===

“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”

unitarian minister and slavery abolitionist Theodore Parker

==

“However, even if we accept that citizens are not primarily causally responsible for our poor information environments, it could be argued that they nonetheless have a remedial responsibility to mend them.”

Solmu Anttila

===

James Fell, who is a must read for everyone, recently published a piece called “the moral arc of the universe is bullshit.”  James, being James, suggests the arc of human nature is more “go fuck yourself” rather than any commitment to greater good. Anyone who reads my thinking knows I do not agree. But. And this is a big but. As I wrote years ago, I am constantly disappointed with humans. I have come to the conclusion that while people are inherently kind, and the arc of the moral universe does eventually bend toward justice, the arc doesn’t bend unless an exponentially larger amount of morally just people are involved – than the morally unjust people. I have said, again and again, the morally unjust seem to have an outsized power and outsized effect despite their fewer numbers. The corrupt, morally and behaviorally, simply bludgeon society and civilization with a wanton disregard for chaos and mayhem. They act without norms and rules and regulations, and laws are viewed as simply things that other people do. I do not pretend to understand why they think that way or act the way they do, but it worries me how many people view them as successes. What I would point out to those people, and have, is success in the moment is not reflective of success in the future. From the heights of morally corrupt wealth gains, the falls are many and deep. It would behoove us to point that out and maybe even celebrate the fall more often and more loudly.

Which leads me to the arc of humanity.

“I’m trying to make the case that humanity is worth it.”

John Green

If you step back into United States history, I could argue the westward expansion of pioneers fostered many of the Democratic beliefs and practices. What I mean by that is the problems facing pioneers were unique from their past experiences. In fact, many of the problems, and issues, required solutions difficult to understand to the non-pioneers. I could argue every wagon trail, and every ensuing settlement, became an infant republic. I could even argue basic social democracy was embedded in initial settlements as class distinctions almost seemed meaningless where hard work, teamwork, and speculation not only was the line between death and survival, but also thriving in that it could transform whole poverty-stricken communities, or individuals, into a higher wealth strata. It was a unique type of social equality where, in many situations, resilience and hard work was everyone’s initial wealth. The problem in discussing today’s arc of overall humanity is that there is a myth that all these pioneers were unusually individualistic marked by an independence of thought and action and adventure. The reality was the majority of pioneers understood that it took a village to be successful, if not to survive. There was an acknowledged interdependence, and interconnectedness, which created a bond of community and ultimately prosperity. The true individualistic individuals were few and far between and while, mythically, we empower them with superhuman morals and ethics the majority of the truly individualistic people had what James Fell called a ‘fuck you attitude.’ A few became exorbitantly wealthy and powerful (at the expense of others), but for the most part the majority – through hard work and resilience and a sense of community – bent the arc of morality and progress and prosperity.

Which leads me to the larger lesson: there is a difference between myth and reality.

We celebrate individualism (and so-called grit), but in reality, resilience is found in community bonds. Social cohesiveness is simply stronger than any one individual. I will also add that a community of morally just is always more powerful than the morally unjust. Why? The morally unjust are zero-sum and individualistic. Even in a team they always have an eye out to screw the others to their personal benefit. They are constantly seeking to tear down while communities are constantly seeking to build. And maybe that is where I will end this section. Builders always win in the end. I do not pretend to understand people other than I believe people like to build things.

Which leads me back to human involvement with arcs.

“Consensus reality is gone. We are blessed to live now, in the West, in a strange world without

common sense. As fact grows stranger than fiction, we should embrace the surreal and try harder to imagine more outlandish fictions. We might begin by accepting that we are being lied to all the time, that most of what we hear and see is an illusion, misrepresentation, or performance—and that’s fine. Life has in many ways become a fiction, reality is vanishing under its own representations, we are suffering from collective delusions, we are teetering on the precipice of the real, with a multiverse of fantasies spinning out beneath us.”

Dean Kissick (on contemporary art)

Arcs are patterns. And therein lies possibly humanity’s greatest present challenge. In a truly globalized, interconnected, world we are constantly aware of everything and, yet, incapable of perceiving the patterns, and arc, of the greater whole. This actually doesn’t drive us ‘up’ to engage and macro-ly seek to see patterns, but rather it drives us ‘down’ where ‘vibes’ replace real patterns. I think this is called apophenia (seeing patterns where there are none, overloading the particular with excessive significance, and reframing one’s own disparate observations as generalizable cultural commentary). It is within apophenia where conspiracies thrive. If you cannot ‘see’ a real pattern you create one. I do not pretend to understand conspiracy embracers, but I clearly understand why someone seeks a conspiracy explanation. It is here that I will suggest a conspiracy is not being involved in the arc of humanity – it is simply unhealthy speculation about humanity. Involvement is actually a team sport. So, if you read “we are created equal with inalienable rights which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as an individual endeavor, you are pursuing something other than being involved in they arc of humanity. You are simply becoming involved in creating chaos where each individual particle never bonds with anyone, or anything, but rather spins out of control in some unbounded space.

Yeah. The arc of humanity is not bent by any one individual. That is a myth. Reality is the arc of humanity can only be bent when a community of people decide to establish a pattern. I imagine I do not even pretend to understand how people do not understand that. Ponder.

“The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”

John F. Kennedy

==

“America, fundamentally, is an incredibly rich country with a sick society.”

Noah Smith

==

“The primary use of ‘misinformation’ is not to change the beliefs of other people at all. Instead, the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

Charlie Warzel

==

Let me begin by saying well I feel incredibly fortunate with regard to my current financial situation. That said. Throughout the years I’ve had more than my share of sleepless nights worrying about money. What would happen if my car broke down the next day. How would I pay rent two months from now or even could I afford to buy the book that may help me professionally. Now. Financial worries are real. but they also take on a disproportionate size in our minds. This isn’t to suggest that financial worries should be diminished in any way, it’s just that in all the worries that we tend to face day to day the weight of a financial worry is significantly heavier than many of the other burdens.

I begin there because I have spoken with hundreds, if not thousands, of people across the United States as well as Europe and I’ve heard about financial worries and financial burdens. The reality is that burden weight is weighed solely by the individual bearing the burden. What I mean by that is that, objectively, you could look at one individual in one situation versus another individual in another situation and clearly see that one is facing significantly different financial worry than the other. The problem is that financial worries are subjective to individual context.

Which leads me to rich but sick.

The United States is an incredibly rich and wealthy country. Even our low-income people live healthier and more robust lives than their counterparts in almost every country in the world. The overall wealth of the country is almost astounding. The amount of luxuries and ‘wants met’ versus ‘needs met’ in almost every home in the United States is the envy of the world. It almost makes you think that it’s become far too easy to believe that what you have is what you deserve. This isn’t to say that there aren’t real financial worries and in fact for such a wealthy country we seem to avoid some of the easier solutions to ease some of the more prevalent financial worries. Accessible affordable child care. Expanded Medicare, or even a Medicare-for-all option for the total population (anyone ever wonder how good affordable healthcare would be now if Republican governors had embraced it from day one?). Affordable education not just to colleges, but trade schools. These are simple programs proven to be extremely effective across the world as well as proven by the United States during the pandemic to ease some of the financial worries and allow each individual to maximize their potential by shedding some of those worries. Regardless. There obviously will be people who are struggling financially day to day if not month to month, but America is an incredibly rich country. So, what is the general feeling of malaise the citizenry feels? Maybe its, well, we are rich but have a sick society.

Which leads me to who, and what, is making us sick.

Let me begin with the oil companies, the banks, the tech companies, and the big businesses. Simplistically most of them are selling out our future for present profits (and power). This isn’t to say they do not offer some value, just that they tend to be short term focused versus long term focused. Most of them are focused on making money and gaining advantage any way they can, take shortcuts, and choose quick fixes over long term societal good. Their sole focus on short term and quick bucks means they have less interest in building communities, i.e., their responsibilities of ‘in and of society.’ They shrug off societal/community responsibilities and accountability under the guise of profitability. This becomes even more important as other common sensemaking institutions falter. Church decline, decline in news trust, decline in trust in government, even decline in trust of doctors. If society cannot trust anyone, or anything, it will inevitably get sick. Rich, but sick.

Which leads me societal unhealthiness.

The combination of general wealth tainted by some extreme inequalities and the inability to apply some fairly common-sense solutions creates an unhealthy society. The basic asymmetry creates an imbalance which makes everyone a bit sea sick.  Worse, it creates some cynicism (which is corrosive to trust). Even worse, hopefulness is then seen as naive. If you ARE actually rich, you hold on to power with ragged claws. If you don’t FEEL rich (even though you do have some wealth), you relentlessly try and bring down those in power you blame for that feeling. Both of those things create a sicker society. Look. All I know is that hope is risky; you can lose, and you often do, but history shows that if you try, sometimes you win and that hope can be a cure for societal sickness. Ponder.

==

“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have.”

Howard Thurman

==

Sounds touch things within us. What I mean by that is an external sound rings a certain bell within us. And that little bell within us guides our thoughts, memories and even our inner compass. I imagine I am suggesting that sounds trigger the genuine within. This genuineness can span discomfort to comforting. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that silence is also a ‘sound’ (just think of the silence that follows the last note of your favorite song).

Anyway. Your genuine self is a tricky thing. It “is” and, yet, it can be elusive in its clarity. And maybe that is where sound comes in. Sound offers a framing for clarity of the genuine within. So let me offer up some sounds:

• “and the dreams you dare to dream … really do come true.” These specific lyrics in “Over the Rainbow” make you ponder your dreams and, well, dreams are a reflection of your genuine ‘you.’ What more could you ask of sound?
• Church bells in the distance. It doesn’t matter if you are religious or not, believe in God or any higher being, church bells play to your soul and make an offering with their sound to what you genuinely feel about faith and life. They make you genuinely reflect.
• The crunch of fall leaves under your feet. It has always confounded me that the sound of dead leaves can make the air crackle with life. Maybe it is that subconscious conflict that creates some genuine feelings about life – past, present and future.
• The little sniff your dog makes as he nuzzles you when he knows, somehow, that something is wrong. The little sound tells you he is there in case you need someone. It is the sound of someone loving you more than they love themselves – maybe even more than Life itself. I tend to think it is the sound of unbounded companionship. I tend to believe it genuinely teaches you more about yourself than anything else.
• The drone of a propeller plane overhead. Have you ever noticed they seem to only be heard on days with blue skies and big puffy white clouds? It makes you genuinely think about where you are and where you could go.
• Horses’ hooves clattering on cobblestone. No matter where you are or what you are doing this sound will place you somewhere back in time. I am not sure there is another sound which sounds like history better than this one.
• Violins. I could probably have chosen any instrument well played, but the sweeping sounds of a group of violins or the single mournful tug in your heart from a solo violin in a Beethoven <place any great composer here> symphony? Well. Close your eyes. You genuinely “feel.”
• “Yes” <also “everything will be alright”>. There are moments when you listen to someone say something and then there are moments. You have shared your thoughts, maybe your dreams, maybe something you have held inside for a very very long time, i.e., something genuine. Nothing beats hearing you are right or all will be okay to create just a bit more solid foundation of whatever is genuine about yourself.
• The sound of rain gently falling on tree leaves. Maybe best in the morning just as you wake up. That light pitter patter on leaves just outside the window. Enough said.
• The soft quick crack of an ice cube placed in an already cold drink. You want something cool to drink. The crack is confirmation that you now have a cold drink. Even cooler. I sometimes believe this kind of ‘clarity sound’ provides an affirmation for a genuine desire.
• The pages of an old book rustling like an old parchment as you turn the pages. Its not just the rough feeling of that thicker paper, it is the sound that the pages make as you flip one over to read the dated type font and the words leap off the page with the sound of the rustling. Reading is never better. I sometimes believe it taps into genuine feelings the written words prompt better than ordinary books.
• The opening notes of your favorite song. You don’t need more than 5 seconds and you know exactly what the song is. More importantly? With the sound, within those 5 finite seconds, you enter an infinite space of memories, feelings, thoughts. This sound expands time. Some would call this sound a genuine miracle.
• James Earl Jones’ voice. From Roots to Lion King to Darth Vader, he could describe your death to you and you would sit enraptured to the final word. I imagine my point here is that a genuine voice taps into the genuine you.
• The inner voice we all have. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like James Earl Jones <which would possibly make it easier to pay attention to and believe>, but you hear it loud and clear on occasion. It is the sound of the ‘genuine’ within you. It is truly the only true guide you have. I wish it would speak more often, but I always try and listen closely for its whisper.

And, of course …

• Let me bundle a bunch here. “I love you” from someone you love, a sincere “thank you,” “I couldn’t have done this without you,” pick a phrase, there are a number of genuinely offered thoughts, in words, that pack such a punch you reflect a bit on what is genuinely important to you.

I’ll end with something I believe, but cannot prove. I believe we all ignore a shitload of what is genuine about us. That ‘genuine’ just makes us feel uncomfortable. It’s the shit that we just feel better ignoring. That is where sounds come in to play. A sound doesn’t allow us to ignore what is genuine within and we have to face it – the good and the bad. Ponder.

==

“What followed then was what invariably follows in the wake of every tortured consciousness. From what it dreads or hates, yet knows or feels to be unescapable, it takes refuge in that which may be hoped for – or at least imagined.”

Theodore Dreiser

==

“The road back to hope, to a new sense of place, is through the common spaces of our dreams.”

Teresa Hines

==

Search “hope” on my blog and you will get 24 pieces with Hope in its title and 760 pieces with hope somewhere within the piece. I am an unabashed Hope supporter as a proclaimed “cynical optimist.” So when Michele Obama said “hope is making a comeback” I certainly agreed.

Hope never really goes away, it just gets smothered if not suffocated by “realist,” “pragmatic” and the narratives of darkness and despair. The world does everything it can to strip away the value of hope.

The true challenge to hope is that the hopeful are pointed to as the ‘strange ones’ with unrealistic thoughts. It can even be suggested they have impossible thoughts. That’s absurd. Society demands hope and demands the civility to interact with strangers without holding their strangeness, or hope, against them and without forcing them to surrender or their strangeness … or hope. In fact, a healthy society permits people to maintain the traits that have made them hopeful. This means a true community is one with the ability to live with differences let alone let everyone benefit from it.

Which leads me to suggest hope does not come easily and certainly, or rarely, under its own impetus.

Hope demands some negotiated common interests. Hope needs a community which inevitably creates a safe haven of shared worries, shared anxieties, and even some shared unhappiness if not shared cynicism or skepticism. I could even argue those things anchor a community so that a thriving community can build shared hope, shared progress and shared prosperity upon that foundation. Yeah. The road back to hope is through a common space of dreams.

Which leads me to suggest dreams pave the path for hope.

Pragmatic desires undermine hope for progress. What I mean by that is hope for progress is never a matter of evidence nor is it a matter of some tangible objective. It is usually a coalescing of dreams turned into action (or actions). That said. Nothing is easier than to join all the cynics and skeptics together around a question which can be settled, theoretically, empirically. The world does not work that way. It cannot. The entire concept of progress is strewn with uneven bricks of evidence. And even in their unevenness they can offer glimpses of what could be, and what can be. They offer glimpses of hope. In their imperfection they pave the way for Hope. Unfortunately, that unevenness can also suggest a lack of universalism. It can suggest someone can step forward and other cannot (or will not). They suggest someone’s dreams are possible and some others are impossible. That suggestion is wrong. Progress is more a matter of changing direction and rather than thinking of progress as directed to a particular goal we should think of progress as a hopscotch from an uncomfortable situation to a less constrained situation which permits dreams to find a more comfortable space. Universal progress is a vague, if not impossible, objective. And that is where hope gets screwed. The promise of progress is an easier objective; if not easier promise. Its transactional, its pragmatic, and its small. Progress is not finite, it’s not ‘from A to B’, it’s not a straight line. That said. A symptom of lack of progress is a feeling of trauma, an infection, a pain. A symptom of lack of progress is a waning Hope.

Which leads me to Hope demands perspectives on, and from, many things.

Remember, hope is neither linear or transactional. This is important because when in a finite game, where the end is the objective, it is almost impossible to keep broad perspective or see beyond “that is not possible.” Hope demands one embrace at least some aspect of ‘anything is possible.’ As I have said before, moving from impossible to possible is progress. We should make it a vision. A mission. A logic. A technology of the mind. A flag. A war cry. A challenge. A hope. A strength. A bond. A promise. A map. A beginning. A talisman. A tattoo as something you truly believe in something. Anything is possible is actually about progress, not some specific objective or outcome. Anything is possible is at the soul of Hope. And it is making a comeback. Ponder.

==

“even a camel will drink poisoned water if it thinks it is dying of thirst”

==

“This is what I want to make clear today. A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the Internet, should never run our government or command our military. He says he wants to make America great again, but, more and more, it seems his real message is Make America Hate Again.”

Hilary Clinton

==

One of the things I have been most consistently amazed by with regard to Trump is how often he suggests America is a shithole country. In fact. His whole premise for being a president is grounded on convincing everyone the country is in a shithole and he is the only one able to ‘un-shithole’ the country. The deeper the shithole you are convinced we are in, the deeper you will go on your solution. As someone brilliant once said, “extreme conditions demand extreme responses.” A shithole is an extreme condition. Trump is an extreme response. If you live in the fantasyland universe of America is in a shithole,” you will be a Trump supporter. But his whole schtick is to suck everyone into the shithole belief system, using a stream of lies and half-truths. Trump’s message, dumbed down for America, is simple: Make America great again and, uhm, this only works if enough people believe America is in enough of a shithole that it isn’t great now. I shared his image in 2015 to show he is a master at creating shithole perceptions:

These perceptions have some psychological roots. You look around at the relative carnage of the day seeing your plans in disarray and hopes & dreams nowhere in close proximity to your current reality and you think to yourself “how the hell did we get into this shithole.” That is where conviction comes into play. You, or we, are not really in a shithole, you just have had what you thought would happen or should be happening, well, not happen. And you have some threads of belief that exactly the same thing will happen again tomorrow AND is happening to everyone. Your conviction of ‘something better beyond the horizon’ is a little blurrier than it was the day before. Now. To be clear. Decades ago globalization, tied to multinational companies and institutions seeking to make larger profits through lowering costs, hollowed out a shitload of manufacturing jobs and businesses. That is a reality which has certainly created a halo of attitudes, perceptions, and some individual realities. Let me add small groups of people are desperately in worse shape, some people are in good shape, but have not improved, most people are doing fine, but hearing all the talk about the top 1% and feel entitled to some of what they got. That is reality. We have a higher standard of living than any country of any size in world. Our inflation is lower and our economy better, low unemployment, low overall violence <with isolated pockets which people distort to a larger view>. We have an incredible history of assimilating immigrants and, uhm, if immigration was truly an existential threat to “a great America” one would think that we would have done something about it sometimes in the past 20-ish years that the Right has been highlighting ‘invasions’ (usually every 2 years during an election cycle). To be clear. The US immigration system needs both structural and policy improvements, but immigration is not an existential issue.

Regardless. America is not a shithole country, and generally speaking we are in an economic boom (of which a significant swath of people are benefiting from) and we are actually investing in a better economic infrastructure now (which ensures not actually becoming a shithole country).

This may be the greatest example of the gap between perception and reality I have seen in my lifetime.

We ‘see’ something and then extrapolate it out in our minds to being a larger systemic issue. And maybe that is Trump’s most egregious asshole superpower. He distorts “the one” into “the many.” He implies an isolated situation is indicative of the greater whole. And he does it with such hyperbole <and lies> even if most people do not believe it, it elevates whatever perception you may already have a little higher <therefore, he drags more people closer to believing we are in a shithole, i.e., not great>. I imagine the fear Trump should have is that if he drives his dystopian view of who and what America is so far down into some wretched dark hole that people will only see darkness and enough people will sit up, look around or out the window and say “shit, it isn’t that bad or dark.” Oops. Not a shithole.

• ** “The America I live in is imperfect, but compared to the rest of the world, I think we’re doing okay.” Colin Cowherd

Which leads me to how Trump, and inevitably MAGA, perverts the idea of progress.

Trump looks at progress in terms of individuals seeking individual satisfaction in combination with an encouraging an attitude of individual escape from individually suffered discomfort. That thought is a derivative of something that Zygmunt Bauman suggested “progress no longer refers to forward drive and that society, rather than chase after a target spinning along ahead of us, instead seeks to make progress under the guise of ‘a lucky escape imperative’.” In other words it inspires the urge to run away from something, a crisis or a shithole disaster, that someone is suggesting is breathing down our necks. Let me be clear. Progress is not running away from something, but rather it is running towards something. That toward something should be a desired dream of a distant goal – one which progress should, could, and would eventually bring those of us seeking it, a better world not only for us, but one that serves all human needs. It should be the pursuit of shared improvement rather than just individual survival. And maybe that is where I will end because that is where the Trump vision begins. It doesn’t begin with any shared improvement, but rather individual fears. The Trump vision is grounded on the thought nations have lost influence on the course of not only its own affairs, but the affairs of all people which means that it has lost influence on guiding the world toward a ‘better destination’ and has lost the ability to mount a defense against all varieties of fear. The Trump vision encourages us all to believe this, therefore, it encourages us to dwell on your individual fear that you live in a shithole. It suggests your worry is not only an immediate worry, but a long-term worry, i.e., even if in your own life it doesn’t feel like a shithole, the shithole seems imminent. From there they offer no real solutions for progress and prosperity, just dubious tactics to salve your individual worry. Trump a black hole of no solutions. Shit. Trump IS a shithole asking people to live in his shithole view. But those who do see themselves in the shithole worldview, well, they are camels. And even a camel will drink poisoned water if it thinks it is dying of thirst. Ponder.

==

“In the very midst of destruction and decay, we can now find striking evidences of birth and life. It shows clearly and, I think, indisputably, that with intelligence and a modicum of luck the emergent civilization can be made more sane, sensible, and sustainable, more decent and more democratic than any we have ever known. If the main argument of this book is correct, there are powerful reasons for long-range optimism, even if the transitional years immediately ahead are likely to be stormy and crisis ridden”

Alvin Toffler 1980

==

anyone else want to curl up on a lily pad and float away

==

Sometimes, too often in fact, the world cannot only feel insane, but you feel like you are going insane. It’s a response to stress. Stress on beliefs, stress on mindset, stress on reality (and unreality), stress on time, stress on self-capabilities, stress on resources. They literally can make you feel nuts.  It’s the uncomfortable dance between overwhelming and, well, whelming. Often, our ‘whelming’ mechanism is to ignore the larger stuff or always view it through simplistic terms. I actually believe it is a coping system and I tend to, while being frustrated with those people, give them a break. They just don’t know how to understand something so big and so overwhelming and can’t see any way to control it so they see it as a blob and deal with what is in front of them.

Which leads me to lily pads.

Some of us navigate the overwhelming bigness by finding lily pads of certainty in the present – and ongoing presents. That doesn’t mean you don’t feel like you are drowning on occasion and it is also tempting to just stay on your lily pad, but lily pads offer some stability. My own sanity has pretty much been grounded in actually giving lily pads of certainty to people. By giving I get some affirmation that some things can be managed and some things are certain and some things can overcome doubt.  I imagine I avoid the allure of certainty by permitting others to touch upon it on occasion. Maybe it is my way of avoiding being overwhelmed because, well, it is an overwhelming world where uncertainty overshadows certainty, facts exist like stars in the sky, but truth resides in combinations of stars (and not enough people look to the sky) and progress can sometimes appear elusive. Maybe lily pads are sane-ish zones in an insane-ish overwhelming world.

Which leads me to sanity.

My sanity most likely resides on lily pads. One step away from drowning I imagine. But maybe they offer small sane stages to dance within an insane world. Maybe everyone needs lily pads. Ponder.

“Complicated problems originate from causes that can be individually distinguished; they can be address­ed piece by­ piece; for each input to the system there is a proportionate output; the relevant systems can be controlled and the problems they present admit permanent solutions. On the other hand, complex problems and systems result from networks of multiple interacting causes that cannot be individually distinguished; must be addressed as entire systems, that is they cannot be addressed in a piecemeal way; they are such that small inputs may result in disproportionate effects; the problems they present cannot be solved once and for ever, but require to be systematically managed and typically any intervention merges into new prob­lems as a result of the interventions dealing with them; and the relevant systems cannot be controlled — the best one can do is to influence them, or learn to ‘dance with them’…”

Professor Roberto Poli

======================= 

“It’s easy to make a buck.

It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” 

—–

Tom Brokaw  

============================ 

“In a dream world, everyone is treated with the same amount of respect. But until we reach that goal, I will lend my ear, I will lend my voice to any boy, girl, man or woman who does not feel like they can protect themselves.”

———-

Jennifer Lawrence

===========

Well. When you get to my age you sometimes pause and think “has anything I have done really made a difference.”

I tend to believe it is a reflective thing we naturally do because most of us have invested gobs of energy in some career, gobs of energy outside of the workplace with home & family responsibilities as well as gobs of energy in at least some ‘self fulfillment’ stuff.

We kind of want to assess life in maybe an ROI type way. That ROI idea may sound a little weird, but starting all the way in grade school where they pound into your head you should be involved in extracurricular activities <on top of schoolwork> all the way throughout your career you tend to measure your Life in an “energy-to-achievement” ratio way.

To be clear <part 1>.

We draft resumes being encouraged to espouse “differences we made on a business” wherein we take basic responsibilities, shit we are paid to do, and stretch it out into some dramatic outcome. Our professional lives seem to be driven into some simplistic ‘where I made a difference’ encapsulation which sadly derives it of the true rich & royal hues.

And, yeah, that matters. It matters because it is, more often than not, in those swirling colors where you personally find satisfaction – and meaning.  Yet, almost all of us distill our differences into simplistic black & white terms, or, in other words, we are encouraged to sell ourselves as “I am a good ROI.”

Now.

To be clear <part 2>.

This ‘pause & think’ isn’t about doubting any personal ability, or smarts or even accomplishments. I assume I am not that different than most people my age that I assume I have some ability, some smarts and some accomplishments.

The ‘pause & think’ is more about the ‘degree of.’

Am I really that good?

Am I really that smart?

Are my accomplishments really that good?

You start thinking about whether you have truly made a difference or if your “wins & accomplishments” were simply pedantic grind-it-out every day shit and that your losses were losses that didn’t mean anything anyway. Or, in other words, we are encouraged to think of our lives as “was I a good ROI.”

Now.

If you truly think about that you start thinking about what you have done and ROI.

=================

“Hey, if I am going to lose, let me lose doing something.”

Sam Seaborne

=================

Ok. I say all that because I received a couple of unexpected messages recently. The kind of messages that makes you pause & think … “maybe I did make a little bit of difference in some corner of the world”:

—————

Hi Bruce! I hope you’re doing well! It’s been a little while since we’ve talked. I just caught up with +++++ and a group of <college> students in Chicago last week. You set such a great example of leadership and teaching young people, including myself, a few years ago. I can only hope to have the same impact on this new group of students. I sincerely hope you’re doing well and I hope to keep in touch!

—————————–

Thank you so much, Bruce. You know I think about the day you pulled me into that little conference room at 151 W. 4th Street to tell me you were bringing me on to +++++++ – a lot. You saved my career that day. I will always be grateful to you for teaching me so much over the course of that year. Thank you for everything.

——————–

I am fairly sure no one gets a lot of these messages so I am fairly sure almost everyone cherishes them. They reflect some “return” on whatever we have invested.

But. You know. It is quite possible I look at ‘making a difference’ and my own personal ROI a little differently than a lot of other people. I know I would love to leave behind a legacy-like idea but, maybe more importantly, I would like to leave behind a legacy of ‘he made a difference’ – however that comes to Life.

That drives me and what I do and say <and write>.

The dilemma with pursuing thinking like this is while it has a high appeal for success <because it means ‘something’>, it is difficult, time consuming, <honestly> has a relatively low chance of success and is not the kind of thinking that really pays the bills. I imagine any life ‘purpose’ decision, combined with the fact you have to sustain and maintain everyday life responsibilities at exactly the same time, makes you ponder this unfortunate dilemma.

I can unequivocally state anyone who makes a conscious decision to ‘want to make a difference’ should make sure they think that decision through. It is not one to be made flippantly and while I shared a couple of notes which makes it all worthwhile to me, mostly you do not get much positive feedback.

That said.

I will offer a thought as you think about the dilemma.

Some guy named John William Atkinson wrote Motivational Determinants of risk-taking Behavior in Psychological Review in 1957. He suggested that if you can choose the grade of complexity <difficulty> of a task most of the decisions are taken in a mid-complexity-level. Too easy tasks or too difficult tasks can neither provoke a strong feeling of satisfaction nor a strong disappointment and vice versa.

Highly motivated people often choose a realistic complexity of tasks whereas low motivated people choose tasks that are finally to easy or too difficult for them.

But. Here is where I think I would sit good ole JW Atkinson down and have a debate. If I set aside the fact bills have to be paid at some point, I would say he doesn’t give ‘appeal of success’ enough emphasis. Especially if the appeal of success is tied to “doing something” or maybe better said ‘doing something that may truly matter.’

Huh? As Sam Seaborne says “if I am gonna lose let me lose doing something.” What I mean is that if you consciously decide to ‘go big and win big <or lose big>’ your satisfaction criteria changes and, therefore, you are willing to plow your way through more complexity and difficulty.

Look. I don’t think I am different than most people. We all want to ‘do something.’ Deep in our heart of hearts we want to know that we have done something that matters. I imagine, in a ‘big impact’ thought kind of way, somewhere in all of us we would like to leave the world a better place than the way we found it <and everyone can define the extent of ‘better place’ in their own minds>.

A friend of mine once pointed out that this ‘go big ideal’ can often simply be making a smaller difference in someone’s life. He is right. And if that is as good as it gets, well, that ain’t bad. But sometimes the desire to ‘do something’ is bigger than individuals or individual moments. That doesn’t make it ‘better’; just bigger. Bigger as in my case I take ‘world’ literally and not figuratively.

That ‘bigger’ matters because Atkinson is suggesting that the size of the ‘do something’ legacy task can often lead to a complexity that increasingly makes it difficult to be successful <but the prize more tantalizing>. I think what he misses is that a desire to make a difference can mentally shake the motivation etch a sketch.

Anyway.

At some point I think we all make some decisions on whether to compromise ‘greater purpose’ versus ‘everyday grind it out needs & responsibilities.’ Day to day responsibilities <not just bills but true responsibility to others who count on you> is a real life factor in whatever you decide to do or not do. It’s not like you have a blank Life sheet and put on it “do something that matters.”

The sheet is never blank.

You have cars, mortgages, children, mates/partners, work obligations, general shit that needs to get done. In fact, if you think about it too much, you will start thinking “holy shit, I want to make a difference but how the hell does it all happen?”

Well.

In the kindest sense you learn to balance or juggle.

In its harshest sense you compromise.

I would argue far too many of us confuse those two things and more of us actually compromise than we juggle. And I fear compromising has left far too many people numb to life or maybe just numb to their dreams. Or maybe, more specifically, numb to ‘doing something.’ or, maybe worse, numb to making a difference.

Me? I think I have always had some fear of that numbness if I end up compromising and avoid it like the plague.

I don’t know. What I DO know is that when you get to my age you focus a lot less on the ‘what did I do’ and ‘what did I not do’ and ‘compromise’, and a lot more on “difference achieved.”

Sure. I, as everyone else, certainly want to be happy. Live. And love. And be loved. Travel. See things. Meet people. Meet more people. Learn. And have offered some value in all that.

But, today, I’m focused on “doing something that matters.”

====================

“The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.”

Thomas Merton

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Did I really do something that can leave the world a better place?

Did I really do something that made a difference?

Atkinson is/was probably a shitload smarter than I, but I gotta tell ya … even with all of his complexity & poor likelihood to succeed thinking, well, in my mind if you even have a glimmer of hope of getting to do something big … something really big … something that matters in a big way … something that someone would know really made a difference … I think you gotta go for it. It sure seems like you would want to do something, anything, which lends a voice to those who aspire to greater things themselves.

I mean, what the hell, if, in the end, I am going to lose or look like a loser, I want to know I lost doing something. In my mind I want to work hard at making a difference so that at some point, when all is said and done, there was a bunch of people saying “I wish I had sent Bruce a note.”

‘Cause I don’t need the notes. I just need to know they felt like they should have. In other words. I made a difference.

Just to close off this thought:

====================

“You know the Greeks didn’t write obituaries, they only asked one question after a man died, ‘Did he have passion?’”

quote from the movie Serendipity

====================

Even at my age making a difference can happen starting today. As I wrote in my obituary post years ago:

An obituary is not about what you can undo from what is done.  You don’t undo. It’s about moving on.

That, my friends, is a big thought.

Because a lot of people want to go back and fix or ‘undo.’

 Once again.

 You can’t. 

But obituaries can be written at any time.  In fact.  Many obituaries are written … well … when they are written … and that means they are written with “what is” as the case and point.  I guess what I am suggesting is that you can choose to unburden yourself from the past at any point. The good, the bad, the indifferent … none really matter.

Write your obituary from today on.

In other words, start making a difference today if you have not already.

In other words, seek to maximize your ROI to the world around you.

==

“I don’t know what they are called, the spaces between seconds – but I think of you always in those intervals.”

The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

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“Social capital. Connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arises from them.”

Robert Putnam

==

We think we never have enough time. For anything. We constantly feel rushed and forced to ‘do’ rather than explore. Maybe that is true; and maybe it is not. But the consequence is that we don’t think of time as something to be used; we just ‘manage within it.’ Well. Maybe we should explore the spaces between seconds for a bit today. that may seem crazy, but if we average (which means there can often be much more) 30,000 decisions a day, well, the space between seconds can loom just a bit larger. Now. That last point becomes a bit important. There are a shitload of good things swirling around us at any given point, any given space between seconds, but I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge technology has a nasty habit of over-empowering the more nasty parts of society. Or maybe the issue is we never really defined what we thought a better society was nor even offer up a vision to everyone, so that (1) technology overtly created things that would nudge us toward it – space between second by space between second and (b) show a scenario to society at large that they would incrementally nudge themselves toward somewhere within the space between the seconds – within the 30000 decisions they make daily. All that said. Everything is not positively emergent, therefore, spaces between seconds become important (as possible leverage moments).

Which leads me to what’s in the space between seconds.

Cultural norms, or societal norms, dominate the spaces. And if cultural norms provide the micro rules of individual behavior, then social capital is the emergent result of individuals creating cooperative communities. To be clear, not call cooperative activity generates social capital, the most productive cooperative activity is captured in repeated social interactions. Anyway. This is important because norms drive thoughts and thoughts beget actions. Think about something strongly enough and it will influence not only how we think, but how we act. It shapes what we do. Yeah. We become neurologically what we think. If that is true, I imagine we should be asking if we cannot think clearly, what do we become? As we get cognitively bludgeoned the bludgeoners actually impose a version of determinism. The technology, and overstimulation, exploits the natural loopholes in free thought and free will, and begins to shape, well, us. Biologically our brains are always in flux adapting to new information, new stimuli, new circumstances, and new contexts. This begets the question, in a 24/7 world, what if the circumstances and context are always in a flux? Can a brain constantly in flux accommodate a world in flux? Look. The brain, and all the neural circuits, are all subject to change. Feelings, seeing, thinking, learning, remembering, even perceptions, “the brain has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions” (James Olds). And, yet, to adapt, some things must be cast aside.

Which leads me to the power of the spaces within seconds resides in the flux.

Self is not a centralized all powerful entity impervious to time, space, ideas and connectivity. Self is a collection of constantly changing microsociety of ideas within images of what the mind ‘sees’ as well as ideas of what ‘ought to be.’

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.

Thích Nhất Hạnh

That said. It is within the spaces that we actually assess; in real time.

• How am I different today then yesterday?
• Did I make a difference to anybody or anything?
• What could/should I do differently?

Yeah. In the spaces between seconds, we assess growth, impact and improvement/progress. Sure. Its good if we reflectively ask these questions to ourselves to assess how far we have come as well as how far we have to go, but the rubber hits the road in the space between the seconds. The space of microsocieties where larger societies are crafted thread by thread; stitch by stitch.

Which leads me to technology.

We cannot pretend that the space between seconds is too little to matter just as we cannot pretend technology itself doesn’t matter, i.e., it is how we use it that matters. I will suggest it is healthy to ignore the technocrats as, well, an inventor is not the most reliable judge of the value of their invention.

“if the experience of modern society shows us anything, it is that technologies are not merely aids to human activity, but also powerful forces acting to reshape that activity and its meaning.”

Langdon Winner

But the reality is many of our routines, and lives, follow the paths laid down by technologies. I don’t believe it’s a stretch to suggest that every technology is an expression of human will – in some form or fashion. What I mean by that is through our tools we seek to expand our power and control over circumstances as well as time and space. Well. I bet that sounds complex, if not overly complicated, when applied to spaces between seconds. Well. It is. But life is nothing if not complex or complicated.

We have convinced ourselves we do not have time for complex

And simplifying things is actually destructive – even to micro spaces like those between seconds. Oversimplification is not efficient. It actually demands more time in a variety of ways. The two simplest ways it does so is <1> the time we overinvest attempting to isolate the simplest version of what is anything but simple and <2> the amount of time & energy we have to invest to thwart misguided behavior & reactions to our oversimplification. I would be remiss, because this section is about technology, if I didn’t point out technology’s entire reason for being is to simplify. And it is human nature to take it’s simplification and, well, oversimplify everything. Technology destructs time and space and we embrace this destructive behavior gladly.

We do this destructive behavior because we have convinced ourselves that we all have shorter, and shortened, attention spans.

We do this destructive behavior because we have convinced ourselves in our perceived “never enough time” world we have to simplify everything <to fit everything in>.

We do this destructive behavior because we have convinced ourselves that in a blizzard of nonstop things constantly vying for our attention that the specie between seconds are (a) irrelevant and unimportant and unpowerful, or (b) catastrophic tipping points worthy of everyone’s attention.

We do this destructive behavior because anything micro is easy to not understand.

Anyway.

All I can really say is that if you navigate the spaces between seconds well, you will most likely live a meaningful, and full, life. Ponder.

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“Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.”

Anaïs Nin

I used to think society’s, or civilization’s, journey could be followed left to right, maybe not on a horizontal line, more like a roller coaster, but definitely like a timeline of sorts. I imagine I thought of a bit like continuous improvement, or progress, even if it had some fits and starts.

I do know we certainly talk about it this way. Agriculture revolution, industrial revolution, whatever revolution. Internet 4.0 <implying 1.0 and upwards>. And we relentlessly tie #’s to people to show “growth” on this semi-linear journey.

But I think I was wrong. Heck. I think everyone was wrong.

I actually think the better mapping of society and civilization is viewed like an atom.

Different cultures and people and ‘civilizations’ zooming around like electrons circling the nucleus.

From a grander narrative perspective this seems like I am suggesting who we were is what we are and what we will be. And, yeah, simplistically I imagine I am on some level. And if you buy that, conceptually, because all these electrons zooming around, because culture, and civilization, is made up of billions of ‘ones,’ it may often seem like we lose our ‘center.’

We really don’t.

Honest.

We don’t.

The center is always there. It is solid. It remains, and will always remain, the compass for that which is right. The nucleus holds it all together. However. What circles the center, the billions of ones with different demands and different needs and different likes and dislikes all of which desire different accoutrements for happiness, they never remain still and very often collide with each other.

And exactly the same time there are media channels and advertising and movies and magazines all screaming at the top of their lungs trying to distract us from our center with slivers of less then meaningful distractions. Distractions that make us question our center or maybe what we think is important <which can be very different from our center>.

Let’s face it. some of the people circling the center can be real noisy shits. In addition, the shit that circles our centers can be noisy sonuvabitchs. All so noisy that, well, it can be the only thing you hear.

And therein lies my point.

I disagree with Anais. Society, or civilization, doesn’t lose its center.

It cannot.

Why?

Because the ‘ones’, the billions of electrons themselves, never lose their center.

Because we, the ones, the individuals, don’t lose our center it’s just that sometimes we lose sight of it. Or we just cannot hear it on occasion.

Or maybe we just don’t listen to it hard enough.

Or maybe it whispers to make it more meaningful for us.

I don’t really think it matters.

Because we don’t lose our center. The center is always there, it is within us, as individuals and as a whole. It is the 8 billion <give or take given the few raging assholes in the world whose center is in their ass> and it is within the ones and it is all the same center.

Call it the moral compass.

Call it the good that resides within everyone.

Call it ‘knowing what is right and what is wrong.’

Call it the soul of humanity.

But ever suggesting we lose our center?

C’mon.

We never LOSE it.

We may misplace it on occasion.

We may just not be able to hear it over the cacophony of Life.

But we never lose it.

Which leads me to losing sight of the center.

Society is an abstract idea grounded in concrete norms, principles and beliefs. The problem is that the world has become less and less concrete and more and more abstract. This creates a societal shift in which structures that bound some individual choices, institutions and guard the valuable repetitions of routines and patterns of acceptable behavior struggle to maintain their shape long enough to let society gain some shape and structure. The cacophony of the world, and some of the tools bludgeoning society, deconstruct time and space so nothing can settle. Open societies have always been vulnerable to those in power (hands of fate), but in today’s world, a globalized world with a myriad of conflicting ‘hands of power’, many of the past certainties just can’t be obtained. So society and social life retracts not to some ‘center’, but rather to safety (they are often not the same). People hide within tribes, live behind walls, carry guns, and start embracing a number of activities and habits which simply increase the sense of disorder in the world through the paradox that the individual feels they are building order. The problem is all of these actions and activities are a function of the fact that a sense of fear is embedded within, stifling our ‘center,’ and, simultaneously, permeating daily routines, attitudes and mindsets. Circling back to fate, this gives us a sense fate will always strike without warning and is indifferent to not only us, but the order and certainty we are trying to construct for ourselves individually. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that infinite progress becomes unattainable in this situation as we substitute an uninterrupted game of finite objectives and tactics and our dreams get smaller and smaller. This all gets compounded by a governing elite which encourages us to believe there is no possibility of existential security through larger collective actions and shared interests. Instead, they encourage everyone to focus on individual survival, i.e., everyone for themselves, all cloaked in self-responsibility and individual expression. All this does is increase fragmentation and continue to tear apart the basic principles of collective action and shared interests and that tears apart our natural, human, center. Paradoxically, this creates some significant issues for governance. By encouraging all of this, society no longer believes they can be protected by the state or, at minimum, they are unlikely to trust the protection offered by those governing. As a consequence, the citizenry will encourage lashing out with military force or simplistic things like tariffs or isolationism as a reflection of an acceptance that there are certain forces that they cannot control and even worse there are no longer any hopes to be able to subdue the forces which could infringe upon individual survival. This is a negative mindset, negative against globalization, negativity against collective interest, negative against interdependence, basically negative against anything that optimizes or maximizes potential progress and prosperity and certainly negative against our ‘center.’ This is a world of despair. As Oscar Wilde said: “a map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth even glancing at for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing. And when humanity lands there, it looks out and seeing a better country, sets sail.” Progress always resides in the chase of utopias never the realization. A utopia is always simply just an image of another universe different from the existing universe we know, or know of. What does this have to do with a quest for center? Well. The center of our being, collectively and individually, relentlessly anticipates a universe originated entirely through human imagination and human betterment. If you seek to leave a universe of grindingly monotonous life, you must imagine another world. It is at our center in which this imagination resides. Ponder.

==

“That proves you are unusual,” returned the Scarecrow; “and I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed.”

The Land of Oz

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“Men have become the tools of their tools.”

John Stuart Mill

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Let me begin in an odd place. Progress is the inevitable increase in complexity. This means when we speak of a simpler past, in many ways, we are correct. The less things are connected, the more simple it is. And if there is one thing one could say about civilization’s progress, it is that we have been quite good at inventing things that connect us. The consequence of that progress is, well, increased complexity. This complexity has a variety of different consequences, but let’s focus on individuality today.

Which leads me to self-expression as a tool for individuality.

Today’s world demands that we each, individually, cultivate a habit of constant self-expression. More and more we are encouraged to ‘be yourself,’ “bring your whole self everywhere,” and more and more we are encouraged to become more aware of our ’emotional selves.’ This is encouraged whether we want to or not or whether it’s healthy or unhealthy with regard to the health of “me.” This happens because we live in a self-expressive culture and society. In addition, we are constantly encouraged to trust our instincts and our impulses above anything else. In other words, trust the things inside ‘me’ and distrust the forces outside that we perceive discourage our instincts and impulses or even suffocate what is best for me. All of this means self-expression is a weapon against a world attempting to make us less unusual, less distinct, and less of ‘me.’ I would argue this isn’t really a true battle’, but I don’t think it’s too far off to suggest that everyone wants to etch a sense of self in the walls of the world – through behaviors, habits, and attitudes. The trouble arises in that, paradoxically, self-love has a nasty tendency to encourage unhealthy focus on instincts and impulses. Unhealthy self-love isn’t always ego-ism, but it does encourage ignoring wisdom from others and the outside world. Along those lines, true love demands connectivity and through that connectivity it has a nice tendency to counter unhealthy instincts and impulses by balancing them out with what other people value. In fact, true love eliminates the distinction between me and you. I want to be careful with the word eliminating. I do not mean to suggest that ‘me’ is completely erased, but rather me has a reflective mirror with which to objectively and subjectively reflect upon itself. “Me’ becomes a bit of a blend of all the people one has met and all the conversations one has had. Its kind of like Hanzi Freinacht’s transvidualism. Anyway. In other words, your personal and unusual no longer reside solely in the purview of ‘me,’ but also in the context of the collective. I would argue this is where the healthy unusual resides.

Which leads me to ‘me’ and competition.

I don’t think it’s a big stretch to suggest society encourages competition as a means of maximizing one’s “me potential.” Well. That is fraught with peril. For example. In recent research lower social-class university students (and other adults) do worse than their higher-class counterparts on a reasoning task only when they’re led to focus on outperforming others. Competition, in other words, exacerbates social inequality. In other words, competition constrains potential.  I would posit this occurs because people with higher status, and wealth, believe life offers them more chances even if they get something wrong, while lower class people feel like there is less margin for error. I would also posit competition encourages ‘less unusual’ among the masses, i.e., conformity enhances probability of survival/some thriving, as well as encourages mediocrity. I would argue that in a competitive world, every ‘me’ must to start with where power lives. This is counter to self-reliance, self-responsibility and ‘power of me’ narratives because all of those things suggest you should think in terms of your influence on the world. Instead, in a competition-based world, you need to first and foremost understand your influence is in the hands of the existing power. This is painful to say, but there are no real independent individuals in this world. I would be remiss if didn’t point out technology has exacerbated this issue. Technology makes us feel more independent and, yet, the reality is it makes us more dependent upon other people’s opinions, attitudes, beliefs and input. We have, in other words, become tools of our tools. Which leads me to communities of unusual. Communities of unusuals may seem weird to suggest. And, to be clear, I am not suggesting a conformity of a certain type of unusual, but rather I am suggesting a coherent community of those who are unusual in some way. I suggest a community because when you are in groups, you can be very powerful. You can change things. You have confidence when things go wrong that you don’t when you’re on your own. It changes the concept of power. In fact, it is Grace Blakeley, at the end of Vulture Capitalism, who reminds everyone that when people work together, they have more power than any system.

Which leads me to eccentricity (the word most associated with unusual).

I, personally, do not believe unusual is equal to eccentric, but let me explore eccentricity a bit. I could find the only person to have looked into eccentricity: David Weeks, an Edinburgh psychiatrist and co-author of the 1995 book Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness. What he discovered during a ten-year study of 1,000 peculiar people < including a Chippewa Indian who walked everywhere backwards and two Californians who hypnotized frogs> might surprise you. I think most people believe that extreme eccentricity is a short step from serious mental disorder. But, in fact, Weeks’s subjects suffered less from mental illnesses such as depression than the majority of the population.

Fewer than 30 had ever been drug or alcohol abusers. He also found that eccentrics visit the doctor 20 times less often than most of us and, on average, live slightly longer.

The study conclusion? People benefited from non-conformity. Simply put, those who don’t repress their inner nature in the struggle to conform suffer less stress. Consequently, they are happier and their immune systems work more efficiently. Overall, Weeks found that eccentrics tend to be optimistic people with a highly developed, mischievous sense of humor, childlike curiosity and a drive to make the world a better place. Well. Kind of maybe makes you start thinking about envying eccentric people rather than laughing about them, huh?

Anyway. I believe eccentrics are the people who tend to see problems <and life> from new and unexpected angles.  Their slightly odd, off kilter, perspective allows them to conjure up innovative solutions. They are the visionaries, even within smaller individual life moments, who make giant imaginative leaps. Weeks, in his study write up, suggested maybe that like the occasional mutations that drive evolution, eccentrics may provide the unusual, untried ideas that allow human societies to progress. Not too shabby for folk who are very often dismissed as cranks and crazies and nutjobs.

“No new horror can be more terrible than the daily torture of the commonplace.”

H.P. Lovecraft

Which leads me to I am worried about the world.

Society, and communities, appear to have abolished any type of eccentricity <or individuality> within meaningful power positions. Society, which tends to dictate behaviors, seem designed to promote the rise of the ‘accepted and acceptable’ behavior.  Think about that. One can be fairly sure that you won’t find too many Teslas surfacing in the next few years as they are weeded out early by the application of standardized policies designed to produce standardized human beings. When I was younger it seemed like businesses had their share of quirky, slightly nutjob, people and they added color to the office. They added a dimension to the work, and workplace, which sometimes made a tough day better and a tough assignment less challenging. Not always, but at minimum it made the experience more interesting by far.

Anyway.

Look. I am not suggesting more people be eccentric, but maybe possibly less people should find conforming as important as they do. Maybe embrace being, well, unusual. That’s it. If for no other reason than a research study suggests you may be happier.

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

In the end I imagine the challenge remains that we reside in a world that glorifies individual success, yet, our greatest power lies in our ability to come together. A truly empowered and resilient society can only arise from a sense of unity and collective purpose, not self-interest. How can we reclaim the power of the collective without losing our sense of self? Maybe we should be asking how we can create more communities of unusual. Maybe it will be the communities of unusuals who will be most likely to have the ability to navigate increased complexity and ensure progress for civilization. Ponder.