Get past the blame and get on with the solution
I write this post as I sit on a Sunday evening enjoying time with my family, each of us engaged in separate activities, but all of us together and united.
I am reflecting on a blog post I just read, “Beneath the financial crisis waits a nastier beast”, which explores the last domino of the financial crisis. The blogger, Waleed Aly, discusses what might happen with social politics as a result of the economy. Aly’s belief is that government intervention and the new marketplace cannot help but alter social politics.
Aly’s words are sobering:
“This is what happens in times of great insecurity. As the foundations of our lives erode, we search for an anchor, and social politics very often provides it. When all else fails, we may still rally around old certainties: nation, culture, religion, race. We crave strong authority figures that can imbue us with certainty and articulate for us a sense of self. That often involves fabricating a scapegoat who becomes a mortal enemy.”
I have great hopes that the lessons of the past have taught us that fear-controlled decisions are usually led by sheep in wolves’ clothing.
Realize this:
- If your property values decline, understand that in most cases they appreciated unrealistically and were overvalued.
- If your company starts layoffs or downsizing and outsources overseas or hires cheaper labor, that is the decision of the company, not the end laborer.
- If you look to blame the subprime mortgage crisis on a race or ethnicity, you are blinding yourself to the source.
In the end, the blame does nothing to improve your situation. Empowerment lies in finding a solution by working together and looking inside ourselves. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. We all live in glass houses.
We can flip the switch from the age of entitlement to the age of enlightenment.
Get past the blame and get on with the solution.
Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson
