The endless conversation [part two]

What are we willing to suffer to solve our problems may be a decent question to ask at this point. For me personally, it seems that I am quite willing to put my body through pain and stress at a gym, yet unwilling to deny myself a piece of chocolate (or an entire block). We all have these areas that we are willing to suffer for and others that we will not go near. This seems natural. But, what if the solution to our problem lays in an area that we are unwilling to suffer yet it is imperative that we solve the issue? As an example, it seems that we have a few global environmental issues on our hands. Whether man-made or natural, changes in the climate will have drastic effects on the way in which we live and likely, even our survival as a species. I am no expert, but it would appear whatever the solution is, it lays in an area that would mean we would all have to completely restructure the way in which we operate as a society at government, industrial and community levels. The problem is, our society and the cultures held within (which we all created and are all a part of) are both uncomfortable with change and attached to current processes. The solutions probably lays in a cultural no go zone.

Change is movement, and movement requires energy (force) this force applies pressure (stress) and things move and affect other things which in turn, affect more. With our massive brains, we have been able to harness and direct energy ourselves. This gives us the ability to direct change without relying on nature to do it for us. This is great except, we don't fully understand all of this complex universe in which we live and how our direction of energy is going to knock-on to other nodes in the system. So, we limit it to what we do know because what we don't know we can't factor and, it is generally scary to think about as it is enormous and the unknown contradicts our clever image of ourselves. Due to this, we end up using our hard-earned energy maintaining what we know or developing where we feel comfortable with change. This means that the society we have created with all of our collective thoughts over however many millennia has a built in system to protect it from change, even though, because it lays within a much larger system that influences it, change is inevitable and has been proven in countless ways, right down to our very own DNA.

Perhaps we just aren't willing to ask questions. Society can't ask questions of itself, yet each human component that makes it up can investigate (using the mental simulator) independently, discover and make small changes that could in fact become enormous changes down the line. But doing so would eventually require thoughts and actions that lay outside of the groups norms and, we know how much we don't want to leave the group. We would much rather leave the thinking up to the smart people with high IQ's and degrees that are qualified to do the quality thinking for us. This seems like a decent process yet they too, with all of their intelligence are consistently caught in the same trap as the rest of us. Remember the smoking and the fossil fuel examples? Expert scientists may have made and developed the goods, expert business leaders and marketers sold them, but we consumed them and therefore we must all take responsibility. This is a system after all. Without a market, every product fails.

In a training session recently, one of my students got an adjustable desk and we talked about it a little. This is the kind that goes up and down at a touch of a button to avoid or alleviate back pain. These seem to be a good idea and perhaps every office worker should have one as standard but, that is a different matter. Another member of the group had had one for a while already and I asked how often he used it. He replied not so often, but he adjusted it whenever he felt pain in his back. We tend to only shift our position when we are in pain, under pressure, uncomfortable or suffering. If we know this is the case, we can mentally simulate potential physical, psychological and emotional pain areas without any risk. Wouldn't we then have a chance to move the proverbial desk before the pain starts?

Talking about risk, the risk assessment of a situation is something we take very seriously but very few understand. I recommend reading up a little if you haven't already as it is great to have even a basic understanding of human thinking biases. Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking Fast and Slow' will give a very good view of the matter but perhaps you can find something better. In general though, the human mind is always looking for certainty. Security. We want a sturdy roof over head, a partner we can trust, a stable job, guaranteed returns, safe streets, positive feedback, and social acceptance. And, we are willing to do anything to get it, even if the price is the security of another. As long as we and what we see as ours is safe.

But this quest for security should raise a question: does the treasure exist at all? Thinking about this a little and applying my severely limited knowledge of the universe, I think the answer is a definite maybe. Everything is moving, no matter how slightly. Each individual atom has a storm of action inside and we know that there are much smaller particles again in the form of quarks. But, this doesn't mean that they are even the smallest of course as tomorrow we may discover more or perhaps we already have. Anyway, all of these tiny components make up all the other components and none of the parts, whether big or small, are perfectly still. Going back to the unknowable interconnected universe in which we live, every movement has an affect on other parts and so on and so forth. Even if the initial movement was never witnessed, i.e. the big bang (is that a thing still?), every other part has been affected by it and will be seemingly affected forever. Therefore, no matter how secure a position is made, in reality, there are innumerable forces always acting to shift it. Which means every position for everything is always experiencing a level of risk.

Taraz

<&t 3 >>>

As this is such a long post, I have split it into sections and will post one per day and link backwards to the rest. I am not sure if this is the best way to do this and I am open to other suggestions.

This post is very personal for me and as the title says, will never actually be complete. I really hope that you will stay through until the end and there is something in here that helps you or someone you care about.