Whether we are building a team, a company, a family or a Country; the outline showing the steps has existed for millennia. At one time, these ideological dynamics were understood by everyone. Even those who chose to live outside their parameters, accepted the consequences of their decisions. It has only been over the last few decades that these truths have been widely ignored here in the United States. Americans are beginning to see that we are not immune from the consequences of choices; the laws for successful socialization applies to every Country on earth. For any society to thrive, the citizens must come together as a cohesive assembly. People want and need to work side by side with their neighbors. As a majority, we uniformly desire peace in our streets and share a willingness to co-exists with a manageable level of communal discord resulting from the minority having differing purposes, values, and beliefs.
Today, some question whether we are still a united Country or are we witnessing the living evidence of a fractured Nation.
Does the defund the police movement / the cancel culture / runaway government spending earmarked as payback for past support, bolster the values or the communal purpose of the majority of our citizens?
If it did we would not see rioting or escalating crime.
How can the majority of residents in the five or six largest cities believe one set of values and the vast majority of the country hold to another?
Do we still share the values that made this Republic the envy of the world?
One might say we are more disconnected as a society than the pilgrims were to the British.
Think of our Country as a solid beam of wood; exposed and standing strong. Many different elements will impact the wood, causing splinters to form and once they do, with very little additional pressure, the slivers can break off; severing them from the strength of larger whole. Once a splinter separates from the beam, they can never be re-united into the solid mass. If enough splinters are forced from the whole, the loss of their mass will weaken the integrity of the entire timber. When any Nation’s citizens begin to splinter away from the homeland it is because they feel disenfranchised by their view on the direction of the Country’s purpose or it’s values. As they peel off, they seek unity by embedding themselves in fringe groups that offer a closer relationship with their own purpose, beliefs and values.
These are natural reactions so we should turn to nature for the answers needed to understand and correct the forces that create or destroy relationships. In nature, there are only three connections required for a strong relationship; a Shared Environment, a Shared Purpose, and Shared Beliefs or Values. The Framers of our Constitution came together as one to lay bare all three in our article of federation; they did their part in professing a great understanding to the natural laws.
Could anyone have said it better? “We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union…”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Later the Pledge of Allegiance would further clarify.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
We have definitely grown as a population since these words were written. Naturally, we have become more diversified with the inclusion of people from various creeds and cultures. This diversity has the potential to be great for our Country, since we are the original melting pot of nations. For this to work, the majority of the people must be willing to assimilate into what the nation as a whole believes. As an example, we were founded as a Christian nation; with 75% of the population claiming to be Christian. When you include Muslims and Jews, who happen to worship the same God as the Christian’s, the percentage of like-minded moral believers went up to 88%. Today, the percentage of the United States population who identify as Christian, Muslim, or Jew is below 60% with a larger than ever percentage of people claiming no spiritual affiliation.
You might believe that a nations spirituality does not matter but the evidence shows otherwise. Just consider why we are celebrating Independence Day in the first place.
Every Country throughout history that ever fell from internal pressures, did so because of the moral and spiritual out cries of their society. Nature also offers guidance as to why spirituality matters. Every person, including those who claim not to be spiritual, has three natural personas; a Personal, Professional and Spiritual self. Denying any one of them doesn’t change the truth.
As we celebrate our Nation’s creation, we should understand that when a united people share an environment built around a like-minded purpose that is supported by fundamental core values held dear by all, that society will live in harmony, peace and success until internal powers begins to divide the majority of their shared values and beliefs. The very thing that President Lincoln predicted would happen if we did not stay unified in our values.
Happy Independence Day!
If this is my last post, I want all to know there was only one purpose for all that I have written; to have made a positive difference in the lives of others. Anthony “Tony” Boquet, the author of “The Bloodline of Wisdom, The Awakening of a Modern Solutionary”