In my Leadership courses, I talk a lot about the importance of Human Nature: understanding it; acknowledging it; accepting it; and using it successfully. Firstly, one might take a page from Socrates and “Know Thyself!” Only after Leading Oneself, only then can one hope to get others to “Follow the Leader.” If one does/can/will NOT do the ‘internal’ work on themselves first, a ‘limited’ destiny of only “management” (not Leadership) probably awaits.
I would hazard a guesstimate that 75-80% of Human Nature is “universal” with the remaining 20-25% dependent upon the Cultural conditions/considerations of time/timing and place/space (Nurture?). This is precisely why I contend that Leadership was much easier (pre-1960) when most (non-indentured) people were majority White, (Northern) European, (Protestant) Christian, and male-dominant immigrants. “Minor” deviations from those were labeled “second-class” citizens who were ‘tolerated’ and kept out of positions of power. “Major” deviations were personas non grata.
With events like Middle-Class Expansion, the Civil Rights Movement/Legislation, Women’s Liberation, Multi-Continental Globalization, and the Digital Technology Explosion, Diversity Doubled, and the Demographics Divided by multiple factors. As a result, there were much fewer “common denominators’ from which to Lead or others to Follow. It’s like when you add one-sixth, one-third, and one-half, it is easy to use “sixths” as your common denominator. When you have to add one thirty-sixth, one-eighteenth, one-ninth, one-sixth, one-fourth, one-third, and one-half, you MUST use thirty-sixths as your common denominator…much harder!
Since the United States is now made up of so many different immigrant groups (AND we totally ignored the impact of the indigenous “natives”), how do we account for the 20-25% difference of the American Nature/(Nurture) as compared to the “universal” Human Nature? Since I have never been able to satisfactorily answer the “Chicken or Egg” question for myself, I thought I might use an “egg” analogy to explain it (since I am too chicken to use a Chicken one).
I think that most Human Nature is “Over Easy” in that, people tend towards the ‘lazy’ side of life by opting for the “path of least resistance.” There is nothing wrong with “going with the flow” of sleeping ‘in,’ taking long lunches, napping in the afternoon, a thirty-five hour work week, four weeks’ vacation per year, socialistic welfare benefits or early retirement. The American “spirit” seems more like “Sunny Side Up.” It is much harder to NOT break the yolk when cracking the shell into the pan but oh, so worth it. That bright-yellow hemisphere shining back up at you seems symbolic of all the optimism of the “can do” anything America. Sure, one has to fiddle around to get that ‘slimy’ mucous cooked (without flipping it), but it is totally worth it as it displays so proudly on the plate.
Much of Human Nature has become “Hard-Boiled” by thousand-years of traditions and history which have resigned people to the realization that everyone is mostly ‘powerless’ to affect their world very much at all. Things are routine and boring in that there is only one way to eat that egg or live that life. American Nature is more “Soft-Boiled” in that entrepreneurs are always ready to ‘dip’ into any opportunity to make things better. Sure one has to idealistically slice some toast (to make it butter), carefully create just the right ‘opening’ at the top of the egg but the digging & dipping through that delicious ‘gooiness’ is just the kind of excitement that Americans crave.
Finally, Human Nature is usually a big mess just like “Scrambled Eggs.” Our thoughts, feelings and beliefs are one big mix of dissonance. That is true for each person (egg) so, imagine when multiple persons, groups or organizations are involved? The pile gets bigger but no easier separated. America is more like an “Omelet” (no longer a “melting pot”) in that all of the ingredients must blend/work together but remain distinct/distinguishable but each bite iso “yummy.” There are a tremendous number of options available alone or with infinite combinations. Americans have the energy required to cut, chop, mince and mix the ingredients into the omelet as well as the skill to flip it in order to get both sides perfectly ‘cooked.’
Is MAGA and “America First” the ultimate Frittata?