Reverence Principle in Online Communication
Description
Charles Eisenstein:
"To maintain reverence means noticing habits of polarization and judgment that arise in the presence of difficult information or difficult emotions. Even a community conceived as a sanctuary will inevitably mirror the divisions and conflicts of the outside world. The answer is not to avoid them or to plow them over with positivity. Rather, the community can hold them in a non-ordinary way.
Specifically, that means that we help each other
- to express anger without diverting it onto hate
- to hold grief without diverting it onto despair
- to share compassion without diverting it onto pity
- to interpret each other's words generously
- to let go of being right and seeming smart
- to value each person’s unique window on the world
- to be willing to see each other fully, shadow and gold
- to be willing to be truly seen ourselves
Challenging material is sure to come up in any community once it progresses past initial politeness. If we can hold reverence through that process in one community, which mirrors some of the divisions and conflicts of the larger world, then there is a chance for the world to move toward peace as well. To the extent we succeed in holding reverence, we establish a precedent and prefigure a possibility. Here is a chance to cultivate the skills of holding each other through that process." (https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/we-can-do-better-than-this/)