? We use Alignment & Affirmation.
We define our destination, that elusive utopia, with such clarity, such vivacity, that there is no fear of the unknown. The future is no longer a mystery but a certainty and, once there, we fully embrace the currents to keep it in motion. We are aligned in thought, and thus aligned in action, as a wise soul, Kendra Graves, from Earthseed Yoga once prophesied.
But how do we ensure we align to utopia and not some nefarious future masquerading as equitable? We build places and spaces that affirm every personhood on this planet. We create the structures that truly operate for all, that support the physiology and safety needs Maslow first alerted us to as the basis for self-actualization.
What would that world look and feel like, one where we are all focused on self-actualization and the peace it brings? How would this look and feel different than a world where too many struggle for food, water, and shelter? I do not have the answers, but I know the answers are out there, ready for us to put in action.
So, where would you begin? What does this conjure for you?
