“When people are afraid or defensive, they have no tolerance for the person at the edge of inside. They want purity, rigid loyalty and lock step unity. But now more than ever we need people who have the courage to live on the edge of inside, who love their parties and organizations so much that they can critique them as a brother

[sister], operate on them from the inside as a friend and dauntlessly insist that they live up to their truest selves.”

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So writes Inside the Edge, about the value of people who live “on the edge of inside”. They are neither people at the center of the core nor are they revolutionaries throwing flames from the outside.

The Brexit Results announced today (that Britain leave the EU) has resulted from the vote of the revolutionary and flame throwing “Leave the EU” outsiders who oppose the the current system. The shock effects of their victory are rippling around the globe. The temptation for those who fear a meltdown of the status quo is to run to one of two poles – in defence of the (mortally?) wounded (Remain) insiders – or join forces with the giddy winners of the Leave Vote who want to turn back the clock and erect barriers to change.

For those who love their communities, cities, country and international relationships we must find the courage to talk from “inside the edge” about the highest good that birthed the core  – in Britain’s case the political lineage that has brought to the world and EU the principles of peace, order and good government as well as the benefits of modernism, internationalism and tolerance.

For those readers who know Dr. Don Beck’s Assimilation-Contrast Effect Model – this place of “inside the edge” lies in the center of the spectrum of danger zones that exists on both sides of the Remain/Leave issue, stretching from the flame throwers to well-informed negotiators.

Today’s newsfeeds will be dominated by the victory speeches of the revolutionaries and the sorrows of the core insiders.

Tomorrow’s deep background stories could be sourced from the subtle activities of the “inside-edge walkers”.

If we are to take this vote for change as an inflection point for shifting to a new order at any level, then may we find the courage to become or support the “inside-edge walkers” of Britain, the EU and the World to live into their truest selves – as they find the wisdom needed to explore with the negotiators from the wounded old core and the impassioned outsiders.

And may we encourage cities (as the meso-zone between micro individual voters and macro national / international governments) to claim their roles, full of potential and power, to act as crucial “inside-edge walkers” that can speak truth to both insiders and outsiders in a way that can make a positive and integral difference for all.