Back in February, I said I wanted a president who could “bring together our country to face our challenges in a more united and less divisive way.” (1/6)
I wanted someone who would unite people – i.e. who does not view themselves as the leader of the winning side imposing policies the other side would find intolerable. (2/6)
I believe we are on the brink of a terrible civil war (as I described in The Changing World Order series), where we are at an inflection point between entering a type of hell of fighting or pulling back to work together for peace and prosperity... (3/6)
... that addresses the big wealth, values, and opportunity gaps we’re now seeing. For that reason I was thrilled to hear what President Biden said at his inauguration. It is consistent with the direction history has shown the country needs to move in. (4/6)
Now the question is whether the president and both parties will bring that about. Good words and spirit aren’t enough. People will have to agree on both how to grow the pie and how to divide it well. That will require revolutionary change. (5/6)
Doing it peacefully requires both bipartisanship and skill. It won’t be easy. Our country is still in a terrible financial state and terribly divided. I will monitor how those good intentions are turning into good actions and keep you posted. (6/6)
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If they choose to have a primarily win-win cooperative-competitive relationship, they must take into consideration what is really important to the other and try to give it to them in exchange for them reciprocating. (1/6)
In that type of win-win relationship, they can have tough negotiations done with respect and consideration, competing like two friendly merchants at a bazaar or two friendly teams at the Olympics. (2/6)
If they choose to have a lose-lose mutually threatening relationship they will primarily think about how they can hurt the other in the hope of forcing the other into a position of fear in order to get what they want. (3/6)
History has shown that this is the best way to sustain an empire, even one of conquered people. For example, empires that grew the most and lasted the longest did it by sharing the spoils of their successes with those were conquered rather than subjugating them. (1/4)
Conversely, those that prevented those from having what the people held most dear and would fight to the death for, were the quickest to fall. This is an important principle for those who lead to remember. (2/4)
For example, in the United States it would not be wise for the president who was elected by one large segment of the population to use that victory to try to take away from the losers those things that they hold most dear. (3/4)
I admired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he was a principled man with great principles. The couple that stick in my mind at this time are:
1. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
2. We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.
3. An Individual has not started living fully until they can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity.
Media distortions are killing us and most people are reluctant to stand up against them because they are afraid that the media they are criticizing will destroy them. (1/5)
That is why I applaud James and Kathryn Murdoch’s honest and bold public statement that, as described by the FT “castigates the US media for the ‘toxic politics’ threatening American democracy... (2/5)
...saying the media are as culpable as politicians who ‘know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies.’” (3/5)
There is nothing more important than understanding how reality works and how to deal with it. The state of mind you bring to this process makes all the difference. (1/4)
I have found it helpful to think of my life as if it were a game in which each problem I face is a puzzle I need to solve. (2/4)
By solving the puzzle, I get a gem in the form of a principle that helps me avoid the same sort of problem in the future. (3/4)
The question that Americans have to answer is: are the principles that bind us together greater or weaker than the principles that are tearing us apart? (1/11)
Before we collectively, as a country, can decide what to do, we must try to reach an agreement on what we want most and how we should deal with each other to get it. In other words, we must see if we can agree on our most fundamental principles. (2/11)
To be a truly united United States we must reaffirm our vows on the biggest shared principles and, in pursuit of them, reaffirm our protocols for thoughtful disagreement through a process that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with. (3/11)