Got a problem accepting the results of the 2024 November 5 election?

To learn more about the VisionCircles methodology and the OSCAR method click here or visit our Bookstore.

One of the aims of the OSCAR method is to develop the mental habit of thinking about our thinking, our emotions and behaviors as they are responding to events in our world. In the first step of observing we are using our common-sense like everyone to speak to ourselves about our responses to the 2024 November 5 election.  If we are really upset, we ask ourselves, “Why am I cursing at the TV?”, “Why am I telling myself to calm down?” or “Why am I so worried about what I am about to say about the 2024 November 5 election?”.

Why-questions about my own thinking, emotions, feelings and behaviors and/or those of my fellow citizens prompt me to step back and to use my critical common-sense to examine what I am saying to myself about myself and/or other people.   In the second stage of the OSCAR framework, I am sorting and labeling my emotions, thinking, feelings, behaviors, assumptions, expectations, and what and who I am valuing that are embedded in my self-talk. To examine implies that I am going step back to use my critical common sense to take a measure of my assumptions and expectations underlying my emotions and behaviors to see if they are in tune with truths that are self-evident to me. For example, it is evident to me that I cannot expect pleasant emotions, if I am not thinking clearly and logically.

If I am experiencing an upsetting emotion, my common-sense that is made up of the intuitive activities of my mind-body-spirit is telling me that there is disorder within my internal world or external world.  I intuitively know that when my mind-body- spirits are in harmony I feel good. If I am not feeling good, my critical common-sense counsels me to step back and to examine what I am saying to myself.

The mental habit of self-reflection means that I am responding with my critical common- sense to my upsetting emotions. I tell myself to sort out and to critically examine all my responses to track down the internal and external contradictions causing the mental noise that I am experiencing.

On the one hand, I am the kind of being that clearly knows that mental contradictions do not make rational sense and that clearly knows that I ought to love what is good for me. On the other hand, I am a limited and inattentive being. Sometimes I am not aware that I am speaking to myself in contradictory ways.  Sometimes I am not clear about what is good for me in specific situations.

If I want to feel good, I need: 1. to stay attuned to the rhythms of my mind-body-spirit; 2. to learn from my culture general principles that intuitively ring true to my critical common- sense; 3. to discover and understand for myself what specific actions are true and good for me in my situation. 

My critical common-sense tells me that culture is my activity of dialoguing with the best mental products of the human mind that speak about our internal and external world. Common-sense tells me that humans of all cultures provide me with a huge reservoir and resource of life-giving ideas that can enrich my mind. Like all reservoirs we need to keep an eye on all the contributors to make sure that none of them is polluting the universal reservoir of human knowledge from which we learn and to which we contribute new understandings.

I know that it takes time to know my own mind-body-spirit.  My time is simply the activities of my mind-body-spirit working in harmony to make rationally clear to myself my felt intuitions about what and who are important to me.  In the activity of sorting out my self-talk about my internal and external worlds, I am getting rid of the errors in my thinking behind my negative emotions and self-destructive behaviors by being attentive to truths that are self-evident to me. My restored psyche that is in tune with my mind-body-spirit can all work together in my self-talk to create personal ideas to speak clearly to myself about who and what that I feel are most important to me.

In the third stage of the OSCAR framework, I am ready to examine the results of the 2024 November 5 election results in the light of my corrected observations and in the light of who and what I value most.  Armed with a clear vision of the meaning of what I am doing when I vote, I am ready to create practical ways of responding as a person and as a citizen to the results of the 2024 November 5 election.

In the last two stages of the OSCAR method I will put into action practical ideas that I discovered in my self-dialogue to resolve the problem that has been upsetting me. After I act, I will review the results of my action.  If I do not get the results that I expected, I will revise my plan with better practical ideas.

The following is a self-dialogue about accepting the results of the 2024 November 5 election.  Although the self-dialogue does not follow the OSCAR method step by step, all the elements of observing, of labeling negative emotions and behaviors, of correcting irrational thinking, of valuing who and what are important,  of distinguishing the presenting problem from the fundamental problem, of analyzing the fundamental problem in the light of what and who we are valuing, of creating practical ways to actualize what we value, of putting into action our practical ideas and of reviewing the results of our thoughtful plan are in the self-dialogue below.

It is better to use the words, the OSCAR method, to show the progression of thought in creative thinking.  However, in practicing the OSCAR method, it is better to use the words, the OSCAR framework, because we need an elastic term to accommodate the intuition and spontaneity of creative thinking.  For example, the following self-dialogue uses the pronouns I and we, because we intuitively know that there is no dialogue without a speaker and a listener. Although we intuitively know that we are the kind of beings that are never alone, nevertheless, we can falsely believe that we are alienated from ourselves, each other and the universe.

Let’s listen to the following self-dialogue that probably will partially or wholly resonate with you.

I picture the common-sense meaning of the word, problem, as an obstacle in my way, or a gap that prevents me from going from here to there or an opposite force preventing me from moving forward. The obstacle can be mental or physical or both. But I can speak to myself in different ways about how I am picturing the obstacle, the gap and/or the opposing force.  Suppose I tell myself to look at the situation from a different angle.   As I move my thinking and body around the object, I see possibilities that can close the gap or that can overcome the opposing force. I begin to welcome the problem as a challenge to create a solution.

The emotional bipolar response to the last three elections on the part of democrats and republicans tells me that it’s time for all of us to take a long hard look at our common faith in The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.

How many times have we turned around a tool or a gadget in our hands to figure out how to use it?  If we turn our minds around our common faith by telling ourselves to take a second look at the assumptions and expectations that we took for granted about our common faith in The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, we might not be so surprised about the “problems” that some citizens are experiencing about the results of the 2024 election of November 5.

Taking a second look at what happened is another way to say we are monitoring our thinking about our beliefs about the way that we are functioning in everyday life.  If a business deal didn’t turn out the way that I expected, I ask myself, “What went wrong?  What was I thinking?”.  By asking these questions I am starting the process of monitoring my thinking after the fact.  To make sure I’m successful the next time, I need to take a closer look at the assumptions and the expectations behind my failed actions.

The activity of looking at my experiences in the light of my self-talk powered by the feelings of what is important to me presents me with the challenge to speak clearly to myself about what and who I hold in high esteem. In the activity of reflecting on what is important to me, I see clearly that I am a valuing person who is lining up from top to bottom who and what I hold in high esteem.

It is evident to me that I am a thinking, loving, valuing and acting being all the time. I am not like a machine.   I cannot stop living and make believe that I have static parts like a car that are out of order. Sometimes I think that I can fix myself by repairing the defective parts and by putting them back in order. Then I just have to push the starter button to resume living a smooth life. It is evident to me that I am not a machine, so stop thinking that way.

The election of November 5 is an occasion to monitor our thinking to develop an insight into my attitudes and the attitudes of the electorate regarding our common faith that seems to be more felt than spoken in public.

If I step back to look at the emotions that I am feeling about an event that did not go my way, they will trigger my self-talk about why it was so important to me to experience the consequences that I had expected.  Was it the money that was important? Was it my ego that was important? Was it just the pleasure of seeing things work out just as I expected? Was it the positive consequences for other people that were so important to me?

From the get-go, was I in tune with the order of what and who I value most in life before I voted on November 5, 2024?On November 5 or before did I pay attention to whom and what I was thinking about, loving and valuing when I was filling out my ballot?

The kind of emotions and the intensity of the emotions stimulated by the results of the election will give us a clue about the line-up of who and what are most important to us.  The line-ups could be: 1. God, I, spouse, family, friends, career, country; 2. ego, power, money, career, family, friends, country; 3.making a new world (without pain, inequalities and limitations), political power, community, freedom from oppression, or 4. one of many other line-ups.

If I am clear about the order of whom and what I value, I am ready to commit myself to transform the beliefs of our common faith into action.  I will define myself by what I do. Our fellow citizens will define themselves for us by acting according to their commitment to the beliefs of our common faith in The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. We will tell others who we are in our words, and we will tell others what we are in our actions.  It makes no sense to be told who we are and what we are by the social scientists, if we are free creating beings created by God.  It is time for me to stop the nonsense talk of labeling citizens right, left, radicalized, and on and on. I can label things and behaviors but I ought not label persons.

My common-sense tells me that my beliefs about what and who are most important to me can be true or false. Critical common-sense tells me: 1. that truth means speaking about the way that I exist, the way that persons exist and the way that things exist: 2. that there is a difference between the way things are, and the way they appear to me: 3. that there is difference between the way I and persons exist and the ways that I perceive myself and the way that I perceive persons to be: and4. that I better stay intuitively, intellectually and physically in tune with the person I am, if I want to avoid deceiving myself with false images about myself, about other persons and the world.

Can I be a hundred percent sure that I totally and accurately capture in my logical answers the truth about the way that I exist? Critical common-sense tells us that the answer is no. Our common faith means that I believe that I may understand and that I hope that I will love and be loved eternally by the loving and merciful Creator.

If my emotional responses to the election are propelling me into a state of euphoria or sinking me in a swamp of depression, I better ask myself if I know that my beliefs are true, if I can clearly tell myself what my line-up of priorities is about who and what are important to me, and if I can give myself convincing reasons why I believe that my line-up is true.

Both political parties claim to be the standard bearers of “American values”.  Is the criterion for knowing and confirming “American values” the positive or negative emotions stimulated by election outcomes that please one party and not the other?   It makes more sense to check out our emotions against the American common faith in the beliefs of The Declaration of Independence and the American principles of self-governance of The Constitution than against the blank, senseless label, evolving “American values”. I love the country of America because I value and I believe all citizens value the truth of our common faith in the self-evident principles of self-governance.

What is the criterion for committing myself to the American common faith and for accepting the self-evident principles of self-governance? I am the one speaking to myself about the way that I exist. My line-up of priorities of what and who are important to me will be in tune or out of tune with the intuitive sense of the way that I am experiencing my own existence in my self-talk. In my self-reflective speech with other human beings, I am one spirit-mind-body working with fellow citizens to accomplish our ideals. I believe that I have good reasons to believe that The American common faith and the American principles of self-governance are in tune with who I am as a creating and created being and with my line-up of who and what are important to me.

The creators of our founding documents and the thirteen states, after long rational deliberations, committed themselves to proposition that all humans are created free and equal by God.  Elections are moments when citizens express their commitment to the country’s enduring common faith that inspires human scientific thought to achieve a more economic, social and political unity.

When Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in the 1952 and 1956 elections, the country did not go up and down like an emotional yoyo.  It seems that the emotional responses to the last few elections indicate a challenge to understand our rational common faith. Maybe the reason for our lack of understanding is that our institutions of education are not in tune with The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.  Maybe people that express emotional distressover the election outcomes want the country and The Constitution to evolve without The Declaration of Independence and the theistic-spiritual-scientific attitude that inspires them.

Instead of waving the flag of American values, I better check out if I am in tune with myself in all my personal actions, if we are in tune with the beliefs and principles of our founding documents in all our social and civic actions and if the members of the democrat and republican parties are in tune with themselves and The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution in all their political actions.

If we want to function well behaviorally and emotionally, common-sense tells us to think before we act.If we want to live creatively, productively and justly with each other, critical common-sense tells us to submit our beliefs about what we are, who we are and what the world is to our self-reflective speech to see if our beliefs are in tune with our intuitive sense of the way that we exist.

If Americans work at understanding our common faith in the beliefs and principles of our founding documents, prudence and justice tell us to keep our foot on the gas pedal of thinking about and valuing our rational common faith so that we may understand it better to speak about it in a practical way in public.

Critical common sense tells us that there exists within the citizenry a diametrically opposing faith that wants to fundamentally transform America into a country inspired by a faith in atheistic materialism.  If the believers of the many sects of atheistic materialism had worked at understanding their faith, they would not have experienced a volatile mixture of depression and anger after the election results.

If believers of both faiths are challenged in public to present a rational understanding of their beliefs, we would stop the nonsense talk about left and right, about the left being crazy, about the right being immoral, about free-creative-created-beings being radicalized and on and on.  In our present situation the atheistic-materialistic-militant faith infiltrating our institutions excludes believers in God and speech about God within its ranks.  Butthe theistic-spiritual-scientific attitude of America’s common faith includes believers and non-believersand their speech about God.

Because the atheistic progressive philosophy is political and educational activism, the atheistic humanists that want to fundamentally transform our founding documents have control of our educational and political language.

Maybe we are taking for granted our common faith in our political, civic and social discourse.  Ourmistrust in our institutions that was widespread before the November 5 electionwarns to speak about, know and live our common faith in all our institutions. Why? An opposing faith is being practiced in our educational, judicial, political, law enforcement, military and media institutions under the guise of progressive programs such as DEI.

The opposing faith must be articulated in public and confronted.  It seems that we are more concerned about etiquette, appropriateness, acceptability, and on and on than knowing and understanding our common faith and knowing the beliefs of the atheistic-materialistic faith that is attempting to eradicate it. The level of discourse needs to be jacked up a notch to that of critical common-sense and of communal self-reflective speech and of confrontation about our common faith in the spirit of genuinely caring for each other including those politically depressed and angry. Otherwise in the next election those experiencing euphoria might end up in the swamps of depression.

To learn more about the VisionCircles methodology and the OSCAR method click here or visit our Bookstore.