August/September 2003

The Progressive Story of America
Bill Moyers

Democratic Leadership Council Sows Division
Robert Borosage

21st Century Communication Plus Whole-Hearted Support Can Help Create A Strong Candidate
Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD

Dennis Kucininch's Grassroots Presidential Campaign Builds Momentum

The Politics of Heroin
Derrick Jensen

Deflation and the "D" Word
Doug Dowd

Radical Healing Through the Conscious Practice of Ayurveda
Myrica Morningstar

Interview With Ram Dass
John Darling

An Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium
Alan Sasha Lithman

On Thawing and the Energy Cycle
Peter Moore, MFCC, CGP

New Warriors
John Darling

Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain

BACK TO TOP

21st Century Communication Plus Whole-Hearted Support Can Help Create a Strong Candidate

By Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD

Chances are that you will hear about Dennis Kucinich, Democratic candidate for President, from someone you know who has heard him speak. Imagine having someone run for president who is intelligent, principled, spiritual, courageous, a person with depth, humor and compas-sion! And, your friend will comment, “You’ll really like what he stands for!” All true. Chances are that you then may hear yourself parroting the voice of conventional wisdom: “Yes, but how could Kucinich possibly win?” One of the “Yes, but …” discouraged comments I even got from one of my friends was, “He is a wonderful man but he will not be president, he is too short and too radical.”

Listen up! This article is about how twenty-first century communication plus whole-hearted, altruistic support makes it possible for Dennis Kucinich to become the Democratic candidate who beats Bush. This potential is a mathematical reality based on the social dynamics of reaching a critical mass. As unlikely as it may seem at first glance, Kucinich can be elected. The ideas that support this possibility are drawn from The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell; The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World, by Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, and my own The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World, inspired by the Hundredth Monkey story and Rupert Sheldrake’s theory in A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance which sustained the anti-nuclear activists when conventional wisdom said that mere citizens could not stop the superpowers from their inevitable destructive course. The success of the women’s movement and the end of the nuclear arms race between the United States and Russia are examples of how ideas that initially were resisted and thought to be impossible became reality.

John F. Kennedy was the first president elected with the help of television coverage, Dennis Kucinich can be the first president elected with the help of websites and emails. In the last presidential election, 106 million of the 156 million registered voters actually voted. There are probably only two or three degrees of separation between those of us who have or will respond positively to Kucinich early in this election and the number of people needed to win the Democratic nomination, which is the first task.

The largest identifiable group that holds the similar views as Kucinich is the fifty million Cultural Creatives, sixty percent of whom are women. According to the data and research, we are Americans who care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, self-expression, and spirituality. We are both inner directed and socially concerned. We are optimistic, altruistic and idealistic, and believe in gender equality and reproductive choice. Especially relevant in a political campaign, we are volunteers, activists, and contributors to good causes. Neither those of us who fit into this category nor political strategists realize that in numbers and in influence that we have the potential to shape 21st century America by our active, whole-hearted support of Dennis Kucinich. (A second category of voters who respond to Dennis Kucinich as one of their own are working class people. This is a whole other constituency that trusts him to do right by them.)

Word of mouth epidemics follow the same geometric progression as the epidemiology of AIDS or SARS. A virus or an idea held at first by a few, spreads rapidly to many, and reaches a critical mass or “tipping point” and becomes an epidemic. This is how Dennis Kucinich as the least known candidate and without millions of his own or from special interests, could get his message out and be elected.

The most famous example of a word-of-mouth epidemic was Paul Revere’s famous Midnight ride. On April 18, 1775, Revere and others in Boston became convinced that the British invasion was set for the next day. At 10 PM, he jumped on his horse and rode to Lexington, stopping in every town along the way to pass the word. The news spread like wildfire—or like a contagion—as those alerted by Paul Revere sent out riders with the message and roused their communities by ringing the church bells. The next morning when the British began their march toward Lexington, the region was prepared. In Concord, they were soundly defeated. The American Revolution had begun.

There were actually two midnight riders that night. Paul Revere took the message northwest of Boston, while William Dawes took it to the southwest. Both men carried the same message, rode through just as many towns and over as many miles, but Dawes’ ride had little effect. In Gladwell’s analysis—which is very relevant for a word of mouth campaign, it was because of the difference between the two men. People whose words are believed are not distinguished by worldly status and achievement, but by the particular standing they have among their friends and in Revere’s case in the number of people who knew him as well. The people who can mobilize a word of mouth epidemic are known and trusted. They are information gatherers, connectors, persuaders, innovators or early adopters. If you are reading this, you are likely to be such a person.

I heard about Dennis Kucinich from Gina Thompson, an old friend who called me up and said that after she heard Dennis speak, she became involved in a political campaign for the first time in her life. She and John, her registered Republican husband hosted a fund-raising, meet-the-candidate event at their house, which provided the opportunity for me to hear him speak publicly as well as talk to him informally. To my amazement, I found that he had read The Tao of Psychology. Three weeks later, I along with Jack Kornfield and Sylvia Boorstein, (both founders of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and authors) joined him on stage as he spoke on “Repair the American Dream: Reclaim Conscience in U.S. Politics.” The large church sanctuary in which he spoke was literally full to the rafters; even the choir loft had standing room only. They had come via word-of-mouth through emails and the Internet or after hearing Kris Welch interview Joanna Macy about her support for Kucinich on KPFA. Word of mouth is information generated and passed on because it’s good news that people want to share. This is how we learn about restaurants, movies, or books, (rarely about someone running for office) from people we trust to have discrimination, who care enough to pass the good word along. Dennis Kucinich, a candidate who is for real, is good news.

However, the rational mind may need numbers and examples to be convinced that Kucinich can be elected. Recall how the AIDS virus could spread from its small pool of infected people in Africa to reach the critical mass and become a worldwide epidemic. Viruses and ideas can spread by geometric progression; this is how a critical mass is reached. If each time a message is communicated, the number of people who get the message and then pass it on were to double, the numbers multiply astronomi-cally. In The Tipping Point, the mind-boggling example begins with the idea of folding and then refolding a piece of paper, until the paper has been refolded fifty times. If this were possible to do, the stack would reach from here to the sun and if you could fold it one more time, it would reach back to the Earth.

Morphic resonance and the hundredth monkey or the millionth circle also depends upon critical mass to bring about change. Sheldrake’s human morphic field and C.G. Jung’s collective unconscious are the same. This means that when a critical number of people change their perceptions and behavior, it becomes a new choice or pattern in the collective psyche, which each of us can contribute to or draw from. The Hundredth Monkey in the allegorical story was the monkey who, upon learning a new behavior, tipped the scales, so that monkeys who were not even in direct communication now changed what they did. When a critical mass is reached, in this theory, new attitudes and behavior will spread through the species unconsciously. This can either be deducted through researched examples or grasped intuitively.

Dennis Kucinich can win when a critical number of people support his candidacy whole-heartedly. Lukewarm support for another Democratic candidate will not beat Bush. Whole-hearted support generates a commitment that is contagious to others. Go to www.kucinich.us to learn about him, read his speeches, and check out what he stands for and the largeness of his vision for America and for America’s participation in a global community. Once you are convinced, commit yourself and providence will move, too.
Name recognition that comes first through word-of-mouth is a wonderful beginning. With the Internet, ordinary people’s contributions made to the Kucinich website will grow by geometrical pro-gression, so that when money is really needed, it will be there. Roughly, this far ahead of the election, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were little known governors from small southern states. Dennis Kucinich now occupies a dark horse position. He is a Congressman from Ohio, who is not yet considered in the running by the media. Meanwhile, below the CNN and Fox News radar, the word is getting out—Dennis Kucinich is for real and he can be elected.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst in private practice, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California Medical Center, and an internationally known lecturer. She is the author of Goddesses in Older Women; The Millionth Circle; The Tao of Psychology; Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman; Ring of Power; Crossing to Avalon and Close to the Bone. www.jeanbolen.org.