I need to tell you about something that’s been breaking my heart.
Last summer, I took my kids, Hayden and Eve, on a two-week road trip across the heart of America. From South Dakota to Wyoming to Montana.
We fired guns at a range outside Cody. We camped in Yellowstone under stars so bright it felt like the sky was showing off. We sat at the famous Cody Rodeo while families around us waved American flags with a pride that made my chest tight with emotion.
The people we met were extraordinary.
At a local diner, the waitress gave us the warmest service and the best pie I’ve had in years. At the hotels we stayed in, we were treated with overwhelming kindness and sincerity.
I am not an American citizen. I was born in Malaysia. I run Mindvalley, an American company. But I’ve spent nearly three decades traveling across your country—from my college years in Michigan to speaking events in Florida; from tech conferences in San Francisco to quiet conversations in Ohio diners.
And here is what I know to be true:
The American people are not the problem.
The warmth I felt in Wyoming, I have felt in every corner of this nation. In so-called “red” America and so-called “blue” America. Among people who voted for Trump and people who voted for Biden. Among ranchers and professors, veterans and artists, churchgoers and skeptics.
Goodness is everywhere.
So why does it feel like you are at war with each other?
The rodeo speech that changed something in me
At the Cody Rodeo, the announcer stepped into the ring and gave a speech called “Why We Stand.”
He spoke of soldiers who never came home from Vietnam. From Iraq. From the beaches of Normandy. He spoke of sacrifice, of freedom, of a flag that represents something men and women were willing to die for.
The crowd went silent. Hats came off. Hands covered hearts.
And I thought: This is real. This love of country is real. This reverence is real.
These people are not hateful. These people are not ignorant. These people are not my enemies.
Then a second thought hit me hard:
Who the hell convinced Americans that they are enemies of each other?
I was manipulated too
I need to confess something.
For years, I consumed media that painted a certain picture of Trump supporters. I read the tweets. I watched the clips. I saw the worst moments replayed on loop until they seemed like the whole story.
I absorbed a caricature.
Then I went to Wyoming. And I met human beings.
They didn’t match the cartoon I’d been sold. Not even close. These were people worried about the same things everyone worries about:
Can I afford to get sick?
Will my children have a better life than I?
Why does it feel like the whole system is rigged against regular folks?
These aren’t Republican questions or Democratic questions. These are human questions. These are kitchen-table questions.
I realized I had allowed myself to see my fellow human beings as enemies—because it’s easier to hate a cartoon than to sit with complexity.
If I were manipulated, I suspect I’m not the only one.
The inclusion paradox
There is a hard question I had to ask myself—a question raised by philosopher Ken Wilber, whose course “Integral Life” is part of the Mindvalley curriculum.
He describes a strange paradox in our modern culture. We have a “leading edge” of society that prides itself on love, diversity, and inclusion. We fight for the environment. We fight for minorities. We fight for the oppressed.
But there is one group we often feel comfortable excluding.
Wilber calls this a “performative contradiction.” How can we claim to be the movement of diversity if we look down on half the country as “deplorables”?
We cannot claim to stand for “inclusion” if we hold contempt for diversity of thought.
If our tolerance stops the moment someone wears a red hat, it isn’t tolerance. It is just another form of tribalism wearing a nicer outfit.
We have to be better than that. True inclusivity means holding space even for those we vehemently disagree with, understanding that their pain is just as real as ours.
The machine that profits from your division
Here’s what I’ve come to believe.
There are forces that profit when Americans hate each other.
The equation is simple:
When you’re angry, you click. When you click, someone makes money.
When you’re afraid, you watch. When you watch, someone sells ads.
And when you are divided, you don’t notice that your wages haven’t kept pace with inflation while CEO pay has soared. You don’t notice that healthcare bankrupts half a million families a year. You don’t notice that the same corporations often fund both parties, ensuring they win no matter who is in the White House.
The platform owners know exactly what they’re doing.
A study from MIT found that falsehoods and outrage-driven content spread six times faster than the truth.
Internal Facebook files leaked in 2021 revealed that their algorithm privileged anger to such a degree that even Meta’s own engineers warned it was “ripping society apart.”
Ken Wilber calls this the “Culture of Post-Truth.”
It creates a state of “aperspectival madness”—where we lose our shared reality and retreat into warring tribes. When algorithms prioritize outrage over facts, truth vanishes. And when there is no truth, there is only power.
The division is not an accident. It is a business model.
And all of us—left and right, rural and urban, MAGA and progressive—we are the product being sold.
Then comes the second wave: The Bots.
A 2024 USC study analyzed online traffic during political flashpoints. What they found was chilling.
Nearly half of the most viral, toxic conversations weren’t coming from humans.
They were generated by bots. In some cases, bot activity spiked from 20% to 43% of the total conversation.
These weren’t Americans. These were automated scripts originating from Russia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Macedonia.
Think about that.
When you see a comment that makes your blood boil, when you rage at “the other side”—half the time, you aren’t fighting a fellow citizen. You are fighting a line of code from a server farm halfway across the world.
It is a foreign algorithm wearing the mask of your neighbor.
The bots are designed to make you hate each other. The actual Americans I’ve met just want the same things.
Something doesn’t add up
I’m not an economist. I’m not a policy expert.
But I’m someone who has built a life on questioning assumptions—what I call “brules,” the bullshit rules society programs into us without evidence.
In a “Post-Truth” world, b-rules thrive. They fill the void where facts used to be. So I decided to look at the actual data. And the reality I found didn’t match the stories I’d been told.
Here are four ideas worth reexamining.
1. On the economy
I always heard that one party was better for business, better for the stock market, better for jobs. It seemed obvious. Everyone repeated it.
Then I looked at the record.
Since 1933, the stock market has performed more than twice as well under Democratic presidents (NYU / Stock Market Historical Review).
Job creation has nearly doubled.
And 10 of the last 11 recessions began under Republican administrations.
I’m not sharing this to score political points. I’m saying: the story I was told was a “brule”. It didn’t match reality.
2. On immigration
I was told immigrants were driving crime and draining resources.
But study after study shows the opposite.
Texas—a state at the center of the immigration debate—found that native-born Americans commit violent crimes at nearly twice the rate of undocumented immigrants (Texas Dept. of Public Safety, 2024).
And in 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes (ITEP, 2024).
They pay billions. They work in agriculture, construction, elder care, and childcare—industries that would collapse without them. Many can’t even claim refunds on the taxes they pay.
So if they’re not causing crime… and they’re not draining your taxes…
Why have we been taught to fear them?
Who benefits when we are afraid of the most vulnerable among us?
3. On healthcare: the freedom to fail
530,000.
That is the number of American families that go bankrupt every year due to medical bills.
In Canada: zero.
In Germany: zero.
In the U.K., France, Japan, Australia: virtually zero.
This isn’t because Americans are sicker. It’s because of policy choices made by people who benefit from the status quo.
But here is the brule we’ve been taught: safety nets make people lazy.
The data shows the exact opposite.
Countries with robust social safety nets—like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark—are hotbeds for entrepreneurship. Sweden produces more unicorn tech companies per capita than any region except Silicon Valley.
Why?
Because entrepreneurship requires risk. And risk requires security.
In America, “freedom” often means the freedom to fall through the cracks.
In social democracies, the government provides a trampoline.
When you don’t have to worry about losing your healthcare because you left your corporate job, you are free to be brave.
4. On the American dream: a personal warning
I was always told America has the highest upward mobility in the world—that this is the only place where anyone, from any background, can make it to the top.
It is a beautiful story. But I decided to look at the rankings.
The Global Social Mobility Index ranks countries on how easy it is for a person to start at zero and climb to the top.
The United States ranks 27th.
The top of the list? Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden.
The “American Dream” is now statistically more likely to happen in Scandinavia than in America.
So why do we resist the very policies that would fix this?
I believe it is because Americans have been manipulated into confusing “Social Democracy” with “Communism.”
And I need to make a distinction here that is deeply personal to me.
I am an entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurs. And I hate Communism with a fire that comes from my own blood.
The Estonian side of my family owned a farm on the Baltic island of Hiiumaa for hundreds of years. But when the Communists took control of Estonia in the 1940s, that legacy was shattered.
They sent a massive portion of the Estonian population to the gulags. My children’s great-grandparents were marched into a forest, lined up, and shot in the head. They were buried in unmarked graves.
Their sin? They were farmers who happened to own their own land.
This is a scar on my family’s history. That land was stolen, and it was only returned to us in the early 1990s when Estonia finally threw off the shackles of Communism and property ownership was legal again.
So you can imagine how I feel when I hear Americans screaming the word “Communism” at things that are clearly not Communism.
I know what Communism is. I know the smell of the graves it digs.
And I need you to know: A safety net is not Communism.
We need to understand the difference between three very different things:
- Communism: The government owns everything. They shoot you for owning a farm. (Think Soviet Estonia).
- Socialism: The government owns the means of production.
- Social Democracy: The government provides a floor so that capitalism can thrive. (Think modern Europe).
The tragedy is that by fearing the ghost of Communism, Americans have rejected the very systems that would make their capitalism stronger.
You can’t take big risks if the system is designed to crush you for stumbling.
When I look at my family’s history, I know that Communism destroys the human spirit. But I also know that unbridled capitalism, without a safety net, breaks the human body.
Real freedom requires a floor you can’t fall through.
The scripture I can’t stop thinking about
After Wyoming, I took Hayden to Ellis Island.
We stood at the base of the Statue of Liberty and read the famous inscription: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
I thought about my own family—immigrants who came to Malaysia with nothing. I thought about the families at the rodeo, many of whose ancestors arrived the same way, chasing the same dream.
Then I remembered these words from Jesus:
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35)
“Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
I’m not a theologian. But those verses haunted me on that island.
I started wondering: What would it mean to take them seriously—not as a political slogan, but as a genuine challenge to how we treat the desperate?
Christ didn’t say: Fear the foreigner. Blame the stranger. Build walls and turn the desperate into demons.
So how did so many good people of faith end up cheering for rhetoric that seems to contradict the teacher they follow?
I don’t ask this to judge. I ask because the contradiction breaks my heart.
The real enemies are not each other
If I could share one insight from an outsider looking in with love, it would be this:
The veteran in Wyoming and the activist in Oakland are not enemies. They are prisoners in the same cell, fighting over crumbs while the warden laughs.
The immigrant picking strawberries didn’t move your factory overseas.
The college student protesting injustice didn’t write the tax code that lets billionaires pay lower rates than nurses.
The single mother on food stamps didn’t create a healthcare system that charges $800 for insulin that costs $8 to make.
Your frustration is real.
But the target you’ve been given is wrong.
And while you are fighting your neighbor, the systems that squeeze you keep squeezing.
What I’m asking
I’m not asking you to change your vote.
I’m not asking you to abandon your values.
I’m not asking you to agree with me.
I’m asking something simpler:
Be suspicious of anyone who tells you to hate.
Be suspicious of the media that makes you angry every single day—because anger is profitable, and you are the product.
Be suspicious of leaders who need enemies more than they need solutions.
And ask yourself, honestly:
Is my life actually better under the policies I support?
Are my bills lower?
Is my healthcare more affordable?
Are my wages keeping up?
Do my children have more opportunity than I did?
If the answer is no, then maybe, just maybe, you’ve been convinced to fight the wrong battles.
I dream of an America that finally lives up to its own giant story.
That dream doesn’t belong to the left or the right.
It belongs to anyone willing to fight for it.
Not fight each other.
Fight for each other.
PS: If this article stirred something in you—agreement, discomfort, clarity, anything—leave a comment below. Honest dialogue is how we start healing what’s been broken. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
334 Responses
Thank you for your post, Vishen. So heart felt, and as an American citizen – born and raised here – its even more powerful to hear it coming from the “outside.” It hurts my heart to see people here so divided but that’s AMERICA! That is one of our rights – to have an opinion and then go VOTE. We have often been a divided country. Look back to anytime a group was trying to elicit change: the Union war, the civil war, the suffrage movement, the civil rights movement. Yes! It’s intense now because it is everywhere thanks to technology – and we are living it. It’s not just a historical reference. But, it’s always been this way.
I do so wholeheartedly agree – let’s work on creating the love that we all believe in… let’s evolve into a way that we create #BetterIsBetter and we will soon find that we have more in common than we don’t.
It was a good analysis, thanks.
There is no true communism. We have labeled totalinarism communist. Thank you for your blog. America is built on individualism We have not come to terms with racism and classism underlying the structure of our country. We need to talk and see the truth of our actions to change how we got here. We have ideals yet we don’t live them. We have potential to excel and trily live ip to the ideals yet we choose to listen to those who split us and make a great deal of money doing this. If we go back to valuing children and the wisdom of elderly we may have a chance. Our country is built on immigrants. We have lost our ability to be kind, welcoming, accepting of others. None of is would have anything if others have not sacrificed before. I hop we can take the middle road. We swing from one extreme to the other. We have to see how if we work together we are so much better off. It is sad to me the birden we are leaving our children to clean up. Your blog was encouraging. Maybe enough people will be able to rebuild America. The phoenix rising up out of the ashes
America is in Crisis. All people have the same basic needs wherever you go. If you really listen, you find out that you have very few differences from your neighbors, urban or rural. We have a systemic set of problems. For the last 50 years, both political parties look the other way as inflation, outstripped salaries, and wages. What this meant is, we had to move to two income households and get deeper in debt to make ends meet. Less time with family less time with the neighborhood less time with the things that we love other than work. Multiple demanding serious issues now compounded at unmatched levels creating stress, anxiety and depression at record levels in the American adult population.
From financial insecurity with 70% of households living paycheck to paycheck and 80% of bankruptcies coming from medical bills, now having the combination of at least one family member struggling with a major chronic disease or substance use disorder or permanent disability impacting over 95% of American households as most rural hospitals prepare for closure. And like never before, 120 million American adults reporting debilitating levels of loneliness.
All of this stress and anxiety then walks into our workplace, every day. The Society of HR Management is confirming the annual pace of 25 billion acts of uncivil behavior in the American workplace and with Gallup polling indicating only 20% of the people in the American workplace trusting their supervisor, America is in crisis.
We need to empower our people.
Economics: If wages and salaries had kept pace with inflation and productivity, minimum wage would be about $26 an hour. The free market only works if there’s rules to the game otherwise it has failed the American people. People should not have to work three jobs or that the job that they do work still qualifies them for public assistance.
Solution: Create a five-year plan with the minimum wage moves to $26 an hour. Obviously, this will cause the wage is above it to move as well giving the American household purchasing Power like they should’ve had all along.
Healthcare: 80% of the bankruptcy in the United States of America are because of medical bills. Rural hospitals are preparing for closure. And premiums under the ACA are about to skyrocket.
Solution: remove the insurance companies from the healthcare industry. Universal Medicare for all. This is essentially what every major industrialized democracy on the entire planet has already done.
Family: the time away from family has had a devastating blow to the quality of life of the American household. People need more time with family, but without getting the economic hit.
Solution: over the next five years reduce the work week from 40 hours to 32 hours a week two hours a week per year until the 32-hour work week is met with no reduction and pay.
That’s not all that we need to do, but it would be a good start.
This will help to empower the American people.
I love your reflection, Vishen. What made it even more special is that my father was born in Wyoming and is buried in Wyoming. I am U.S. born and have lived my whole life in one of the southern states. I am doing something new this year. I am putting up a Christmas yard decoration that will be partly in my yard and partly in my neighbor’s yard. It will symbolize neighbor’s joining with neighbors. It may be a first. And by the way, my neighbors are immigrants.
One of my many mantras is that choosing sides is the root of all war. I see how they attempt to divide us and cringe as my own mother laughs at the political comedy set up to perpetuate this division. Health Care is one of my biggest anguishes as “care” for one another is important for any healthy system. Keeping humans sick for profit feels morally corrupt to me. The system itself IS the cancer. When taking the 10thousand foot view of humanity, we are a self destructive species. But we are not only destructive to ourselves, we are destroying other species as well. I know I am only one person, but I believe that holding space for love and hope for unity is the responsibility of each of us. Every healthy cell matters and is important to the whole system. I pray that the cancerous entities of the world heal and recognize the benefits of love and unity.
Great summary! I love your statement “Fight for each other” that is so true. Thank you Vishen, for your clarity on what is happening in America.
LOVE THIS CALM, HONEST SHARING and opening up to thoughts. Thank you for inviting and providing a safe forum. I have so many connections-my daughter lived in Malaysia and Singapore, and guess where she moved there from? Wyoming, where I’m also from :). I’m grateful you brought up bots, other countries, and making money on hate and anger–these things seems to keep getting buried in other “news”. Whoever is doing it is EXPERT! We need to fight back. Yes, with 9/11 it became clear that to attack Americans would make us pull together more than ever, and focus on the humanity we have in common. United we stand, divided we fall. People are forgetting–if they kick the legs out from under me as an American and a human sitting at the same table, we will ALL fall! And yes, whether Christian or not, a moral code and “norms” we can all agree on and act on is paramount. A higher power, even if the higher power is our own collective conscience of treating others as we would want to be treated, with respect, and listening, helps. I think we are all dismayed at the degradation of basic civility, sometimes sadly Not from bots. What can we do? Where can we share the positives we experience? I want to share your many calm thoughts with friends and general posting, yet there is just one part I agree with another comment–to not label or link too quickly the economic gains to any certain party. It is complex. I think the most important part of your message is about the party of “Human”, and what it means to be American. I appreciate your perspective and distinctions of communism, socialism, and social democracy. I also cried reading this, with hope, and good pride, and also as another comments, am asking: what is 1 practice to do weekly? How can we share more openly, calm yet clear, The majority of us really do want kindness, less fear, decent communication, health care for us and our friends, a better future for our children, accessible, safe, legal immigration. How can we join our hearts and forces?
We as a community here could start. Anyone with MindValley could create a group specifically for sharing where we have seen positives in business, public communication.
Thank you Vishen, for taking the time to write your heart calmly, clearly, curiously, with hope, and as was said, toward empathy and truth. Much respect.
Te leo y es ver lo mismo que está pasando en Chile ahora que habrán elecciones presidenciales, un lado odiando al otro e intentando ganar votos a costa del miedo y de insultar al patido contrario. Parece que más que algo que ocurra en EEUU, es algo que ocurre a nivel humano, y si todos somos uno entonces el fenómenos de un país es el fenómeno de los otros. Me parece que seguir el ejemplo de países más antiguos que ya han pasado muchas veces por lo que paises jóvenes estamos pasando, es el mejor ejemplo a seguir… y que el amor le gane al odio!!!
Te leo y es ver lo mismo que está pasando en Chile ahora que habrán elecciones presidenciales, un lado odiando al otro e intentando ganar votos a costa del miedo y de insultar al patido contrario. Parece que más que algo que ocurra en EEUU, es algo que ocurre a nivel humano, y si todos somos uno entonces el fenómenos de un país es el fenómeno de los otros. Me parece que seguir el ejemplo de países más antiguos que ya han pasado muchas veces por lo que paises jóvenes estamos pasando, es el mejor ejemplo a seguir… y que el amor le gane al odio!!!
What a great article. In times where people no longer read, or take their information from bad sources, what do you suggest we do to circulate this article to the audience who most need to receive these important reminders?
Hi Vishen! The good old phrase: “Divide and concur” works every time. Sadly, people fall for it. This is not only an American, but a worldwide phenomenon. A healthy and educated society is harder to control, so let them fear, let them fight and let them consume. Its all about money and control.
Thank you, Vishen! I feel you. Each and every of your words puts truth into context. Without blaming, projecting, instead focussing on the ONE and ONLY powerful frequency that connects us all and – changes everything – THE HEART ❤️ Much love to you, GAB
Love. This is magnificent. It is thought provoking and stimulates self evaluation….Accountability Responsibility…and you had my undivided attention…
Share love, share Socratic dialog..
We can’t change anything but ourselves. Start within and love outward….I hope this reaches all of the corners with the capacity to share the info. Thanks Vishen.
Thank you for sharing this. Your love for people—and your hope for a less divided America—comes through so clearly. I want to offer one gentle reflection that expands on what you wrote.
You spoke about what Communism did to your family, and I’m so sorry for that loss. But I don’t believe it was Communism itself that caused that harm. It was people in power who used an ideology as a weapon—just as other opportunists today use patriotism, capitalism, or democracy to gain control. The pattern isn’t about left or right, or one system versus another. It’s about how fear and division are used to manipulate human beings.
That’s why, for me, the goal isn’t for Americans to fight for each other—it’s to stop being pushed into fighting anyone at all. Once we stop confusing human cruelty with the ideas it hides behind, we can see each other more clearly. And we can see that most people, in every place and every system, simply want to live, love, work, and feel safe.
Thank you for opening this conversation with so much heart. It gives space for all of us to look deeper—with compassion instead of fear.
How do we fix the problem? I’m a single mom. I’m making a decision to quit my 2nd job, so I can spend more time with my son. I want to raise him, not babysitters. With doing so I lose my gym membership and some monthly income. I am keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, my provider. Money is getting tighter and tighter. I manage a cafeteria for my 1st form of income. I don’t get PTO or sick leave. Right now I have the flu and can’t work. I was off last week for Thanksgiving break. Then I’m off December 19-January 5th. I just bought a condo in September so my son and I could have our own space. I pray as this one door closes an other will open. I am believing for a financial miracle. Thank you for your post.
Dear Vishen,
Thanks for visiting the United States of America with your children. Your college campus Michigan misses you. I also want to thank you for your article and for taking an interest in America. We appreciate you.
Your article has several good points that we agree with and let’s not build up your ego, let’s get on to the point. If any data that you used from ABC, NBC, CNN, BBC, etc. is manipulated to ensure racial wars and party wars continue for profit to the elite. They want control and will lie. You should know that surveys are probability tables with questions to guide a certain outcome and they use them with highest quality for control.
Let’s first look to Europe, right now, European Countries wants to continue the Ukraine & Russia conflict because they are making lots of money at war. War is profitable for oligarchies. However, they are buying oil and gas from Russia. Conflict of Interest maybe?
Your take on We the People being manipulated is spot on. This been happening for 1000’s of years coming out the middle east with races trying to control the Religious Dogma of planet Earth. We see historically Emperors, Kings, etc. love manipulating the dogma to control the people. Overall, they lied to the people, created scarcity, fear, anxiety, hatred, even attacked their own and blamed someone else for controlling the people.
In the last administration, aka Biden, the proof is finally coming out, how they manipulated the election, how they requested countries to send Militant immigrants to the USA, and how that party or persons manipulated the laws. It’s starting to appear in mass, which you might not be aware of.
Second, the laws of the past, Biden, then Obama’s, then Bush clan will be reverses. Those motions are underway, which you might not be aware of.
So, why is this, Trump wanting to be King, no. Trump is undoing the wrong that has been perpetrated in Americas and the World. So, what the fuck is going on then …
1. You got to back to Monaco Accords early circa 2010, when this transition plan was started led by US Military along with their allies of Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa and India aka BRICS nation.
2. Transformation of the world’s form of government from Oligarchies (socialism, communism, democracies, monarchy, fascism, etc.) to Republic (run by the people). Currently, humanity is in the final stages of completion.
3. Transformation of the money system from FIAT dollar (debt based) to Asset bases (Basel 3, Basel 4, ISO20022 to name a few). This process is equalizing every country to be on the same financial plan for the first time I believe in history.
Just to say, I am not a Republican or Democrat. I dislike both parties since they are the same party just trading seat who will be in office the next term for the good of them not the good for the America people or World.
Now, You, what your doing is great, teaching people to be enlighten and what to do next … this scares the shit out of the Controllers. The original 13 families that control a huge amount of the top 500-1000 companies. Along with others who are focused on Thought & Spiritual training are producing people who cannot be manipulated or controlled any more.
Please stay focused on your Mindvalley efforts, please continue to share your viewpoint, we enjoy that, just remember, there are some of us who know all the underlying facts and philosophy that are directing this transition who are not speaking it out loud. This is the dark before dawn and the old controllers are attacking since they are losing control. So just keep holding the light, we will get through this …
A true Mindvalley Student …
Hi V – thank you for sharing this wise download, it was really impactful and I could feel the energy emitting through your words.
I have always had a very visceral response to incidents of hate (eg. women’s rights, police brutality, Black Lives Matter, LGBTA+ discrimination, and incidents of military and war – which illicits the most uncontrollable response) and reading this made me realize I’m not alone.
Appreciate your well-written and researched article, Vishen. I’ve experienced these truths as well; that most people regardless of color, religion, race, political persuasion, etc all want the same things. We have much more in common that we have differences.
HOWEVER, the people who are finding their way to this article, likely already agree with you. How do we reach and affect the others who need to hear/see this? The ones who have never questioned the brules and don’t even know the “truths” they take as sacrosanct aren’t real?
So well said. We need to get back to more civility, openness to ideas that may not align with our own preconceived beliefs, and treating everyone with respect and dignity. Skepticism is healthy, it doesn’t mean we have to hate each other; only that each one of us always has more to learn- this is grace. Thank you, Vishen for sharing your inspiration!