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The following is an excerpt from Christine Horner's new book, Awakening Leadership: Embracing Mindfulness, Your Life's Purpose, and the Leader You Were Born to Be.
United we stand, divided we fall applies to more than just nationalism; it's the very fabric of all of life. Each one of us contributes to the unique tapestry that is this planet, our planet a thread in the tapestry of the Universe.
You and I were equally born into the world naked and interdependent on our nuclear family, our extended families, and community to inform, educate, and support us. Likewise, all of nature is interconnected and interdependent. The whole of nature is just as inter-reliant on its parts as are the parts of nature on the whole to sustain it.
Interdependence, expressed as our symbiotic relationship with each other and the world never ends. Is there still any doubt in your mind that there is no separation?
Whether humans develop new social systems or amend existing ones, the goal is to minimize negative benefits and exclusion. Besides avoiding them to begin with, this is accomplished with the addition of safety nets, in the form of social agreements and other support, to counter-balance negativity.
If safety nets are not included, or they are reduced or taken away, you increase instability and reduce the sustainability of what you are attempting to build, whether dealing with your family, local community issues, the economy, national security, legislating morality, foreign policy, etc.
Often the initial ideal is on the right track as predominantly positive, but the approach used is not--particularly with systems founded in separation consciousness. The more rules that have to be installed to force compliance, the more alarm bells should be going off that there is too much exclusion, or negative benefits involved, and/or self-dealing. The approach may even be entirely backward.
How many times in your own community have you heard well-intending souls justify not providing assistance, whether through charitable means, helping out a friend or relative in need, or disavowing public benefits under the pretext of, "I've worked hard for everything I have, they can, too."
There may also be other reasons, but the logic is part and parcel of a primitive survivalist mindset deeply embedded in the collective human psyche reinforced by current culture and conditioning--as a competition mindset. We'd better not make life easier for each other. "They" might win!
As a responsible human being, you begin to realize it is support and not "separation from" that heals society's social ills. If there is some support and the problem persists, then the form of support needs to be examined. The support is either insufficient, not the right type, or still perpetuating separation.
A penal system is a case in point. A penal system is minimally required when there is adequate support from society. The greater the prison population per capita, the less support their society offered them before incarceration.
Treated as disposable and undervalued from the very beginning, the individual didn't learn how to manage him or herself, in society. Society didn't want to deal with her. Without full support in prison and everything they didn't receive in the outside world, their reactive behavior patterns will most likely continue.
Regarding any social ill, an evolved society knows that it is investing in safety nets and support that lead to long term results. This is the infrastructure to our infrastructure. Begrudgingly offering minimal support and investing in wars against something will only provide short term relief, and likely lead to failure.
You will observe that in separation consciousness, providing support is feared and is believed to create dependency. Dependency remains when support is inadequate, and we engage in shaming others, which creates division within our communities and nations.
As you begin to build a clearer picture, a truly advanced society is built upon empowering the individual to be the best one can be. As we embrace each other as equals, apparent flaws and all, even the most disabled will understand they are valued and needed. Human shaming will eventually be recognized as negative reinforcement and no longer supported.
All life contains equal value. You are as vital to the progress of the human race as is any important historical figure you can think of. Standing together united, we can advance much more quickly toward creating the world we know is possible. As an interdependent species, we don't "win" until no one is left behind.
The entire point of being in this together is to make life easier for each other. We truly are only as strong as our weakest link. Unlinked, we don't have a chance at all. This is the next stage of human evolution as part of our maturation process, and could very well determine our success or failure.
From Awakening Leadership: Embracing Mindfulness, Your Life's Purpose, and the Leader You Were Born to Be. Copyright 2015. Christine Horner. Reprinted with permission from In the Garden Publishing.