THINKING OUT-LOUD ABOUT POLITICS

From 2012 to 2014 after working out the details of a self-actualizing leader, I took an interest in understanding politics and leadership in that domain. I figured that as a subjective human experience, it could be modeled. We could model good examples of intelligent and mature politicians and we could model toxic and destructive politicians. Abraham Maslow trigger the idea and wrote about self-actualizing politics. He wrote about what it would take to create “a good people” and he even ran a thought experiment about what kind of politics a group of 100 or 1000 self-actualizing people would create on a deserted island.

That led to lots of reading and researching in the area of politics, political science, sociology, and the writings of the founding fathers of the great American experiment in democracy. I wrote the book in 2014 and published it in 2015— long before the current political polarization that we now have in the US.

It also led me to read biographies of several politicians---- Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. After all, there have already appeared on Planet Earth some self-actualizing politicians. So in terms of finding some high quality exemplars to model— we have such and they arose in contexts of division, conflict, polarization, racial bias, etc. Two of these exemplars were elected to office and therefore had an opportunity to demonstrate how an emotionally mature person could handle power in a way that would unleash the potential of a nation. Two of the exemplars, however, never had “official” political power— they only had the personal power of their lifestyle, their voice, their vision, and their ability to communicate and inspire.

Numerous things surprised me in the study which is now in the book Political Coaching: Self- Actualizing Leaders and Countries (2015). One is that we are all political. By nature, whenever we are with other people, there are “politics.” After all we have to come up with ways of getting along, ways of communicating, making decisions, allocating resources, etc. That’s why politics is also in the office and at home. Who is in charge? How did he or she take charge? How are things decided? Are the politics healthy and self-actualizing?

As political beings our lives are determined by our politics. And our politics are determined by our thinking (e.g., ideas, understanding, believing, deciding, framing, etc.). What you think of people, of human nature, of differences, of conflicts, of resolving conflicts, of working together, of getting along, of establishing rules, and a thousand other subjects — controls your actions and reactions and the quality of your life.

Your politics, therefore, can be no better than your thinking about human beings. So if you think of people as ravenous animals fighting in the modern jungle for power, superiority, control, material goods, etc., that way of thinking turns politics into a battle— a war. It is a zero-sum game of winners and losers. It is a ruthless competition are the ends justify the means.

Conversely, if you think of people as human beings with vast potentials for loving, contributing, being responsible, being moral and ethical beings— people who want to be their best selves and see others grow and develop and leave the world a better place— that leads to a very different politics. It involves a different kind of political thinking.

Maslow and then Douglas McGregor mapped all of this out in terms of Theory X and Theory Y of human nature. McGregor applied it to business and management of organizations. These two different philosophical frames of human nature lead either to Command-and-Control authoritarian leaders or to the collaborative leadership of the self-actualizing frame. One leads to a view of government as a Daddy or Mommy who takes care of children — who knows what’s best for them, who assumes that they can and should do for citizens what they assume they really can’t do for themselves. One leads to a view of government as a steward of the people’s voice and money. Government is to provide a rule of law so that all have an equal opportunity to be educated and to develop their talents as they become increasingly responsible and informed citizens.

Politics is inevitable. It occurs in every family, every business, and every organization. It occurs at local levels, national levels, and international levels. There’s no getting away from it. The ultimate questions are about the quality and kind of politics that we create. Humanistic politics works from a respect of the dignity of all persons, all lives matter, a belief in human potentials and human responsibility. It satisfies the need for survival and safety by law and order. It satisfies connection, bonding, cooperation, and personal dignity by providing for certain freedoms — speech, assembly, etc. It also satisfies the self-actualization needs by creating a context where there are opportunities to pursue meaning, beauty, excellence, contribution, ethics, etc.

For more, see Political Coaching: Self-Actualizing Leaders and Countries (2015) as a real book — or as a PDF file in “The Shop” www.neurosemantics.com