USA-UK: The Gnawing Consciousness Gap
As a French citizen, I used to lump together the UK and America in one homogenous group: the ANGLO-SAXON WORLD, bound together by a common language, English.
But in late 2008 my “wholesale” perspective on the seemingly homogenous “anglo-saxon world” began to shift: I began to gain discernement and see nuances.
In 2008, I was living in San Francisco when Jaideep Prabhu at Cambridge Judge Business School contacted me and invited me to join him in Cambridge to run the newly established The Centre for India and Global Business (CIGB).
The CIGB was set up to act as a bridge between India and UK and study disruptive management paradigms in leadership and innovation emerging from India that can be replicated in the West.
When I first learned about CIGB, I had a cognitive shock as I told myself:
“Wow, the former colonial ruler of India — the UK — has the intellectual humility and the genuine willingness to now learn best practices from its former colony !”
Impressed, I accepted Jaideep’s offer: I left the US and spent 2 years in Cambridge (2009–2011) to co-direct the CIGB.
Since those years, I’ve noticed something astounding: while the UK and America share the same language, they no longer share the same level of… consciousness.
Today I find UK-based universities, media, businesses, and think-tanks are endowed with a far-more developed social and ecological consciousness than their American counterparts.
I am impressed to see how the British policy-makers and CEOs have fully INTERNALIZED the fact that the UK is no longer the SUPER-POWER it was before.
The UK is now a MEDIUM POWER (in 2022, India overtook the UK as the 5th largest economy in the world).
The UK is happy to be a MEDIUM POWER as it knows that the size of the economy doesn’t matter: the UK can still punch way above its “economic weight” as it wields incredible diplomatic and intellectual influence worldwide.
The UK is demonstrating another kind of superpower, a cognitive superpower that I call HYPER-LUCIDITY.
Hyper-lucidity — or hyper-awareness — is the capacity to see REALITY (external and internal) as it is, rather than being delusional.
In contrast, I fear America is suffering from HYPER-OPACITY.
The US can’t see the DOMESTIC and GLOBAL REALITY clearly as it deludes itself as being the sole military and economic superpower on Earth — despite the rapid rise of China and BRICS.
The US has become a one-trick pony: it narrowly focuses all its vital energy on growing its GDP without worrying if all citizens benefit from its economic growth and without concern for the humongous natural resources required to sustain its big economy.
This lack of social and ecological consciousness may cost the US dearly in coming decade and hurt the performance of what it values the most: its ECONOMY.
In 2026, the US will celebrate its 250th anniversary, marking 250 years of its independence from British rule.
Let’s hope in the next 250 years, America would “grow up” and evolve into a Conscious Society.
