America on the Brink

understand the difference between telling the truth about our past to build a better future for everyone from our obsession to deconstruct everything. Deconstruction is a technical term in philosophical and religious studies that describes the process of questioning traditional assumptions about truth and identity and is characterized by a tendency to break down to show biases and inconsistencies. Deconstructionism can be healthy and help societies correct beliefs that are deeply problematic. However, deconstructionism can go awry and lead to a destructive questioning and tearing down of everything associated with others. As a society, a dangerous form of deconstructive logic has taken hold that is focused on what I call obsessive problem analysis in others. Many people, including leaders focus only on problems and the problem is almost always in others. Jesus described this flawed logic in Matthew 7. They see sawdust in your eye but not the plank in their own eye. Leaders and people in general can explain what is wrong with institutions, organizations, and ideas. They are skilled and passionate about the need to tear everything a part and discard them but, when it is time to offer solutions and take up constructive aspects of advocacy and public policy work, they don’t have much to say. Social media has given deconstructionists a platform to rant and rave about problems, to deconstruct all things sports, business, politics, religion, relationships, education, and mental health. Deconstructing everything has become a default cognitive setting in us that has poisoned our political and community leaders. Like so many others, they can only tell you what needs to be torn down and not what and how to build. The truth is, there is more to effective leadership than tearing everything down or only explaining the nature of the problem. We have too many deconstructionists in leadership who only know what is wrong with everything and everyone else but cannot galvanize people around the good and organize them to build something. This must change. 2. The Winds of an Unfocused Black Political Agenda It is hard to channel rage into change because some of the rage is rooted in a lack of awareness of what we want and where to begin to do the kind of advocacy and policy work that brings change. Some black leaders do not have a focused and practical black agenda. Some of this is related to the crowd that is telling you everything that is wrong. Deconstructionism as an end to itself traps you in a vicious cycle of frustration and anger because it is focused on the problem. This leaves us locked into a form of social paralysis in the face of the sheer magnitude of issues confronting black communities and explains the small but real faction of our communities that are lashing out and turning to violence, looting. Some of this reflects feeling helpless and hopeless about change. Our problems are so big that it is hard to think incrementally and with specificity about a few areas as if it a disservice to the magnitude of the problem. Righteous anger is healthy but if can become toxic and destructive if it is not channeled in constructive ways. Channeling righteous rage requires focus, or as I like to say, a focused vision that has the breadth to say here is what we need, and the specificity to recognize the steps or process to get us there.

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