I recently read a posting online where the author posited that “businesses have forgotten how to human.” After thinking about this for a moment, it just seemed wrong to me. And also illuminating.
News Flash: businesses are made up of humans. They are a vessel, a structure, not an animate entity that thinks, feels and acts of its own accord.
It is the humans in the businesses that have forgotten how to human. Either deliberately or by complicity. If the latter, it is because we the human are willingly giving ourselves over to the borg.
It’s not just commercial interests, either. We have handed over our humanity piece by piece to all manner of institutions that have failed the most basic of tests: first do no harm.
The rogues gallery of harm includes spiritual institutions, elected officials, the media, law enforcement, the courts. The list is longer, but you get the point.
And that seems to me the state of where many are today. Accepting of what’s being done, of what we have ourselves permitted. Passive. Inert, by and large.
Ahem. Our house is on fire. It’s not “fine.”
We need to get mad as hell and stand up and do something.
We must not shrug and go back to checking our social feeds. Or creating memes. Or celebrating the indefensible.
We must refuse to hand over agency for our future to the corrupt, malign and violent among us, who so willingly accept our misplaced trust and betray us for their own ends and gain.
What we permit, we promote.
"All men suffer. Not all men pity themselves." - Marcus Aurelius.
We must accept that being human involves pain and suffering and setbacks and failure, before we can ultimately succeed.
It’s time to stand back up. To reclaim our humanity. It’s time to take back our house.
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor...Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” - Rumi
One of the most important things I realized—and shared with students in all my courses thereafter—is that while each of us is shaped by our culture, we also shape it. So we aren't powerless in the face of ugliness, hate, and the pursuit of profit above all else.
An astute observation from Neil Peart has often been in my mind lately: "there is never love without pain."