A binary world is a knee jerk world. It is a world where people snap. Brutality is not simply physical savagery. It is spontaneous evil, both spoken and acted out. Speech cannot be separated from brutal acts. The separation of speech from brutality is a huge rationalization. Speech can hurt as much as almost any physical activity. Today speech is more important than ever because everyone in the world can speak to everyone else.

Why is this important? Because America has a president whose speech is brutal. The world seems increasingly run by violence.

But this behavior is universal. The peaceful person has a choice to act with extreme violence. Many who write vicious attacks see themselves as nonviolent. However, the fact is every person on the planet can trigger speech and action that is destructive.

How does our inner violence serve us?

Inner violence is a weapon that can do good, but only when used judiciously. It is what enables us to jump suddenly out of incoming danger. Why? Because we train ourselves.

The binary culture makes a god of force and power. The triadic person sees these as something to be controlled and subjected to decent values.

Why is the world so upset about Salt Lake?

A rational nurse is confronted by a cop who snaps.

Cops don't have to snap. Nurses don't have to be reasonable. We meet situations when perfectly reasonable people do horrible things and knee-jerk people are heroes. But cultures slant in different directions and influence moves with gravity. A president who talks trash makes for a trashy, tabloid world.

Police are wrongly singled out

Attributing brutality to police so that police brutality is common usage is not fair. We do not see domestic abuse, but it is no less brutal. We do not chase down lonely opioid deaths and military suicides, but they are no less tokens of savagery.

A binary culture, operating like Congress does, as though no reconciliation is possible, is a blot on humankind.

Fallibility is universal

Why is universal fallibility so important? Because it sets the stage for a triadic world.

In a triadic world, thinking first is a virtue. Thinking outside the box is praised. Thinking beyond boxes entirely is seen as potentially good. We step back and take time. We can be calm in the midst of unfolding crisis. Long views are more perceptive than snap judgments.

We are all fallible, but God loves us anyway, is how my friend Will Campbell put it.

Chicago blues

Cut to fifty years ago. I am talking to the police chief of Chicago. His name is Orlando Wilson. I am hoping for a better police atmosphere in the city of the big shoulders. When nothing changes and people are consistently victimized by brutality, the problem is too deep for a short term fix.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED