Culture is a powerful and pervasive force in any organization. An “organization” could be a small team of two or three individuals or it could be the whole country.
We know that every individual has a definable personality; bubbly, solemn, introverted, optimistic, the list is long. Culture is like the personality of an organization; caring, harsh, entrepreneurial, bureaucratic; again, a long list.
In the 1990s a new culture began to emerge. It started with a new meaning for the word “spin”. When a potentially negative issue emerged, the Clinton White House would “spin” the issue to make it look as though someone else was to blame. The blame game took root, grew and migrated to the US Congress and transformed it into today’s blame-everything, dysfunctional, grid locked organization. And then it spread across the country. Today we have an engrained culture of blame.
Now the country is trending towards a culture of hate and it is moving like a wild fire.
Hate: “to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.”
A few days ago, President Trump was on Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional leaders. While walking down a hallway, a US Senate intern, Caitlin Marriott, yelled out, “Mr. President, f_ _ _ you.”
Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen was recently driven out by protesters while having dinner in a restaurant. So-called celebrates are routinely applauded during televised programs when they use the most vile and disrespectful language to degrade someone while millions watch on TV. The list is long.
And somehow, we are led to believe by much of the media that this type of behavior is acceptable. This kind of behavior is not about freedom of speech, it is about where that “speech” is taking the country.
And here is the worst part. Babies are not born with hatred in their little hearts. They know nothing of the concept of disrespect and bigotry. But they will learn hatred, bullying, the use of vindictive language, disregard for civil discourse at home, in school and from the media. A culture of hate is already on track to become a generational problem, just like a culture of segregation was for 100 years.
Hatemonger: “one who incites others to hatred or prejudice”.
If Maxine Waters would contemplate where this culture of hate might be leading the country, perhaps she would not be using her position to insight people to seek out multiple senior administration officials and attempt to drive them from their service to the nation.
Wake up America or you will someday wake up to an America you don’t know. An America that has lost its goodness. An America that has completely lost its way.
Watching the culture of hate grow and doing nothing is not an option. Get on social media and sound off with a logical counter argument. Write to companies and boycott their products if they advertise with media which is supportive of hatemongering. Get together and send a barrage of emails to politicians like Maxine Waters who encourage hatemongering.
There must be consequences for vile public behavior. Caitlin Marriott, (who shouted “F_ _ _ you Mr. President”) is an intern for US Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH). The Senator’s punishment was to send Marriott home for a week of forced vacation. An alternative for the Senator would have been to call Ms. Marriott into her office, give the young lady a tongue-lashing she may never forget about proper decorum, pull her badge and have the Capital Police escort her out of the building. There would certainly have been a media backlash about that “severe” punishment. But the Senator would be siting securely on the moral high ground.
Civil discourse, agreeing to disagree and the golden rule are in danger of becoming a thing of the past.
Sometimes I find it instructive to look at issues by putting them on a spectrum of behavior; that is, look at the polar opposites. Good/evil. Selfless/self-serving. Accountability/blame. Then there is today’s issue with hate on one end of the spectrum and on the other end is trust, respect and love. We have to get on the correct side of the hate spectrum
The most important thing we can do to keep the kids from learning to hate is to teach them something different. The kids need a daily dose of character training; every K-12 student in the United States; all 60 million of them. Every day for 20 minutes. It can be done. It is a proven concept. It is within the art of the possible. I just happen to have a completed concept paper for a national campaign to make it happen.
Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.