SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT – VOTING AND MORE

Elections are a combination of choice plus action on that choice.

In the grand scheme of things, a vote is a relatively small thing. However, votes add up to a larger choice or set of choices made by a community about representation. As imperfect a system as democracy is, it is still one which allows people to engage at some level to participate in choice. It is government by collaboration, even though it exists within a system of competition. Is there a better way to allow all points of view to be heard?

"Your own choice has decided you." ~ Ernest Holmes, “Beverly Hills Lectures”

Our western culture is facing an existential crisis of identity. It is not the first one we have experienced, nor is it likely to be the last, but each time such a crisis arises, we are called to choose and to act on our choices. The consciousness we bring to this process is ideally one which reflects continued spiritual and psychological growth over time. While some of us are growing positively and measurably in this regard, everyone is not, so our experience of the collective voice choosing and acting is uneven. It is very complex, but the spiritual principles which underly it are simple.

“By acknowledging our participatory embeddedness and agency in this complexity we begin to see

how life — all along — co-created abundance through collaboration. We can reconcile humanity

with the rest of nature and begin to aim for a science of qualities and

right relationships aiming for appropriate participation.”

~ Daniel Christian Wahl

One cannot deny the overall progress of humanity over time – greater abundance, increased lifespans, decreased overall violence – nor can one deny that these advances have neither been evenly distributed nor without long term costs to the environment and to marginalized peoples. We must do better if we are to co-create sustainable cultures which can survive and thrive.

This messiness has led some to withdraw from engaging with the larger society in some cases – especially regarding politics. The rough and tumble nature of modern politics can certainly be a turn-off for those on an evolving spiritual pathway. However, our spiritual principles and practices are not to prepare us for non-engagement; they are to prepare us to step into the apparent chaos and forge what is next for us. Change on the scale required of humanity – whole system change – is not going to come without active engagement by spiritually mature people.

“We need to free ourselves of the tyranny of outworn ideas. We can completely rethink and

re-imagine what is possible in the 21st-century. Fear/ego’s greatest triumph

is convincing us we are powerless to change things.”

~ Marianne Williamson on Twitter

Many in New Thought are awakening to this reality. They are not just voting but are volunteering for candidates and causes they believe in (even if those do not perfectly match their own preferences). They are bringing a spiritually principled approach into a political arena which is so in need of spiritual awareness and compassion.

I suggest that you begin where you can – and you can vote. Perhaps you can help to ensure that others in your community also get to vote. That would be a good start. Elsewhere on the AGNT website, you can find ways to increase your social engagement should you be so moved. There is no time better than now.

“Political activity must truly be conducted at the service of the human person,

with respect for creation and for the common good.”

~ Pope Francis