Motivational author and speaker Tony Robbins is well-known for his philosophy that “20% of success comes from mechanics, 80% comes from psychology”.

Perceptions induce thoughts and states of mind, driving the repetition of behaviors that ultimately impact material events.

The same exact phenomenon at the individual level replicates itself at the aggregate level, with collective consciousness affecting aggregate outcomes.

Humans are faced on a daily basis with a set of decisions to make. These decisions principally occur around how to allocate scarce time, leisure, money and energy – and choosing how to cooperate or compete with other fellow humans.

These decisions often involve trade-offs due to scarcity, creating constraints on delivering the social good sustainably and equitably.

The decisions ultimately impact everything from productivity levels, corruption, spending and saving patterns, functioning of markets, innovative collaboration – to civic duty, social tension and the cohesion of value systems.

Individuals typically optimize their decisions based on their value systems, and their perception of the environment. Values are derived from individual preferences, tastes, and capabilities, but also from one’s sense of identity – and of belonging to groups.

Social identities are derived from the human tendency to form social groups with other human beings – pooling resources together to gain a better chance of surviving, achieving goals and moving up the Maslow Hierarchy of needs.

Every human holds multiple social identities – such as their profession, company, sports team, gender, political party, tribe, sect, national and pan-national identities.

This only causes friction when there is a lack of established order of priorities enabling an individual to find balance between all their identities – and enabling multiple, at times conflicting, identities to co-exist successfully in a society.

Strong group identities are fundamental to the success of any social system. These encourage group members to self-invest their time, leisure, money and energy towards a common purpose.

Over the last century, the Lebanese people have been unsuccessful at building a cohesive and dynamic social fabric, with the state of values and consciousness delivering a negative social good.

The “ethos”, or character of the nation, has not been in line with the laws of nature. The soul and spirit of our civilization has been disconnected from a higher purpose. The collapse of the economy is simply a symptom of this failure.

To gain a common purpose, our society must reflect on our heritage, our common values, our strengths, weaknesses, our historical patterns, and our desired destiny.

This new purpose must be embedded within a new national identity, derived out of a novel historical narrative, underpinning and providing consensus for a new political order.

Strong group identities are fundamental to the success of any social system. These encourage group members to self-invest their time, leisure, money and energy towards a common purpose.

Over the last century, the Lebanese people have been unsuccessful at building a cohesive and dynamic social fabric, with the state of values and consciousness delivering a negative social good.

The “ethos”, or character of the nation, has not been in line with the laws of nature. The soul and spirit of our civilization has been disconnected from a higher purpose. The collapse of the economy is simply a symptom of this failure.

To gain a common purpose, our society must reflect on our heritage, our common values, our strengths, weaknesses, our historical patterns, and our desired destiny.

This new purpose must be embedded within a new national identity, derived out of a novel historical narrative, underpinning and providing consensus for a new political order.