Why Be Mindful of the Divisive?
Because that way lies madness.
Everywhere you turn, especially across social media, the narrative loudly screams about “US” vs “THEM”. The emphasis on the extremes and how “we” need to protect ourselves from “they” is utterly out of hand.
When all is said and done, no matter what divisive label you apply, people aren’t so radically different. Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t want to have fairness, compassion, and empathy in their life? I haven’t. These are universal desires we all share.
Yet the tools created to help connect us are increasingly dividing us. Some of that division is at least semi-innocuous. Advertising largely falls into that idea. Much of the divisiveness is intentional and being used to divide and conquer.
The truth is that “us” vs “them” is not as extreme as portrayed. That’s not to say there aren’t extremists out there that are truly terrible. The majority, however, fall somewhere between any given extreme.
Worse than that, many of those extremists label any attempt to see through the lies and misinformation as “woke” or “liberal” or otherwise questionable. Of course they do. If you’re awake and open to ideas, the narrow viewpoint they want to sell you loses its sheen.
When you’re mindful of the divisive, you can make choices and decisions to do something effective to change the collective consciousness and increasingly distressing narrative.
That, of course, starts with you.
You perceive the world as you alone can
There are over 8 billion people on the planet. Let’s say you know a grand total of 100 people to one degree or another. That means there are 7,999,999,900 people you don’t know at all. Some of those people are as close as a few hundred feet away, while others are as far as 12,400 miles (20,000 km) away. That’s a lot of people you don’t know over a lot of variable distances.
Every single one of them has their own unique perception of the world. How they view life, the universe, and everything is colored by their environment, life experiences, friends, media, and so on. Exactly like your view is colored.
No two people share this. There might be similarities, but nobody thinks, feels, intends, or perceives the world the same way. Yet we all live in this reality to one degree or another.
It is impossible to get into another person’s head, heart, or soul. You cannot think, feel, intend, or act for anyone apart from you. That written, you can only, at best, get a snapshot of the motivations of others. That’s limited by what they share, since you can’t perceive through them (just as they can’t perceive through you). When you stop and think about this, become mindful of it, you start to recognize that different is common.
In and of itself, different isn’t a bad thing. Not until someone labels it as such.
You have more power than you realize. And that terrifies the people who want to control you.
Becoming mindful of the divisive
Far too much of the narrative in the collective consciousness of the world today is divisive. Why? Because many of the people in leadership roles, with power, use this to keep and expand their power.
This is true throughout human history. It used to be far easier when rulers only ruled over tens of thousands rather than millions, when masses of people were uneducated, when science didn’t explain the inexplicable, and so on. Yet despite all the years of historic examples, today, too many of our so-called leaders only care about expanding their power and influence. So they strive to do, to the detriment of people, the environment, and anything else in their way.
They use and abuse false narratives to create and expand divides. Most of this is done by playing on fear. For example, a small but vocal group of white people (mostly male), fearing their loss of self-sovereignty, have rallied to tear down DEI initiatives – diversity, equity, and inclusion. That’s despite the truth that those initiatives bring voices to the table that simply want to be at the table. It’s not taking away from anyone or anything; it’s “yes, and.” And yet, the false narrative, based on fear, paints it as “not for you, now for me.”
I can’t make anyone else see the divisive for what it is. I can, however, see it for myself. You can also recognize the divisive and do your part to be mindful of it and change it.
How? By recognizing the intent. It’s easy to ignore, especially when many of those in power want you living subconsciously and asleep at the switch. But you need to do more than just recognize it. Acknowledge it. That’s where mindfulness of the issues begins.
Why? Because we all deserve better.
The truth about “us” and “them”
Do you desire to be treated fairly, to receive kindness, compassion, and empathy? Is that what you want for the people you care about, too? Guess what? So do they.
When all is said and done, EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, desires to be treated fairly, and receive kindness, compassion, and empathy. Even the most ridiculous narcissistic asshole practically demands this. It is, as far as I can tell, a universal truism. (Yes, yes, there’s almost definitely exceptions to this. But that’s select outliers and beyond the scope of this essay.)
The truth is that no matter where you sit, “us” or “them”, you want to be treated well. And guess what? That’s not at all unreasonable.
It doesn’t matter how you divide anyone or anything. Black and white. Gay and straight. Male and female. Republican and Democrat. American and Chinese. Israeli and Palestinian. Male/female/transgender/nonbinary. Rich and poor. Fat and thin. Wise and foolish. Native and immigrant. Pick the extreme, choose the label, it doesn’t change the truth. Everyone desires to be treated fairly, with kindness, compassion, and empathy.
We differ because each and every one of us is unique, with our own individual perception of reality. The divisive create artifices to play on fears that “we” will lose fairness, kindness, compassion, and empathy to “they”.
But because these are all intangibles, their supply is infinite. “Us” vs “them” is an artifice that barely holds up to scrutiny when you practice mindfulness and take a look at it. There is more than enough to go around for all, no matter how we’re artificially divided.
Choose to be less divisive
The trouble is, you and I can’t change the hearts and minds of others. That doesn’t mean we can’t do things to help sway them, influence them, and help them be more actively consciously aware. But we need to accept that we can’t make them do anything.
All you and I can truly do is choose to be less divisive ourselves. That doesn’t mean putting on rose-colored glasses and ignoring problems created by division. It means applying more kindness, compassion, and empathy to gain some understanding of the perspective others have.
The key here is that you cannot get into the head, heart, or soul of anyone other than yourself. If you choose to see people as “other”, as “them”, however, you create an artificial division. Instead, choose to see them as similar, but with their own perspective (which might or might not seem fucked up to your point of view). Make the conscious effort not to judge or divide.
We often apply unnecessary labels because it’s easy. Yet most do nobody any good and create space for divisiveness. While you and I can’t change that in the collective consciousness, we can change it for ourselves. That’s a choice we get to make.
When you choose to be less divisive yourself, you become more mindful of the divisive. From there, you can do, say, and share things to help others see through the artificial divides for themselves. The more you and I do this, the more we can work to change the narrative for the better.
Do you perceive how not being mindful of the divisive can lead to madness?
This is the seventh-hundred-forty-eighth (748) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share my philosophy because I desire to make a difference in the world and help as many people as I can to find their empowerment with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to share and/or repost where it might do good for you and others.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
Also, please check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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