I had to act like a block of wood

Last week I started writing to you. And then I stopped.

Turmoil was present - fear, disbelief, disappointment, confusion, anger, even contempt were arising, one after the other, then all at the same time.

The appropriate response in the moment felt like stillness, non-action. In moments of reactivity-risk, I find the suggestion to act like a block of wood incredibly helpful. What do blocks of wood do? Nothing. They just sit there being blocks of wood.

The cause? Despite his clear and present danger to an ethical society, Donald Trump had been voted back into power in the USA.

How could this be?! The progress of modern societies is of course up and down, but in the big picture isn’t it trending towards greater tolerance, greater compassion, greater ethical momentum? How could America inflict upon itself such a monumental retrograde leap?

A fellow dharma teacher of American descent posted on Facebook that morning stating simply that she was in tears. The many comments made by her Facebook friends echoed this upset and many shades of my turmoil.

After a while, as I began to move out of my shocked stillness, I started to try and make sense of it, to understand. I read everything I could from journalists and thinkers whom I respect. In the absence of understanding, my mental movie cinema would start playing all sorts of us and them disaster movies.

After a week of reading, my perception is of a perfect storm. There was no one primary reason this happened, it was the cumulative effect of numerous phenomena all coalescing in this moment:

• Ignorance – how could anyone think that a 60% tariff on Chinese imports was going to help the cost of living? How could anyone think Trump with his six bankruptcies and dwindling inherited wealth, and his track record, would be a better manager of the economy? Some of the most popular Google searches the week before the election were who is Kamala Harris and will Joe Biden win the election.
• Greed – wealthy people enchanted by money, loving the idea of lower taxes (this could also go under the Ignorance heading, given what we know about the link between money and happiness)
• Fear – despite being counterfactual, Trump whipped a lot of this in relation to immigrants, crime, and an out-of-control woke agenda (see my jaw-dropping conversation with a flight attendant on the way to the US a few weeks ago). He projected an image of the strong man whose offer of protection and decisively fixing things appeals to those in fear. Again this could go under the heading of Ignorance given how fictitious his claims were.
• Struggle – when I was in the US a few weeks ago I noticed that the cost of living is startlingly high now. Prices in USD are similar to here in AUD, but average wages are much lower. Despite the positive economic indicators coming from the US economy, this is the lived experience of the economy for many people. (This could also go under the heading of Fear.)
• Religious doctrine – religious beliefs about abortion are likely to have affected many.
• Status – Latinos, especially men, voted for Trump despite his obvious biases against them. Exit polls suggest those who went through the arduous process of migrating legally, didn’t want illegal immigrants ruining their reputation.
• System failures – many people voted against the system for its perceived corruption, ties to corporate interests, and failure to make their lives better. Even if they didn’t like Trump, he was seen as different, someone from outside this system and for them this is all that mattered. (While some system failures might be real, the prospect of Trump solving them is, again, likely to sit comfortably under the heading of Ignorance.)
• Bigotry – some simply couldn’t stomach the idea of a woman, let alone a woman with dark skin, being their leader.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few reasons, but even this list shows the many causes and conditions of this very worrisome outcome. No one reason explains it all, no matter how much we want the comfort of that simplicity.

The 50% of American people who did not want Trump as their leader have a heck of a job in front of them. This outcome made me realise that I take democracy for granted. I presume that we could never go back to authoritarian times. When the last Prime Minister of Australia secretly gave himself power over several ministries, he was roundly ejected at the next election.

But this election shows that we must always take the protection of democracy seriously and never take it for granted. As Winston Churchill said:

No-one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

It can be frustrating and it’s imperfect but it’s the best alternative we have to solving problems with guns and bombs.

Why am I writing about this on a blog about personal growth? Look again through those causes I’ve listed above – at the headings. They are all about our individual human experience – feelings, beliefs, motivations, wisdom (or lack thereof). These are what drive our actions (like voting) which drive our systems, which drive our human societies.

A less well-known quote from Churchill:

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper - no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.

Our systems are a reflection of the collective personal growth of a country’s citizens. This is part of why I am dedicating the rest of my productive life to making serious personal growth accessible. Because it’s the root of all that happens in our lives, at a personal level, a communal level, and a societal level. It’s the butterfly’s wings.

Personal growth doesn't just benefit ourselves. It is a community service. I truly honour the work you do.