“Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.” Carl Jung
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatmas Ghandi
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So far in this series I have been sharing with you through quotations what I have learned about perception--how I got caught up in mine, cratered my career, and then began to work with my perception. Working with my perception opened me up to a whole world I didn't know existed. Further, I began to see how virtually all leaders are constrained by their perception, and don't even know it.
Since virtually everyone is caught in up selective perception and has so thoroughly bought in to social conditioning, everyone is basically dreaming the same dream. The power and the commonality of everyone's perception makes it easy for those who wish to manipulate us... whether it is a boss, a peer, a subordinate, spouse, religious leader, politician or anyone else.
Thus, selective perception and social conditioning are basically the bane of our existence with a two-fold impact. One is that we never release our potential and cannot find fulfillment--with a strong adverse affect on our relationships, results and profits. The second is that we are easily manipulated and misled. And, all the while, we have the belief that we are free.
In these two quotes above, you begin to see something very powerful.
What I learned is that with every little bit that I saw how my perception and social conditioning were constraining me, many things began to happen. Two of those things relevant to these quotations are that I began to gain personal power, and I began to see through other people. You see, we are all manipulating others. The question is, whether the motive is "pure" or not. And when you map out your own manipulations, it becomes much easier to detect when others are doing it to you.
Thus, I began to understand what Carl Jung is saying in a different way. And that quotation is very relevant to these times. CNN reporter Glenn Beck has, in the mainstream media, laid out how we have given more and more power away to the government. The links are at the end of this post. Over time, in exchange for the guarantee of safety, prosperity and comfort we have given more and more power away to government (and religion, and work, and...).
So when government wants more power, all that has to happen is for an event to occur in which it can conjure more fear. Then, appearing to be "helping" us and "protecting" us, we hand over more power because now it is more difficult for them to "guarantee our safety." And we end up with the Patriot Act. But, the truth is, and we all know it, is that we cannot escape the consequences of our actions. Printing money isn't going to fix the financial situation. Locking down borders and frisking every citizen who passes through the security chutes at the airport is not going to keep us safe from people who hate us.
But at the end of the day, the government is not to blame. We are. The government is no more than a reflection of the people. The government has not more power than the people give it. And there is nothing we can really do about it unless we are at least as organized in our individuality as the mass is. What does that mean? We individually must possess a level of sobriety (clarity of perception) and personal power (self knowledge) that has sufficient power to match the opposite extreme of the insanity of the perception of the common man comprising the mass and those who are capitalizing on that common perception.
That's where Ghandi's quotation comes in. The only way out is through. The only thing you need to do is to reclaim what you have given away. If enough of us do that, if we take our power back, then those who have been using our power against us are deprived of the power they use to oppress us. So, literally and figuratively, the only thing any of us has to do is to be the change we want to see in the world, and to do it no matter the consequences.
That is what our founding fathers did, no? We have drifted very far from freedom, my friend. You are a leader. Lead yourself out of the prison of your own making. Then, after waking up in this crazy dream, reach back, and give those around you a hand.
Tomorrow I will tie this theme to what I saw this week in my travels, and talk about what we need to do as leaders in these changing and challenging times to be of service to those around us.
CNN Glenn Beck: More Trouble Ahead, Five Steps to Deal with It
CNN Glenn Beck: America's Chilling Future
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This is a follow-up to the October 7th post Leadership, Perception and Emotional Intelligence and is a continuation of looking at the connection between perception and the ability to break through the next level of leadership. During this exploration, I share a part of my own story through quotations...
