The Next Generation of Heroes and Heroines…

INTERDEPENDENCE

The heroic journey of this era is not a journey of one, but a journey shared by many.  We are in desperate need of an entire generation of heroes and heroines, courageous enough to overcome the challenges before us now and on into the future.  The independent, “go-it-alone” heroes and heroines of the past have had their utility, and they have taught us many things.  But they have paid, and continue to pay, too great a price for our development.

In the coming era singular individual efforts will not only be unnecessary for a whole variety of reasons, but they will prove to be insufficient for the challenges that lie ahead.  Each person who recognizes the global situation and its immediacy, by that very insight, will share not only in its ownership but also in the accountability that follows.

Individual and collective interdependent visions that reflect on and are mindful of the ‘inter-relatedness of things’ is the critical first step.  The heroes of the past stand as figure-heads, ‘independent visionaries’ who lead the charge to confront challenges, leaving the rest of us to be ‘dependent’ on their keen insights and beholdin’ in their wake.  Historically, the faceless mass has been so dependent, heroic individuals were not afforded the option of sharing the lead, left alone to blaze new trails.  Heroic groups of the future must be like those athletes who are cyclists and mountain climbers, enthusiastically sharing the lead to work toward a common vision.  Or, like a band of musicians, who often share the lead for certain pieces of music.

This dependence on heroes is a very old theme.  We look for heroes to rescue us from those not confronted with equal individual force, collective force, and/or to bring about social change.  Even so, the seeds of changing heroism started at least forty years ago ‘perceptibly’ in current memory when groups of individuals—all heroes and heroines in their own right-- demonstrated the power of passive resistance. Also, John Kennedy, former U.S. President, in his 1961 inaugural address uttered the legendary phrase:

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,"

There he, like those who had championed passive resistance and the power of small interdependent actions, including the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa and the like, ignited a vision that called on us all to be heroes and heroines – no matter the scale of our heroic efforts.  Although these changes were ‘in the air,’ there was not a group that collectively shared the weight of these visions.  There were still those who lead these campaigns… Looking back we can now see that several of these leaders, along with their families, paid an enormous price for their individual heroics – and so did we all.

Considering the leaders of that age in light of the narrative to follow, there was indeed a price for their heroism, their insights, their vision.  But, when we stand inter-dependently, with a collective vision we share in the heroics as a group.  We all share in the benefits and the costs of heroism collectively.  Interdependently, we can make up for each other’s weaknesses, complement each other’s strengths, and we can prevail if only we believe we can be heroic in the face of daunting odds.  And, what of the price paid by our previous heroes?  Simply put, it was too high.