5/29/24 - Rhetoric in the Headlines

 So why exactly did I do a podcast on headlines in the news.  Because we have to learn to hear the difference between Step 2 and Step 3, and the news is all around us. Once we know the difference, then we must start demanding it from ourselves, people who comment on social media, news reporters, and our leaders.

I realize that this takes practice and discipline.  There are still a few persons that I see on the tv or online news who send me into a rage immediately.  I become angry that they are being interviewed. Then I worry that people will keep falling for their lies. I have to remind myself to assess these people according to their level of development, and I cannot regress to an earlier step in reaction to them.  

 It is essential to remember that every step is equally important to our development.   No step is to be considered higher than another.  We all had to go through Step 1. Then we needed to be in Step 2 for some time.  But that time has passed, and now we must embrace Step 3 for the future of our species and planet.

Turn off Step 2 news stations.  Respond to social media comments with Step 3 only.  Utilize Step 3 language when you write to your legislators.  Are there further steps in this model of growth?  Yes, but that's for another time.

This week we need to have a brief talk about what it is that keeps the majority of people on earth stuck in Step 2 of our Adult Development.  My podcast this week describes 7 different biases of the brain that could be part of what keeps us from growing up into step 3.  Remember that Step 3 is our goal for now.  We cannot solve the problems facing our species until we grow the heck up some more.  The examples I give are naturally occurring biases such as: wanting to stick with our group, preferring to play it safe, not wanting to learn new things, and fear about just about everything.

I also mention in the podcast about having an overactive amygdala (part of the brain involved with our emotions.)  This can actually hijack a person's prefrontal cortex and decrease rational thinking.  We must get a grip on this.

For a more complete, in-depth discussion of brain biases please go to cac.org, programs, podcasts, Listen How To See, Season One, all 6 episodes.

And take a look at The Nonviolence Handbook by Michael N. Nagler.  He addresses the need to find alternative media news sources.  Our major networks emphasize violence without showing us that we are capable of changing our world. They play a big part in keeping us stuck in Step 2.

Due to this website only maintaining the 5 most recent podcasts, I have repeated this very important 1st one.  Here I define and explain Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 of my adult human development model; let's call it: Grow the Heck Up!  Of course, these steps are written out clearly on the Begin the Journey page of this website, but the podcast gives added information.

Recently I heard the phrase "stage of wholeness."  If we apply that phrase to these steps, then each and every one of us can ask ourselves sincerely and often,

 "Which stage of wholeness have I reached?"

This is not another ego game for comparing yourself to others, but rather a tool to genuinely keep track of "what sort of rhetoric am I using?" and "do I keep slipping backward from Step 3 to Step 2?" - which is very easy to do.

I want to leave you with a quote by Shams Tabrizi (1186-1248 AD), the person who inspired Rumi.  He wrote: "...even if someone says badly about you, speak well about them.  Change your heart to change the world."  Beautiful, Step 3 rhetoric.

Project 2025 is now published and available to read online.  I hope you will look for a summary of this 920 page collection of conservative proposals that the Republican Party hopes to enact if they win in Nov 2024.  They would take safeguards away from groups already discriminated against, they would limit or remove freedoms, change OUR democracy into an autocracy, and replace scientific fact with party doctrine. And this plan shows, once and for all, the true colors of the Right Wing who call themselves Pro-Life but who obviously are not.  This work is Step 2 and dangerous.

Thank goodness, we are here making small changes to our rhetoric, going from Step 2 to Step 3, and attempting to save the world.  In the face of ideas such as those found in Project 2025, we must continue to do this now more than ever. 

Albert Camus said, "In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners."

This week's podcast presents 10 more draconian proposals from the conservatives.  They are Step 2 (fear) in need of growing up into Step 3 (Love).  With the terrible divide between the left and the right, I feel the need to study what the right are calling for in order to discuss it rationally.  The right accuses and labels the left.   That won't do.  We cannot make the changes we must make to save our democracy, our species, and our world if both sides fall into this trap.  I suppose I'm saying: arm yourself with knowledge, even if the right will not listen.  Always choose Love.

From the first letter of John (4: 18-20)

There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casts out fear...We love because He first loved us.  Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.