Schools fail us by teaching students how to work with knowledge rather than how to deal with ignorance, not be a sucker with the unknown. Nassim Taleb This neither begins nor ends with schools. In a time when the most popular public stance is to celebrate our fears and idolize those who act on themContinue reading “Questions of Identity”
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Dissensus
This kernel of insight was unavailable before. This mechanism has always worked, but its workings were outside anyone’s awareness. This is one of the key new factors we carry with us into this uncharted territory we face.
Imagine that Power wasn’t a zero-sum game.
This should be easier than it seems, Power isn’t a zero-sum game, not real Power. Let’s set up the parameters of a conceptual equation. Power exists in an unstable relationship with Control and Faith. Those without Faith in anything beyond themselves – actual, not professed Faith – also, unsurprisingly, feel a strong need to maintainContinue reading “Imagine that Power wasn’t a zero-sum game.”
A Sea Change
Since starting this blog in July 2009 I’ve posted 436 essays for a total of well over 500,000 words. Over the past year and a half the frequency of posting has dropped off. While this is not an announcement of an end to this blog I do find it’s time to let you all knowContinue reading “A Sea Change”
Investing in Trust
Investment is generally taken to mean following a strategy that allows us to siphon off value. A way of taking value from a living system and turning it into a quantity of abstract financial counters that we can then hold so as to use these at will to gain advantage. We strip a living webContinue reading “Investing in Trust”
Musing on Medusa, Reflections on the Gorgon’s Head
Those of us who fear chaos, through our efforts to control chaos, bring about more chaos, a more virulent chaos, a more violent chaos.
“Relax! Take it easy.”
We hear this often enough. These days it probably sounds like good advice. Yet behind it is a troubling assumption. One that touches on how we keep running in circles, returning to the same traps again and again. We confuse ease with relaxation. What does it mean to be relaxed?
Drowning in facts
You might say we’re drowning in facts. We have enough information before us to come to valuable conclusions concerning how we’re trapped in a vicious dynamic that can have no happy outcome. A dozen times a day we can realize how a particular institution or corporation is acting to further destruction. And…? We click onContinue reading “Drowning in facts”
An Exploration, navigating without a map.
I keep returning to the lessons of futility. We are admonished to, “Try harder!”in the face of that which we cannot change, leaving us spinning our wheels…. It has to do with cause & effect…. But this is only part of what’s going on.
Consuming Community, Consuming Our Selves…
There come times when what asks to be done is for there to be silence. This can seem harder to accept than many other demands the moment makes on us. We have momentum. We consider our habits valuable. We expect and we expect others do too. Expect a certain “output.” This gets tricky when theContinue reading “Consuming Community, Consuming Our Selves…”
It’s a crime, part II
Must we be pure? Whenever we confront the depths of our corruption we hear this whining plea. Ego deflates us, How can I meet such a standard? A false question. We are what we are. We will do what we feel we must do. What is in question is what do these questions mean? WhoContinue reading “It’s a crime, part II”
Beyond Judgments and Opinions…
We all have opinions. We all make judgments. None of us is satisfied…. What if these are connected? I’ve long felt a hankering for getting beyond opinions. It’s easy to see this as a form of striving after certainty. We see opinion, as it relates to truth, as a negotiation with authority. Whoever has authorityContinue reading “Beyond Judgments and Opinions…”
Horizons of Significance 