"Dinner Table Democracy"
That ELEPHANT is breathing up all the oxygen in the room. Can we talk about autocracy? It's also a parenting style.
It’s a big week. After a super functional and yummy family brunch, Mother’s Day was a big one for mom and me. On Monday, The Winning Family audiobook went on sale! I’ve edited our hour long celebration into 20 minutes of exciting information. Would you please do me the honor of watching it on YouTube, where you can add links of interest right to your calendar?
Now that the launch has begun, I’m rarin’ to go… next thing up is not really launch related but I’m pretty psyched for the panel I’m moderating this Sunday on Zoom. I hope you can come! We can all Write to Resist!
Next weekend things will really take off when we discuss
Americans are learning a very difficult lesson right now, and ready to better understand the dynamics that have brought us to the brink. Destruction is something families experience often in this country—when people get hurt, can’t agree, and treat each other disrespectfully. When we see politicians using power tactics that echo their upbringings, we need to remember that parents hold the key to teach and practice prevention and peace building skills alike.
In their parenting classic, The Winning Family: Where No One Has to Lose, Authors Kristen Caven and Louise Hart teach some key principles of positive parenting that are also true on the macro level:
👉 When needs are met, fewer problems arise
👉 Peace is a process, and
👉 What you focus on expands
In their book and classes, this mother-daughter team teaches the principles of positive parenting, which helped influence the field of Positive Psychology, the core principle of which is: expanding positive emotion expands wellness, resources and opportunities.
The Winning Family was originally published in 1987, and brought community psychologist Dr. Louise Hart to international audiences to teach harm prevention through building self-esteem in families. Louise is an elder now, and her daughter and co-author Kristen Caven has revised her book for the next generation. This month it became available as an audiobook, and her class for parents is forthcoming at www.upliftprograms.com
Caven, who attended St. Johns College and graduated from Mills College with a degree in Myth and the Western Mind, will be in conversation with Steve Zolno, a social sciences graduate of Shimer College who holds an M.A. in Educational Psychology and works as a Management and Educational Consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zolno is the author of eight books including The Future of Democracy, and has been leading groups about democracy for twenty years. Explore his work on building a good society at thefutureofdemocracy.net.
Register today - event is free
Add to Calendar - https://tinyurl.com/dtd525
I blurbed Steve’s book a few years back and here’s what I said:
“Steve Zolno has served up some nutritious food for thought with The Future of Democracy. His wide-angle look at democracy’s past and present in countries all over the world helps us tease out what democracy really means now and for the future. People who sense that the political discourse is “off” or that we have lost connection with our guiding principles should read this book—and they should read it together.” —Kristen Caven, co-author of The Bullying Antidote
This is a really serious conversation that we need to have. The fear-spread confusion in America over “wokeness” in education has enabled the election of a regime that is rolling back free speech and other human rights, willing to overturn the constitution and even the Magna Carta. Where is all this heading? And how do we protect our kids? What do we want from them?
We’ll focus, in this co-interview, on Chapter 14 of The Winning Family, “Parenting Leadership Styles,” which breaks things down to some pretty simple concepts. Then we can talk about what’s harder: Democracy or Autocracy? We need to talk about how parents can untangle self-esteem from narcissism, hurt feelings and fear from hurting others, and controlling them. All of these things are family issues. All of these things are human issues. It’s not just autocracy, it’s abuse. Americans are getting abused. Americans are abusing other Americans. Domestic terrorism is domestic violence.
Fortunately, we know how to prevent child abuse. It was mom’s life work. Here’s a big question: will solutions to prevent child abuse also prevent Fascism?
When a child has a tantrum, you give them space and hold your energy of calm around them, to help stabilize them neurologically/energetically. Should we treat politicians differently? In either case, participants in this event will build that muscle.
Hope to see you there!
I’m gonna wrap this up by spreading the word about Election Truth Alliance. They are seeing patterns that don’t make sense, and trying to verify the vote in certain suspicious looking races. The elephants in the room are always trumpeting about voter fraud…but let’s get the actual data before it’s too late.
Does Zolnos have Zorgos?