A Healthy Society Relies On Its Disbelievers And Naysayers
When was the last time you purposefully engaged in a respectful consensual dialog around a heated topic––a curious fencing match with someone with whom you disagreed?
I would venture to guess that few of us can remember the last time we engaged in that sort of robust and uncomfortable conversation. Censorship, canceling, and erasure create a preciousness and frailty within us individually, and in society at large, that tends to simply create more of the same. This frailty, in turn, undermines our sense of our individual wellness and our capacity to grow and learn. If we step into our jobs each morning aware of the threat of being canceled or called out, we are likely to become ardent censors of ourselves, ever-narrowing our risk-taking and growth. This is the antithesis of ecologically embedded ethical practice. And it’s also the antithesis of a healthy, generative society.
Society relies on its disbelievers and naysayers in order to innovate and thrive. A society that silences dissent or cancels its radical risk-takers is a society that cannot survive. Being an ethical participant in our current global climate requires that we remember how to engage in innovative, radical, and risky ways with each other and the larger communities and cultures to which we belong.
Embodied Ethics is a course for those who want to strengthen their radical risk-taking muscles. An adventure for those who long to excavate and evolve their capacity to engage in intelligent, respectful conversations with others who might not agree.
In order to do this, we will all have to work together to weave a community of curiosity, respect, and care. We will take time to identify the places where we’re each likely to be ambushed by our shadow, as well as the places where we each shine with our own unique brilliance.
The issues we face as a species, and as a global Earth ecology, are vast and mounting. If we envision ourselves as dynamic practitioners and guides capable of addressing the myriad problems facing our communities we will first have to do our own calisthenics. Embodied Ethics is the boot camp for this work.
We will practice this critical craft of generative dissent in our free webinar on Wednesday January 5th.