As Daniel Kahneman (2013) and other behavioral economists have noted, we are likely to engage in “fast thinking” when confronting immediate, anxiety-filled challenges. The “slow thinking” that is required to sort through the VUCA-Plus labyrinth has not been widely engaged in the United States during the 21st Century. The United States is not alone. An encouraging report card is hard to be found in any other country. Anxiety-provoked regression in thought, feelings and actions pervaded the world. Authoritarianism emerged and reigned supreme in many societies. Leaders were being obeyed who had no business being in this role. Stupidity filled the cracks and crevices of constructive deliberations regarding rights and responsibilities—as well as most other matters regarding true freedom.
Truth and reality can be quite elusive. It is easy to regress individually and collectively when anxiety is saturating our thoughts and actions. As I have already mentioned, we have tools that can aide our slow, systemic analysis of pandemic problems—despite the challenges we face in confronting these problems. I am about to introduce a process that can help us do a better job in making balanced decisions based on this analysis.
Polarity Management
We must leave the confines of Cambridge Massachusetts so that I might introduce a new perspective on the best way to address the challenge of finding true freedom through balancing right and responsibilities. Specifically, I turn to the work of Barry Johnson (1996), the “dean” of polarity management. Johnson’s perspectives and his related tools can guide our actions in the future. Johnson suggests that polarity management can be used in handling everyday dilemmas. It can also be of great value in addressing major societal contradictions—settings in which there are two or more legitimate but opposite forces at work Can polarity management help us gain a purchase on the interplay between rights and responsibilities? I believe the answer is “yes”. Along with systemic perspectives and slow thinking, polarity management might provide important guidance in the search for true freedom.
