The concept of “American Greatness” is critical for the success of the American experiment. Currently the concept of “American Greatness” seems to be either ignored or trivialized and that has become a major threat to America as a democracy. The American experiment will not survive by being ordinary. Being a democracy is too tough and it demands more. It demands American Greatness. If the American experiment is to continue the current generations of Americans will need to draw upon and model American Greatness.
That greatness is based on two foundation blocks and now depends on whether we model
American Greatness with which we have been blessed and entrusted – by honoring our
past and taking on the big tough challenges we currently face.
(1) Do we act to model and carry American Greatness forward to honor our past and continue striving to fully realize the original American vision for all Americans? Or do we fall prey to uncertainty and insecurity and shy away from the big tough challenges we face?
(2) Do we do the hard work to protect and develop the democratic institutions and processes essential to being a democracy? Or do fall prey to our frustrations and fears and give up our freedoms for the false promises of authoritarian figures?
Our democracy can be taken from us by authoritarian regimes, which is not likely in the near term given America’s strength and resilience. We can, however, give it away by walking away from the challenge and abdicating to internal authoritarian forces – always a temptation because being a citizen in a democracy is demanding, requiring belief, courage, perseverance, and resilience.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
The earliest foundation block was America’s founding as a new type of country with new
values, forms of government, and citizen power and responsibility. The founding of
America wasn’t perfect, but it was a game-changer for the world. Americans had to make
the commitment and sacrifices to fight a war against the strongest military in the world to
bring the new nation into being. And they had to find the courage to go into an unknown
future with no guarantees of success.
The second foundation block is the fact that, although it has had a mixed history of progress
and backsliding, America has been working at realizing the founding principles and values
ever since its beginning. It has been a relentless challenge with the right trajectory, a
disappointing pace, and lots of small and large ups and downs – progress and back-sliding,
but no quitting. America has also maintained a model of democracy for almost 250 years
and rallied to counter fundamental threats such as WWII and the cold war.
American Greatness now rests on our willingness to continue on the path to realize the original vision and expand it to include all Americans. It depends on our willingness and ability to take on the big internal and external issues we face, such as of climate change, racism, the social/political polarization of America, the health of rural America, countering the dictatorships that would like to take America down, etc.
American Greatness is not conferred. It is constantly earned. We will either honor our founding and the generations that have persevered to model American Greatness by taking on the big challenges that call for it – or we will fall prey to the ever-present fear, uncertainty, and doubt – and retreat from the challenges. The challenge is to continue the trajectory – moving forward, not backward – acting from courage and our “larger selves” vs. acting from fear and anxiety and our “smaller selves.” We will either carry American Greatness forward or we will let it slip away.
American Greatness relies on courage, commitment, perseverance, resilience, and a good deal of solidarity – acting from what could be called our “larger selves.” When fear, anger, and self-doubt outweigh those characteristics (the fatal trap), we act from our “smaller selves” and often show six behaviors – on an individual, group, or organizational level.
The Six Natural Pitfalls
These pitfalls on the journey are normal and natural and we have to guard against them and confront them directly because they can “take us out of the game.” The good news is that the strength to do so usually appears when called upon. Particularly if we are connected to each other. The pitfalls range from losing courage and acting from fear to fearing the future and retreating to an imagined past. They range from focusing on “otherness” vs “togetherness” to destroying vs. creating
1. Retreating from Engaging the Big Tough Issues
2. Pulling Inward & Focusing on “Others” as the Problem
3. Denial
4. Misdirection and Pretending
5. Lying and Obscuring the Truth
6. Attacking and Destroying
Consciously avoid the fatal traps and pitfalls on the journey – self-manage – larger self. Confront the above behaviors when you see them and encourage…
Take on 1-2 of the big tough challenges
Understand
Connect
Take small actions – advocacy process
Contribute
Strengthen the institutions and processes Voting – gerrymandering, register, vote Contribute and volunteer for candidates/officials that are “walking the talk”
Join civic organizations to advocate, hold people accountable, educate, etc.
Protect knowledge, truth, the media
Connect to others
Self-care
Consciously balance individual freedom and community responsibility
Understand “others”, search for common ground, challenge polarization/extremes
These are starter sets. Part of modeling AG is refusing to be intimidated by the scale or complexity of the current challenges we face and committing to “be the author” of how we respond.
Finding more resources for whatever challenges you choose to take on is part of being the author. There is a lot of information out there and a lot of groups and organizations with which to affiliate so finding the right ones is a serious task – but one that can be very exciting and enriching. There are:
