Rockin’ the American Dream
When we recognize the source of our dignity, we are poised to transform the world. Seeing the light of consciousness in ourselves – and seeing the same light in others – helps us to move from contempt to respect. Then we realize we must work for the common good.
We measure whether we are serving the ‘common good’ by whether we engage in:
Interpersonal relations that do no harm to others
Practices that promote the well-being of the group
Plans that promote benefit for our global community
When we are oriented toward the common good, we’re motivated to help work toward justice, equity, and fairness for all.
It takes courage to be self-reflective and it takes courage to notice injustice, inequity, and unfairness in the world. But it takes even more courage to speak up and act for needed change. This is the type of courage we need in our leaders. As Bruce Springsteen said in his September, 1984 Pittsburgh show:
“We're slowly getting split up into two different Americas... and there's a promise that's getting broken. In the beginning the idea was that we all live here a little bit like a family, where the strong can help the weak ones, the rich can help the poor ones. I don't think the American dream was that everybody was going to make a billion dollars, but it was that everybody was going to have an opportunity and the chance to live a life with some decency and some dignity and a chance for some self-respect."
When we see difference as something to fear and hate, we are not challenging ourselves to broaden our awareness.
When we see injustice and do not speak up, we become part of systems that deny dignity for certain groups.
When we are comfortable with practices that provide gains for a few at the expense of many, we harm the common good.
This is a call to consciousness: All leaders need to help us unify around our commonalities and serve the common good.
Where do you stand? Are you a boss that stands with the Boss? What are you doing to advance dignity?
And that’s The Gist of It™ - Ideas to advance dignity, practice humility, and develop leaders of character and integrity.
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Marilyn Gist, PhD