Global Values
A New Paradigm for a New World
by Karin Miller
VIII. Empowerment
We can only realize our true power together.
Our freedom to create and recreate our lives empowers us to change ourselves, and thereby affect change within the world. Unfortunately, this gift of freedom can also be our greatest stumbling block. We often fear our own transformation and so we resist change—individually and collectively. When we are afraid, it is easy to fall into questioning ourselves, our decisions, and the changes that are under way. Do I really want to go through with this? Am I strong enough? What will become of me? Marianne Williamson writes in A Return to Love: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us." We are not unequal to all the challenges we face, but we often fear how other people will react if we work to better ourselves and the world. We worry that others may see us as getting an inflated ego, or rising above our station in life. We worry that if we shine, we may make others may look inferior, and then, out of their own fear and resentment, they may choose to work against us. However, this is a faulty perspective. As Williamson goes on to say: "And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." In other words, when we put forth our best and brightest selves, we empower others to put forth their best and brightest selves.
When we seek empowerment in this sense, we dare to overcome any fear or anxiety we may have about reaching our own highest potential. We choose to go for our dreams and then extend that expanded vision for ourselves to others. Rather than thinking that if one person wins, someone else must lose, we seek win-win outcomes. We aim to help all people express their unique talents in this world for the benefit of all society.
What would the world look like if all people were empowered? We aren’t going to all become professional football players, presidents, famous actors or billionaires. The goal is not to give everyone the power of leadership, monetary power, or fame. Rather, we recognize the unique talents each person has to contribute to society. We support each other in the fulfillment of our individual roles, whatever they may be. For example, we can empower each other to be the best teacher, engineer, farmer or secretary possible or the most self-actualized parent or child or teenager. We support others as they seek to be their best and to fulfill their dreams. Of course, if a person’s dream is to cause injury to others and society as a whole, we aim to help that person redirect his or her efforts towards activities that support others rather than hinder them. We aren’t empowering a terrorist to be a better terrorist. Rather we are encouraging that person to recognize that we are all one body of humanity and that we can only realize our true potential in cooperation and collaboration with others.
Clearly, some people are so entrenched in their worldview of empowering themselves at the expense of whole, they are not receptive to other perspectives. Due to a long history of contrary values, society is structured to promote competition over collaboration and hierarchy over a more level playing field. Over time, however, people who experience the benefits of cooperation will seek out others who will continue to cooperate with them. Those who do not cooperate will be thereby marginalized. As more and more people begin to value the empowerment of others as well as themselves, all will benefit and fewer people will be likely to deviate from this norm.
Now is the time to reframe our approach to empowerment. Generally speaking, social movements from the left have aimed to empower people collectively at the grassroots level, and social movements from the right have focused more on the rights of the individual. While both approaches have proved useful—or not—at various times throughout history, they have undoubtedly left us with a legacy of separation and an "us versus them" mentality. Rather than looking to the traditional left or right, it is time to recognize that we are one with each other and all of creation, and that we must account for the whole.
We need to forge new ways to empower ourselves collectively, but that will also secure the rights of the individual. Both are important, but they need not be mutually exclusive, and empowerment of one group does not have to mean the disempowerment of other groups. By stepping out of our current framework of left or right, up or down, horizontal or vertical, we can see the benefit of empowerment in all directions.
By respecting all forms of life, and promoting practices that support the whole, we will arrive at new solutions to today’s challenges—solutions we may never have dreamt of before. This is not to say that all changes need to be made in committees and a group context. Rather, it is a mindset in which individual and collective intentions aim to support each other and the whole. In such an environment, rather than sinking to the lowest common denominator of group-think and uniformity, those entrepreneurs whose creativity spark new technologies and inventions may find even more support for new ideas and increased innovation as social structures evolve to support the creative expression of all.
As humanity awakens to new possibilities of empowerment and social change, old systems which were built upon an isolationist paradigm will crumble and fall. Like a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly, we will transform into a new humanity and emerge from our chrysalis ready to participate in the creation of a new world. Realizing our connectedness to each other and all things, and valuing the power we have in unity, we will emerge as one powerful movement of social transformation. We just need to be willing to see another way, take those first steps, and the universe will usher us toward a new, empowered, holistic paradigm that supports the whole of creation.
We must use our power to cooperate, not dominate.
Thinking ourselves to be the most highly evolved creatures on the planet, we often doubt the value of the natural world, and we attempt to control nature. We promote human interests above all else, and we dominate each other, other species, and other forms of life. In our greed and quest for ever greater power, we trample those weaker than ourselves as a matter of course. When we stomp through our chaotic world with isolationist blinders on, we take actions that are counter to nature and counter to the whole. In doing this, we make our circumstances worse, and we trap ourselves in a downward spiral that will result in our demise if we do not change our ways. Using our power to control and dominate only serves to devolve, rather than evolve, humanity.
By seeking the empowerment of everyone—in all directions, at all levels—and all forms of life, we will begin to operate in new ways. We will embrace collaboration, cooperation, and co-creation with all living things. We will allow ourselves to learn from other cultures, religions, and perspectives, and to learn through the observation and preservation of other forms of life. In the words of Democritus of Abdera (c. 460-370 BC), the philosopher who actually developed the atomic theory: "In the most important concerns we are pupils of the animals. We learn spinning and mending from the spider, building from the swallow, and imitative singing from songbirds as well as from the swan and nightingale." Given the state of our world, there has never been a better time to heed the proverbs that remind us that all living things can teach us, and sometimes two heads are better than one. We will only overcome the global crises we face by facing them together, as empowered individuals and empowered collectives as one circle of life.
Our current modes of existence are in many ways dependent on interrupting and interfering with the circle of life, rather than supporting and promoting it. We wipe out forests to make furniture and paper products—paper plates, junk mail, advertisements for products we do not need—or to make parking lots and shopping malls. We destroy entire ecosystems to build vacation communities. We slaughter animals for their meat, skin, silk, and many other body parts; we breed them into distorted forms to produce more milk, meat, or silk, and for our vanity in the case of designer pets. We torture and vivisect animals in the name of experimentation and research, often in connection with chemical-filled cosmetics and beauty products that offer no real benefit to us. Many circuses still cage and abuse animals for our entertainment, and while some zoos now work to preserve endangered species, we did not start collecting animals in zoos for altruistic purposes. Without hesitation, we kill, imprison, torture, exploit, experiment on, and slaughter other forms of life for our own selfish ends. In light of this, it is hardly surprising that we are also capable of doing this to each other. The point is that our current paradigm supports the detrimental mentality that allows us to continue with these most backward ways of existence. This mentality is destroying the circle of life, and that includes us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said of power: "All power is of one kind, a sharing in the nature of the world." Our challenge as humanity is to experience and exercise our power in this way. The time and space for destructively wielding our power over other people and other forms of life are quickly running out. We must stop interfering with the circle of life, and start supporting it. It is no longer feasible to continue interrupting the flow of energy that courses through all things, and we must stop trying to control it. Rather than using our energy in egoistic ways to dominate, divide, conquer, and control, we can remove the roadblocks we throw up and work in conjunction with the source of our power—the source of all life in the universe. Instead of crushing nature and other forms of life, we can work with them and help them to thrive. We can choose to work together, rather than subjugating each other. When we empower each other we are no longer circuit breakers in the grand matrix of universal energy, we are generators. We will no longer be like dead moons reflecting the rays of the sun, rather, we will become like the sun itself.
The new world we want to create calls not for the exercise of power over all by a few. It will be based on the power within, and that flows through, all things. We share in the energy—the power—that circulates through all things. This continuous, unending power infuses everything. It is the source by and through which individual plants and animals come into being, grow, die, return to the soil, and change into something else. This power is the foundation of the great circle of life, and ultimately, we cannot control it. It is time to exchange our power of domination for the power of cooperation and collaboration so we may join together in the empowerment of all.
The universe will empower us, if we let it.
Imagine a small child arriving at a fence. She stares at it for a while, wondering what is on the other side. She tries to peek through the cracks, but nothing comes into view. All she can see are shadows and glimmers of light. Then she looks up at the top of the fence and her heart sinks. She feels small and incapable of crossing this seemingly insurmountable barrier.
Nestling herself on the ground, she tosses around sticks and leaves that have accumulated at the bottom of the fence. She wonders why they are stuck there with her. As she arranges the twigs into the shape of a person she realizes that she is very creative, and she feels quite pleased with herself. Then it occurs to her, perhaps she can come up with a creative solution and rise above her fence predicament.
Standing up and dusting herself off, she evaluates the challenge. She finds a shorter section of fence that has a little nook in it, just perfect for a foothold. Using all the strength in her arms and legs she pushes and pulls herself up. As she nears the top, the thought pops into her head that she might not be able to get down the other side. Fear arises in her but she continues, as she is now too high to jump back down. Reaching the top, she breathes a sigh of relief. To her surprise, her father is waiting there for her, ready to lift her over to the other side.
This little child is like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She came to realize that the power to scale the fence was in her all along. Just as Dorothy simply had to click her heels to go home, all the child had to do was get that first foothold and start climbing. However, before she could create solutions, she first had to realize that it was in her power to overcome the situation. Then, as she began climbing, she had to face her deepest fear that she was somehow inadequate to the task— just as Dorothy had to face flying monkeys and a wicked witch to overcome her fears. It was through dealing with her darkness, her fear, that the little child found her power.
So it is with all of us. When we face obstacles we are often scared we do not have the heart, brains, or courage to overcome them. The truth is that we merely need to get a bigger vision to see new possibilities, and take the first steps to lift ourselves up. Once we are willing to take those first steps, the universe—like a loving parent—will support us in our efforts. Meeting us halfway, the power of the universe will gracefully carry us to our new destination. Like the little child, we need the desire and will to solve our problems, and when we take our first steps the universe will uplift and empower us to reach our intended destination.
If we do not claim our power, others will.
Power-hungry people are like parasites waiting to suck away the power of those who are afraid to claim their birthright. When we are not willing to realize our potential, we are giving away our power. If we do not claim it someone else will. It is the awareness of this that explains the widespread production of fear in our societies. Media and propaganda are used to instill terror in us, and to keep us small. By creating an environment of fear, the power-hungry are able to gobble up and capitalize on our unclaimed power.
With courage and creativity, however, we can be pioneers of a new and beautiful world. We can choose to rise above our fears and the limited thinking that has kept us playing small. With our willingness to transform, we dissolve the witches of our own limitation and realize that nothing will save us but ourselves. With this new perspective, we are then empowered to further support those around us. With the simple intent to empower everyone, we open the floodgates to the power of the universe. We are so powerful that by swimming against the tide we can actually reverse the current.
Rather than controlling others for our own advantage, we must use our power to create synergistic collaborations among all the parts of creation. It is through loving ourselves and valuing others that we connect with the source of all power and find our innate strength. As we align our intentions with the intentions of our source, we radiate that power throughout the world. In this way, we empower the whole of creation. Withholding our power creates separation, illness, and pain. Expressing our power in co-creation with life enlightens and empowers all. Like the little child at the foot of a fence, all we need to do is take the first steps to this higher perspective. The universe will meet us there and carry us to our new lives. When we work together, each part is empowered to achieve its fullest potential, and we participate in the evolution of humanity as a whole.