Get together to get it together

Beginning with, or least powerfully augmented by, the Bush administrations deliberate frightening of America (Time magazine's cover headline: Be Very Afraid! and the degree of fear calibrated yellow and orange), the culture, normally a style Three on the Enneagram is showing some signs of a slide to side Six.

With style six comes explicit fear and a distrust of authority (11% congressional approval).

What is encouraging in the underbrush however, is how often the purveyors of bad news who are just warning us based on data tell us that the best way we can survive the coming hard times is in community.

When the US was more confident, the cultural ideal was "independently wealthy." But if the planet is overheating and government is corrupt, lots of luck with that strategy. The strategy most often suggested is "grassroots" and "local initiative" and "shared burdens" -- the high side of style six. Sixes are the most loyal and most communal of all the styles. Strength in numbers and all that.

So if you read or watch the news, and are getting frightened, do what healthy sixes do: form community.

When I was editor of the Enneagram Educator, I was working for the National Catholic Reporter, so I had a lot of subscribers who were sisters. I did a survey and 40% of those women who live in and love community were Sixes. Figures.