The power of the individual who dares to look at the bigger picture
We live one life; we inherit our habits and we develop a way of living based on what we know. We don't question why we do what we do, it is a given. Young adults question all of the time. Student riots exist because of their questions but still our habits in each culture realign us and help us get through to the next stage of our development without going mad. Why do we go to work every day? Why do we follow policies when we know they are wrong? Why do we give up precious time to a job or a career that does not help others, and takes away from our own dignity? It is a habit.
Fear is also a habit. Fear is used to control a company. Policies are to control a company. Both fear and policies are not resilient or sustainable. The habit of fear burns out a person and takes their will to live, their inspiration and the spark out of them. Policies take the common sense and good judgment out of a company. So many companies speak of workshops to up productivity. Does whipping a horse really make it faster every day? Humans are naturally productive, humans naturally want to grow and be better, humans enjoy understanding what they are doing, and humans are social creatures.
We have come to a point in the first world where we can be better. We can build Moral Capital (Sison) and decide our fate, our fate in the eyes of dignity. No matter whom we are what company or even what role we play there is no reason why we should fear our job or our livelihood. Without fear we will make virtuous decisions, and this makes a company resilient. The company policies are there as a failsafe. A virtuous person of character with dignity will know what to do when the anomaly shows up in a system. Trusting the person to make the decision that is best for the company but also best for the world around the company and planet should be easy. It is not easy because of our habits.
The habit of fear controls our dignity and makes us want to look good in the eyes of the company even if the policy is hurtful. From a young idealist to a practical numb person we lose ourselves and in the end we lose our lives any way. The company would like to do right, but how?
I reference this cycle as a first world cycle because we don't need to go numb, we need thinkers, creators, improvisers, people with passion and commitment. The first world needs people with standards and respect for their own lives, with enough strength to trust each other. These people are an example to the second and third world, an example of how the individual human can think and flourish in their one life time, while working for someone else and while maintaining a view of our world as a community.
The first world has enough knowledge and material now that we can think for the greater planet. We know that being greedy upsets the stakeholders, and, long term, the stockholders will have less dividend. We know now that sustainable means long term survival and we know now that no matter how hard or how greedy we get we are disposable and will die anyway. We know now that more money is not always the best decision and that decision making does not cost money but can actually save money. We know now that time is time and money is money. We know now that we are not really in a survival mode; we are stuck in a habit.
When our lives have a purpose and we are proud of who we are, whether the waste management person or the CEO, we look at each decision we make. We make the decisions that make the most sense for the survival of the company, but we also make the decisions that we can live with, affecting the bigger picture through individual lives.
