The Two R’s and VUCA-Plus
The challenges faced in achieving true freedom following collapse of the Soviet Union are not easy to meet—whether we are talking about the last decade of the 20th Century or the first decades of the 21st Century. As I have just suggested, the task has become more complicated in recent years. This is because we are living in a world that is becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain and complex. It is filled with ambiguity. Taken together these four factors constitute what is now often identified as VUCA (using the first letter of each word). I have added two other factors to the VUCA challenge (Bergquist, 2020). They are turbulence and contradiction. If an accurate portrayal of most 21st Century societies, then I would suggest that VUVA-Plus is making any balance between personal rights and collective responsibility that much more difficult.
We are threatened at a personal level by all the elements of VUCA-Plus and wish to hunker down—defending our own home, our own livelihood and our own community and nation at the expense of other people, other communities and other nations. Our legitimate concern about personal rights devolves into siloed individualism, isolation and alienation from the world in which we live. We are also threatened collectively and see the value of working together to resolve the many challenges associated with VUCA-Plus. We know that we can’t “go it alone.” We even become dependent on other people, our community and our nation. We regress under the threat of VUCA-Plus to a more primitive reliance on our leaders and institutions. Collective responsibility devolves into authoritarian rule.
With potential increases in difficulty regarding the balancing of right and responsibilities comes the need for new tools—or the reintroduction of old, proven tools (that have been neglected)—that can be engaged in a constructive dialogue addressing the nature of this societal balance. I offer several ideas and one powerful tool that might be of assistance when introducing this dialogue in many different forums.
