It doesn't take much to see the horrors of war that come through the destructive capacity of people. Take a way a few rules and throw a wet blanket on social inhibition and the sky is the limit for destructiveness. On a daily basis most of us are pretty good at living in a civilized society but when given an opportunity some of us delve into the darker side of inhumanness through the justification of hate. Behaviors that would be shunned in one context are rewarded in another and that is the risk we face when failing to think of how to tackle thorny race/religious issues in our society (When I listen to the different sides speak none of them seem to have the whole story but they do have the sliver which justifies their preexisting beliefs. They seem to live by self confirming focus and interpretation of events). When we view each other as part of different societies we also begin to raise the value of those within one society and lower the value of those in another.
At present that debate is raging in the U.S. where race and religion become dividing lines for political values and action (Both major philosophical beliefs can incorporate different religious and ethnic points of view because they are universal in their approaches. It is we who cater the message to a particular people or background depending on our political needs. Thus both parties are guilty of not solving the bigger problems in society.) Those who have wisdom and something positive to say are often sidelined for the loudest and often most uninformed. If one were to take a wider birds eye view of the such situation we may find that it is the values of some (good or bad) that influence and define the lives of the vast majority of others. When those values are of low quality it drags the values of others down through observed behaviors, expectation, and distortion of values; much like an infectious disease of thinking (Studies show that primates and humans who witness certain behaviors also have a reciprocal neural firing that mimics what they are witnessing. Thus bad behaviors impact everyone that witnesses and sees them making such "approved behaviors" a social learning affair that can be emulated at other times and places. When normalized it can be repeated regularly and the social inhibitions appear to decline the people believe, talk, and act on hate. The study is someone limited to specific neural firing but you get the point. HERE.)
It becomes vitally important that we think about the long term benefits of developing a sense of fair play and togetherness. It is equally important to think about the consequences of not working together to solve particular problems and widening the gaps between people (Of which most is created to give people a sense of power and control. Unfortunately, some exploit divisions for their personal benefit. The one's who draw people together do so because it seems like the right thing to do and certain values take precedence in their life.)
I find that hate is often rooted to other dysfunctions and doesn't have much staying power if not comingled with other psychological goals/directions. Many of these internal pressures are at the level of undiagnosed mental health disorders and learned distortions of value (Based on perception of self. Such characteristics are likely associated with demanding one's needs, manipulating others, misleading information and trying to "get the other".) When we normalize such distorted behaviors and surround that by unquestioning social networks focused on "being cool" we find that the normal limits of society are easily discarded. They are also self generating and reconfirming of looped logic that continues to reaffirm itself in a way that perpetuates the dysfunction of thinking (See confirmation bias). A type of justification of justifications that are no longer connected well to the actual events. Some call this the "hate narrative" where facts are discarded and emotional hyper rousing are present (i.e. intentional trouble makers.).
The discarding of centralized values seems to be replaced by subjective values that apply subjectively to groups differently (This is why people are upset over disparity. It inherently makes some people feel more entitled and willing to subjugate others in sometimes subtle and other times obvious ways. Any time we choose behaviors based on race and religion we are running against the spirit of the nation and our Constitution. The goal is universal freedom and our philosophies seem to support that utopian end). The authority and position in life make no difference subjective social network values take precedence over things like duty, good conscious, and societal contracts (i.e. laws, norms, etc..)
Our society rests on trust in our institutions, trust in each other, trust in our leaders and general trust in the system. To maintain that trust we must ensure our institutions act with integrity, are provided breathing room from immediate political pressure, and owe their primary directive to the Constitution, moral conscious and general will of the people through democratic venues. Anything beyond creating a full and free society where all human life is valued based on our core American and democratic principals is suspect to scrutiny and likely comes from a darker place. Thus behaviors and policies can be judged by this universal metric (Other metrics for economics, civic, education, etc... Theoretically one could have a dashboard of different performance metrics from society. You would have to continue to adjust the types of metrics used, data drawn and how often information is updated but it would have a pretty big impact on evidence based decision making. The downside of such metric systems is that once the measurements are defined we risk being blinded to all the other new options outside of existing well worn metric paths/understandings. There is likely a sweet spot of standardized metrics and new metrics. The Digital Economy will likely use more science and metrics to make decisions but will be at risk for theoretical blindness. Kind of why creativity will be important so as to question root logic of ideas. I'm sorry I digressed from the main topic. blah blah blah 😬)
That darker place has become normalized for many people where different societal hierarchical values are applied in different ways to different people. The noise over race and religion, perpetuated by "leaders" on different fronts, often tries to creative divisions among people because it helps those individuals achieve their goals (i.e. political power, money, prestige, support, etc.). As we exploit these differences for personal gain we also sew seeds in society that may take root like a weed to ensure that a healthy plant (healthy American ideals) are choked off before breaking ground. As a nation we must decide if we are to have universal laws that apply fairly to everyone or we are to have subjective laws that carve up our nation into "in group" and "out group" members. Unfortunately logic, law and values are often pushed to the side for reconfirming of pre-existing distorted beliefs that fortunately decline through increased accuracy as each generation passes. I believe as a people we will come to realize the value of inclusion but not do so until we have experience true hardship (When we choose the wrong choice and it creates problems we sometimes learn and develop better choices.)
As far as it is concerned related to law enforcement. I think there are many people who seek to do the right thing and there are some people who seek to do the wrong thing. The biggest thing we would worry about is that we make every decision (individual and macro level) with good moral conscious. A tall order if the winds are blowing in the wrong direction and people feel that sailing against the wind is not worth the effort because of the pressure/resistance people feel when standing up for certain principles at the wrong time (This is also why freedom of speech, civil discourse, and shared common goals important long-term success. We want people to stand up to destructive beliefs/behaviors the right way so we should ensure we create the right environment where that is most likely to happen. As soon as we silence reasonableness we also silence new information for performance improvement opportunities with better outcomes from an organizational development perspective.🤓) . While I may have a Muslim sounding name don't let that fool you (Trust me it trumped a lot of people who were confused on how to treat an "American" that fit under the 'undefined' category. A true American or something much much worse! It delves into how we create mental frameworks for categorizing our world and when we can't categorize something correctly it can lead to all types of responses seeking to find a proper category. What I have found is that the issues isn't the "other" but how we "see" the other. More information leads to better assessment. Our choices, words, languages, political parties, groups, races, etc....create culturally embedded symbolism of others. That leads to heuristic and often false assessment of people who are different than us based on limited information. In other words, you haven't walked a mile in their shoes to create empathy and shared similarities. The "other" is often seen as the "enemy" based on our biologically created propensity to understand differences {our senses are designed in a way to perceive differences as subtle as fractions of light} but our socially constructed "narrative" of others is an ongoing conversation that draws social meaning from these senses to create "shared" experiences defined through our culture. i.e. culture as a programming of root understanding of how to see the world and what is important in it since childhood. This is why shared purpose leads to shared culture and shared experiences that are uniquely "American".). Like it or not we are in this American/"American" boat together and that boat contains many different shipmates and without the universal sound of the coxswain that resonates as having shared meaning and value to each of them it is likely we will have lots of disjointed efforts (In other words, we will argue about definitions without finding solutions because we haven't agreed on what it means to be an "American" and the central-universal principles that apply to all of us!) To me ensuring that we are drawing as many people into the enlightened view of people who manage their own affairs (democracy) and who are pursuing to benefit their lives (entrepreneurs of many types) to a fruitful shared identity and end is likely to be of benefit (Don't listen to me....jump on the first tough hate mongering politician you see and vow your undying loyalty to inappropriate values and beliefs. I guess we all got to make choices about our collective future. 🤷 )
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