Author: admin

Responsibility for the bigger picture

We might, increasingly, be living our lives by way of technology’s various portals, but isn’t the real world still out there being affected by all our choices? This sense in which, distracted by the overwhelming challenges or opportunities we’re facing, we might not see all the impacts we’re having and trends we’re forming part of out in the world around us. Yet aren’t we still responsible for all that we do?

Isn’t that where we stand, as humans? Expected to understand the world, foresee consequences, and act wisely with regard to all that’s shaped by our actions. Our ideas on “life” and what’s acceptable within it “becoming” the paths we walk through reality, the choices we’re making and picture all that is painting within the situations surrounding us – our values and priorities clearly on display. (Notes One)

If freedom is to think and do as we please, isn’t that an incredible responsibility? If we’re to understand the complex realities our lives now feed into, then act intentionally and compassionately within them, the value of all we’re letting into our minds seems essential. Isn’t it important we know what we’re doing? If we’re supposed to be using our personal judgement in navigating these choppy waters.

Sometimes it seems quite incredible, the position modern humanity’s finding itself in: all we’re expected to process, filter out, integrate and work with. As if our role is to maintain the ability to form reliable conclusions within this ever-changing reality. Our minds being this threshold between all we take in and all we decide to act upon – suggestions, accepted, becoming what we create through our involvement. (Notes Two)

Of all the thoughts we have in mind, how much do we really mean to weave into reality? Which values are we choosing to act on? How thorough an understanding of humanity’s convoluted path to the present are we aware of in how we interact with one another? Do we truly know all it is to be human – the different beliefs, intentions and phases of life people are working within?

Might it not be that, caught up in the novelty and stress, we’re not stepping back to grasp what’s actually going on? Not quite noticing humanity, broken apart, unable to relate, losing grip on what those before were hoping to bring to life through all that was set in motion around us. As if, swept by the tide, we might be so overwhelmed by isolated struggles that we lose sight of where we’re going. (Notes Three)

Maybe things are now so complicated that it’s naïve to expect many to understand what we’re involved in – all the hidden connections or causalities playing out behind the scenes. “Can” we bypass our intelligence and leave things in the hands of those which such insight, though? If we’re not able to use our own minds, expected instead to defer to something we’re told, how is that sufficient?

If we’re involved in creating reality, is it not better we act deliberately within it?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Understanding & staying informed
Note 1: Values, and what’s in evidence
Note 1: Is this complicated or relatively simple?
Note 1: What we create by our presence
Note 2: How are we supposed to choose?
Note 2: The incredible responsibility of freedom
Note 2: All we concern ourselves with & encourage
Note 2: Understanding what we’re all part of
Note 3: Is there any end to the power of thought?
Note 3: Do we live in different worlds?
Note 3: Does technology oversimplify things?
Note 3: Pace of change & getting nowhere fast

Ways to share this:

Education as an understanding of life

Within everything that’s going on around us, how is it that we piece together some sense of what it all means? Between all the thoughts, ideas, agendas, illusions or misrepresentations, how are we to ensure that the picture we’ve got in mind of “reality” is something we’d be wise to hold onto and build our lives around?

The contents of our minds must be important: all we’re letting in, weeding out, or seeking ways to work around. This sense in which our heads contain all we’ve taken in, how we’ll then interpret things, and the decisions we’re making each moment of every day. Potentially, a place of error or mistaken conclusions compounded, year on year, as our ideas clash up against reality. (Notes One)

As beings that essentially “live” from the mind, the question of how we fill it seems unfathomably significant. If “all we’re taking in” becomes the paths we’re walking, what might that mean for humanity? Education’s “aim” presumably then being to prepare people by enabling them to see how things work – all the practices and values around which we need to be structuring our lives (Notes Two).

Somehow, finding ways of giving us the knowledge and capacity to be fully human and live constructively within our society and this world of which we’re all part. Some workable sense of how individuals fit within the whole, valuing themselves and all others rightly in every area of activity. That each person might be able to judge for themselves what’s best, based on their well-formed understanding of what it all means.

Doesn’t the world “need” us to understand? Not just from our own personal perspective, but also the social or economic meaning of all that we do: how each thing echoes out to become reality within all the lives surrounding ours. Beyond that, to have some grasp of the ultimate meaning of being human – whatever each person might decide that may be.

Now that convention or tradition seem to be so rapidly falling away, how is such an understanding of life to be maintained? Given how often we’re surrounded by questionable versions of reality or insistently-held opinions, how are we to see through all that to grasp where the truth of things actually lies? Between all conflicting pressures of life, might full understanding not perhaps fall by the wayside? (Notes Three)

Sometimes it just seems the demands of life could loom so large they obscure the complexities of how we got here and where we hoped to be heading – that we might rather leave the past behind and walk away from it with convenient handfuls of facts. But if history, despite the challenge of imagining all that’s gone on within it, is what lets us understand the present, can we afford to do that? (Notes Four)

If we’re to stand within modern realities and truly grasp what’s asked of us, isn’t it important that we see what it all means, why it matters and what we can do about it?

Notes and References:

Note 1: The battlegrounds of our minds
Note 1: Do we live in different worlds?
Note 1: Can our thinking match realities?
Note 2: Everything’s interconnected
Note 2: Connecting truthfully with life
Note 2: Is this complicated or relatively simple?
Note 3: Understanding what we’re all part of
Note 3: Seeing where others are coming from
Note 3: How quickly things can change
Note 4: Knowing the value of what you have
Note 4: Going along with what we see
Note 4: Detaching ourselves from the past

Ways to share this:

Can our thinking match realities?

From all the separate pockets of fact, insight and expertise, is it still possible for us to draw together a truthful and meaningful understanding of all life is? Can the intense knowledge of each field pool into one balanced sense of “reality”? And, if it can, are the paths we should take in any given direction going to be clear? Can we be sure of all the consequences any one choice or policy might set in motion?

If the task before us “is” to understand all we’re engaged in and act wisely in the light of that knowledge, the challenge we face seems far from easy. Doesn’t modern life engulf us with immediate insight into the affairs of the whole world? Everything insistently placed before us, demanding attention, asking we accept its premise or its suggestions.

This constantly shifting tide of information where every story’s told from every perspective, inviting various conclusions. As if every possible shade of thought or opinion is all being shared at once – reality taking on every conceivable idea we might have about it. All those threads being woven into subtly or dramatically different narratives, suggesting causality or intention that may or may not be there. (Notes One)

How are we to keep up with it all? Weeding out all that’s erroneous, ill-intended or simply distracting to piece together a clear sense of what’s going on, why it matters and how to respond. Is our capacity to assimilate limitless, or will information overload inevitably lead to simplification, generalisation and stress?

Even if we manage to absorb enough of all that’s surrounding us, can we then reach the position of certainty needed to judge? Standing, somehow, on the back of experience, information and education to discern fact from fiction, filter out the unnecessary, and confidently form decisions able to withstand scrutiny. It seems what’s needed, as consumers and citizens: clarity and conviction. (Notes Two)

Often it just doesn’t seem feasible. That complex realities are rarely spoken in simple terms, while so much else is stepping in to deflect our attention and clutter our minds. That all the voices talking at once might drown out any truth they contain; desensitising us to hearing or caring about much of what’s assailing us each day. Within it all, might our grasp of reality not start to crumble? (Notes Three)

Is it still possible to understand enough, prioritise between competing values, detect the agendas at play, cut through undue influence, defuse any preconceptions, and somehow formulate informed, rational, compassionate, constructive responses? The volume of information we’re asked to process – and, the emotion often accompanying it – can easily seem overwhelming to the point of being impossible.

What are we to make of convoluted, opaque realities? All these separate activities interacting, behind the scenes, within increasingly global systems as our histories, beliefs and hopes pool into this one world that’s affecting us all. How can we manage to stand alone, confident in our understanding of all that we’re choosing to take part in?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Information might be there, but can we find it?
Note 1: Reading between the lines
Note 1: Learning from the past, looking to the future
Note 1: Going along with what we see
Note 2: How are we supposed to choose?
Note 2: Understanding & staying informed
Note 2: What’s the right mindset for news?
Note 2: Tuning out the static
Note 3: The battlegrounds of our minds
Note 3: Desensitised to all we’re told?
Note 3: Does technology oversimplify things?
Note 3: “Brave New World Revisited”

Ways to share this:

How fast can it all unravel?

If we’ve not fully understood things – what they mean, why they matter, how to carry them forward – how quickly can they fall away? Is it a year, a decade, a lifetime, a generation or two? Even if we’re partly understanding, partly conveying, it seems likely things would drift after only a fairly short time: significance becoming lost, effects varying to the point where we’re living in a distorted echo of what once was.

Isn’t life, in its way, the passing on of meaning? That events, artefacts, practices, customs are handed down alongside a sense of what they mean so subsequent generations can know where they stand, how to live, and why it all helps. This picture of knowledge being conveyed through the beliefs, conventions, values, attitudes and thoughts with which life is accompanied. (Notes One)

Doesn’t it all underpin any “way of life”? The thinking beneath every little thing we do and how it all comes together within the life we all share – each action touching on others, one way or another, to convey a common sense of meaning or value to those we’re living alongside. Isn’t it a lot about relationship? How we should act out of consideration for others based on some overarching philosophy of “life”.

But what if we haven’t quite grasped the principles, the starting points, beneath what we’re doing? The reasons, rights or values behind it that – in an ideal world – would shine through all we do, immediately communicating to all those around us our clear appreciation of life’s meaning and the worth we’re assigning each part of the whole. A comprehensive grasp of life glinting out from each word, choice or gesture. (Notes Two)

If, for whatever reason, we’ve not taken hold of the real meaning behind any given thing, how can we carry it out or pass it on correctly? Life perhaps then becoming a confusing sense of people talking at crossed purposes: the ideas we have in mind not quite marrying up with the way we’re acting or consequences we’re setting in motion. This surreal picture of people not quite knowing what they’re doing.

Doing the right thing and not knowing why is one thing; doing things wrong and thinking they’re right seems risky. If whatever we’re doing isn’t accompanied by a clear understanding of “why” and “what we hope to achieve” where do we stand, as humans? As if we’re out on a tightrope, walking blindly, without the safety net of reason to catch us. (Notes Three)

On the personal level, it seems disconcerting and potentially erratic. Socially, it must be troublesome given how often our lives intersect and stress, frustration or anger can accumulate. Looking on “life” as some delicate balance of personal freedom and collective wellbeing, missing the logic behind things seems a strange test of social cohesion: placing “self” before “others”, what happens to community? (Notes Four)

That said, if things aren’t quite right maybe it’s better they unravel? Provided we know enough to piece them back together.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Passing on what’s important
Note 1: Everything culture used to be
Note 1: The thought surrounding us
Note 2: Understanding what we’re all part of
Note 2: Mutual awareness and accommodation?
Note 2: What we create by our presence
Note 3: How quickly things can change
Note 3: All we’re expected to understand
Note 3: Is there any end to the power of thought?
Note 3: Does technology oversimplify things?
Note 4: Diplomacy and knowing where we stand
Note 4: Do we live in different worlds?
Note 4: Integrity and integration

Somewhere out alongside this, there’s the question of Where’s the reset button & can we press it?

Ways to share this:

Going along with what we see

In our minds, how clear are the lines between reality and illusion? Taking it that culture, broadly speaking, is a form of symbolism standing in for reality and somehow helping us navigate it, how blurred are those points where it touches on the realities of our lives but doesn’t quite stand honestly within them? If we’re not clearly delineating between what’s real and not, how much does this process really help us?

Sometimes it just seems we’re surrounded by such compelling, emotive versions of reality that we might actually be blinded to perceiving life realistically (Notes One). Aren’t we presented with overviews and insights “real life” never offers? The kind of comprehensive arc of causality and intimate details of character that life, in all its complexity, conceals. As if “this” is a better, clearer take on our lives.

What does it do to the mind when it sees all these vivid depictions of things that seem close to “real” but aren’t? Might it not seep in to subtly upset the delicate balance that is our understanding of life? Planting seeds of doubt, distrust or undeserved faith. Desensitising us, perhaps, to the very real realities, problems and traumas people are actually experiencing in their lives. (Notes Two)

Might we not become cold or callous? Dismissing death or injustice as just another drama in the arc of existence. Forgetting the need to accompany life’s realities with emotions that reflect the true suffering those around us are living through. Or, perhaps, lighting fires under our indignation at inequalities brushed aside. All these ways our grasp on reality might be shunted slightly out of alignment.

If, as humans, our minds are where we make sense of life and shape our responses to it, what does it mean if those minds are filled with distorted reflections? This strange prism of disproportionate, amplified, strangely configured facts or events that “seem” like the world we’re in but somehow aren’t. How will we then “read” the realities around us? How will we feel about what we see? (Notes Three)

Of course, much of it’s probably done with the best of intentions by people hoping to challenge our perceptions, raise awareness of important issues, and lead us to think about the forces at work in our lives. This timeless role “culture” has of helping society understand itself and chart wise paths into its future. (Notes Four)

Within it all, though, what does it do to us as human beings? How well does it support a rational interpretation of reality and help us track alongside it with balanced, compassionate emotions? What’s it like to live life surrounded by visions of society’s demise and these menacing threats lurking through the world around us – all the real or imagined darkness contained within things? (Notes Five)

Might we not start to accept such versions of reality as real? Responding in the light of such thinking and, therefore, bringing different things to life through the paths we’re choosing to walk. Where might that lead?

Notes and References:

Note 1: What’s the idea with culture?
Note 1: Do the “lies” blind us to truth?
Note 1: Art as a way to subvert or inspire
Note 2: The stories that we hear
Note 2: What’s the right mindset for news?
Note 2: Overwhelm and resignation
Note 3: Emotion and culture’s realities
Note 3: Information might be there, but can we find it?
Note 3: It resonates, but should it be amplified
Note 4: Navigation, steering & direction
Note 4: Everything culture used to be
Note 4: Learning from the past, looking to the future
Note 5: Effect, if everything’s a drama
Note 5: Do we know what we’re doing?
Note 5: Dystopia as a powerful ideal

Ways to share this:

Times of revelation

How much, in life, is simply revealed by the course of time? Situations or truths that are there, resting somewhere beneath the surface, until such a time as they’re uncovered and exposed to the light of day.

Isn’t it generally true of health and age? That imbalances, weaknesses or problematic lifestyle factors are often there, resting until they begin to outweigh the forces of life or youth that kept them at bay. Problems waiting to happen as areas of ignorance lie unattended beneath the veneer of well-being. As if we might get away with things for so long but they’ll generally catch up with us in time.

Equally with understanding – we might skirt through life unaware of many things, happily ignorant of dynamics or insights we’d be better off knowing, but doesn’t that usually come unstuck? Cumulative errors wearing down our confidence or piling up problems we’ll eventually have to deal with. As if, in the end, we’ll come to see what we didn’t know before.

Things might be concealed – imbalance, ignorance, incomplete understanding – but aren’t they still there? Waiting until circumstances force them to the surface, where they can no longer be ignored. As if life is this path of unearthing truth from semblance; some version of the journey from ignorance to enlightenment as reality reveals what’s contained within. (Notes One)

Similarly, with society, aren’t there times when underlying beliefs or assumptions are revealed? When attitudes towards women or other groups come to light and must be addressed, for example. Isn’t it important we unearth the thinking beneath how we live and challenge it where that’s needed? If principles of equality, respect or fairness aren’t yet woven into society there must still be work to be done.

Isn’t it all, in a way, life focussing our attention on areas of imperfection? On situations where our understanding isn’t quite creating what needs to be created for the sake of society as much as individuals. Shining light on all the fracture lines we’ve been living with – divisions or flaws that might always have been there, storing up problems or resentments society’s now struggling to contain or justify. (Notes Two)

As if time, eventually, reveals any ignorance and demands we grow in wisdom to understand why something’s a problem and how to both fix it and ensure it’s no longer created, fostered or tolerated. It might be deeply confronting to uncover such imperfections and realise the parts we played in them, but isn’t that ultimately better than carrying on unaware? If problems exist, don’t they need to be resolved? (Notes Three)

Ideally, we’d all understand exactly how best to live: how to structure our lives, integrate ourselves within society, and act well for the overall benefit of those lives ours are connected with (Notes Four). In the absence of such clear and responsible insight, though, perhaps ours is more the path of having “all we don’t yet know” revealed to us? Having illusions pierced so we can glimpse whatever darkness persists underneath.

Notes and References:

Note 1: All that we carry around with us
Note 1: Everything’s interconnected
Note 1: Detaching ourselves from the past
Note 1: One thing leads to another
Note 2: Desire to retreat, need to engage
Note 2: Giving others space to be
Note 2: What should be leading us?
Note 3: Will things change if we don’t make them?
Note 3: Problems & the thought that created them
Note 3: Values, compromise & how things are
Note 3: World, heading for a breakdown?
Note 4: Integrity and integration
Note 4: Understanding & staying informed
Note 4: Green as an idea

Ways to share this:

Is this complicated or relatively simple?

Where do we stand between complexity and simplicity? Life, in many ways, seems undeniably complex, but, when broken down, aren’t the individual transactions or choices relatively simple? As if “all this” is a complex sequence of simple steps drawn together in ways that ultimately work wisely, harmoniously, sustainably – at least with regard to nature. But isn’t it also true of our lives? Simple choices, stacked up.

This sense in which everything can be broken down into basic steps which can then be strung back together in a variety of impressively complicated ways. Learning, perhaps, being the act of breaking things down to the building blocks from which knowledge can be recreated and creatively applied within all the true complexity of life, nature, society and the world we live in (Notes One).

Beneath it all, then, is there some form of wisdom? A simple set of principles from which we might successfully navigate all of life’s seemingly unconnected choices. Maybe that’s what technology’s looking for: the code from which life can be reconfigured. But, even in our lives, are there fairly universal values we might rely upon? Some fundamental understanding of how life works that can serve us well in all areas. (Notes Two)

As if there’s thought in nature, in society, and in us – thought we might unravel, understand, appreciate and work with (Notes Three). Each step simply connecting in with many others, emerging as the life we lead and consequences we set in motion. As if, as humans, we might come to understand life and operate creatively within it – knowing what each thing means and the importance of how it’s all coming together.

Isn’t there, then, this sense of “who knows what”? The level of insight different people within society might have of the realities we’re all living in. Children being the ones needing it broken down into meaningful, relatable, accessible steps they might take into the world – education, hopefully, establishing within them a solid yet flexible foundation for life. Some, perhaps, knowing far more than we’re told.

It seems interesting and important to ask such questions; to figure out what ideas people have in mind and where they might lead. Can’t complicated things generally be spoken in simple terms? A few steps and almost anyone could grasp the principles at play, value of what’s at stake, and logic being used to determine the outcome.

As thinking beings, isn’t it important we understand what we’re part of? What our choices and participation “mean” for the world and all those within it. The kind of future we’re serving to create. How clear is any of that? How transparent are the options we’re presented with and systems they’re playing into? Why does so much seem concealed rather than laid bare? (Notes Four)

Modern life might be becoming too complicated for many to fully understand, but isn’t it important we do? Given our lives impact what’s around us in countless ways, what does it mean if we don’t know what we’re doing?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Everything’s interconnected
Note 1: Connecting truthfully with life
Note 1: Passing on what’s important
Note 2: Systems, their power, whose hands?
Note 2: What should be leading us?
Note 2: Common sense as a rare & essential quality
Note 2: Do we need meaning?
Note 3: The thought surrounding us
Note 3: The battlegrounds of our minds
Note 3: Does anything exist in isolation?
Note 3: Ideas that tie things together
Note 4: Treating people like sims?
Note 4: Does technology oversimplify things?
Note 4: How are we supposed to choose?

Ways to share this:

Do markets create strange social forces?

Much as society might revolve around the idea of markets, what does that actually mean for us as the humans living within them? While it might, as a way of life, purport to meet all our needs, isn’t this also chipping away at our self-worth and long-term security on this planet? Arranging the whole of our lives around this notion sometimes seems a strange way to be going about things.

Doesn’t it tend, as a way of thinking, to ripple out through every area of our lives? Everything becoming something to package up, sell or put behind a paywall. Nothing seemingly impervious to this power money has to convert everything to its way of thinking. Everything “can”, perhaps, be conceived of that way, but does that mean it should? (Notes One)

As if there’s no other way of thinking, no other means of looking at reality and operating within it – no other values capable of standing against the promise of profit or growth. As if we’re simply “right” to see life that way; casting it all in the light of supply, demand, producers, consumers, products, services, and captive audiences. The whole of life somehow becoming a market offering.

Of course, we have needs, as do all things that live (Notes Two), but is this the best way to be meeting them? Sometimes it seems we’re not even “trying” to meet them; simply to create interlocking sets of mutually contradictory demands. Isn’t this system better off if we have as many needs as possible? If our problems can be exacerbated to the point where those needs can never be filled.

Isn’t it almost a picture of society undermining “us” for the sake of profit? Our psychological needs for meaning, purpose, status, self-esteem, belonging, acceptance, love becoming this bottomless source of potential demand – if only we can be convinced we’re not quite enough without something more. As if, in a system reliant on demand, the easiest solution is to tap into human psyche. (Notes Three)

From there, don’t we start living in a world that’s forever trying to mess with our minds? Planting seeds of doubt, threads of new meaning, and drawing us into narratives we never knew we needed on our path to self-fulfilment and a purposeful existence. If we can only be persuaded to accept these ideas as true, build our lives around them and convey them to others.

But what does it mean if we become accustomed to living this way? Forever chasing the next thing on this never-ending path of perpetual consumerism as our search for meaning becomes a quest for more – as if we’re ever going to “arrive” and find our true worth that way (Notes Four). “Life” might throw up recurrent needs to be met, but where “is” that elusive line between essentials and illusions?

What does it mean if the genuine needs of a human lifetime have taken on this strange form within society? This conversation we’ve often little choice but to be drawn into.

Notes and References:

Note 1: If life’s a sum, are our choices calculations?
Note 1: “The way things should be” as an add-on
Note 1: How much is in the hands of the market
Note 2: Things with life have to be maintained
Note 2: Appreciating other ways of being
Note 2: Green as an idea
Note 3: Solving all the problems we’re creating
Note 3: Markets, and what they might mean
Note 3: The value we’re giving to things
Note 4: Does it all come down to money?
Note 4: Value and meaning in our lives
Note 4: Absolute or relative value

Ways to share this:

How would we like to live?

If we had the choice, how would we really “like” to live? Would it really be a case of, somehow, escaping society to live lives of luxury completely devoid of meaningful connections with our kind? This “winning the lottery” notion of rising above our peers to enjoy all life’s pleasures with none of the engagement. Attractive as that may sound, how fulfilling would such a life actually be?

Sometimes it seems we’ve just spun a life for ourselves that almost everyone’s striving to be free of – as if we’ve made everything such a struggle, needing to elbow others out the way in the hope of ensuring there’s enough for us (Notes One). A life where we’re mainly seeking peace from the conversations and interactions we’re obliged to have; where “the dream” is to detach and not need to deal with one another.

Isn’t the apex of it all the hope of being in the position to retreat and have others do your bidding? Everyone agreeing with you for fear of your displeasure and the power you might wield or withdraw. Money, of course, being the main means of control. As if we’re all fighting for control, for the capacity to be free of having to negotiate with this system and all those within it. Freedom to be ourselves.

What does it mean, though, if society’s filled with people hoping to be free of it? Like the crabs trying to claw their way out of the bucket. Why is social life something we might seek to escape? As if we created systems that motivate us by fear of our inadequacy or vulnerability; a place we need to perpetually watch out for the next challenge or trend to stay abreast of if we’re not to fall behind.

As if “society” is designed to work against us, capitalising on our humanity to drive us forward for its own ends. Each person striving to tread water within its rising, swirling tides. As if “that” spurs us on to give all we have to get ahead, make the most of things, and ultimately “survive” within it all. “Life” as this battle, this current we’re born into and must swim against to prove our worth (Notes Two).

Do we need fear in order to strive? Does it really bring out the best in people? Might there not be another vision that could motivate us more compassionately? Some constructive sense of how we might come together, offer all we have, and feel appreciated for our valuable contributions toward harmonious coexistence within a finite space. (Notes Three)

Just because we “are” motivated by insecurities, does that make it wise to structure society around them? Placing us all in this fight for the power to elbow “others” out of our way. It seems so limiting, this notion of scarcity and lack that drives us to compete. Fear may be our greatest motivator, useful for pushing “society” furthest ahead, but could we not, instead, work out of love for life?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Humans, tangled in these systems
Note 1: If life’s a sum, are our choices calculations?
Note 1: Where do ideas of evolution leave us?
Note 1: Created a system we seek to escape?
Note 1: What should be leading us?
Note 2: Value and meaning in our lives
Note 2: The battlegrounds of our minds
Note 2: Who gets to define us
Note 2: Valuing people more
Note 2: Does it all come down to money?
Note 3: Appealing to human nature or the human spirit
Note 3: Intrinsic values on the paths for change?
Note 3: This thing called love
Note 3: What inspires collective endeavours
Note 3: The self within society

Ways to share this:

World, heading for a breakdown?

Even before everything else, was it true that the modern world was heading for some form of breakdown? That things were getting so out of balance they were almost destined to fall apart. So many different, important problems jutting up against each other – incompatible, contradictory “solutions” overlapping to cause additional difficulties – that something had to give.

Sometimes it seems we’re all just trying to muddle through. Picking up whatever threads were handed to us, whatever assets or ideas happened to fall in our hands, and seeking to make the best of them. Each person, perhaps, labouring under a slightly different sense of what it all means and where paths will lead. Everyone, perhaps, convinced that theirs is the best way forward.

As if it all might be a sequence of workarounds – distorted, contorted, well-meaning attempts to create or impose order on the chaos. So many people pulling in so many directions, all insisting that they have the answer and understand the nature of the problem. It seems unlikely to be that simple: who truly understands everything that’s going on from every conceivable perspective? (Notes One)

At this point, isn’t it all a jumbled collection of various peoples’ intentions? All these theories, interpretations or beliefs about life, how to organise it and what’s most important that run into one another, leading either to conflict or to compromise. This scattered ground of half-baked or potentially ill-conceived notions trying to make their presence felt then convince others to take them on board.

Where’s the cohesion? Between all the varied ways people might choose to live in this world, what’s emerging here beyond confusion, aggression or despair? How much are everyday people needing to juggle to make ends meet, and how much that’s thrown at us each day is truly necessary or even helpful? Sometimes it just seems we’re engulfed in constant tides of opinion, anger and attempts to control, persuade or direct. (Notes Two)

What are we to make of it all? Especially when “modern life” actively – perhaps, intentionally – seems to undermine trust in ourselves or others, creating perfect conditions for uncertainty and anxiety. What if, in pursuit of profit, we’ve damaged essential human foundations? Not only in nature, but also the psychological foundation of our mind, self-esteem and healthy relationship to reality.

Within it all, aren’t we still humans seeking to make sense of life and chart reasonable paths forward for ourselves and those who follow? How are we to hold our nerve and not get overwhelmed by all that’s trying to overwhelm us? And, if “how we’ve been going about things” doesn’t quite make sense or stand a chance of coming together as a coherent whole, what does it mean for us if we strive to adapt to it? (Notes Three)

Taking it that, as humans, we “need” to stand within reality, have things make sense and feel the worth of our existence reflected in how the world meets us, what are we to make of how this world currently operates?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Connecting truthfully with life
Note 1: Understanding what we’re all part of
Note 1: Knowing the value of what you have
Note 1: Desire to retreat, need to engage
Note 1: Do we live in different worlds?
Note 2: Anger, and where we direct it
Note 2: Tuning out the static
Note 2: How much is in the hands of the market
Note 2: What’s the right mindset for news?
Note 2: Solving all the problems we’re creating
Note 3: Value and meaning in our lives
Note 3: Systems, their power, whose hands?
Note 3: Green as an idea
Note 3: Everything culture used to be
Note 3: Situations which ask us to trust

Along similar lines, things going wrong and how we might fix them was part of Where’s the reset button & can we press it?

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