How do we LEAD to a New America? 5 Ways To Start:

As a Black man, because of the recent civil unrest from the murders of Amaud Arbrey, George Floyd, and countless other unarmed Black men, I have been very popular this week with sympathetic calls from my very dear, and well meaning friends and colleagues of the caucasian persuasion. It was very difficult for me because none of them knew how painful the reality was for me, or how hurtful some of their lines of questioning could be for people like me.

Thankfully, one day last week, one of my peers asked me "What should I do?" and I realized that the one thing that we all are lacking sorely in this world, especially in times of crisis, is LEADERS.

I absolutely do NOT mean to point this at political leaders...that's a whole other topic, but they are not excluded either. This is NOT a political statement and I don't want this conversation politicized. This is about US. We, The People, of all colors and classes. How should WE lead?

This peer leadership will come from 5 things that are lacking in America as a whole that we all need to embrace and lead by example among our peers:

-- COURAGE: All of us are in a place of social and emotional vulnerability. Our deep need to be valued and accepted by our tribe runs deep, all the way back to our primitive ancestors banding together for mutual protection from a harsh world. We have moved from tribes of warriors to herds of sheep. No one wants to stand out from the herd for fear of wolves, but the herd is clearly being led to slaughter. Lead by voicing the truth you see and believe. Once you know it, don’t be afraid to admit that the system is flawed and unsustainable, that those who run the system are corrupt and wrong, or that we are all guilty of perpetuating it all because we know that we encourage what we tolerate. LEAD with courage. As Emerson said: “God will not have is work made manifest by cowards.”

-- INDEPENDENCE: This goes hand in hand with courage. To risk being ostracized by your herd of fellow “sheepole” means you may have to fend for yourself. If you feel you lack the socioemotional, and practical skills to survive without your current world exactly as it is, it’s hard to feel confident to step out on your own.  Build skills and confidence in your own self-reliance (which happens to be the title of the R.W. Emerson essay from which the previous quote comes). 

Even more important than social independence is your own INDEPENDENCE OF THOUGHT. No matter who you are, you are in a bubble of constantly re-affirming thoughts and beliefs about the world around you. You must recognize that this bubble was purposely built for you by whatever social construct you grew up in. Your parents and communities in your formative years shaped you to THEIR purposes, and everything that you believe today was taught to you by someone who had a vested interest in your personal puzzle piece  being shaped just so to help form a cohesive picture. This is certainly a GOOD thing that was likely done out of love. 

But never forget that all of those communities that you grew up in were always a functioning part of a larger system devoid of any inherent morals or regard for human life which is the Global Industrial Complex. I am an avid and practicing capitalist, but as such, I can still speak the truth that compassion, charity, and good will are not pillars of the global industrial system and in most cases they are expensive and inconvenient. 

The system only “Cares” about We, the People as much as the cattle farmer cares for the cows they butcher. “Consumers” are simply components in this system just as transistors and capacitors are part of other systems. Consumers are bred and trained for the purpose of consuming. Fear, uncertainty, doubt, greed, and avarice are all powerful motivators, and they are being drip-fed to you on a regular basis as it was to your parents, and their parents and their communities before you. Umoja (Swahili) is bad for business but good for us all.  

LEAD through Independence of thought. Unplug from the F.U.D., consume the counter-truths, and WRITE your own content for others to share your thoughts.

-- EFFORT: Nothing worthwhile comes easy. But we as a society are addicted to ease and comfort. Our comfort addition is so strong that we actually FEAR any change to our world that may jeopardize it. That fear leads to avoidance of the truth, which prevents independence of thought. You see, as flawed as this system is, for the comfort of many of us, IT WORKS, and for real change, we don’t want to.  

When I say the system works, I don’t just mean the corporate fat-cats at the top of the top 1%, I mean at every level form the all white redneck riveara trailer parks in Alabama to the all Black shotgun shanty slums of East St. Louis, even our POOR live in a certain level of comfort that 3rd world countries cannot reach…DON’T you dare think I’m calling their lives acceptable standards of living…I am only suggesting that the average middle class, by comparison are SO comfortable that they are as addicted to the commercial system as Smeagol was to the One Ring. 

The horrifying thought that the whole system REQUIRES what amounts to a slave class to survive is so distasteful, that most people do not want to accept it as true. When people allow themselves to really think about it, they wonder how they could possibly have their Starbucks if that Barista didn’t need that job so bad that they were willing to clean toilets. Especially now in this pandemic, no one wants to know how terrible the working conditions at Amazon are because they want their packages next-day. It’s the old adage of “never seeing how the sausage is made”. The blissful ignorance is only to protect your comfort, and Dammit, you KNOW that when you let yourself think about it.  

LEAD through Effort. When I say we don’t want to work, I mean that for everyone involved (those who are actively working in the ways I am about describe, excluded of course).

White America, calling your Black friend for a chit chat about race relations before you go back to golfing requires NO effort. Voting for national politicians twice a year requires NO effort. Doing the homework to find the right LOCAL officials, and business leaders, and clergy, and social influencers, to put constant, effective pressure on them to make lasting change every day is the kind of effort we need from our white counterparts. 

Black America, marching, and complaining on social media, and constantly preaching “woke” shit to your peers like the pot calling the kettle black is far less effort than this problem needs for lasting change (Shut the hell up any anti-protest advocates, I’m all for protests too). Real change comes from the harder effort of ORGANIZING financial support for all of the Black workers who chose to walk off their jobs at Amazon to protest their working conditions, or ORGANIZING support for all Black owned financial institutions so that EVERY black business moves their finances out of white banks to show our collective financial strength.  These are herculean efforts, for sure, but it is herculean task, and complaining louder for a system which has not done it for us for hundreds of years will clearly not get it done. We need to do the harder work towards new ides, which leads to the next need.

-- CREATIVITY: The name of my company is CIGRIE, which is an acronym for “Creativity is the Greatest Rebellion In Existence. It’s creativity that got Ghandi to say, “let me try starving myself in public to get the British to grant our independence.” (do you find it odd that a British actor got an Oscar for playing him?) We need new, Bold ideas.  We don’t need 1000 ideas, we just need one that works. “A good plan executed now, is better than a perfect plan executed later.”

New and innovative ideas are sexy too. Let’s be honest, people want something tangible to follow, not just charisma and the trappings of success. That’s clout or fame. Leaders create clear and crystalized visions of the future and help outline the steps to get there. To replace our society system with something new we need a LOT of people on board, on the same page, working toward the same clear goal. We need visionaries to plan the new system…might you be one of them? Can you at least commit to try?

We CANNOT fix this system. Fight me on that all you want, it is just not a matter of rearranging the parts and pieces. We started with a rotten core of imperial conquest, genocide, and slavery. That’s not a Black /white /European/ 3rd world statement, empires of all shapes and sizes have been built the same way for thousands of years. We have to grow something new and different from the soil we’re standing on now. 

I’m not calling for burning anything to the ground and plating seeds in the ashes, but just as one start up grows up and DISRUPTS the incumbent mega-corporation, our new system of society has to be custom-built from the ground up. The current system will try (and succeed several times) to kill it once we grow it, but the CREATIVE social engineer, just like the avid entrepreneur, never sees crucifixion by your competitor as the end. They rise again through an unstoppable will to build it better next time. We need that more than ever now.

LEAD through Creativity, both by putting your mind to new and different ways to attack old problems and by SUPPORTING the creative geniuses who can’t get their ideas off the ground or supporting the active ideas that are building steam. The creative leaders of tomorrow may, but probably won’t be you personally. Which leads to the last point that is sorely lacking.

-- LOVE & CHARITY: I hate to sound cliché, but the effective and practical application of love and charity is required for the effective execution of all the other points.  Love for the people both within and without the system we are seeking to replace will allow us to really connect to the politicians and business leaders we will need in this rebuilding. Love for our peers who voice their opinions, hurtful or scary though it may be, will stop us from pushing them away. We will help encourage their creativity, with our love and courage. 

Just as we have heard from hundreds of people on social media, Love will foster understanding of all sides of the social divides to find common ground for the creators to build from. Try it out. And Love in turn will breed Charity.

It’s Charity that will get your hands into your pocket to pay the salary of a worker who walks off the job in protest. For all the thousands of people who shouted and complained about the poor Mexican children in cages at our borders last year, did anyone reading this put their comfort addition aside and offer to let just one of those children come here and live here on your sponsorship and funding (not even sure it was possible, but did that level of help cross your mind). For people helping people we overinflate the system when we simply trust the government to do it for us. If it is to be, it is up to me. For those of you who know the old teaching story, the punchline about heaven and hell is that heaven looks just like hell, except in heaven, we have all learned to feed each other. 

The classic artists of the renaissance like Monet had patrons and sponsors that supported their work. Those with he Courage, Creativity, Independence, and Effort need your LOVE to paint a picture of America for our children, and our children’s children. 

LEAD with Love, to defeat comfort and fear thereby fostering Charity. From that sustenance, we can all feed each other through the changes to come. 

In closing, don’t get it twisted for one second. This recent string of tragedy was not a trigger for me, but an opportunity to finally put my thoughts into fertile soil. For a long time, I have been very aware of everything I have just laid out, I have never felt fully satisfied or content that things in this country were “Right” let alone perfect. The constant willful disregard for human life of all colors and basic life of all types (environmental & animal rights) is disgusting. “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  I am willing to LEAD, and in the five simple ways I have outlined above, I am calling for all of you to do the same.