On September 11, 1906, in response to a new law in South Africa that required all Indians, Arabs, and Turks to register with the government, Mohandas Gandhi called for a mass meeting of civil disobedience and resistance. Among the 3,000 people listening to the discussion of strategies was a Muslim man, who shouted out in the middle of the discussion, “With God as my witness, I will not submit to this cowardly law.” This oath to God in the name of nonviolent resistance had a great influence on Gandhi; that afternoon Satyagraha (the insistence on truth under any circumstance) and the Nonviolence movement were born.

Not many people know about this other 9/11 and the nonviolent movement based on truth and religious duty that was inspired by a Muslim man. However, as our Global Awakin Call guest, Simon Cohen, pointed out, when history is presented in an interesting way to the mainstream media, we can provide them with an inspiring, newsworthy, and alternative way to cover tragedies. Instead of utilizing shock and awe tactics, such as the constant replay of the planes crashing into the twin towers, how can mainstream media drive listeners, readers, and viewers by deepening our compassion instead of heightening unnecessary  fear?

Simon is the founder of Global Tolerance, an international communications agency that generates positive media coverage of solutions to some of society’s most pressing problems. He has won numerous awards, including “Most Influential People in the UK PR Industry”, and has consulted for the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, among many others.

“I’m really interested in how stories can be reframed to inspire us and lift us up and how the media can be a catalyst and an enabler for deepening human relationships rather than dehumanizing them. Instead of pandering to our needs of personal security and safety, what if the media can communicate in a way that speaks to our deep rooted need to be compassionate towards each other?”

Global Tolerance works through inspirational marketing rather than “aspirational” marketing, so rather than motivating people to think and act through a perpetual cycle of unfulfilled desires and fears, Simon asks how the media and communications can focus on our soft-wired desire to help, be useful, and serve the common good. Part of their strategic communications approach is by building tolerance, which they hold as the minimum standard of performance and a necessary foundation on which to build respect, understanding, and dialogue.

“Tolerance is a human right because it’s not just about us having different beliefs from each other, but respecting the right for each of us to hold and nurture different beliefs. It’s easy to find someone that will agree with me and reinforce what I believe in, but divergence is where the magic happens. Divergence is where seemingly juxtaposing forces come together and in that spark in the middle, that is where the magic happens and that is where tolerance is most necessary.”

As part of the “Sharing Wisdom: The Case for Love and Forgiveness” summit at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, his Holiness the Dalai Lama commissioned Global Tolerance to inspire an interesting twist in the gathering. Through their worldwide media strategy, what could have been a purely academic discussion about religious traditions was transformed into a global news story about love and forgiveness.



In contrast to this positive approach, Simon explained how for over 60 years, mainstream media, marketing, and advertising have based their communication strategy on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where things like personal safety and security come first, before self-actualization, which includes morality, creativity, and acceptance.

Through this strategy, mainstream media focuses on stories that threaten our security, sensationalizing the negative and causing the viewer, listener, and reader to feel cynical and focus on their self preservation instead of communal oneness. One way mainstream media accomplishes this by hiding behind a “shroud of objectivity” in their presentation of the news, when in fact, journalists become subjective in their commentary.

“Subjectivity is not the problem. The problem arises when the subjectivity is presented as news. One of the issues we face is this increasingly blurred line between news and editorial, between the objective presentation of fact versus the subjective commentary and ego of respected journalists. The bias is fine, but in terms of how that bias is manifested, especially with the desire to present violence, that is when the problem arises.”

In advertising, Simon refers to this strategic pandering to the needs on the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy as “seatbelt advertising”. In the UK, most of the seatbelt advertising ends up with an aftermath of a crash, with bodies on the floor, and a message at the end, “please wear your seatbelt”. This type of advertising suggests that the best way to motivate human beings is by suggesting that our personal security is in danger, as opposed to the idea that humans can be motivated by love and compassion. “These advertisements are overly simplistic and don’t live up the beauty and complexity of the world that I see and experience.” There are other, positive ways to motivate people. As an example, check out this advertisement about embracing life.

What is empowering is that we are all communicators.

“We all have the responsibility to be the communicators that we wish to see in the world. Everyone is a media professional. Anyone with a cell phone, with a mouth, with a heart communicates. Word of mouth is the most powerful media of all, and it’s a tool of communication so we’ve got to use it responsibly to fight for truth and justice.”

Communication does not always have to be verbal. There is power in silence. Simon's grade school teacher always told him, “You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that order.” “Being silent and listening deeply tends to communicate so much more than the noise in our world, the noise from mainstream media, from ill conceived advertising messages.”

Through silence and total engagement and understanding of the nature of our world, we love because and not despite. We begin to see beauty in imperfection. Through silence, we are able to practice discernment, an essential skill that Simon believes is necessary to become a responsible global citizen.

“There are so many messages and so much noise around the world, the future is not around censorship or cutting out the noise because we will lose that battle.”

Through discernment we can learn to discriminate in the best sense of the word. We can discern between divergent views and find value in the truths of these diverse views without shunning our differences.

“If we want to effect global change, then we start with our individual communication. If we do that, then so much of the promise in these global movements that we see can lead to a cacophony of a collective conscious that reflects that individual silent whisper I experienced as a child.”

To hear and learn more from Simon Cohen, check out his TEDx talk…it’s definitely worth 12 minutes of your silence."