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Here's the point of my last blog entry: Whether you favor or oppose an Islamic Cultural Center being built in the vicinity of Ground Zero, both perspectives contain valid wisdom regarding an extremely emotional issue. Each perspective merely believes that it would be more helpful to honor certain chunks of wisdom about this complex issue over other pieces of wisdom.

I see our society as having deteriorated so severely that far too many of us dismiss wholesale the opposite perspective to ours. We do this not only by claiming that it has no merits or redeeming value whatsoever, but by committing character assassination on those who hold that opposite perspective. I have written over and over again in here this IntegrityWatch blog, and on my Facebook Wall about why this attitude is not merely inaccurate; it's profoundly damaging.

In light of my now reiterating that point once again, please understand this loud and clear: I don't need to be right about my perspective regarding the Islamic Cultural Center! Having passion about my perspective does not in any way block me from being teachable. What I want, and what I believe our society desperately needs, is to restore civil discourse around issues like these.

Why? So more and more of us can come to appreciate the true wisdom embedded in each others' perspectives. Because finding THIS is what opens the door to co-creating solutions that are far better than the ones EITHER side is capable of coming up with on their own!

This fundamental humility is what synergy (otherwise known as collaborative problem-solving) is all about. Synergy is the only sustainable problem-solving strategy that exists. Neither of the other two problem-solving strategies (coercion and compromise) are capable of taking us where we need to go.

I invite you to engage with me, and one another, on this level regarding the Islamic Cultural Center issue, and all of the other complex and challenging issues we face as a society today. THIS is the REAL point of my last blog post and the ensuing dialogue that occured on my Facebook Wall! NOT whether or not my perspective is "right."

Being unteachable creates susceptibility to arrogance & fanaticism. Teachability without discernment creates susceptibility to manipulation by propaganda. Teachability plus discernment is the golden path to co-creation and sustainable problem solving.

For more about synergy, compromise and coercion, read the Problem-Solving portion of the Hijacking section on this website.