Brexit…the scourge of Donald Trump…Colombia rejects peace…what is going on in this world?
It seems our world is going a little bit crazier by the minute. Deep political and philosophical divisions are being revealed. It seems like no time before in history, humanity is deeply divided.
How do we build “bridges of empathy” to ford the gaps between us in order to reach common ground and a brighter future?
Perhaps what just happened in Colombia is telling…
By narrow margin, Colombians rejected a peace deal that would end over 50 years of war…a war that left no Colombian untouched. Everyone expected that acceptance of the deal would be a slam dunk. Kind of like everyone expected that rejection of Brexit would be a slam dunk, or that a Clinton election landslide would be a slam dunk. However, the trends seem to defy expectations.
Anger is the fuel that’s driving many of these unexpected results. People are mad as hell and not in the mood to take it anymore. Anger is not always the best motivator of prudent action. Nevertheless, it pays to try to understand the anger, rather than to foment it, or even to try to delegitimize it.
Is there any common root to all this anger? Perhaps…
Perhaps it has to do with the deep stories of those who feel unfairly treated. There are millions of victims in Colombia who feel that way. Those stories run deep in Colombia. They saw their children forced into combat, their friends kidnapped or killed, the drug trade, which has been a scourge on the country for decades, protected and promoted, and the list goes on. The common ground may be peace, but anger is the gap that must be bridged in order to make peace a future reality.
In the U.S. many are angry. They are angry because they see the hope of the American dream slipping from their grasp. Anger often seeks to blame. But blame seldom produces results. What it produces is more anger.
It’s also the best way to bridge the gaps that divide us and prevent us from moving forward, together, toward a better future.
The tactic of some is to widen those gaps, rather than to bridge them. In my opinion, that’s a losing strategy. It might win them short-term support, since it plays to the anger, and anger is certainly in vogue these days. But in the end, anger will not unite us, but only further divide us. And division is not going to create a better world…that requires connection.
Hopefully Colombians can take this pause in peace and try to really understand each other. Perhaps the right and the left in the U.S. can step back from the animosity generated by the ugliest presidential election of my lifetime and try to understand one another. People take the positions they take, as irrational as you might deem them to be, because of the deep stories that have become their experiences of life. Same as you and me.
People have their reasons to vote no on peace in Colombia, or to vote yes on Trump. In order to reach common ground it pays to make a genuine effort to understand those reasons. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. It does mean you have to empathize with the deep stories that are behind their reasons.
Yes, stories run deep in Colombia, as they do in the U.S., and all other parts of this world. I believe the future of people and planet depends on a heartfelt effort to understand the deep stories of those you disagree with.
My new book, The Impact Revolution, is now live on Amazon. It was written to inspire empathy, to inspire connection. It was written to inspire the positive impacts that flow from empathy and connection. It was written to inspire an acceptance of the idea that we’re really all in this together.
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