Inequality is a bully. It is a yoke on the shoulders of humanity, that is 20,000 years old and a milli-second young. It hurts.

It is a conflict that kills the young, and decimates cities. It enables global rifts and skewed self-perceptions manipulating benefits of “the one” over “the other”.

Inequality, through a minority of lenses, is also a motivator, encouraging the reach and span of individuals. These are individuals who can think critically, and independently, globally, on their own two feet. These are individuals that take the open risk of dialogue and debate with an ear to learning. Extending beyond the individual though, we are subject to the madness of crowds, where there is no “we” in inequality, only “i”, the “other”.

Transforming “i” to” “we” using external influence is difficult. The “i” must share itself with the “other”, breaking into two elements, so that each element can together be flexed, angled and curved to form a “we”. Does the “i” have the strength and will power, stamina and flexibility, to achieve this sharing? Is the “i” too old and rusty to show the empathy required? Is the “i” independent enough?

Political, social, economic and geographic arguments be damned. We, individually and together, must tap into a source of optimism, and willful intent to create movement to overcome the inequality of thinking/doing that hurts. It does require risk and it is not of sesame street immediacy.

Every continent is in turmoil.

Creating and leading a spirit of openness and intention that makes economic sense is a start.
Can we cost justify this approach and prove country by country, a quantitative return on investment so they buy in? The first answer is yes. The second is sadly, but. Will they listen, accept, understand and act?

Putting the world on a psychologist’s couch, what would you see? Can you the reader, sit back, with unbiased intention and listen to the world’s issues, and hear its cries? Do we have global methods and structures to understand and empathize, assess, counsel, cause action, lessen fear and measure results? Can we use power to leverage the realization and execution of these methods?

We are so locked in, we cannot see outside our old, comfortable, history laden boxes. We are in pain and fear, placating ourselves by washing the old walls.

As we absorb the external economic revolutions, we must finally invest in and pay attention to the education of our inner selves, starting with ourselves and definitely our children. Fostering global education, spanning knowledge and skills, coupled with self-awareness, new metrics and our place on the globe, is an objective. Can we use new measures for each other, which, like gross domestic product, serve as accepted yardsticks of achievement?

We have the technology. Do we have the will? When will we have it? Now.

There are still children/youth, if not adults as well, who only know of their personal surroundings. They are locked into the “i”. Who in this world is being educated based on narrow focused tenets that enable the “i”? Too many, yielding, too much inequality. Instead of a security council, reverse the model, and have an achievement council.

The World Bank (http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-monitoring-report , October 2014) suggests two goals :
• Essentially end extreme poverty, by reducing the share of people living on less than $1.25 a day to less than 3 percent of the global population by 2030
• Promote shared prosperity by improving the living standards of the bottom 40 percent of the population in every country

Unless we raise the level of required education (approach, content, global context, delivery, measurement) of our children/youth, globally we will be hard pressed to reach these goals.

The real impact comes when we seed the sense of curiosity, openness, action and acceptance, in our children, all our children, everywhere. No fear, No hurt, Just collective reach to exceed beyond our walled bounds, together. There is no right or wrong here. There is a collective measurable agreement based on global principles of, such as, acceptance or inclusion or respect.

Let us seed the contents and messages globally and enable a new world order. Not a wave but a seed. Yes, seed! This is a farming task not one of hunting.

Far from the external industrial revolutions of the engine, or light and power, or technology and the web, we must focus our efforts to develop inward to better manage and lead outward.

Seymour Hersh
Seymour@dynamic-dialogues.ca