Just two years back, never would we have thought that the corruption at the highest levels of our trusted institutions would once again precipitate a financial meltdown. Lives have been ruined. Millions of our best, brightest and most reliable are unemployed. Hard working, salt-of-the-earth families are losing their homes. Insecurity, pessimism and fear are commonplace in every single neighborhood.
Which is why some of the postings to my blog, titled Thoughts on Autonomy and Life, address what can be a touchy issue. The touchy issue? How a mindset can limit us, weaken us or, truth be told, break us.
When the living is easy, whatever strength of spirit we have is adequate. Only when the times are difficult, when we’re facing bankruptcy or enduring a heated legal battle, for instance, do we realize that mental toughness is the basis of a strong spirit, and that we break if we’ve neglected it.
By mental toughness, I mean the strength of autonomy. Our autonomy is built on the acquisition of critical skills that produce authority, self-reliance, confidence and resource. We need this substance when the certainties we had counted upon collapse, when our financial security and social standing are threatened, or when our progress to the next personal or professional level seems to be blocked. An autonomy of mind enables us to say, and to mean, “Break our spirit. Never.”
I’m also contrasting an autonomy of mind with the type of mindset that I addressed in my two previous posts, titled Bigger truth, bigger life and Meet the invisible self.
The mindset that we automatically acquired, some deliberately, most not, accompanies us everywhere, of course. It serves us well when its stored information enables us to respond effectively to the entire range of challenges we face. Obviously, too obviously, these challenges include not only minor setbacks and disappointments, but also train-wreck-size problems like the loss of one’s job or a contentious divorce or the aftermath of a natural disaster.
This same mindset doesn’t serve us well when it’s not a match for these challenges and obligations. And it’s not a match when it is too easily misdirected by fear-mongering and hypocritical outrage or by the shills for one or another of the bubble-building bandwagons.
However, because it thinks itself objective, the ineffective mindset doesn’t know that its choices and decisions are working at cross-purposes with its own welfare. In fact, none of us take in information objectively, nor do we objectively detect conflicts of interest or evaluate the soundness of arguments or proposals. Unbeknownst to us but absent rigor, breadth and depth, we see information, interpret it and absorb it in union with the mindset we already have.
Mindsets that limit, undermine, mislead and promulgate hate are distributed across all levels of the social ladder. What is not distributed across all levels is the means to recover from a mindset’s poor reading of its condition and circumstance. Those stuck in a mindset without the wealth to cover for its mistakes, usually pay in anguish. The very wealthy, cushioned, don’t risk it all when they bet heavily on beliefs, small truths or special interests that don’t account for the contingencies of everyday life. Those without a big financial cushion never get off easy.
Without a serious effort to acquire the critical skills of autonomy, we remain stuck in this mindset throughout our lives. Stuckness has some virtues, of course. Our drinking buddies (even those at Starbucks) usually commend our mindsets, for instance. And we like the feeling of camaraderie and the hit off explosive language that comes from following celebrity opinion-makers.
But repeating another’s opinion adamantly and sincerely does not constitute intelligence or ethical reflection. And if we have not carefully made up our own minds, if we can’t adequately extrapolate and generalize, or if we aren’t well enough informed to weigh the merits of competing claims for validity, we are not autonomous.
Imagine what toughness of mind would be required to lead on Wall Street and keep one’s integrity intact. Imagine what toughness of mind would be required to stand up for people or ideas currently excoriated by the hate-mongers and the hypocritically outraged, or to refuse to be suckered by red herrings when all around our institutions are seriously threatened.
So, by autonomy of mind, I also mean the ability to withstand the appeal that surrounds bubbles and bandwagons built on illusion, as well as the pessimism that currently clouds our take on the future. Are there still opportunities to work, lead and contribute without leaving behind one’s soul? Will children reared to respect honesty and fair play be able to get a job and support a family and comfortable life style without compromising their principles?
Each and all of us need to be autonomous, mentally tough. We need mental toughness to avoid mortgaging our future for the prospect of short-term gain, and we need mental toughness to recover from losses suffered. We also need the critical skills of autonomy even if our livelihoods are not in jeopardy during this economic meltdown. A mindset stuck on itself can limit access to the expansive range of mental motion and toughness needed at the next level of personal or professional achievement.
For example, we have no reason to believe that the bubble mentality that inspires short-term financial speculation over longer-term productive investment is going to disappear. The bad guys will continue their shakedown if those with a serious commitment to avoid corruption while creating a value-driven national prosperity don’t take a leadership role in business and politics.
Yet, the ability to swim with the sharks or make deals with the moguls requires top-notch critical skills. Among these are the ability to be persistently and consistently mentally tough and resilient, to think on one’s feet, to hang in through increasingly complex and antagonistic negotiations and to resist the overwhelming temptation to cheat. Not everyone is cut out for this kind of aggressive leadership. But for those with the temperament to make this kind of contribution, the critical skills of autonomy are crucial. Otherwise, the so-called ethics of the masters of the universe will subsume one’s own.
Amid all these challenges, a bet on the value of the critical skills of autonomy is a very good bet. It’s not that the crooked will just roll over or that there aren’t rock-and-a-hard-place choices for which even Solomon’s wisdom is no match. However, we can count on autonomy as the means to the stability, detachment and mental toughness that let us wrest control of our lives once again.
P.S. For additional perspectives on this particular subject, please see Navigating through stormy days, Beyond discontent and The will to transcend, there’s life after everything.