The Election of Barack Obama
and the connection between
personal and global change
Article by Victor Sanchez
In the United States, a new President has just been elected. This would not be extraordinary news except for the fact that he happens to be black, has a multicultural background and motivates people through communicating common sense ideas, instead of trying to persuade them through keep repeating the same old cultural beliefs which promote fear of others and blindness towards one’s own mistakes.
It is not so unusual that someone may think this way, but what is extraordinary is that someone who thinks this way gets to be elected president of the United States.
How good of a leader for the US and for the rest of the world he will be is still to be seen, but regardless of the future outcome of his presidency, his election itself is a remarkable achievement which signals a time of opportunity that we all can take advantage of.
For the election of Barack Obama, many old beliefs had to be overcome by a significant number of people, significant enough to constitute the critical mass that social change requires.
Among the beliefs that had to be overcome were:
Beliefs shape the life of individuals, peoples and nations. For individual or global change letting go of old beliefs is required. However for social change it is not enough that a person or even many overcome the old beliefs. For real change to take place someone or many have to be brave enough to openly question the old beliefs, which is always a risk.
Change cannot happen without the questioning of old beliefs and taking the risk of walking in new territory. That is why fear prompts us to hang on to the old ways, even if they had stopped working a long time ago and even if they cause pain.
This dynamic is at the base of the battle between “conservative” and “progressive” and what is even more interesting is that this happens not only in the world of political parties but in our own internal life we have our “conservative” and our willing to take risks, “progressive” side. Sometimes the battle between these two sides can be really harsh.
Just as in nature, opposition in our psyche exists to unleash an evolutionary process. We could say the same about opposites in human society. In the world of physics we can see the power and energy that unleashes from connecting the negative and the positive poles of an electrical circuit. That power could provide light, heat the same as it could damage us, depending on how we use it.
Difference and opposition could and should be the base for our common growth instead of being the reason for our eternal fights and fantasies about defeating our “enemies.”
What we fail to realize is that unlike any other species in the natural world, the human animal is in charge of completing its own evolution. If we were meant to just go by “the law of the jungle” in which just the strongest survives, we would not have such complex brains which are able to develop concepts and goals such as justice, laws, cooperation, morality, ethics, compassion, etc. That is the challenge we face both as species and as individuals: to command and push forward our own evolution. It is either that of self-destruction.
The path of the human race trying to command its own un-finished evolution has been long and the challenge of making progress in this evolutionary process may be seen as the amplified reflection of the individual challenge of commanding our own personal evolution.
One relevant point here is that while we will not live long enough to see the final outcome of the human kind struggle for evolution, on a personal level we are the actor and the witness of our own struggle to evolve and we will live to see our success or failure about this critical responsibility.
It is in this context that human kind evolution and individual evolution constitute powerful mirrors that can and should be used to understand and push the evolution on both levels.
Within this perspective, just as any other real social change in which the common sense and the common good prevails over greed and violence, the 2008 elections in the US give us hope, inspiration, and a lesson that we should not forget: our enemy is not that person or group who seems to be so different from us. Our real enemy is our own so cherished old beliefs which makes us see the world in the same old way which does not suffice any more for the new needs of our spirit on this new time.
For example, our old beliefs are often in the way of re-discovering the link that connects us with others and with “what’s out there.” That almost forgotten link is sacred. Only through that link we find out that we were not born to be alone in this universe.
In the same way that some old beliefs were overcome in the 2008 presidential election, one day-hopefully not far from now-more and more people will go farther to question and eventually overcome even more old beliefs for a better future for everyone in this planet.
Beliefs such as the idea that there is a God who has favorites and chooses some individuals or some nations to be higher than others…
Beliefs such as the idea that accumulating weapons to kill others makes us safe…
Beliefs such as the idea that violent acts are bad when made by others but good if they are made by us…
I could go on and on. You know that.
We fail to understand why the human kind remains in a state so primitive that it invents violent Gods to justify their own violent acts and on top of that we go on and label such beliefs as “the religion of love.”
We fail to understand why we invent space ships, nano-technology, quantum physics, etc., and at the same time we keep using mass murder as an acceptable way to solve disagreements.
Well, the problem is… such primitive thinking and acting is not happening somewhere out there, in remote lands. It is happening here, among us and it is rampant all over the world. More often than not the same people in command that we follow, obey and vote for keep thinking that way. And more often than not, people follow their lead without questioning, without being aware of what they are contributing to. Primitive leaders for primitive people resulting in primitive societies. That is what all that looks like to me.
Human kind is too primitive still to overcome the disease that was born with the so called “civilization:” War.
I know this may be uncomfortable to hear but sometimes, someone has to tell the truth…Even if it is not pleasant. But I don’t mean to hurt you. What I want is to invite you to take a look at the power of beliefs and the potential danger in them.
What I really want is to invite you to consider your beliefs and to question them. And I am not talking just about religion or politics. I am talking about your old beliefs in general; your beliefs about who you are and what you are supposed to do…Your beliefs about the people who surround you.
I can tell you right now, right here that a large part of what is blocking your own personal growth and evolution has to do with some very old beliefs about yourself and others that you keep deeply rooted in your mind. Most of the time, you sustain and reinforce those beliefs by repeating the same kind of thoughts in your mind. You may want to take a look at that and consider some changes there.
The good news is that sometimes change happens. The good news is that the world out there -the human world, the natural world, all the world- and the entire universe works toward change. Trying to avoid change is so difficult because it is impossible! Things change no matter what. We change no matter what.
The question is: are we going to deal with change by embracing it, becoming one with it, cooperating with it and enjoying the process? Or are we going to keep resisting change and keep trying to endure the pain that comes with resisting the flow of life?
Well, the choice is ours. I hope you decide wisely, because you will have only this one life to do either.
My vote is towards embracing change, and the reason why is rather simple: I don’t like to see people spending their one unique life either killing each other or wanting to kill each other, either physically, or metaphorically, and all the suffering that comes from that for everybody involved.
For all this, I think the 2008 election in the US represents a positive contribution in the human struggle to command its own evolution. We need more critical thinking which questions our old beliefs, we can and we should command our own personal growth in all areas of our life and even more, through our own change and our influence in our surrounding world we can and we should contribute to achieving the critical mass required for the next steps of human evolution.
Yes.
We can.
Victor Sanchez
January 2009