One
idea struck me some years ago,
when I was walking down the street on an autumn afternoon. It was
simple and clear. It felt new to me. The idea that suddenly
captured my mind with a surprising power and hypnotic magnetism was
that all human organizations were a projection of ourselves, of our
own conflicts and duality,
of our brain...
...that the
mind is such a powerful unconscious force, that all the structures
and order we create are a recreation of it, an emergent result of
our most basic interactions piling up.
Mind,
marriage/partnerships, left and right politics, west and east
civilization, have the same architecture, the same structure, at
different level of complexity.
One of the
interesting aspects about this idea was that it frees (me) from blunt
judgement, from the need of defining wrong or right in matters that
are a mere reflection of this structure, this duality. I am as fond of the left side
of my brain as I am of the right one. I love my cerebellum and my frontal cortex. My mind does not work
without all its parts, even if my personality would be more prone to
use one side over the other for certain aspects of the thinking
process or my hippocampus is not as good as the taxi drivers'. In the same way that a father and a mother role complement
each other (or at least, should!), it is more about working together than taking sides or judging for right and wrong. Thinking of sides in this way, everyone would be
"entitled" to understand some capitalism principles without
disagreeing with socialist challenges and the other way around.
 |
| Brainkeeper Jaco Van Der Vaart |
I'm not a
philosopher, or a politician, or a sociologist, or a psychologist, or
a biologist. I don't belong to any political party. I'm one of the
many, one of the public, one of those in the middle, a woman, a mother, a professional, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a foreigner,
listening and observing.
So
this idea that simply appeared into my mind some years ago, is
resonating stronger and stronger every day. Just by seeing
what's going on, listening to what people say, reading the news about
how China is changing, the crisis
of capitalism,
civil wars popping out everywhere, the European crisis, US
internal challenges, Russia, how people are being
"re-politicised", science
and religion, how
the role of women in business and in power is being discussed, gay
marriage, light being drawn to child abuse etc. All these changes
are happening simultaneously and suddenly I cannot help but think that they are somehow linked together. This idea offers (to me
at least!) a perspective to what's going on, almost at every
level of our lives, and potentially gives me a new frame to interpret
it without going mad.
But of
course, it also opens some questions, so many questions in fact, that
I have set myself up on a small project.
Identity, polarity,
rhythm, asymmetry, hierarchy, power, governability, culture, national
identity, the role of women, the role of science, the role of religion, fear, instinct, survival tactics, ultimately
self-knowledge as a key to unlock world understanding...
So I'm
undusting some books, buying some new ones, following some TED and RSA talks and doing a lot
of thinking, during what it would otherwise be an uninspiring daily
commute to work, trying to put things together and maybe even trying
to write some sense out of it.
AB –
Originally posted Feb 2013 – re-edited 2014
Note:
recent studies have shown that there is no correlation of people
being analytical and using more the left side of the brain nor
vice-versa. I still refer to the polarities, patterns of behaviour and thought beyond the
physiological.
Links:
RSA animate - Ian McGilchrist: The Divided brain
TED talks - James B. Glattfelder: Who controls the world?
RSA animate - David Harvey: The crisis of capitalism
University of Oxford - Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams, Anthony Kenny: "Human Beings & Ultimate Origin" Debate
Huffington Post interview to Reza Aslan
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/zealot-author-reaza-aslan/5409a7e902a760b9a000055a
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