How might we cultivate equity meta-governance to end the toxic propaganda of neo-terrorism, the uncivil strife of disinformation pandemics, political corruption and wars?

How might we use the sad solemn oxymoron of "Happy Memorial Day" to advocate for a Equity Governance Day that promotes healthy well-being and a healthy planet for all?

Consider joining the #UniteEquityMuse movement

As Socratic Sherpas and transformational change agents, we collaborate in asking people and their leaders the complex questions that needed to be asked, but are not being asked or are ignored about our dystopian future.

• How might we co-create the equity meta-governance to empower the collaborative synergies that we need to solve our complex web of self-inflicted wicked problems in the 21st century?

Our wicked problems relate to the power abuses of our corrupt religious, political and legal systems. This includes unethical governance, inept stewardship, incompetent leadership that enables the extractive and exploitative imperialism of neoliberalism, the demise of mother earth and biodiversity, global warming, rising sea and poverty levels, mass immigration, food insecurities, and much more.

Our wicked problems call for unprecedented cooperation, collaboration, alignment and integration within and across the political, public and private sectors. Our surreal unreality is galaxies away from this transformational vision.

What stands in our transformational leadership development ways of exponential collaboration are the ego-centric shadows of self-deception and closed-minded tribalism, driven by sages-on-the-stage and marketing maverick savants.

Our shadows dis-intermediate networks across the political, public and private sectors and and fracture ecosystems within these sectors. Our leadership systems are atomized, fragmented and ineffective with spurious beliefs that reinforce disintegration.

• How might we, as equity muse trainers, leaders and learning designers, weave tapestries of mycelium networks of networks, open innovation hubs and entrepreneurial ecosystems to co-create exponential learning processes to solve our self-inflicted wicked problems?

What we need are open continuous peer-reviewed platforms with iterative feedback and edits to cultivate living documents without end, collaborating within lifelong intergenerational learning communities. The book as a business card trophy and the book marketing machine days are reaching their expiration dates. The new publishing platforms, such as Substack, will disrupt and dis-intermediate book publishers to serve humanity.

Equity is the community virtue of fairness

Equity meta-governance is a twenty-first-century initiative and story movement for co-designing a fair-free-flourishing-future to benefit all, on a regenerative planet. This trans-collaborative process uses a constellation of virtues and an overarching set of first principles and simple rules for large-scale transformations.

These virtues, principles and rules put ethical guardrails on the moral conduct of governments, the law and public policy, corporations, businesses, journalism, media, social media, artificial intelligence, and academic, leadership and educational enterprises.

Equity meta-governance enables the political, public and private sectors to align together and collaborate to do good for the commons, humanity, the common good, and the health of the mother earth.

This overarching governance is about how we can co-construct fair rules, fair games and fair plays to assure fair opportunities and fair rewards for all on a flourishing planet.

How might we, as equity muses and leaders, liberate the virtue of moral freedom?

The reductionist rally call for freedom is ethically inadequate and superficial for solving our interconnected webs of wicked problems.

• Is freedom a virtue or value?

Virtues and values are overlapping concepts with important distinctions. Put simply, virtues are about doing good for the commons, the common good, humanity and the health of the planet.

Values set priorities on what it is important to guide decision-making. We may value all virtues to varying degrees, but not all values are virtuous.

Freedom is a moral-amoral-immoral value. This triple-edge sword represents the good, the bad and the ugly. Idolatry about the moral upsides of freedom denies its amoral shadows and immoral dark sides. Freedom from tyranny is the diametrical opposite of the freedom to tyrannize.

Any yet, to our peril. we turn a blind eye to immoral freedom. This permissiveness enables sociopathic addictions to power that are devoid of any virtue. This political opioid subverts our democracies. Democracies risk going over the edge to code red: moribund in need of repeated resuscitations to avoid catastrophic end-organ collapse.

This enablement drives irresponsible free speech, such as the propaganda machines of fake news, to sustain multiple nodes of disabling, destructive and toxic influences. These corrupt influences are the virulent weeds that rig our systems with wicked problems, especially systemic isms and the neoliberalism of escalating inequities.

We have the resources and know-how to solve our wicked problems, but our shadows and dark sides obliviate the light of virtues.

A failure to understand the distinctions between the concepts of virtues and values contributes to our ethical illiteracy and failures in learning how to co-create a fair-free-flourishing-future on a healthy planet for the benefit of all.

• How might the Divided States of America liberate the light of moral freedom from its amoral shadows and its immoral dark sides to ensure that the fairness of equity thrives and flourishes?

• How might we, as equity muse trainers, leaders and learning designers, co-create synergies to align, galvanize and amplify empowerment dynamics that enable us to collaborate on solving our interconnected wicked problems?

Our hierarchical and competitive value systems divide us. People across the political spectrum share similar values, but small differences in the hierarchical priorities of our values can set up the self-righteous fundamentalism of identity politics and toxic dysfunctional polarizations.

These ethical dilemmas challenge us to shift beyond debates about our conflicting value systems to the co-creation of generative dialogues, guided by a constellation of virtues.

Our non-hierarchical virtues align us on the middle ground, despite our differences in value systems, to unleash the cooperative spirits of addressing our wicked problems united together.

Our harmonious virtues prevent our values from becoming divisive.

American exceptionalism maximizes the upsides of liberty and freedom and minimizes its shadows. The unconditional loyalty of patriotic pride disables us from taking on the dark sides of freedom. The enemy is us.

• How might the Divided States of America co-elevate a constellation of virtues needed to heal itself of wicked problems?

These problems include the self-righteous beliefs of political and religious fundamentalisms, truth decay, the propaganda machines of disinformation pandemics indoctrinating people, toxic incivilities of dysfunctional polarizations, rampant intolerance of differences, uncivil strife, wars and the high murder and death rates arising from the gun and narcotic endemics.

The Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the American Constitution are stagnant unquestioning documents that have deeply ingrained biases and prejudices against the virtues of equality and equity.

Freedom enables neo-terrorism

Neo-terrorism is the weaponization of words with sociopathic disregard for integrity, truth-seeking and transparent accountability that perpetrates and perpetuates the power abuses of pathological megalomania, malignant narcissism and authoritarian autocracy.

Liberty without equity is not freedom

• How might use the community virtues of equity and equality to put ethical guardrails on the individual values of liberty and freedom to maximize the upsides and minimize the downsides of virtues and values? 

Equity liberates freedom

The community virtues of equity and equality liberate the individual values of ethical liberty and moral freedoms. The Statue of Liberty needs a twin sister: the Statue of Equity to ethically assure the moral conduct of responsible freedoms.

Freedom fighters know how to end wars, but they do not have the skills to implement equity meta-governance to make lasting peace. We need equity peace-makers to make this transformational transition.

Mother Teresa quote. I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.

Re-imagine new forms of governance

We are in a political state of arrested development based on the solitary ideal of liberty-freedom that devalues the virtues of equity and equality.

Winston S Churchill quote, 11 November 1947. Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’

Like neoliberalism, the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution are antiquated documents past their expiration dates. They have not ended the uncivil wars of neo-terrorism. Equity meta-governance is the antidote to war.

How might we, the people, advocate for an equity meta-governance day to:

• Make lasting peace that ends all wars?

• Promote healthy well-being and a healthy planet for all?

Embark on your learning journey in communion and in a community with kindred spirits and also with people across the political spectrum with different priorities in value systems.

Read the article below to dive deeper into the ethical dilemmas about power dynamics, moral ambiguities and the virtuous quest to develop equity meta-governance.