Politics are scary right now. The hate is palpable.
So what do we do?
Here’s what Bert Hellinger, a world renowned expert of systems, has to say:
“When we no longer meet one another as one person to another, but rather, as part of our own group, and look at others as part of their own group, we are blind to the individual. As part of a group we are easily led away from our true selves—that is, we become mindless, dissolving our individuality and losing ourselves in the collective.”
Here’s another way of saying that: we think we are right and they are wrong.
And that is the moment hate is born.
That is the exact moment we are precisely like the people we are judging. No difference.
I called this talk “Fear and Fate: Looking Forward to the Future.” It unpacks why we are driven to align with the beliefs of our own group. It shows what the fearful consequences of that are. And it shows step by step (literally) the way out of that turmoil….towards the future.
The First Step…
Understand that every person has a nervous system that is hard wired to survive. Survival means belonging to our group by following the rules. So if the rules are to be a white supremacist we will blindly follow. If the rules are to be a liberal progressive, we follow. We follow what we know brings safety.
Based on the work of Hellinger Family Constellations, Political Constellations show the possibility of a radically new way of being, from the personal to the global. They show us, through direct experience, how to step out of primal drives into our own individual strength and dignity, able to act outside of “groupthink”.
As people are drawn into heated debate about what is “right” we have to ask: Does peace include conflict, even war?
How can we reconcile the war within ourselves in order that we may embrace a larger Fate and come to a deeper, more inclusive sense of true peace?
I hope this talk gets you thinking about your own position and how you hold it. Is it making you stronger and more able to actively bring peace to your world? Feel free to comment below.
