The Beast Is Us – The New York Times:
The Native American indian story about the two wolves in each of us applies here. Which one wins depends on the one you feed. It is an act of free will choosing whether to give in to your worst emotions like tribalism, hate, fear… Our media, reality TV, anonymous online postings all encourage us to cut loose and say what we really feel.
Democracy requires that we rise above this and feed the good wolf. JC preached this. All great leaders call for sacrifice for the better of all. Look around the world and notice where there are wars. People fighting and killing and suffering because of differences in race or religion or nationality. “My tribe is better than your tribe”. Guess what? No one wins that battle. NO ONE!
America has always been a melting pot. It will never be a homogeneous country. Our challenges today are a result not of diversity but of concentration of power and wealth in corporations, global competition and technology. We could try and isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, but we actually depend on resources and talent from other countries. We would be worse off completely isolated from the world. To be continued…