At this year\u2019s TED conference Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks\u2019 explained that we\u2019ve become so good at thinking about the self and unwilling to listen to people of differing views that we\u2019re becoming isolated and afraid of the future. But he also offered a solution: put the \u2018us\u2019 back in relationships, identity, and responsibility.<\/p>\n
On relationship, he says, \u201cWe need to renew those face-to-face encounters with the people not like us in order to realize that we can disagree strongly and still stay friends \u2026 In those encounters, we discover that the people not like us are just people, like us. <\/span><\/p>\n Fear doesn\u2019t come from disagreement, fear comes from being unwilling to listen to those we disagree with.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On identity he says, essentially, look back to your history. Do we remember the ideas that America was founded on? \u201cWhen you tell the story and your identity is strong, you can welcome the strangers. But when you stop telling the story, your identity gets weak and you feel threatened by the stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n On responsibility, he says reject \u2018magical thinking\u2019. Don\u2019t assume your elected leader wields all the power \u2013 it\u2019s in your own two hands to start working\u2013\u2013 \u201cThe only people that will save us from ourselves is we, the people \u2014 all of us together.\u201d<\/p>\n Our homework from today\u2019s lesson? Replace all I\u2019s with Us\u2019s and see what happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At this year\u2019s TED conference Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks\u2019 explained that we\u2019ve become so good at thinking about the self and unwilling to listen to people of differing views that we\u2019re becoming isolated and afraid of the future. But he also offered a solution: put the \u2018us\u2019 back in relationships, identity, and responsibility. On relationship, he says, \u201cWe need to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[132,91,549,430,550,551],"class_list":["post-6169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-resilience","category-new-paths","tag-empathy","tag-future","tag-rabbi-sacks","tag-resistance","tag-ted","tag-ted-talk"],"yoast_head":"\n