Compete and win, dominate and control - these values permeate every area of our lives, causing widespread anxiety and dissatisfaction. In an ideal world, we'd treat ourselves, others, and the world around us decently - valuing the needs of each as we strive for maximum happiness. In our present world, though, we're groomed to push for more, to be the best, to be a success, to win. Then, when this strategy for living falls short, we blame ourselves.
But beneath our personal unease is a more fundamental problem: We live in an indecent world.
Radical Decency confronts this deeply troubling reality. It explains why we urgently need to overcome and move beyond it; for our own well-being and for the future of the culture and planet. It then offers a pathway for creating a life affirming both our self and others via Decency's 7 Values: Respect, Understanding, Empathy, Acceptance, Appreciation, Fairness and Justice.
Nature has wired us to be creatures of habit - and we're deeply influenced by the environments we live in. Thus, to decisively diverge from our current problematic values, we need to systematically cultivating new habits. Otherwise, our old, habitual ways will, almost inevitably, overwhelm the small islands of decency we seek to create.
Accounting for this reality, Radical Decency challenges us to rewire our brains for decency, practicing it "radically;" not partially or sometimes, but in every situation and without exception.
To make this demanding change program a reality, we need guidance. Radical Decency does this, offering a detailed pathway for "going decent" in all areas - in our intimate relationships, our workplaces, our communities and political engagements, and in our deepest conversations with our selves. Demanding but realistic and do-able, it offers an inspiring, spirit-affirming roadmap that will empower readers to create more personally satisfying lives and, simultaneously, to contribute more effectively to a fairer, more just world.
Jeff Garson, a lawyer, psychotherapist and social activist, is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania Law School (magna cum laude) and the Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research.
A "big firm" attorney for 25 years, Jeff represented banks, investors, and business of all sizes. A business man since leaving the law in 2000, he has organized and led a multi-disciplinary healing center and, currently, the Decency Foundation; an organization dedicated to bringing Radical Decency to business.
Jeff's experience as a community activist is equally rich and varied, including leadership in the fight against police brutality in Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia, co-founding the National Constitution Center, and service trips to Haiti, Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.
And In his second career as a psychotherapist, he has supported countless clients as they've struggled to find their way in a world that relentlessly pushes them to compete and win - and to remorselessly judge themselves when they fall short.
Drawing on this life time of work, study, and exploration, Jeff is uniquely able to speak with authority about the overriding issue of our time: How to create a better life and world when, year by year, the culture's fiercely competitive, me-first values seem to reach, ever more deeply, into our lives.
