Rebuilding our Societal Immunity

The latest column from Tom Friedman in the New York Times – “America 2022: Where Everyone Has Rights and No One Has Responsibilities” – clarifies the difference between knowing your rights and what is right.

In examining the much discussed and heated societal debate about who is right in the Spotify, Joe Rogan, Neil Young feud, Tom asks the deeper, more philosophical, and more critical societal question: How is it that we have morphed into a country where people claim endless “rights” while fewer and fewer believe they have any “responsibilities?”

I shared with Tom my thoughts on what we need to do to rebuild what can be called our societal immunity.

Societal immunity is the capacity for people to come together, do hard things and look out for one another in the face of existential threats, like a pandemic, or serious challenges to the cornerstones of their political and economic systems, like the legitimacy of elections or peaceful transfer of power.

Societal immunity is a function of trust. When trust in institutions, leaders and each other is high, people — in a crisis — are more willing to sublimate their cherished rights and demonstrate their sense of shared responsibilities toward others, even others they disagree with on important issues and even if it means making sacrifices.

Rebuilding societal immunity, of course, requires frameworks and models for understanding how the world is working and ought to work, the imperatives for leaders and institutions in that world, and how we can embrace our individual and collective responsibilities to each other, our communities, and the broader world.

Creating those moral frameworks is at the heart of my work of The HOW Institute for Society, the global nonprofit organization I founded to build and nurture a culture of moral leadership, principled decision-making, and values-based behavior that enables individuals and institutions to meet the profound social, economic, and technological changes of the 21st Century.

The HOW Institute for Society is committed to building a world that is rooted in deep, human values and noble ideals. We are animated by an in-depth knowledge of moral philosophy, experience applying philosophical reasoning to modern problems, and a belief in the urgent imperative of HOW.

Why this mission and approach?

The world is being reshaped faster than we have yet been able to reshape our institutions, our leadership and ourselves. We believe a future that includes dynamic capitalism, vibrant democracy, healthy communities and free societies depends on the rise of moral leadership and values-inspired behavior. Today, HOW we do what we do matters more than ever and in ways it never has before.

I hope you would agree, and if so, join The HOW Institute as we make a wave of moral leadership and strive to rebuild societal immunity. Please visit our website to learn how you can get involved and be a part of our vibrant community. The HOW Institute for Society | Moral Leadership