As usual, the big posts, when they come, come of their own accord. This being the first of 2012, a big year mostly because it is self-created by social movements, a collision between different cultures (mayan? who would have guessed), and suffering from the ignominy of not having a nice round figure, like 2010 or even 2000. In this post, we will find ourselves contemplating self-discipline, the necessary conditions that give rise to it, and how these has been displaced by the illusion of money and the authority of position. This has direct impact on my own personal life, and how alone I am, and how my social value is next to nothing, a good thing to contemplate at the beginning of the year! As well shedding light on the most exciting possibility of creating a non-bounded group, the birth of a new politico-economic unity -- perhaps the first and last of its kind! But first, a monkey beside a river...
a monkey beside a river
A beautiful river. Wide, so wide as to be mistaken for a lake or a sea. Clean, open horizon, uncluttered by mountains, trees, anything, almost mathematical in simplicity. The complex sparkling, the sun reflecting off a million waves, an ever changing pattern. A living thing, this river, unique with each passing moment, like the monkey on the bank observing it.
So the monkey plunges its hand into the living thing that is the river, and pulls it out, grasping tightly. It relaxes its hold, opens his hand and looks there -- no river. The monkey plunges his hand once again into the river, and pulls it out, but no matter how tight its grasp, the river eludes capture. So the monkey gets frustrated, gets excited in turn, jumping away from the water's edge, now hopping back, this damnable snake, this river, so obvious and big, so elusive and ungraspable.
Exhausted finally, lying on the bank of the river, an arm falls to the side, the hand slips into the water. Noticing the passing of water, the movement of the river. Feeling the passing of time, with this river, this living. Being part of the water, the moment of the river. Finally, being human.
conditions for self-discipline versus money and position
People have jobs. They work for the money. If the money was not there, then they would not work. For some people, or some of the time, we do the work and that's it, glad when it is over, washing the dishes, cleaning the toilet. For some people, some of the time, if you are going to do something, you might as well do it well, cooking food for others, fixing a car, teaching another a skill. However the job is done, people return to do it again and again. The necessary condition for getting a job done is it needs to be done, perhaps repeatedly. I have a blocked toilet upstairs, and if this continues, I will be taking a dump in already blocked toilet. Not good. It needs to be cleared, for it to be use sustainably as a toilet. And pooping definitely needs to happen.
Necessity is what is required to sustain living. This is the required condition for self-discipline. Because of the complexity of our social living, such necessary conditions have been replaced mentally with making money. We need to make money (to pay for food, electricity, sewage services), and thus, mistakenly, we perceive a need to do the job. But of course, do all jobs need to be done? Perhaps the toilet needs replumbed, perhaps the car needs repaired, perhaps the phones need connected, perhaps the proposal needs to be read or written. Or perhaps not.
Consider, for a moment, the necessity that is born with a mother's love to care for their child, of the love that Jesus or Mohammad demonstrated for their people. Consider the devotion that monks have to their order, or the incalculable acts of generosity demonstrated by people all around the world today. There is a necessity somewhere in here, a necessity that encourages us to be human, to exhibit qualities of ourselves that we can term self-less or virtuous. To live a principled life, to follow not the external form of law, or position, or money, but an internal and invisible form that poets might reach in exalted and agile leaps of faith, their their spirits outstretched, only to bring back words, baubles of air for they capture nothing, words such as principle and hope and love. There is necessity here, and we feel it, all of us, at one time or another, to return to this, to being human.
my social value is next to nothing
When I was a student, I did my best. Not with any particular amount of effort, just being attentive, doing what was asked of me. Some things need to be done, so do them, and do them well. My social value was high, as a student, because I accepted the collective wisdom of adults to learn maths and science and english literature, and sports too. And it was also high because I had groups of friends and we played sports and games. So, when I reached adulthood, the end of a twenty year journey, a whole generation had passed away, and my social value was high, locally, and presumably, globally.
In the adult world of work, there seem to be a lot of jobs that are being done, but purpose of doing them is not entirely clear. Digging oil out of the ground, so we can form plastics and drive trucks around so we can distribute food, makes some kind of sense. And I found, after twenty years of playing adult games and working as a math teacher, another generation has passed away, and it is clear that the global situation is terrible, at least environmentally. The toilet is blocked, and we keep dumping in it. Not good. The world of work, and this includes education and government and even religion, the adult world is broken.
My social value is next to nothing. I have used what social value I had to draw attention to alternative means of approach, from problem-solving to problem-prevention. In effect, I have exchanged the denomination of social value from information, knowledge and skills, from business and work, into a denomination of social value of wisdom, awareness and sensitivity, of responsibility and play. And this social denomination is hardly worth anything. Honestly, my social value is next to nothing.
my social value is near zero
Let me emphasise this point, perhaps too much for it makes for painful reading. It is a rather sad one, but only if we take it personally. At the time of writing, I am living alone, and this a consequence of the decisions I have made. I do not own a home, or even rent one. I do not have friends who call me up to see me. And I do not have a fraternity of colleagues, who respect me professionally. Honestly, the only people who actually look forward to seeing me, are my mother and my father, and the rare exceptional bod. Really. Not my siblings or their off-spring or partners, not my old school friends, certainly not their partners, not my old tango partners, not recent partner entrepreneurs. Not those I consider wise, not those I consider bright, excepting children. Only a couple of parents invite me to their home, for they witness the liveness evoked in their children. Next to no-one, a twilight zone of social spirit.
There are few adults in this twilight zone I frequent. The only people I have met and spend any time with, are the destitute insane, and I have met two in my wanderings. Those who take regular walks from their warm and comfortable homes because they are so unbearably unhappy with their partners and are in desperate need of human companionship. Or those pitiful ghosts who drone and wheeze their endless angst because they are "trapped" at work, even when that work is actually self-selected -- and I have met plenty of these. Or those blind optimists who dream of utopias out of reach, sing the praises of long-dead visionaries and poets, or from the comfort of their armchairs cheer mistakenly for reactionary conflict (eg arab spring) and then turn away from the consequential, bloody mess of fall-out. And a few high-flying geniuses so pre-occupied with pure things of mind or spirit that they shine with their own light and find their own way in this shadowy no-man's land.
I have been mistaken for a lunatic, a forlorn lover, a complaining worker drone, a misguided idealist, and even a genius! I only wish I was, because then I would have some comfort in some kind of fraternity, albeit a mutually deluded one. No, I have chosen the path, or it has chosen me, and I have been shaped by the love of my parents, the warmth of family, the self-selection of friends, the administration of teachers, the mutual growth of friends, the inspiration of adolescent students, the rare wandering genius, and this has resulted in the exchange value of my social worth to be near zero. I am alone. Which is ironic, tragically so, since my solution is entirely social! But this only makes sense if one understands why I have not found my place, why I have not found contentedness with some group, politically bounded as a UK citizen or culturally as a Scot, professionally as a math teacher or personally as a friend or a father, within a business of my own making or a fraternity of entreprenuers, or with like-minded hobbiests of GO or tango -- the only group that I identify myself with is, humanity. No less (however all-encompassing the intense worlds of children may be), and no more (hence no religious brotherhood either, alas).
the world's first and only non-bounded politico-economic group!
My solutions over the years reveal a certain pattern. It is evident to them all. It is to do with this singular identity, as being human. And thus the main problem to be overcome is miscommunication. Miscommunication of word between us as individuals, miscommunication between our social institutions, and miscommunication embodied as the mis-distribution of our natural resources. We need to realise the wisdom between us.
To this end, I am aiming to approach the top of our social pyramids, our executives, namely Richard Branson of the Virgin network. I am engaging low level entities, our colleges, with non-linear learning lessons. On the entertainment side, we are approaching tango communities to improve social dynamics, diminish the calcification due to cliques. And we shall propose a working methodology for business to conduct itself, using Pam's filtering process, Lloyd's non-directed group, Tav's or Wahome's trust metrics, my action cycles and perhaps macropatronage. If it works, we shall have formed a non-bounded entity. Something like the internet, or Facebook, but in the real world.
I shall find happiness, as a human being, once we are communicating well. My range is expanding from the middle frequency of adolescent, slowly into young adults though they can hardly believe what I am suggesting, easily into the mystery of the young like Anna and Joe, Wendy and Steve's kids, and the veritable wasteland of the old, and shall ever-so-slowly dawn into the adult world of my peers. This rate of communication, personally, shall be determined only by personal capacity (and I have even given up on buddhists to escape the mental contraption they have for a headset), something ineffable, something like innocence. AND, the rate at which companies and governments and various crystalisations of human minds dissolve, something I shall attempt to address over the next few months in this portentous year of 2012. AND, as a consequence, though we may only see the beginnings of it this year, the equable redistribution of resources, of food, energy, communications, commodities, service and experiences.
the timing of this year and our ultimate social value
So, pulling it all together in some kind of terse conclusion. I require discipline from others, merely to be human, that is all. And for myself too. To allow our souls to lift with the qualities of spirit we are gifted with, all of us, but not in some religious house, not in prayer, but in our homes and factories and offices. To bring ourselves to presence, to allow possibility to grow where we least expect it, to plant seeds in the concrete of our daily work. And should we manage this miracle, the harvest shall be a blossoming of our souls, a blooming of consciousness on this planet. But this can only arise if we exhibit the same kind of discipline we apply to work, more precisely that internal sense "work ethic", a strict self-discipline that will enable us to over come the challenges we will face not merely physically, but psychically. Money, work, institutions, governance, all of it, takes on different form, and this can be quite unsettling to the part of us that likes patterns and comfort. We must be comfortable with not understanding, and still giving things a go. An adventurous attitude. Courageous. Determined in not knowing.
I have been describing myself as hard-nosed recently, evoking the manner of Alan Sugar or Steve Jobs. I shall not suffer fools gladly (my teaching experience was a strange mixture of im/patience) and though it is against my nature, which is rather forgiving and laise faire, I shall allow personal responsibilities to fuel this drive. My parents' condition is deplorable, for his genius and her heart. For my personal love for the next generation, and the love of their mother, I direct this personal motivation into my action, giving it momentum and force. It may occur to you that expressing my vulnerability in this post is foolish, such self-disclosure in a business or even a personal setting is social suicide. I have nothing to lose, for my social value is next to nothing. We have nothing to lose, considering the cesspool we are making of nature's divine garden. Indeed, we have everything to gain, or re-gain. The beginnings (for it is a result of so many beginnings since we invented computers) of a non-bounded political-economic unity, in this year, 2012.
I shall be calling this entity ecological economics, eco^2. It has a boundary of engagement that is like a living thing. Starting as a trickle, you may feel its movement as a stream with each new person who aligns, and with all the momentum of a river, it will make a sea of us. Don't try to grasp it with your mind, merely add to it your humanity. It is a social unity bounded by humanity, a natural boundary. It is a living embodiment of our social value. It is our home; as our individual consciousness has made a home our individual body, so our social consciousness has made a home of our planet.
Be human! Be well!
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