Category: Featured

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Intensive Emotions In The Wake Of The Storm

During the past week global turbulence elevated at high speed with Hurricane Sandy plundering through Haiti to the U.S. It appears that many times when devastation occurs on such a massive scale a lot of heated human emotions rise to the surface.

While browsing around the web and dwelling into all kinds of news stories and page commentaries focusing around the topic of Hurricane Sandy, I saw how people are mostly in need of recognition and appreciation of their existence.

Now this is just a very simple natural psychological aspect of our human character (but it can be extremely misunderstood and hidden from us because of the turbulent times of our world social situation). These devastating headlines can bring out the best in us and can also bring out the worst. Either way, these conflicting opposites are signs of human emotions seeking attention, contact & connection with others, even if it’s aimed at raising deeply heated arguments ending up in curses and apparently despiteful hatred.

There is a “good Samaritan” which hides inside each and every one of us (but not always the influence of our surrounding environments allows this potential to be exposed) even more so or more less when there is chaos all around. I would like to share with you here an inspiring status I read on the Facebook page of Walk Out Walk On, which could help us to focus on and perhaps receive some positive learning from a devastating situation.

“A reflection from Walk Out Walk On friend, Bev Reeler on these times we are living in: “Do we need chaos to prompt us into our wider selves?”

The Floods and the Flow
– October 30th 2012

Hurricane Sandy hit the East coast of the United States today.
Millions of people witnessed
the combined power of surging wind-blown seas,
spring tides and a cold weather front

sweeping into their streets and their homes
suspending the routine of lives lived in familiar patterns

shops emptied of supplies
transport systems closed, schools closed, businesses closed
even the stock exchange is closed
as millions take shelter
alongside bottles of water and food supplies that protect them from
waiting for the violence of the storm to subside

last week a storm hit the west coast of France, Spain and Portugal
in a fury of wind and water that drowned their houses and cars
57 people were killed

an earthquake shook the seas off the Californian coast raising fears of a tsunami

within a short week
we are confronted with the fragility of the systems that hold us
against the force of this elemental power

the planet has shaken her mantle before,
but things are different now

we have settled in our increasing millions
along the shores of her oceans
the faults of her mantle
at the feet of her growing mountains

and every time she shivers
the structures and systems that have taken centuries build
are wiped out in a few hours

there is something that happens in these moments of chaos
when we are called so starkly into dealing with the present
when we leave our homes with our supplies
shifted out of the normality of our lives
and even the rescue services can’t hold back the damage

It is as if some other part of us wakes up
and we become part of a cooperative, coordinated action
that calls us back to community beings
to lay sand bags along shop fronts
take care of the old lady next door
the kid down the street

will we find a vision that holds us in this chaos
that enables us to stand here in the fire
the floods and the flow?

will we start learning something beyond saving ourselves
and the security of our singular lives?

do we need chaos to prompt us into our wider selves?

are realizations of great significance only born of pain?

in Syria the government forces bombed their capital
killing their own children

and we watch the world on our screens
horrified but detached
until ‘we are the ones’

this week carries great learning………

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Hurricane Sandy’s Wake Up Call: What Will It Take To Bring People Into Balance With Nature?

Hurricane

HurricaneInstinctive Human Nature Tries To Exploit Even The Most Horrendous Catastrophes For Self Gain

The article “The politics of Hurricane Sandy” on the pages of The Economist, analyzes the election campaign consequences of the devastating Hurricane sweeping the US East Coast:

Is Hurricane Sandy capable of altering the election result? The presidential candidates are hunkering down and trying to avoid looking partisan as this big, wet storm heads for the eastern seaboard. But any number of calculations are being made by the campaigns. Plausible arguments are flying, explaining why this storm is bad news, or is it good news, for both sides.”

The instinctive behavior of politicians immediately thinking how they can benefit or lose as a result of a natural catastrophe is a very typical human reaction, since people’s subjective perception assesses things from the “What is in it for me?” vantage point.

In truth this behavior is completely the opposite to how we should be looking at the current events. Many people would say that humans have nothing to do with these storms, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. Every time there is a debate about global warming, or other man-made affects on the environment,  many people, including leaders and scientists try everything they can do to prove that humanity, human behavior has nothing to do with these “cyclical natural” changes.

Instead Of The Subjective Examination & The Denial Of Human Involvement In Natural, Environmental Changes, People Need To Examine The “Human Effect” In The Earth’s Living Ecosystem

A step by step examination, looking at the world in terms of the dynamics of living ecosystems, might suggest a different picture, where perhaps even such changes as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have relation to how human beings behave.

  1. It is widely accepted that the whole Earth (possibly the whole Universe) is a single, interconnected, living ecosystem.
  2. This ecosystem as any other living system thrives for overall harmony and homeostasis as this is the foundation of life, and the whole evolutionary process is progressing towards more and more evolved and stable lifeforms.
  3. There is no question that human beings are also part of this ecosystem. The biological human body, even the human psyche, is based on the same laws of general balance and homeostasis, and when this balance is broken people become sick, even die.
  4. Despite all this, humanity as a species is totally out of balance with the rest of nature, while any other living creature lives in balance with its environment, only consuming and taking what is necessary for its existence. Humans take much more than is necessary, and especially in the last century humanity created a completely artificial bubble with the constant quantitative growth economy, with its overproduction and overconsumption of unnecessary and mostly harmful products. In the process, as proven by the deepening global crisis, a global humanity exhausted both the natural and the human resources driving into a dead end.
  5. Humanity at present behaves as a cancer in the vast surrounding natural system.
  6. The natural, living ecosystem around is not “mindless,” its laws are fine tuned towards preserving life, the general harmony and homeostasis as the foundation of life.
  7. Concluding from all the above, it is not far fetched to conclude that the vast surrounding natural system that is infinitely larger then the human species would react against humans as a healthy body would react against a disease or a foreign body, i.e. in a way that tries to reject it.

If humanity wants to “pacify” nature, moreover wants to survive as a species within the evolutionary process there is no other choice but to reveal and follow the basic principles of the natural system, principles people all know very well from their own body’s biology and physiology.

Humanity Needs To Accept & Understand That As Any Other Living Species, It Is Part Of A Vast “Self Adjusting” Natural System, Infinitely Greater Than The Human Species

Humanity has to give up the misunderstanding that people are above nature and can control it, or that natural laws do not apply to humans, or that evolution has stopped by the emergence of a modern humanity. Hurricane Sandy as well as the many other natural disasters where people can neither properly predict or defend themselves, are timely reminders of this fact.

A Predictable And Sustainable Future Is Possible If Humanity Settles Into The Interconnected Natural System As Its Partner, Adapting To Its Laws & Principles

The superiority of human beings above other animals comes from the fact that humans are capable of changing themselves. To be more precise, to change their inherent self centered nature in order to achieve balance in human society and between humanity and the environment. Animals, on the other hand, are instinctively balanced with nature. This conscious change and adaption, if it were to happen, would give people total control over the whole system, to the extent that they remain benevolent partners with it.

Image: “Hurricane Bud” by NASA Earth Observatory from Flickr

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In Response To Natural Catastrophes: Self Examination & Decision Time

Question Time

Question Time

A natural catastrophe always raises the uncomfortable question about human involvement.

Some will say that such horrible events have nothing to do with human behavior, while others will link them to climate change and our effect on the planet.

In a recent Project Syndicate article titled “Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change,” Professors J. Marshall Shepherd (Director of the Atmospheric Sciences program) and John Knox (receiver of the National Weather Association’s highest research award) of Georgia University, write the following:

There is growing evidence of links between climate change and sea-level rise, heat waves, droughts, and rainfall intensity, and, although scientific research on hurricanes and tornadoes is not as conclusive, that may be changing.

Indeed, recent reports by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientific literature suggest that the intensity of hurricanes will increase as a result of warmer waters. And our atmosphere and oceans are, indeed, warming…”

Thinking we might be contributors to the devastation brought upon us by Sandy is indeed startling, and as the professors say, “the scientific research needed to prove or disprove such a connection must still be conducted.”

But while scientists are hesitant to give us a definite answer, Sandy serves as a grim reminder that regardless of how well we understand it, we are all little pieces within the bigger puzzle of nature. And we all depend on nature.

In modern times, we have grown accustomed to seeing ourselves as a separate and superior part of nature. We feel we are entitled to use, consume and manipulate natural systems to satisfy our needs and serve our desires.

Those natural systems, on the other hand, operate in harmony, where all the elements follow the law of homeostasis through interdependence and interconnection.

Our human society, while being a part of nature, is following opposite rules. “Every man for himself,” “it’s none of my business,” “whatever,” “who cares” and “me, me, me” have become standard, acceptable ways of thinking in modern society. So our contrast to nature starts at the most fundamental level. “Nature’s ideology,” if you will, is opposite to ours. But it doesn’t end there.

Human Society Vs. Nature: 5 Things To Consider

1 Many scientists today accept the Earth is a single, interconnected, living ecosystem.

2 This ecosystem, as any other living system, thrives on harmony and homeostasis which is the foundation of life. Evolution is also characterized by creating greater and more intricate ties that can maintain balance.

3 There is no question that human beings are a vital part of this ecosystem, with even our biological bodies being governed by the same laws of balance and homeostasis. When this balance is broken, we get sick or even die.

4 Despite the above knowledge, we, as a species, are in discord with the rest of nature. While other creatures and organisms are in balance with their environment, consuming and taking only what is necessary for their existence, we take a lot more than we need.

5 Within the last century in particular, we have created the artificial bubble of “the growth economy,” which creates an ever increasing overproduction and overconsumption of unnecessary and mostly harmful products. By doing so, we are exhausting both the natural and human resources, and are now driving ourselves into a dead end.

So at present, our behavior could be compared to that of a cancerous organism within the vast surrounding natural system. And that natural ecosystem around us has fine tuned laws that work to preserve life.

Undoubtedly, nature is a nourishing, harmonious system, which is infinitely greater than us – a human species existing within it and completely dependent on it. And quite possibly, the earth can react toward imbalance as a healthy body would react to a disease or a foreign organism within it.

Therefore, if we want to appease nature, and if we want to thrive as a species, we should start by learning how to follow the basic laws of nature, and its homeostatic inter-relations.

We should promote the understanding that as any other living species, we are part of a vast self-regulating natural system, infinitely greater than the human species. We ought to discard the misunderstanding that we are above nature and have the power to manipulate it as we wish.

It is time for us to grow out of the irresponsible perspective that natural laws do not apply to us or that we could override them with technological advancement.

Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters, when people can neither properly predict nor defend themselves, are timely reminders of our imbalance with nature’s laws. A more predictable and sustainable future is possible if we settle into the interconnected natural system as its partner, adapting to its laws and principles.

The Change Starts Between Us

“The world will need more cooperation in the coming years, as climate change begins to interact with and exacerbate extreme weather events, in order to gain the lead-time needed to prepare for disasters. We will also need the collaboration among governments, the private sector, and academia that often leads to improvements in forecasting.” (Professors Shepherd and Knox)

As part of our connection with nature, we are also connected to each other and dependent on each other. And there is no doubt that disasters like Sandy stress the need for better human connection and cooperation.

It seems that while animals are balanced with nature by instinct, we humans have to exercise our unique capacity for conscious adaptation. We have to do it of our own accord.

How do we align our actions and relations with nature? By consciously adjusting our social values so as to achieve balance in human society and balance with the natural environment.

The natural system is not going to change its homeostatic laws. It has to maintain its integrity and balance.

But we can choose to embrace these laws and assume responsibility for each other and for the environment. The question is whether we will choose to do it as a result of more disasters, or through a pleasant, healing process of inspiring social change.

Image: “Question Mark Phoenix” by Roy Blumenthal from Flickr

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Hurricane Brings People Together

In Times Of Crisis, People Come Together

Hurricane Brings People Together

As Hurricane Sandy descended on the U.S. East Coast, a group of 350.org activists, a global climate campaign, gathered together and unfurled a giant parachute banner with the words “End Climate Silence” to increase awareness of the climate crisis.

If there is something to be learned from all the natural disasters befalling humanity in recent times, it is that natural disasters force people to put their daily routines aside and come together to help each other in the presence of a much larger nature coming down on us.

Here at MutualResponsibility.org, we would like to collect any stories, pictures and/or videos of how this hurricane has brought people together in order to emphasize that one way or another, people will need to come together beyond any seeming differences, and the many inspiring stories of human connection when faced by natural disasters shows us how such connection is possible.

Please add your stories, pictures and/or videos in the comment section below…

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The Court Jester Cannot Solve The Kingdom’s Problem

Court Jester

Court JesterToday The Central Bankers Seem To Be The Main Players In Trying To Solve The Global Crisis

Raghuram Rajan, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business assesses the role of the central banks in solving the global crisis in the article “The Only Game In Town.” He writes:

What should central banks do when politicians seem incapable of acting? Thus far, they have been willing to step into the breach, finding new and increasingly unconventional ways to try to influence the direction of troubled economies. But how can we determine when central banks overstep their limits? When does boldness turn to foolhardiness?

Central bankers nowadays enjoy the popularity of rock stars, and deservedly so: their response to the difficult and uncertain environment during and after the financial crisis has been largely impeccable. But they must be able to admit when they are out of bullets. After all, the transformation from hero to zero can be swift.”

But In Reality Banks Are Powerless In Assisting A True Solution As The Troubled Economies Are Not Only Financial Problems, But Part Of A Larger Human System Failure

Unfortunately, the whole situation is upside down.

The central banks, or any bank in fact, should not play any role in what is happening. The banks simply got into their prominent positions as a result of the excessive, constant growth economy forcing everybody into overspending, relying more and more on credit.

But these financial institutions, with their inflated and imminently bursting bubbles have no real bullets at all, they have absolutely no capacity to solve the crisis. It is the opposite. By pouring virtual money into the tanks of the broken system, all the banks are doing is delaying the inevitable recognition of the true problem: the foundation of the whole economic model and its serving cast. The troubled economies are not just financial problems, but a system failure as humanity is stubbornly pushing on with the wrong system at the wrong time.

The “rock star” bankers are just as real as other reality TV stars: they grab the headlines but provide no positive contribution.

A ‘True Solution’ Can Only Come From Dealing With The ‘True Problem’: The Globally Interdependent Human Network & How Its Members Should Behave In It

The banks should gradually withdraw from the arena leaving leaders and public to examine and understand how a global, interdependent human network works in a closed and finite natural system, and what new socio-economic model is suitable to provide a predictable and sustainable future.

Image: “all in jest” by Will Montague from Flickr

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A New Educational Paradigm Aimed At Solidarity

We need a new revolution, a massive radical attitudinal and behavioral change, if  we wish to halt the race towards catastrophe and save the world for the future generations. We need no less than a ‘re-education of humankind.'”

–Dr. Lourdes R. Quisumbing, an educator par excellence who has been the first women Secretary of Education, Culture and Sports in the Philippines. Quotes in this post are from Dr. Quisumbing’s article, “Values Education for Human Solidarity.”

Today’s Need For A More Holistic View Of Education

This calls for a paradigm shift in our educational philosophy and practice.

Instead of a rigid and compartmentalized knowledge-based curriculum, we should adopt a more holistic view of education which aims at the development of the faculties and powers of the whole person – cognitive, affective, emotional, aesthetic, volitional, behavioral; a teaching-learning approach which does not stop at knowledge and information at developing skills and competence, but proceeds to understanding and gaining insights, that educates the heart and the emotions and develops the ability to choose freely and to value, to make decisions and to translate knowledge and values into action.

The heart of education is the education of the heart.”

Cross-Cultural Human Solidarity: A Major Part Of The New Educational Paradigm

One cannot underestimate the role of education for international and intercultural understanding, which consists not merely in knowing more about different peoples and their cultures – their geography, history, economy, government, value-systems – but more in understanding and gaining insight into the factors and motivations underlying their behavior and appreciating their cultural patterns, traditions, customs, values and beliefs.

Human solidarity is likewise fostered by the realization and strengthening of the ties that bind us together in our common humanity: our human nature and the human condition, our common habitat and destiny, our universally shared values.”

Values Education: How To Love & Appreciate, & How To Translate That Into Human Behavior

Modern day education must espouse Scientific Humanism, a new Science with a Conscience, and a new Technology with a heart.

Valuing our common humanity, as well as our local cultural traditions, provides challenges and guides for designing civic education curricula towards responsible citizenship for our fast-changing world. …

But by values education we do not mean merely teaching about values but rather learning how to value, how to bring knowledge into the deeper level of understandings and insights; into the affective realm of our feelings and emotions, our cherished choices and priorities into loving and appreciating, and how to internalize and translate them into our behavior. Truly, values education is a holistic process and a total learning experience.”

Image courtesy of scottchan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Europe’s Nobel Wake-Up Call

Waking Up Europe

Waking Up EuropeThe European Union Was Awarded The Nobel Peace Prize For The Work It Has Down In The Last 6o Years, While Its Present And Future Is Very Much In Balance

Ana Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister and former Senior Vice President of the World Bank writes in her article “Europe’s Nobel Wake-Up Call:”

In a decision criticized and praised in equal measure, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s Peace Prize to the European Union in recognition of its contributions ‘to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe’ over the past six decades. But, to what extent is Europe preoccupied with ‘perpetual peace’ at the expense of its current, vastly different ailments? Is this award a swan song – confirmation of the moribund state of the European project, as the 2001 Nobel Prize was for the United Nations?”

The Full Potential Of A United Europe Has Not Blossomed Due To Self Interest And Lack Of True Vision

People should consider the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the EU as an award given to the potential of what Europe could become in case of taking on the full measure of the structure that was originally planned.

It is not true that Europeans are rejecting the European Union (as the article suggests). It is the politicians and main interest groups that have abandoned, or decided against full union due to individual or group interests. They are stopping the pursuit of a deeper integration that could have fulfilled the original potential. There are multiple examples in life proving that the simple people on the street are only interested in a secure life, predictable future, fulfilling their necessities according to their desires and following their usual customs. If they receive it from a supra-national governing body instead of a national one they would have no problem with it, as long as they perceive the system fair and democratic.

Unfortunately today, the same politicians and interest groups are swaying the public against this full integration again. In the meantime it becomes increasingly clear that partial unions have absolutely no chance of surviving. Thus, the present “united” economical structure, the single currency or the planned banking union, are just futile attempts. They are so illogical that one has to wonder if those at the top are doing it on purpose to prove that a full union is impossible, that it is better to fully abandon the project, because they themselves are not willing to go for it as it does not serve their own interest.

The Move Toward Full Integration & Mutual Cooperation

After all the past and present failures, and with the very obvious threats of national and international breakups and violent confrontations in case of a collapse, there is clearly no other solution but to move for a full integration, the creation of a single, united socio-economic system all over Europe, which later on can provide an example for humanity.

Instead of pointing fingers in all directions, politicians would become more beneficial to people if they explained, based on countless scientific examples and daily events of the crisis, that today’s globally interconnected and interdependent reality demands an equally connected and cooperative human network in order to survive and build a sustainable future.

This would be the united Europe that should be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Image: “Occupy Frankfurt” by Wolfgang Sterneck from Flickr

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Mutual, Round Table Discussion Instead Of Exaggerated Scare Tactics

Mutual, Round Table Discussion Instead Of Exaggerated Scare Tactics

Mutual, Round Table Discussion Instead Of Exaggerated Scare Tactics

Today The Most Frequently Used Way Of Expressing Opinion Publicly, In Hoping To Gather Support Is Through Exaggerated Scare Tactics

In his article “Scary Pictures” Bjorn Lomborg, an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, who founded and directs the Copenhagen Consensus Center describes the practice of people exaggerating their findings, claims in order to make greater impact on their target audience, many times scaring them, but by doing so losing their credibility achieving the opposite effect they hoped for.

Campaigners on important but complex issues, annoyed by the length of time required for public deliberations, often react by exaggerating their claims, hoping to force a single solution to the forefront of public debate. But, however well intentioned, scaring the public into a predetermined solution often backfires: when people eventually realize that they have been misled, they lose confidence and interest.”

In truth the practice described in the article is the accepted norm today for politicians, the marketing industry and basically any issue discussed when people try to prove their right.

As the article suggests, most of the time it is based on “good intentions” the exaggerating party usually truly believes in its truth, that it wants the best for others, to the public.

Still it does not change the fact that most of the time these efforts cause more harm than good.

Trying To Convince Others In A Forceful Way, Being Completely Convinced About Our Own ‘Truth’ Originates From Basic Human Nature

This practice originates from the inherent basic human nature, where each and every human being perceives a very limited segment of the whole reality, a segment which is fully filtered by the person’s self-serving calculations, how people always justify their own behavior. People consider this limited picture their truth

Human beings simply cannot behave in any other way, thus any time a single person, or even a group of people on the same opinion express a view, disclose their opinion, it comes out as a very narrow, subjective picture, many times in opposition to other peoples “truth.”

So is there no solution, and humanity will keep stumbling from one fiasco to another as people can simply not trust each other, believe other’s opinion, with 7 billion different “truths” all clashing with each other?

The Solution In Order To Arrive To A Common ‘Truth’ Is Through Mutual, Round Table Discussions

The only solution is mutuality.

Any planning, decision making and action has to be a result of mutual, round table like collaboration between people, which might slow down the process, but at the same time has a much better chance of success, as when people discuss things around a round table as equals, representing all relevant opinions, even the most contrasting, most opposite opinions on the subject, in between them they yield a common point that is the actual truth. By letting their opinions mingle with each other, and by focusing on reaching a mutual consensus, what remains as the collective opinion, above all subjective opinions, is the actual solution to the problem discussed.

In today’s globally interconnected world there is simply no other way of decision making and problem solving.

 

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Education About Interconnectedness Is A Matter Of Human Survival

Education About Interconnectedness Is A Matter Of Human Survival

Education About Interconnectedness Is A Matter Of Human Survival

Unfortunately, too few people have understood the evidence, or have grasped the true scope and significance of the environment. The systemic explanation of the causes of environmental deterioration and disaster is radical in a fundamental sense, i.e. reaching for root causes. People commonly perceive their ‘environment’ as the total of numerous separate interrelationships that have no apparent connections. In fact, these interactive relationships are ultimately, even though remotely, connected.

Although humans consciously interact with the total environment only in relation to particular aspects or elements, survival as a species may depend upon their understanding that those interactions occur within the infinitely greater and more complex systemic reality.

Science is progressively enlarging our awareness of this greater environmental context. Its ubiquitous complexity explains the rationale for the aphorism that ‘you can never do just one thing.'”

Today’s Social Behavior Is At Odds With An Interconnected Approach

The modern view of progress has been distorted psychologically in a way that has obscured its cumulative adverse impacts on humanity.

Human behavior, while driven by forces both internal (cerebral) and external (environmental), is moved by perception.

How people interpret what they perceive is largely determined by their own experience within their culture, and is a legacy of generations past, transmitting interpretations of reality which may persist as after-images even though the reality has in fact changed.

The man-nature dichotomy, the conquest of nature ideology, material expansion, and perpetual growth have long been dominant themes of modernity. They continue to be a mantra of social behavior, albeit increasingly at odds with science-based holistic systemic perceptions of reality.”

Few People Understand Interconnectedness

Moreover the ‘system’ is synergistic in that changes affecting one aspect of the system may cause changes in other parts of the system. It is truly impossible to do just one thing. Yet few people appear to understand that the ultimate environment is an interactive system and more, because it exists within a dynamic cosmos without which our living world is inconceivable.

The systems synergistics concept implies an ultimate unity of knowledge, elaborated recently in writings by E.O. Wilson (e.g., Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, 1998).Yet our published knowledge of the world remains largely specialized and segregated. This may be unavoidable if research is to advance detailed knowledge.

But there is also need to appreciate the connective, integrative, interactive aspects of holistic knowledge which we seem poorly equipped to comprehend, but ignore at our peril.

These possible root causes may be examined separately, but in the human persona they integrate to form a coherent outlook on life. The vision may be erroneous yet satisfying to a human urge for coherence and consistence with a personal view of self interest.

The Human Mind Hasn’t The Skill Or Experience To Yet Understand Interconnectedness

The most basic and important questions regarding human behavior have yet to be answered empirically by the sciences of the brain and nervous system, complemented by sociobiology. Our assumptions today are largely based upon inference. Yet inference, drawing on human history and observed behavior, may lead to pertinent questions and hopefully to reliable hypotheses toward averting hazards to the future. Returning to our question: Have the evolved capabilities of the human mind and culture failed thus far to sufficiently equip humanity to comprehend and evaluate the consequences – good or bad – of its accelerating far-reaching impact upon its environment and thereby upon itself? Jay W. Forrester, systems scientist at MIT, thought so, and in a 1971 article published in Technology Review he wrote:

‘It is my basic theme that the human mind is not adapted to interpreting how social systems behave. Our social systems belong to the class called multi-loop nonlinear feedback systems. In the long history of evolution it has not been necessary for man to understand these systems until very recent historical times. Evolutionary processes have not given us the mental skill needed to properly interpret the dynamic behavior of the systems of which we have now become a part.’”

The Success Of Our Future Depends On Education About Interconnectedness

Any successful society must be an educational institution. However great its commitment to individual freedom and diversity, it needs a code of civic virtue and a general devotion to the common enterprises without which it cannot flourish or survive.

Will a critical mass of society accept the leadership required to move humanity toward a sustainable and sanative future? The state of the world today may justify hope, but does not encourage optimism. Hope for a preferable future will be of little avail unless joined to action.

The resources needed to sustain mankind’s tenancy on Earth are present and available. How they will be used will determine the future insofar as that future may be shaped by human minds and hands.

All excerpts in this post are quoted from Dr. Lynton Keith Caldwell’s “Is Humanity Destined to Self-Destruct?.” Dr. Caldwell was a political scientist and principal architect of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act.

Image: “Multiple Gaseous Interconnected Gelatinous Enclosures Spawned During Overly Aggressive Agitation,” by Jeff Baxter on Flickr.

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Living As Cancer Does Not Lead To Happiness

Cancer

CancerAs Humanity In General Feels More Depressed, Emptier And More Afraid Of The Future Than Ever, The Search For The Right Definition Of ‘Happiness’ Is On

Robert Skidelsky, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University and a fellow of the British Academy in history and economics writes in his article “Happiness Is Equality“:

…The king of Bhutan wants to make us all happier. Governments, he says, should aim to maximize their people’s Gross National Happiness rather than their Gross National Product. Does this new emphasis on happiness represent a shift or just a passing fad?

It is easy to see why governments should de-emphasize economic growth when it is proving so elusive. The eurozone is not expected to grow at all this year. The British economy is contracting. Greece’s economy has been shrinking for years. Even China is expected to slow down. Why not give up growth and enjoy what we have?

No doubt this mood will pass when growth revives, as it is bound to. Nevertheless, a deeper shift in attitude toward growth has occurred, which is likely to make it a less important lodestar in the future – especially in rich countries…

…More equality would not only produce the contentment that flows from more security and better health, but also the satisfaction that flows from having more leisure, more time with family and friends, more respect from one’s fellows, and more lifestyle choices. Great inequality makes us hungrier for goods than we would otherwise be, by constantly reminding us that we have less than the next person. We live in a pushy society with turbo-charged fathers and “tiger” mothers, constantly goading themselves and their children to “get ahead.”…”

The Greatest Mistake People Make When Assessing Themselves Is Separating Themselves From The Surrounding Natural System, As If Humans Were Above, Separate of The Natural Environment

The situation is more simple than people think.

People tend to forget who they are. Humans are not some special aliens, disconnected from the rest of living creatures or the natural system they live in, but they are part of it.

Humans still belong to the group of mammals, the biological human body does not differ from other sophisticated mammals apart from small differences, the whole body and even the psyche is working based on the same laws and principles.

And what is called “happiness” in biological terms is an overall balance, homeostasis within the actual ecosystem, and in this case this ecosystem exists within a single human being, within human society and between human society and the rest of the vast surrounding natural system.

Happiness, the feeling of balance, the ease people can settle in life depends on how optimally they take part in the system with harmony.

Problems Humanity Experiences Today Stems From The Fact That The Present Human Socio-Economic System Is In Direct Opposition To Nature’s Law Of Balance

The constant quantitative growth lifestyle stubbornly pressed on despite it obviously collapsing is unnatural, it is going completely against the natural laws in the surrounding environment.

At the moment humans behave like cancer within the natural system. With the present system humans harm themselves, we have the human induced disease statistics – depression, divorce, substance abuse statistics and the collapse of basically – all human institutions as proof. Besides humans harm the general human society witnessed through social inequalities, growing national and international tensions, future-less and jobless youth, and humans harm the environment where again the proof is obvious from global warming to countless species extinction, ocean and air pollution, and so on.

Growth In A Closed And Finite, Interconnected System Has To Be Qualitative, Optimizing, Refining The Interconnections Aimed At The Well-Being Of The Whole System

The article claims that “growth is bound to return” but the return of quantitative growth is impossible. The laws surrounding humanity are unbreakable and if the human species is planning to survive with the evolutionary process, humanity has to adapt to the natural system instead of trying to bend it to match its selfish and greedy desires. The growth that is possible from now on is qualitative, like the maturing biological body after growth has finished.

As the whole global human network has evolved into the interconnected and interdependent state, from now on the processes should concentrate on changing our attitudes and relationships according to this interdependence. In other words, how to use interconnections in the most optimal way for the benefit of the whole organism, how to refine the whole system primed for overall harmony and balance.

We do not stand a chance, as the awesome natural forces during natural catastrophes show us we are no match for them: nature around us will not change, only we can.

Equality Within Human Society Has To Be Coupled With An Attitude And Approach That Is Based On The Unbreakable Laws Of The Natural, Living Ecosystem

Returning to the main theme of the quoted article, equality in itself does not lead to happiness. If we are equal in our tendency to exploit everything and everyone for our own favor, that would just lead to further destruction. This attitude led to the global crisis humanity is sinking in at the moment.

Thus social equality has to be coupled with the right attitude, an inclination towards a mutually benevolent relationships among people on a global scale.

Humanity has to climb down from the high pedestal and start researching and understanding the surrounding natural system from a new viewpoint. Not from the point of exploitation – how people can use nature for their own “misunderstood well-being” – but how they can learn nature’s laws so humanity can become a partner in the system, helping in the maintenance of the general balance and homoeostasis, and enjoying unprecedented quality of life through this approach.

Image: “55. cancer-information” by Tips Times from Flickr