Krishnamurti comes to mind...

   On my facebook feed, I am hearing and reading a lot of stories about how people are reacting to the election results in the U.S. I am seeing something akin to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's account of the different stages that we go through when dealing with the loss of loved ones. Of course, the first stage of the process is denial and disbelief, followed by extreme resistance and even an effort to bargain with others to bring the loved state of being back. But none of these measures prove to be lasting, and eventually they give way to a more accepting way of being. Has acceptance and accommodation happened for the U.S. elections? Perhaps now and perhaps never. It's hard to say what is 'normal' anymore, much less the baseline to which one can reliably turn.
  I am not especially interested in the idea of trying to look for a villain in the story of the elections. It seems to me that the country is so complex, and there is no one cause for things in this story. The more a person demonizes another, the harder it is for that demonized or stigmatized person to learn from others or participate in community with others. Filled with fear and shame, such a person can do nothing but try to solve the problems of the nation on their own, with minimum involvement in others' lives. Conversely, those who demonize others without sincerely trying to understand the others' motivation are only perpetuating a culture and climate of hatred or exclusion. In a sense, I have to wonder: are we yet evolving to the point where we start to see through our labels and judgments?
   Krishnamurti, the Indian philosopher, comes to mind as I am thinking this through. I learned from my readings of his books that conflict is not something we need to stigmatize or see as 'abnormal'. As this election suggests, conflict is part of the everyday meaning and process of being human. If one learns not to balk at conflict, the feelings and perceptions associated with it are not regarded as bad at all. But it always seems the case that conflict almost primes a person for a flight or fight, knee-jerk reaction to things. I end this blog with the question: can people learn to abide in conflict without reacting or taking sides?