Intercultural Dynamics: The Human Connection

Pre-note: This Fulcrum states the obvious. The problem with the obvious, however, is that it is often overlaid by the grind of daily living.

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Globalization and a polarising world continue to highlight the challenges of inter-cultural and inter-racial communication. Many helpful books, engaging workshops and expert presentations are available on the subject. My own experience in coaching leaders from around the world points to a critical overlay that does not seem to be getting proper attention. This overlay is referred to here as the human connection.

This Fulcrum comes in two parts:

Part One:     A Fundamental Overview
Part Two:     The Human Connection

What are the root causes of inter-human differences?

Let’s go through four highly condensed perspectives of influences and persuasions of different orders that deeply impact the formation of a 21st century psyche.

1.   Which came first, culture or the human?
Which came first, German, Chinese, American, African – and so on – or human? Were Adam and Eve Chinese? Or perhaps Greek? They were human beings. Tribes, creeds and nations came later. Once humans lost their way, differences bred behavioural volatility through ignorant misinterpretation of the very concept of right and wrong. You see, humans are natural born creators. Humanity can – and does – give birth to evil devices, such as nuclear weapons. It can – and in the course of history does – give birth to evil powers that affect the human mind and even the natural worlds of the planet. This is what happens when people assume the position of judge, jury and executioner. In doing so, they yield the human connection to a lesser power that has no place in human affairs. The proper understanding of this subject requires a two-year fundamental education programme into the workings of the energy and power worlds in human affairs.

2.   Much of religion as we have come to know it has nothing to do with religion
Now throw the mutations of world religions into the fray. What people do in the name of God. Such as downgrading one of two God-created genders into second class status and engaging in ‘holy’ wars. This is another arena where the human as meant to be gets buried in a heap of disconnected ignorance.

3.   Where did you grow up?
Consider the incredible diversity of eco-systems and eco-domes present across the planet, characterised by unique blends of sceneries and energy fields. Folklore, customs and dialects are largely shaped by the energy signatures of any given natural ecology and what it inspires in terms of human activity, such as theatre, music, art, dance, story-telling and much more.

4.   Change
Change is an all-pervading, rapidly evolving event, powered by waves of new energy washing through the planet. It’s intoxicating impact is witnessed through a wide range of symptoms, from the accelerating rise of extremism to profit-driven technological rat-races. Perceiving the higher end of the change gradient requires impartial observational capacity, together with the resolve to let go of fixing dogma. Are you working to be one of those?

Serene clarity is present at the mountaintops of one’s higher self

Let’s go a little deeper into the ‘rabbit’s hole’.

When people engage, while they may be radiating composure, they are likely host to a wide mix of under-currents and cross-currents, mentally and emotionally. The world is increasingly on-edge and so are people. You are likely well-aware of how easy it is to provoke hard-edged reactions from seemingly minor issues, where people are often surprised by the unpredictability of their own reactions.

The greater the impartiality, the deeper the self-awareness.

Human beings are made to be unique and different, spiritually, mentally and physically not by accident, but for a deeply profound reason. We are made to live and enjoy the freedom of pursuing a live and let live journey of self-discovery, individually and collectively. When the connection to this truth is lost, entire races and creeds get lost in translation and invaded – hijacked – by influences and persuasions that are alien to what the human is meant to be.

When we meet and engage, the way it’s meant to be is human beings meeting human beings; human first, then all else. Never the other way around. So, a human with a cultured or religious accent rather than a cultured or religious person with a human accent.

Re-setting this historical warp-factor is one of leadership’s great tasks.

Being a genuinely constructive, live and let live human, is the greatest religion of all

The greatest test in our lives is not of an academic nature. It is the test of using the gift of free radical choice wisely and constructively, because in our world it is so easy not to.

The mysteries of time
The human connection lives in an eternal time dimension, where time as we know it does not exist. Worldly connections exist in the realms of little time, we can even call it a blip of time within the eternal continuum: When was the last time you did not experience the pressure of time? A human person thinking and behaving like a human being can draw from the eternal into the temporary; thereby greatly enriching the temporary. A person lost in translation is trapped in the realms of little time, leading to mental states of up-side-down, confused priorities.

So, human engagement simultaneously accommodates two time dimensions: The eternal and the local. While these two do not mix, a mindful person can successfully harmonise the two in one’s mind and processes. This is one of the great arts of purposive living. In case you are wondering, one of the ways to connect to the eternal dimension is through developing qualities such as wisdom, genuineness, love, kindness, patience and humility. It is always present nearby, at mind’s-length.

The clean qualities and powers that live in the timeless enable a state of harmony between connected humans

Dictionary definition of Sentiment: an attitude, thought, or judgment prompted by feeling

Sentiment is an unspoken presence that creates a yield factor, a ‘give’, in many different contexts. A sentiment is a product of the presence of good feelings, agreement, openness and trust that flavours and shapes interpersonal dealings. The most potent media for the flow of good sentiments is the human connection. Because when people share the human connection, openness and trust are present as ‘default’.

Developing the inner skills to give the human connection and its delicate nuances fullness of expression is one of the prime tasks of an emerging human. ‘Emerging’ because this is the case for a developing person – we are forever emerging, every day, inside of a magnificent, evolving, wide-open window of opportunity.

Whenever eyes meet, it is an opportunity for the passage of good sentiments

Imagine a world where the human connection has the upper hand in human affairs. This was the way of the ancients and is the way of tomorrow.

If you happen to be engaging in multi-cultural scenarios, a present, active and engaging human connection places you in a position to achieve outcomes that may not be possible otherwise.

The task, therefore, is to do a ‘bothing’ – to be both culturally and humanly articulate.

A final note in this highly condensed Fulcrum, each culture accommodates its unique kind of limiting beliefs, fear and nature of punishment that over time has become part of its DNA. These are present in people semi-consciously even if they may consider themselves to be free and liberated. The human connection cuts across these cultural-historical overlays like a hot knife through butter because fear and punishment do not exist in the eternal dimensions of the human existence.

The human connection is a magical short-cut to people’s hearts and minds

With best wishes,

David Gommé
World Copyright 2019© David Gommé