Radical Decency

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.

Radical Decency offers a detailed roadmap for being decent with family and friends, at work, in the public arena and, importantly, in how we treat our self. And when we fall short, it invites us — without judgment or recrimination – to recommit to our decency practice: Learning from our lapses; stretching toward new and better choices.

Decency at all times is impossible. But it's the right thing to do. And the hopeful corollary is that if we stay the course in its Radical application, it will transform us; offering the surest path to a more nourishing and generative life. 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.

Author Bio:

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 businesses 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.

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 lifetime 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.