In a time of monsters: choose your focus wisely
Explore the Gramsci Gap as a way to understand the transformative times we’re living in. It reveals insights on navigating societal change, letting go of outdated systems, and choosing conscious creation over fear. And use the reflection prompts and grounding practice to stay centred, purposeful, focused and creative amidst disruption.
2/6/20252 min read
In this time of monsters, it’s easy—too easy, to focus on them, whether they are human monsters or systemic monsters as Venkatesh Rao indicates. But it's a trap. It’s tempting to point to those we don’t like, their actions and impacts, and label them monsters. But that lets us off the hook. It excuses our own monsters—our fears, our reactions, our complicity in old systems that no longer serve. It's also a distraction. Fixating on what’s wrong, who’s to blame and what we don't agree with keeps us as stuck as bemoaning what was.
What is harder, yet more important, is staying grounded and centered while focusing on what we want to create. (If you're reading this, you are a creator. Who you are being and how you show up are contributing to what comes next.)
I believe this year, more than most, will set the stage for what’s to come. So the more of us who choose love, hope, peace, joy and wholeness, the greater our chances of creating something truly new—something that emerges from a different place of individual and collective being and that better serves the larger wholes.
Joanna Macy calls this time the “Great Turning,” in which we have a dual role. She suggests that we need to be both hospice workers of the old and midwives of the new. Some of us may need to do both at once. Some of us may be able to focus solely on one role. Some of us will be the bridgers, enabling others to shift and transition between old and new. How exactly we do this will vary, as there are many micro and macro aspects to this transformation—some evolutionary, some involutionary, and some revolutionary.
If you're feeling the call to shift gears, this is likely why.
This is a potent time.
Tune into what you are being called to.
Reflection questions
Where are you placing your attention now? On the old, on the new, in reaction, or on transitioning? And where does it need to be?
How are you holding space for what needs to die and be let go of?
How are you ensuring you spend time in wonder, awe, inspiration and joy?
How are you carving out time for creating, incubating, gestating and/or birthing what wants to emerge through you?
How are you being called to show up in this time of shift? What would change if you could show up that way more often?
A practice for the week
Notice when you feel drawn into fear, frustration, reaction or resistance. Instead of engaging in the drama, pause. Ask: What am I here to transform or create? What is the highest state of being I can bring into this moment? Then take inspired action with that awareness and from that state of being as best you can.
We are living in powerfully, and at times painfully, transformative times.
Venkatesh Rao's diagram of the Gramsci Gap brilliantly synthesises where I believe we are at this moment in history. You can read more on Venkatesh Rao's musing on the Gramsci Gap, which I highly recommend for systems thinkers and changemakers. (It is also the source of the image.)
Notice where your focus lingers in that image. What does that tell you?