Life Is Beautiful
Part V: Our Trumpian Future[1],[2]
“Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.”
—Eric Victor Burden
A week after the Trump-Clinton presidential election, I received several emails from my sisters, who live in the U.S., lamenting that they and most of the people they know were in a terrible state, anxious and depressed with the outcome of the election. As a point of reference that supports their observations, the day after the election, Canadian Embassies all over the U.S. reported their phone lines were jammed by American callers asking about requirements to obtain a resident visa for Canada.
My sister Camille pointed out that Hillary may not have been the best of candidates, but in view of the media’s detailed presentation of Donald Trump’s sordid past and his emotionally pathological performance during the campaign, her victory seemed like a no-brainer. Camille said she, my other sisters and their friends just couldn’t seem to shake their political depression. They wanted to know what Europeans felt about the outcome, and in my view, was there any “light at the end of the tunnel?” Here I share my thoughts looking at the situation, primarily from a consciousness point of view.[3]
Most Europeans, while disappointed with the election results, are cautiously waiting to see what will happen. In general, they don’t feel the emotional turmoil and fear that many Americans are experiencing as a result of the election’s outcome. Most are certainly not optimistic about the future of the Trump presidency and expect a number of missteps on his part.
Europeans are, in fact, quite amazed at Trump’s victory. Before the election most were admonishing Trump-supporting Americans—I call them Trumpians—with the proverbial Careful what you wish for! Well, a large fraction of Americans got what they wished for, but now the poignant question is, Will they get what they really wished for? That remains to be seen.
Here are just three of many examples why they may be in for a big disappointment and a troubled future. First, Trump wants to hire Tom Price, the Republican Congressman from Georgia, as Secretary of Health. Price has been the fiercest critic of Obamacare and will almost certainly dismantle it, even though it decreased the number of uninsured Americans by 13 million in a two-year period. Of those 13 million, eight million were white middle-class Americans, the demographic sector that voted heavily in favor of Trump. Left without health insurance, they will be very unhappy campers! Furthermore, after six years of effort, Republicans have been unable to come up with a viable replacement for Obamacare.
Second, Trump is almost certain to be unsuccessful in replacing manufacturing jobs. Why? Because the vast majority have been replaced by technology, and not by shipping them overseas. Overall, technology actually increased the number of jobs, mostly in the middle and higher income brackets; but, it eliminated many lower income jobs. Will Trump bring back low income jobs such as those in the coal mines? Not likely. Coal is the worst contributor to climate change and its impact is being felt daily and globally. Most of the world is finally waking up to the fact that climate change is for real. Forces beyond Trump are not likely to allow coal to come back in full force.
Third, speaking of climate change, Trump has picked Scott Pruit, the current attorney general of Oklahoma to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruit is not just a climate change skeptic; he’s a climate change denier and is the “guardian angel” of the fossil fuel industry. Any back-peddling on the part of the Trump administration is likely to have catastrophic consequences worldwide.
But now for the real issue. Based on Donald Trump’s apparent low level of consciousness and that of the people he has surrounded himself with, I am doubtful he will make any positive headway. His lack of delivering on campaign promises and his disrespect for integrity and truth could bring civil unrest in the U.S. and elsewhere, with perilous outcomes. But, believe it or not, there ultimately may be a positive light at the end of this dark tunnel; and here are the reasons why.
We humans basically think with “three minds,” conscious, subconscious and ego. The same can be said in a collective sense for groups of human beings and in fact for the whole seven billion of us. A collective form of consciousness exists for each of these three “minds.”[i] The three participate in creating accepted social concepts, for example, our concept of success. Here, due to centuries of social and cultural hypnosis concerning what we believe to be success, we have unknowingly allowed our collective ego to become so bloated, selfish and self-centered that it is difficult for us to see true reality and any clear path to global peace, sustainability and long-term fulfillment.
Metaphorically, we can envision our view of success as a three-legged stool. Most of us believe that the two most important metrics for success, represented by two of the supporting legs of the stool, are money and power. In actual performance, the third leg, which represents service, is by far, the shortest of the three. Therefore, what most of us consider success is unstable, and does not bode well for the long term.
Service here means, How can I use my innate strengths and assets to pursue my personal and professional passions and make this world a little bit better? Unfortunately, service has been so deeply discounted that we often unknowingly indoctrinate our children from their earliest age with the message that the real measure of their eventual success will depend on how much money they make and how much power they have in their professional status.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with making sufficient money to live a good and comfortable life, or getting recognized with promotions that enable you to have greater impact, but not at the expense of good service. In fact, my experience as an entrepreneur, founding and leading the growth of public companies in Silicon Valley is that most entrepreneurs I know, who created services or products that significantly improved life on the planet, ended up making lots of money and having substantial influence, although those were not the primary driving force for their path to success. Bill Gates set out to create Microsoft and change the world for the better, not to achieve his current status as the richest man on the planet. In fact, he’s now giving most of his money away to good causes.
Our current definition of success feeds the ego. It loves making money and achieving lots of power; the more the better! However, if a person chooses to do so, there are two ways to deflate a bloated ego to an acceptable and manageable level. The first is to observe it when it is in full swing and in effect mentally say, “I caught you!” If you do this enough, the ego mind subsides to a lower level. It’s behaves like a naughty little child; it dislikes being caught in the act. But, you must have the predisposition to seek change, to increase your level of consciousness, to make a positive difference in your surroundings, and for that matter in the world.
The second way to deflate the human or global collective ego is through suffering. That’s why when a person loses a loved one or goes through a traumatic event, he or she often comes out the other end of tragedy as a more evolved and higher conscious person. This has also happened historically with our collective global ego, for example after a world war, a pandemic, or some other huge calamity.
I think Trump’s election is a major step in leading America and the world toward an event, maybe more than one that will cause suffering for many, but the upside is that, after the dust settles, it is likely to create a new more conscious and fulfilling beginning.
One of my sisters, Grace, was not happy with the suffering scenario and suggested, as she had learned from our spiritually-devoted mother, there can always be a miracle! True, and in my view, Grace, here’s what it might take to unfold that “miracle.”
A “Major Minority” of spiritually inclined people will have to intensely focus their personal manifestations toward a peaceful end with minimal human suffering. No easy task at this point; but it’s possible. The challenge is for the Major Minority to reach an effective size so that a positive and not a negative tipping point is achieved. Trumpians are rapidly moving us toward the latter. That’s their unmitigated goal, and they won’t stop until their mission is accomplished.
Based on one of my past professional lives, allow me to share a metaphor, as to what could happen. Using a catalyst as the metaphor, where Donald Trump is the “catalyst,” here’s how the Major Minority can potentially avoid, or at least, mitigate the suffering scenario.
Most people know that a catalyst is something that accelerates a reaction or a change without itself undergoing any change in the process. For example, if I fill a jar with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gases, they will sit there quietly for nearly an eternity before combining to form even the very slightest trace of water. However, if I throw in a pinch of platinum powder catalyst, both gases combine explosively and completely in billionths of a second to form water and the platinum remains unchanged at the bottom of the jar. The platinum catalyst dramatically increases the rate or speed of change. Analogously, this means that the Major Minority must become a “catalyst” and work smart and intensely to achieve and hopefully surpass the rate of change that Trumpians have begun to manifest. This will be no easy task because of the size of the Trumpian machine and the “weapons” they control.
But, to complete the metaphor, there are two other critical characteristics of a catalyst that most “non-techies” are not aware of, and they could make all the difference—catalyst selectivity and catalyst life.
Catalyst selectivity is defined as the percentage of total change that goes to the desired endpoint or product, the rest of the changes being undesirable outcomes or products. For example, one of the companies I was involved with some years ago, Catalytica Energy Systems, invented a highly-selective system to catalytically burn fuels with no formation of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx). This is not the case for ordinary flame combustion processes, which are responsible for the deadly smog in places such as Los Angeles and Beijing. Here, the Major Minority can have the significant advantage of high catalytic selectivity, if they work to promote one motivating dictum, e.g., peace, respect, fairness and opportunity for all.
When you look closely at the Trumpians, you will find they are large in number, consisting of numerous mini-groups, which are unhappy, entitlement-driven, and divisive in their actions. Each group has its own demands, often with conflicting purposes compared with those of the other factions. In the end, this could lead to poor catalytic selectivity for the Trumpian strategy and much infighting and chaos.
Finally, there’s catalyst life. In this case, I don’t refer to Trump’s physical life, but to his tenure as an effective catalyst speeding up the global changes he’s after. This is a difficult one on which to speculate, but part of this metaphor is especially relevant. In actual chemical catalysis, the effective life of a catalyst is often shortened, and sometimes driven to rapid demise by an increase in undesirable, non-selective reactions. For example, in the process to make gasoline or diesel fuel, petroleum oil is fed at high temperatures over a catalyst that “cracks” or breaks up the large oil molecules into those that are the primary constituents of gasoline and diesel fuel. The process is not very selective so undesirable nonselective reactions occur and form carbon on the catalyst surface, “killing” its activity. It must be continuously withdrawn from the reactor and the carbon burned off to regenerate the catalyst before it returns to the reactor to produce more gasoline and diesel fuel.
This could well be the case for Trumpian selectivity in the not-so-long-run! High levels of poor selectivity might well “kill” the effectiveness of the catalyst, namely that of Donald Trump.
So yes, Grace, there is hope for a miracle, but it can only happen if the Major Minority wakes up, gets over their discontent with the results of the election, and gets on with what it will take to make a miracle.
Some things they can do are:
- Let go of any pain and discomfort concerning the Trump victory. It’s past. There are not a lot of useful benefits in holding up placards stating, “Trump is not my president!”
- Don’t give up. Accept that you have great spiritual power for manifesting even the most challenging changes, through your Personal Consciousness, its connection with the global Collective Consciousness and the Universal Intelligence and divinity of Cosmic Consciousness within you. To offer a humorous truism, High levels of consciousness always “trump” low levels of consciousness.[i]
- Get your values straight—clearly define them, and follow them in all that you do.
- Follow your Life Purpose and Passion by using your innate capabilities to work at a profession that helps create a better world.
- Live a conscious life through meditation, and give your support to groups focused on achieving high levels of human awareness and consciousness.
- Personally model a high conscious life for friends, family and especially your children.
- Continue to use your vote against the Trumpians.
In the end, I believe Trumpians will not achieve their stated goals. The only question is: Do we follow the path of suffering to emerge with a positive outcome, or can we conjure up a miracle. A miracle is most definitely worth the effort.
Sat, Chit, Ananda!
Enjoy your journey, make a difference!
By James Cusumano
[i] James A. Cusumano, Life Is Beautiful: 12 Universal Rules, Waterside Press, 2016.
[1] EDITOR’S COMMENT—This is the fifth article in a series based on the author’s book, “Life Is Beautiful: 12 Universal Rules,” Waterfront Press, Cardiff California.
[2] The author may be reached at Jim@ChateauMcely.Com.
[3] This article was written in December 2016 and will be published during the first quarter 2017. It will be interesting to see what happens between now and then.
I found a great article written by Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely and Deborah Kolb, in which they discuss unseen barriers for women at work and suggest the idea of “identity workspaces”. One of the constant issues I see companies face when dealing with gender integration, is finding
a mechanism or schema to help women transition into new roles, interesting stretch assignments, or increase their sense of presence in the organization. ERG’s, or employees resource groups are a good start , helping create a venue for pointed and targeted discussion, regarding specific areas that women need to think about or just understand better.
But this initiatives can never achieve the ultimate goal which is creating a true sense of leadership awareness that is resonant with the organization.
The creation of identity workspaces such as mentoring, coaching, women initiative programs, unconscious bias training, prove to be the right frameworks for women and men to have rich and productive conversations as to what is the leadership style needed in the organization, what are the demands of the corporate culture
and what are the values that need to be upheld.
What I know to be true is that when these “framed” opportunities are created, the shift in behavior
and mind set happens quickly and authentically.
As I always say, women do not have to be fixed or changed, they just like men, need to become aware of certain social and cultural issue and context that interact in our daily endeavors.
Once they become aware and understand the “reality” of these interactions, they are able to feel they belong, and that is why this idea of crafting identity workspaces makes so much sense – which I hope you won’t ignore.
People have sometimes asked me, “What was it like to have been an entrepreneur for most of your professional life?” First, let me share my thought about what an entrepreneur is. To me, an entrepreneur is a person who has an inspiring vision, purpose and passion to create an enterprise that offers a desirable technology, product, or service; assembles the necessary skilled people and financing, and faces varying levels of risk to successfully reach the marketplace, achieving profitability and long-term sustainability. That’s a lot to do, but to my mind, that’s what it takes.
Humankind continues to face a myriad of significant global challenges in today‘s world. One of the most pressing of these issues is warfare, of which there are more than 70 armed conflicts currently in play.
How to compare something what used to be the same? The question which I could hear very often meeting people outside the Czech or Slovak Republic. In fact, even nowadays there are professional many sources which view Slovak and Czech business cultures as identical ones.
Reto Brosi is Managing Director of Megrow Pte Ltd in Singapore and Member of the Risk Committee of the Singapore Institute of Directors.
At the turn of a year, some of us tend to reflect on the past 12 months as well as to look ahead at what the upcoming year may have in store. While all of us can do that, in reality, few people instinctively know their life purpose and what they want to do with their life in general.
The end of the year often becomes an opportunity for some kind of a reflection. I have not done this for a long time, so I hope you may show some tolerance now and let me share a few points with you here. Definitely they are not only about the politics.
We are all participants in one of the biggest and shocking scandals on earth. Almost 40 percent of food produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted globally. In the Czech Republic, almost 730 000 tons of food are wasted each year.
As the Czech economy has overcome a major part of the impact of the financial crisis, expert groups begin again thinking of future. One of the themes that transpired from time to time in discussions of Czech transport professionals and even provoked the origin of several specialized studies is high-speed railway transport. Since 1964, when the first Shinkansen trainsets commenced their operation in Japan, the high-speed rail had raised admiration and desire all over the world, but in all the countries where it was subsequently put into operation it became a highly practical means of transport offering fast and reliable linkage between cities and towns with remarkable travelling comfort.
