I’ve been trying to make sense of the US election results all week. It’s not surprising that I am disconnected from the average American, as I live with privilege and wealth in Silicon Valley. The accusations that the Democratic party has been catering too much to college-educated “elites” hit home with me.
A few takeaways for me:
1) Economic insecurity feels like it was a major contributor to how the election went. When people feel like they are drowning, they just try to save themselves even at the cost of others.
2) I need to own my own complicity in these results. I didn’t contribute much despite the existential stakes of this election because my personal survival wasn’t at stake.
3) I want to move beyond a reductive view of people as only single dimensional. Whether you choose political affiliation, skin color, wealth, gender, birthplace as the single dimension, it ignored the vast richness of other dimensions that also compose our personhood. Watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, The danger of a single story, for a better take on that.
I don’t know how to change the political landscape. I don’t know how to create more safety for those threatened by Trump, or for those who voted for Trump out of a feeling of economic insecurity. The problems of America seem too big to change, and yet I still believe we each can make a difference by living in integrity with our beliefs. Those behaviors ripple outwards and we act as role models for each other to create the world we want. And connecting deeply with other humans is a way to reject the reductive view and take a stand for the value of humanity in all its complexity and richness.
Check out the full essay in my newsletter at https://lnkd.in/grhgvS_8