TRUST or more precisely the absence- breakdown of TRUST is the emotional lynchpin of America’s endemic pathology. For older people like myself the dynamic and impact are more apparent and still more evidential if you are part of a tight knit community or ethnic subculture. Trust, the societal  glue that holds together our pluralistic nation continues to decline.

With the absence of TRUST there becomes a compelling desire to be a survivor that does whatever it takes to prevail and preserve oneself. With this mindset our conception of the TURTH has also declined. Fake News and the competing narrative of an increasingly polarized nation, along with our culture that glorifies narcissism has elevated lying to a creative art form.

With this loss of Trust and Truth comes a situational ethical environment where there is no wrong or right; just our own individualized opinion. While some proclaim this as freedom, it has come at a great price…. Our Emotional Wellness.

Big-Pharma makes billions from this and the sofas of the analysts are filled with many confused people that have great difficult navigating in this toxic society.

We live in an age of global connectivity which by its nature is highly relational. We also operate with fierce global competitive dynamics that compels collaboration to ease the force of this pressure filled environment.

Our user friendly, immediate and constant access to technology as an integral and essential part of our life has created a neurotransmitter nightmare of dopamine dependence as we waste our days away escaping the stress through mindless electronic wandering.

As this lifestyle is still relatively recent we do not know the long-term health impacts but the trends are readily observed.

We are becoming a fearful, anxious, reactive and angry people that has become more parochial and tribal with an ever smaller circle of like-minded folks that share our “correct” viewpoint of life.

I feel most fortunate to have lived the complete “American Experience”, spending a life-time embracing the rich diversity of cultures and people from every social strata and walk of life. I observe increasingly these good friends of decades possess a new militancy with people that are different than them.

In fact in many of the circles I operate within, I am the only individual outside their exclusive group or type that they interact with. Due to my high values, good work, consistency and loyalty my differences have become invisible.

No word best explains this extreme polarization than the word “Privilege”

To the large group of friends I have who are of Color it is a word that exemplifies the history of injustice, inequality and oppression.

To my equally large group of conservative circles it is a word that has been unfairly thrusted upon them and diminishes the hard work that they have accomplished to earn their place in American Society. They also see it as a weapon of the liberal entitlement that is used to shame and guilt others who have lived a good life in which they have never harmed anyone.

To my largest segment of successful ethnic sub-groups it is symbol of their achievement, even though they are completely disempowered they have played the game according the system of those in power and with their hard work and creativity have risen to the top status in every profession. In many situations they are the best in their class and have set new standards of excellence.

The trajectory of these three groups is what shapes the dynamic of the tensions what we see in our society.

From my observation I see an amazing transformational movement in my groups of individuals of color. These groups that are deeply attached to their shared heritage and vision. They are rising.

My ethnic sub-group’s advancement continues as their leadership is seen in every profession. Their great challenge is ingest too much of the American illness of Affluencia. Their children love materialism too much, having been raised through their parent’s hard work at the best boarding and Ivy League schools. It will be interesting to see where they plateau.

The main stream majority faces a steady diminishing of it predominance and with this demographic shift over the next twenty years the polarization is only going to widen. A vast group of this constituency did not invest in the education and training as the other two groups. This angry political block will continue to drive the national dialog as politicians play to their distrust and discontentment.

Yet the media has been the greatest and most harmful force of Emotional Illness in this Nation as the daily images they project earns them dollars but comes at the price of reinforcing these unhealth stereotypes. Their demagogy has also casted them to a place of irrelevance in America society.

They are the purveyors of distrust and disinformation but as much as no one believes what they say; everyone still listens to the noise. The cumulative impact of these daily images on the IPhone screens infects the nation with its toxic nonsense.

All of this soup of complex, contradictory  and potentially harmful dynamics has made us small, insular with an inward view of life. I have seen our nation over the last twenty years going backwards away from the previous forty years of enormous gains.

Yet by our design and nature people are good. I see goodness and kindness every day in actions of caring. Yet these moments are few and most of all are guarded as we have been “conditioned” now to automatically be closed and cautious.

A smile to a very cute small child of color and her mom at the store brings an approving return grin with an invitation to the child to say hello. I have to believe in that moment that it must be God in the life of a segment of our society that still inspires them to love humanity.

This provides me much hope as I am if anything always optimistic.

There is no simple fix to the operative model that like the torrent of water that sprays from a fire hose we are all caught in the force of its all encumbering presence.

To achieve the macro objective of a more Emotional Well America those who possess the desire need to commit to the micro behaviors like the mother and her child….to once again become fully human and embrace each other with their sincerity.

We cannot save the world but we can save ourselves, our families, our friends and even on a local level our circles of community.

I always tell my children …. That all our journeys have unknow destinations and purposes in which we are totally unaware. We are in those moments used as the instruments of goodness that at times may even be painful or difficult but in the final result always brings us great benefit, joy and victory.

The secret of happiness is first being true to yourself  but more importantly loving others even more than yourself.