While we’ve learned that trickle-down economics doesn’t work, it seems that trickle-down nastiness does.
When the President of the United States treats others poorly, many people in our society seem to think that makes it okay.
We often look to our leaders to demonstrate the best qualities of human nature. Not all leaders live up to this promise.
When a certain degree of selfishness and narcissim is on display by our leaders, it legitimizes these behaviors. Obviously, many people know better; however, others figure that if it’s good enough for people in power, it must be good enough for the rest of us.
Especially when leaders need to placate those above them to stay in power, they have an incentive to behave badly. Often, such incentives are passed downward within many organizations.
Individuals want to do what they can to get ahead. Ideally, this means treating everyone well. Unfortunately, we do not live in ideal times!
Possible solutions exist. Often, we can vote to elect decent leaders over cruel leaders. We can work together to rebuild what Robert Reich refers to as “the Common Good”. We can buy products from companies that do good, and we can boycott organizations that fail to do good.
Our best opportunity is to treat people within our families and local communities with kindness. It’s good for our friends and family members to know that we’re all in this together.
Seeing others behave badly is no excuse for us to behave badly.
Know that we can choose to behave better than our leaders.
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