As humans we engage in dead-end cycles often, and these dead-end cycles obstruct the good living we strive for. Why does this happen?
Our brains are likely programmed to to engage in similar cycle responses since those responses are familiar, practiced and ingrained in us. For example, when I visit my parents, I almost always make the same meals they made for me when I was a child. Yet, we know today that some of those meals are not as healthy as they can be. Why do I fall back on these same recipes and meal prep? I fall back because the sameness brings some comfort and less challenge. My parents like those meals and at their age they are less adventurous when it comes to trying new foods. Yet, do I want to exchange best possible health for comfort? I think I can make some small changes which keep the comfort while increasing health--that's a good direction to move in.
So many problems in society suffer from dead-end cyclical think, process and response. For problems like poverty, immigration/migration, pollution, racism, we often hear the same-old-same-old rationale for why we can't solve those problems. Much of that same-old rationale includes outdated myths, inaccurate facts/information, ingrained prejudices, fear of change, and lack of the ability to think differently, create and collaborate.
Propagandists like Trump and his Republican cronies, play upon our inclination as humans to respond with deeply ingrained ineffective cyclic processes, talk, and response. They know that humans by nature are reluctant to dynamically think in new ways, create, and collaborate to solve problems. So they promote the old myths, ingrained prejudices, outdated processes and ineffective solutions to mire us in the muck these problems create while they do whatever they want to prop up their personal wealth, privilege, power, profit and protection. These Trump Republicans don't care about you or me. They spend most of their time promoting propaganda rather than doing the good creative, collaborative, intelligent work possible to lift and enrich lives.
The biggest problem we face today as individuals and society is our inability to think differently, be creative, and work collaboratively to identify and solve the problems that exist--problems that truly obstruct the good living possible. We can do so much better in our personal lives and our collective lives in this regard.
To make this change, we can do the following:
- Identify personal patterns that obstruct the good in your own life. What dead-end cyclical patterns do you promote that obstruct better living? Change those patterns by doing some research/reading, thinking differently, and working creatively and collaboratively.
- Be on the lookout for cyclical patterns that your family, work, and other organizations engage in--patterns that obstruct the good possible. Find ways to make change. For example, lately I've been noticing how the use of alcohol in television shows and movies is unhealthy--if people drank as much as the people on these shows, we would all have shorter and less safe lives. This is a dead-end cyclical pattern that likely profits the alcohol industry while harming many individuals. This is a cycle we can positively change.
- Vote for leaders who are willing to think differently and work creatively and collaboratively to solve the problems we share. Do not support propagandists who play on your human nature in ways that promote outdated myths, prejudices and dead-end cyclical think and problem solving. We have too many lazy, self-serving propagandists in office across the country--these me-first politicians do no heavy lifting, but instead work for their own fame and gain alone. If we exercise our right to vote, we can make significant change in this regard--change that will improve lives all across our country.