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“The modern spirit is a hesitant one. Spontaneity has given way to cautious legalisms, and the age of heroes has been superseded by a cult of specialization.
We have no more giants; only obedient ants.”
Roger Lowenstein
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Doing the right thing is a basic innate instinct.
We all embrace it.
We all actually enjoy doing it.
And, yet, it seems like more and more we are hesitating to do it. Where it once was a spontaneous unthinking everyday behavior, it is now becoming a more conscious decision making process.
Society has created this situation.
This is not an individual behavior driven situation <although the individual can certainly make a choice to go against society>. As I said upfront, left to our own devices most people will do the right thing.
How can I be sure of this?
Well. Attitudes with regard to desire to do the right thing have not changed. The attitude today remains the same as it did yesterday and the day before. In other words the spirit of goodness remains, but something is making the spirit hesitate.
Now.
To be clear. Today I am discussing ‘hesitation.’
This isn’t about not knowing what the right thing to do is nor is it about the choice itself. This is all about the moment before the moment. The moment in which your instinct kicks in, you can almost feel yourself moving or getting ready to speak and, yet, you hesitate.
Why do I think we hesitate <when our instincts tell us otherwise>?
Suffice it to say we have become a maniacally litigious society combined with a relentlessly unforgiving society.
Individual words, a slip of the tongue as it were, can lead to a law suit, being fired or even having your entire character destroyed online. In other words, society is screwing us up.
Shit.
Who wouldn’t hesitate knowing that?
This hesitation costs us, as individuals and as a culture, an exorbitant cost. It diminishes not only the random act of kindness but, in the business workplace, diminishes ethical behavior. And it diminishes in a slightly insidious way.
Insidious?
Yeah.
It’s not that in our hesitation we decide to do the wrong thing, but rather in our silence the ‘less than the right things’ steps in and assumes control.
Oh.
Please note that I purposefully say ‘diminish.’
I am certainly not going to suggest that this societal driven hesitation eliminates doing the right thing. That would be silly.
That would suggest the spirit to do the right thing, to be good, can actually be extinguished. I do not believe that is possible.
Spirit can be dampened, it can be smothered, it can be diminished, but it cannot be expunged from who and what we are as humans.
Now. Maybe even worse than the diminishing effect?
It creates ants … not giants.
Ok.
Maybe worse?
It creates situations in which deserving giants receive undeserved criticism and are cut down in the attempt to make them ant sized so the ants can assume more power than they deserve.
We should all be giants.
All of us.
Giants of the spirit of what is right and doing what is right and kindness and generosity and integrity. And we should be giants every day, every hour and every minute. And we should have the right to feel like a giant when doing so.
Society is stealing our opportunity to our rightful place as a giant.
I believe we are in an age of heroes where society encourages less than heroic everyday behavior.
I believe we are in an age of giants where society encourages us to be ants.
I believe the modern spirit is not naturally a hesitant one.
I believe we are in an age where doing the right thing should be demanded … in Life & in business.
I believe we are in an age where we should be seeking to eliminate divisiveness, eliminate restrictions on ‘right behavior’ and eliminate the … well … hesitation of the spirit to do the right things.
Ponder.