What is Sacred to Me?

I am not connected to any religion, yet I think it will help you quickly understand who I am by understanding what is sacred to me. If you are purely secular or an atheist, I want you to know that the word sacred need not have anything to do with spirituality. Sacred means, to me, that which is most important; that which is irreplaceably unique, yet a reflection of the whole.

If you are alive, you are sacred to me, because Life is sacred.

Here is a short list of things that matter most to me:

• Free speech and free expression.
• The vitality of our natural places and communities.
• Creating meaning in life through service to others, and sharing our gifts. Sharing the love of Life.
• Embodying my soul -bearing the gifts that define me, and learning to share them with grace.
• Seeing us all as integral parts of something mysterious and yet practical… finding the reverence inspiring in us all, and then acting accordingly.
• Creating beauty, love, wisdom, and health through the harmony of opposites.
• My family.

The Big Picture

Humanity is at a crossroads where we cannot rely on our previous strategies to solve, or even understand the enormous challenges we face. No civilization has endured. Human history, while full of innovation and much beauty, is largely a history of war, ecological exploitation, and the enforcement of brutal social hierarchies.

Unfortunately, current and inevitable technologies make repeating those patterns more (irreparably) destructive than ever. It's time to grow up, as a species. It is our generation's task to create a culture that values and believes in our positive potential enough to dare to make systems that both prevent these historical patterns from repeating, (much like how the constitution was implemented to bring to life new governing systems and a new social order), and ensuring democratic norms, institutions, and rights are strengthened... all while also protecting us from shocks and instability that come when bringing forth new forms of social relation.

I am deeply influenced by the thinking and thinkers behind the Consilience Project, and I feel their light is on a path with the greatest promise -integrating education to improve collective sense-making while also directing deep inquiry into the drivers and inter-relationships that lead to self-destructing social organizations. In short, I am profoundly impressed with how much clarity they bring to helping us understand the dilemma we are in. Expect much of my thinking as a representative to be strongly influenced by their brand of rigorous sense-making and big picture thinking.

My Core Political Insight and Solution

Political Checks and Balances Must Extend Beyond Government

Limiting the concentration of power is the defining principle of the United States Constitution. While political power is “checked and balanced” in our constitution via structural arrangements between different parts of the government, the framers of the constitutions did not provide adequate structures to prevent power from outside of the political institutions from capturing political power.

Today this capture is seen through many mechanisms, from the entrenchment of incumbent politicians, to the necessity of huge budgets to even run for office, revolving doors between government and lobbying groups, lap dog instead of watch dog regulators, gerrymandered districts, political dynasties, and more.

When power concentrates, especially power absent virtue and wisdom, it is antithetical to democracy. Therefore concentrated market power can be the enemy of freedom. To state it more practically, I mean that there are 1,000 ways the wealthiest can buy our political institutions, and given that the gap between the 1% and the rest of us is growing at an accelerating pace, this problem must be addressed if we want to preserve the prospects of having autonomy over our own lives. The central thrust of my endeavor to address the root cause of this problem of power concentration is two fold- one that operates at the individual level, and another that operates on the structural level:

Individual Scale- George Washington’s view on this topic was that “every citizen must be educated in the art and science of governance.” ie, only an engaged and informed citizenry can keep the government free of this kind of corruption.

I agree with Ol’ Georgey on the grounds that this education is a necessary (but it’s not sufficient) part of the solution. I fully support efforts to reinvigorate coherent personal, interpersonal, and civic level sense-making and solution-building skill sets in our society.

The most basic form of this could be implemented as re-emphasizing civics education as part of primary education. Another step in this direction would be mandatory voting, which at least helps with the problem of dis-engagement of the citizenry, while also forcing political discourse more toward rhetoric and policies that address the concerns of greater parts of the population instead of just the major party’s primary base.

A more idealized implementation would be to find ethical and effective ways to support efforts like the Consilience Project, a non-profit initiative that aims to improve sense-making amidst the often bewildering modern information ecosystems we inhabit.

Structural Scale- Changing the hearts and minds of individuals - alone- as a strategy is incomplete because individuals are influenced by their environments. That is why individual-scale efforts must be met equally with endeavors to address the structural patterns of corruption which are foundationally rooted in the concentration of power in the first place.

The simplest and most achievable step would be term limits and ranked choice voting. More ambitious would be wealth taxes and universal basic incomes. The most ideal would be periodic jubilees (the economic equivalent of freeing slaves), changes to the process of money-creation, and constitutional conventions designed to periodically level the playing fields and start the economic game fresh.

Ending War Mentality

You may read about my positions and see that I disagree with some policy you support. Ending “war mentality” means that I am committed to remembering the humanity of those with whom I disagree.

While I am wary of war, I am not afraid of conflict. And while in conflict, I am committed to remembering that I am seeking to dominate or destroy no one…. that we are all worthy of love. In my best moments, I can share that love even when I am opposing your point of view.

The most pivotal point in my life was, as a Marine Corps Sergeant, deciding to risk my life to hasten an end the Iraq War. I realized war, although in some rare times necessary, was largely a failure of humanity, of all of our humanity.

After years of exploring how to end war, I came to accept that in order to be both effective and in integrity, I must end the war mentality I enacted, mostly unconsciously.

My 22 year old self thought, “Republicans and the complacent, numb and ignorant population must be forced to see the err in their war mongering ways.” I practiced a peace activism that made adversaries out of more than half of my people. I embodied a self righteous assumption that I was on side “good” and those not sufficiently supporting my cause were, by default, “bad.” I came to see that self righteousness is pervasive, and a form of war mentality.

It turns out that this kind of mentality not only didn’t lead to good results, it sucked the joy out of life. I was fascinated how even peace activism could be a vehicle for such an adversarial, “othering” attitude. I came to see this often unconscious psychological pattern of creating good vs bad binaries playing out in every aspect of our culture, and I knew in my bones it was impossible for the fullness of our human potential to be reached and celebrated, or even acknowledged, if we stayed trapped in this story.

While I still believe there are times wars must be fought, I am committed to holding reverence for all life, which often begins with the step of endeavoring to constantly remind myself to use the situations, things, and people who I encounter, especially the ones that “trigger” me into emotional reactions- as opportunities to see aspects of my own blind spots… to see my own strengths and weaknesses mirrored back to me. This is the best practice I’ve found thus far for disarming my own inner war mentality and dehumanization programs. I believe only people who are NOT consciously or unconsciously stuck in war mentality are able to inspire the trust needed to reach new solutions between historically polarized factions.

In this practice I am no master… but I am an earnest student.

Guiding Wisdoms

Please understand that the policies any of us might advocate may change as we learn more about a given issue, but by understanding my guiding principles you will have a good idea of what kind of philosophical frameworks, principles, and values will transcend the knowledge I have at any given time:

I believe I have around average intelligence and below average short term memory. But I probably possess above average wisdom. Wisdom can be far more important than intelligence when it comes to serving others because intelligence used to pursue the wrong ends can be dangerous. Here are the wisdoms that are most fundamental to my perspective on life are:

Wisdom 1: Opposites Need Each Other

The tension between opposites is the source of all creative action. Isaac Newton mapped this insight onto physics elegantly with the observation that, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” I believe this applies to all of reality, not just what physics is well suited to explore and describe.

In short, opposites need each other, and dynamically navigating the tension between them enables us to harness nature's creative pattern, and not least of all, to remember to love those with whom we disagree, even those with whom we war, because our opposites need not be our enemies, they can in fact be our fertile partners.

When we consciously accept, explore and honor this tension, we can choose to act with far more power, love and insight. When we act from an understanding of wholeness, we can harness our full potential. Aristotle advised that virtue is the center point between two vices, Buddha advised the middle path, perhaps we use different terms to describe the same concept.

This applies to politics when acknowledging that conservatism and progressivism, whose core arguments for what creates thriving societies largely boil down to personal responsibility (conservatism) on the one hand, and structural changes on the other (progressivism).

To summarize, it is wisdom in my book to see that we need both personal responsibility and structural changes to build thriving societies. And that these two opposites must be held in a tension that honors both.

Wisdom 2: The Universal and Unique

A fundamental pair of opposites to hold in tension is the universal and the unique. We find meaning in our lives by having a story that gives us a way to understand our unique gifts and circumstances in relation to universal pathways and lessons which can help bring our gifts to fruition. Most western cultures have lost the wisdom of creating effective meaning-making stories, so we are facing a looming potential epidemic of lost, and confused people vulnerable to addictions, tribalist propaganda, and nihilistic despair.

To summarize very briefly, my understanding is that we must fall in love with the natural world in order to regain the most potent story making wisdom and power available to humanity. This is because, at least in part, stories that abstract our lives from nature are missing the context that grounds us in reality, and make us abysmal partners with mother nature.

Further, beyond falling in love with nature, we must learn to be our most authentic selves in harmony with (not in subservience to) our social groups. We must become aware when we are lying to ourselves, and discern our true values from those conditioned into us- in order to create stories that truly clarify our gifts and allow us to develop them; which is foundational for a fulfilling life, and healthy culture.

I believe government can play a role in providing opportunities for young people to be of service to others outside of just military service, and to experience life in intimate contact with the natural world to help foster a more psychologically and spiritually whole culture.

Wisdom 3: Self and Other

Another key pair of opposites is “us” and “them”, which is a version of “self” and “other.” The “othering” of anyone, anything, or any group is often a precursor to their exploitation. The more we can see and accept that which we know to be “me,” can be found in others, and that which seems “other” can be found in ourselves… the more we can access both empathy and powerful states of collaboration and creativity to build solutions to the challenges that face us collectively.

Wisdom 4: Knowing and Mystery

“The best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity.” -W. Yeats

Too much certainty, in myself, or others is something I am cautious of. Too much uncertainty, in myself or others, can be maddening. But the tension between these opposites births wisdom.

Our society has a bias towards the known and is quite uncomfortable with mystery. In my inclination toward creating balance, I therefore give a bias toward mystery. The unknown can be scary, but developing the ability to trust the unknown, and therefore relinquishing the compulsion to control everything, is perhaps a prerequisite to living in harmony with nature and each other.

Wisdom 5: Individual and Community

This is the tension that underlies most domestic policy conflict. The archetype of conservatism is to glorify the individual, while the left tends to elevate community. Clearly society can fail in both directions. On the other hand, stronger/wiser individuals add to a community that is more than the sum of their parts. And just as importantly, we must have a healthy community to create healthy individuals. Keeping this tension fertile, ie understanding these polarities need each other, and can contribute to a virtuous feedback loop of well being and wisdom, is the key to a politics which enables us all to thrive.c

Wisdom 6: Balance in Movement

“All things in moderation, including moderation” - Buddha

Seeking balance between opposites is not a recipe for stagnation or inaction. Balance, both physical and philosophical - is dynamic, meaning it requires movement. And even balance itself must occasionally be harmonized with imbalance. If walking were the metaphor- we must learn to stay upright by playing at the edge of what makes us fall.

Wisdom 7: Attention and Awareness

Our quality of life, both individually and collectively, is determined largely by our actions, and our actions are largely the product of our states of being. Our state of being is largely determined by what we pay attention to, and perhaps even more so by the qualities and patterns in which we habituate our attention. I believe that where there is any free will at all, it is not in what we think or do, it is on what and how we choose to focus our attention.

Many philosophers and traditions would even go so far as to say, we are not our biographies (which we selectively remember at best), nor are we our bodies (whose cells are replaced constantly), nor even are we our atoms (which likewise cycle out of us throughout life… and are themselves made of particles that seem to pop in and out of measurable reality)… we are simply awareness of experience.
I believe the more we can acknowledge the fundamental reality that we produce results in our external world starting with the use of attention, the more effective we will be at applying our attention, and the more likely we are to help each other remember to find things we love in life to pay attention to. Paying attention to what we love, and loving what we pay attention to… not least of all because love brings the best out of us… is what I dare say is an essential ingredient to a fulfilling life and a free and healthy civilization.

Wisdom 8: Nature As Teacher

When we ask how nature has solved some of the challenges we face, and have the flexibility of mind to receive answers in unexpected ways… I am inspired and filled with hope.

The model of organization to emulate for our politics, for me, is the human body. How can each of us act like a cell, contributing our gifts, fulfilling our roles, yet being as selfish, or as unselfish as needed depending on the given environment and goal? What governing principle must we learn from our body's remarkable feat of social organization? This is a core question for me.

Wisdom 9: Dance with Shadows

The preeminent psychologist Carl Jung taught about exposing our psychological blind spots- the patterns and parts of our selves we can't see or avoid looking for- which he called the "shadow." I see this ongoing process of examining and illuminating our own blindspots and underlying motivations as foundational to individual and societal growth and health. I am no master at this, but I practice often.