Why crises push us to choose sides and what it costs when complexity collapses.
Under threat, our nervous system seeks certainty, narrowing perception and reducing access to nuance.The ability to stay present with unresolved tension often determines how we respond in high-stakes moments.
I was born and raised there, in a country I still carry with pride, even after decades of watching its social fabric erode. Venezuela offered my family refuge after escaping the Holocaust and after the rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba. It felt like a welcoming home until stability began to unravel with Hugo Chávez’s rise to power in 1999. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the country that had once offered safety and opportunities descended into anarchy, chaos, violence, and despair. So, when reports described the military raid in Caracas that led to Nicolás Maduro being taken to the U.S. to face criminal charges, it landed painfully close for me in a way it likely wouldn’t for someone watching from afar. A crisis such as this one tempts us to compress the story and to pick a side. To decide, as quickly as we can and with very limited information, whether the whole thing is heroic or catastrophic. And searching for certainty is tempting because itOne frame centers on accountability: Maduro has long been accused of serious crimes, and for the millions of Venezuelans who lived through theof his regime and watched their country hollow out, the idea that he might finally be held to account brings a complicated sense of relief. I felt that on the morning of January 3rd, as WhatsApp messages full of videos and speculation flooded my phone. Another frame centers on sovereignty: A country cannot meaningfully heal if its future is decided by external forces. International law scholars haveabout the precedent set when military and law enforcement actions cross national borders. Even when actions are framed as corrective and may very well be justified, the residue of having national sovereignty overriddenWe want to know: Is this good or bad? Who’s the hero? Who’s the villain? Why can’t the story just be resolved?, that tends to develop later in adulthood, when we’re no longer organized around needing the world to make immediate sense. This capacity allows us toat the same time without rushing to collapse them into a single conclusion. Not either/or, not even a tidy both/and, but rather the ability to remain engaged with complexity when clarity isn’t immediately available.I’ve lived inside survival mode long enough to recognize its logic. In Venezuela in the early 2000s, to survive, we had to stay alert and constantly anticipate what might go wrong next. Daily life required constant vigilance, as hours-long lines for basic necessities like cooking oil or toilet paper conditioned us to expect scarcity and to treat stability as temporary. At the same time, risingand unpredictable violence made even ordinary decisions, like where to go and how long to stay out, feel disproportionately consequential.narrows, and the world gets organized around threat or safety, good or bad, us or them, win or lose. Moments like the unfolding crisis in Venezuela are combustible because theyA simple practice for an unsimple momentwhat your nervous system is doing before your mind explains why. What happens in your body as you read the headlines? Tightening in the chest? Clenched jaw? Shallow breathing? A sense of urgency? A pull toward certainty? What is your reaction trying to protect you from feeling or confronting?it for the whole picture. Which frame are you most identified with right now? What does that frame make easier to feel, and what does it push out of view? If you loosened your grip on that perspective just a little, what else might become visible?without erasing the tension. For instance, what might it look like to hold accountability and sovereignty in view at the same time? Where are you tempted to reduce people to neatly divided sides? What action, however small,Venezuela, like many places around the world, including where we live, needs people inside and outside its borders who can stay present to uncertainty without hardening under it. It needs people who can resist the urge to resolve complexity too quickly, even when clarity feels urgent, because what we’re able to stay with internally often determines how we respond externally when it matters most.https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271 Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. . Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes, and outcomes.https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/maduros-capture-and-international-law-noriega-precedenthttps://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.70.2.275 van Steenbergen, H., Band, G. P. H., & Hommel, B. . Threat but not arousal narrows attention: Evidence from pupil dilation and saccade control.received his Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author ofSelf Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.
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