So, the good news is that if we re-define our cultural norms, re-tell the stories that make up the reality we follow, then humanity’s behaviors actually can change to conform to the new stories.
This is very much in the spirit of social construction and positive psychology. The challenges with those ideas and their associated methods is that they lack scalabilty beyond group dynamics. Once we move beyond the basic groups that surround us, often capped at somewhere in the dozens and not hundreds, we are in the realm of organizational and political ideas.
Taking lessons from the religious writings from the Middle East is not a solution. That was a tribal world with a very low population. Even the much celebrated democracy of Athens was, in the end, a failure.
What the enlightenment brought was the idea of moving beyond tribalism and using the Roman Code model to cover all of political life. The Civil Code systems in Europe and the U.S. Constitutional system are all adaptations of this idea. This presented the potential to move beyond the group setting to a broader political model. Although these systems reflect a grouping of cultural norms, they by no means guarantee sustainability. The Soviet Union used an elaborate civil code model but failed miserably.
The stakes in climate change present a new challenge calling for new ideas of governance. Nations and people who cannot change will be faced with rather dire circumstances as the natural systems of the planet exert their power. Everytime I hear, for example, that the U.S. cannot amend its constitution to change I know the eventual result just not how long it will take to unfold.
So true. The power of story is such that it creates cults if your storyteller is entertaining enough, Donald Trump. I am reminded that you have mentioned more than once that there is only one story coming out of the media that dominates the center of the country. Because there is no liberal voice. I have often thought about what kind of story might be told in a midwestern liberal media that would shift beliefs in a Trump world. It would have to be very simple and concrete, and to reference courage and goodness in the history of the listeners. To evoke pride, courage, and inspiration rather than anger and lust for blood. My grandfather, for example, was a Dutch immigrant who created a firm in Southwestern Minnesota in an area with an extremely conservative reform Dutch community. He refused to join the church, and my mother and her sisters were harassed and had stones thrown at them as they walked to school. But when there were arguments among farmers in the community, they would bring them to my grandfather for arbitration because he was considered to be the only honest person in the area. Primarily, I would say, because he knew who he was, had principles, and stuck by them, even in the face of threat and isolation. One could achieve a lot, even in very conservative communities , if a story speaks to the highest and invest in a person!
I'd sure like to know what and where to find the, "Perhaps it's too late (by at least six decades, according to many experts) to avoid all of the damage...", comes from" reference...
I just have to take issue with some of the wording and thoughts posted in this piece because it's one of my pet-peeves. It's the notion that thoughts create reality and that individuals have their own realities.
Thoughts alone do not create reality. You can't build a physical anything with thoughts alone, it takes bodies and hands and physical tools.
People don't live in or have different realities, there's only one reality. Sure, we have different perceptions of reality, but that's different. Perceptions are subsets of reality, not causal magic.
I know, it seems like nit-picking, but I think it's important. I've heard Thom say, "One man's lie is another's truth", more than once. Huh? So truth is just subjective, eh? Okay, we'll just toss out objectivity and empiricle evidence.
Yes, yes...Thom does an excellent job getting his facts right. That's one of the reasons we all admire him so much. I just wish he'd be a little more careful and avoid confusing perceptions with reality.
Beautiful, truthful, and imperative. Thank you Thom - the keys to a possibility of "future" are right here in this piece.
Your book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" as well as Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" hold a quality of wisdom that may just see Life renew...
This is very much in the spirit of social construction and positive psychology. The challenges with those ideas and their associated methods is that they lack scalabilty beyond group dynamics. Once we move beyond the basic groups that surround us, often capped at somewhere in the dozens and not hundreds, we are in the realm of organizational and political ideas.
Taking lessons from the religious writings from the Middle East is not a solution. That was a tribal world with a very low population. Even the much celebrated democracy of Athens was, in the end, a failure.
What the enlightenment brought was the idea of moving beyond tribalism and using the Roman Code model to cover all of political life. The Civil Code systems in Europe and the U.S. Constitutional system are all adaptations of this idea. This presented the potential to move beyond the group setting to a broader political model. Although these systems reflect a grouping of cultural norms, they by no means guarantee sustainability. The Soviet Union used an elaborate civil code model but failed miserably.
The stakes in climate change present a new challenge calling for new ideas of governance. Nations and people who cannot change will be faced with rather dire circumstances as the natural systems of the planet exert their power. Everytime I hear, for example, that the U.S. cannot amend its constitution to change I know the eventual result just not how long it will take to unfold.
So true. The power of story is such that it creates cults if your storyteller is entertaining enough, Donald Trump. I am reminded that you have mentioned more than once that there is only one story coming out of the media that dominates the center of the country. Because there is no liberal voice. I have often thought about what kind of story might be told in a midwestern liberal media that would shift beliefs in a Trump world. It would have to be very simple and concrete, and to reference courage and goodness in the history of the listeners. To evoke pride, courage, and inspiration rather than anger and lust for blood. My grandfather, for example, was a Dutch immigrant who created a firm in Southwestern Minnesota in an area with an extremely conservative reform Dutch community. He refused to join the church, and my mother and her sisters were harassed and had stones thrown at them as they walked to school. But when there were arguments among farmers in the community, they would bring them to my grandfather for arbitration because he was considered to be the only honest person in the area. Primarily, I would say, because he knew who he was, had principles, and stuck by them, even in the face of threat and isolation. One could achieve a lot, even in very conservative communities , if a story speaks to the highest and invest in a person!
Dang, hate typos! My grandfather created a farm, not a firm! And that last sentence is supposed to read “highest and best in a person!”
I'd sure like to know what and where to find the, "Perhaps it's too late (by at least six decades, according to many experts) to avoid all of the damage...", comes from" reference...
I just have to take issue with some of the wording and thoughts posted in this piece because it's one of my pet-peeves. It's the notion that thoughts create reality and that individuals have their own realities.
Thoughts alone do not create reality. You can't build a physical anything with thoughts alone, it takes bodies and hands and physical tools.
People don't live in or have different realities, there's only one reality. Sure, we have different perceptions of reality, but that's different. Perceptions are subsets of reality, not causal magic.
I know, it seems like nit-picking, but I think it's important. I've heard Thom say, "One man's lie is another's truth", more than once. Huh? So truth is just subjective, eh? Okay, we'll just toss out objectivity and empiricle evidence.
Yes, yes...Thom does an excellent job getting his facts right. That's one of the reasons we all admire him so much. I just wish he'd be a little more careful and avoid confusing perceptions with reality.
Other than that, it's a damn fine post.