“A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet”
- Laozi (Lao Tsu), Tao Te Ching
It is difficult, even now, after many days of contemplation, to adequately explain why Stranger Worlds has become a journey I must undertake. It’s not that the problems I have been wrestling with are complex, but rather that they are simply beyond most people’s capacity to believe. To take up the metaphor upon which this entire project rests, the world within which most people now live is unable to imagine the world I have been forced into... it is clearly crazy, it sounds like a ‘conspiracy theory’, it couldn’t possible be true. Yet here I am, in a world I do not wish to live in, and as such, I am forced to take steps to change my world - and as the Tao Te Ching reminds us, the long road ahead must begin where we are standing.
The shock entailed in watching reality shift, like one of those time-travel stories where a trivial accident sets off the butterfly effect, leaves its mark. Yet it remains utterly invisible to those now living in the world of the New Normal - many of whom will be quite baffled by my remarks. I would call this the greatest coup in human history if that didn’t give the false impression that it was orchestrated rather than just unfolding. It is much like World War II. Certainly there were conspiracies within and leading up to that terrible conflict, but no-one would accuse those tragic events of having been planned rather than flowing from a grim confluence of international folly. What just happened to our planet was just like this - a global disaster wrought from the intersection of greed, fear, and foolishness. We are, after all is said and done, still the same species we were in the 1940s.
Despite belonging to the same species and living on the same planet, we imagine ourselves in very different worlds. The Hindu, Christian, Sufi, Buddhist, or Discordian each encounter events in their own way - that’s what makes each of their worlds unique. Yet all can learn truths from one another, because authentic truth can be translated between worlds (although not always easily). Each world also entails risks springing from its own unique way of imagining our planet - empire, for instance, transpired to be a danger embedded within Christianity. Likewise, the New Normal has its own risks that emerge from elevating technology above scientific investigation, fighting disease rather than encouraging health, and enforcing censorship rather than engaging in debate. In short, this bitter world that has been forced upon us represents our planet’s first technocratic empire. Without a single shot being fired, it occupied nearly every nation on Earth practically overnight.
What I do not wish to do here is dwell upon the disaster that just came about. I have examined in great detail what happens when a person takes up that journey, and it rarely leads to the conversation I want to have, nor is it clear it can lead to the kind of world I would want to live in. After all, those who have fallen into this world of spurious necessity are still our brothers, sisters, and everything in between and beyond. Since it is neither coup nor conspiracy (although it contains elements of both), the New Normal cannot merely be exposed. Rather, it is a kind of madness, like the one that impelled the Roman or the British Empire in their days, and as such there is hope that it can be cured, or at least exchanged for a less dangerous lunacy.
In pursuing Stranger Worlds, I hope to remind everyone of the many different worlds that we lived in before the New Normal undermined our capacity to think, and our freedom to live in different ways. Surely these worlds still persist, just as the Roman invasion of Britain did not end the world of the Britons, it merely shaped it. What’s more, suffering through imperial occupation sometimes invites people to pursue movements of peaceful solidarity, as it did for Gandhi. So I could do far worse than to remind people of the worlds that we were living in, and perhaps are still living in, albeit under occupation. If we can find a way to recover the good life that corresponds to any of these worlds, that discovery in itself would be a journey worth beginning.
Hi Chris. As I noted in a reply to one of your “Meaning of the Word” replies I’ve taken a break from commenting on your weekly posts to review some of prior posts and replies. The first installment of this review appears below. I’m starting with your introduction, “Welcome to Stranger Worlds”. Comments were not possible in “Welcome”, so I’m posting this first review reply here and will continue at subsequent posts. In this review I’m going to try to describe concepts I think we agree on (AGREE), those I think we see differently (SEE DIFFERENTLY), and those I don’t understand (PUZZLE).
One of my reasons for making this review is to attempt to identify the various points you are making in these posts and comments. I welcome expanding my understanding as you make additional posts, but it’s not productive for me keep making comments without considering what has been previously discussed.
As you note in “The Meaning of a Word” there is always the problem that what anyone means by a word or phrase may be different from the meaning someone else assigns to it. Until humans develop some version of “mind melt” the only way we can achieve some degree of common understanding is via dialogue. Hence, I view any problem with words as an invitation to find common ground.
In this review I have not attempted to judge the germaneness of any of my comments. This can be determined by the participants as the Stranger Worlds dialogue unfolds.
Review so far:
AGREE
#ATMagr_1 Acceptance of Differences
#ATMagr_2 Global Disaster Unfolding
#ATMagr_3 Global Disaster Emergent
#ATMagr_4 Previously – Many Different Worlds
SEE DIFFERENTLY:
#ATMdif_1 New Normal
#ATMdif_2 Capacity to Think Undermined
#ATMdif_3 Freedom Undermined
#ATMdif_4 Recover a Good Life
PUZZLE
#ATMpuz_1 New Normal
***********************************************************
AGREE #ATMagr_1: Acceptance of Differences
-a: Welcome to Stranger Worlds:
“We share the same planet, but we live in different worlds.”
-b: Welcome to Stranger Worlds:
“learning to live on the same planet requires conversations, disagreements, and an authentic respect for other ways of being”
-c: Welcome to Stranger Worlds:
“we will need principles for understanding how to seek life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without blocking these same possibilities for the strangers in our midst”
-d: Welcome to Stranger Worlds:
I may be overstating your views, but “attempt to foster mutual respect between all the different beings of our planet” leads me to think that you are not only concerned about the difference between groups, but also between individuals.
PUZZLE #ATMpuz_1: New Normal
Welcome to Stranger Worlds:
In this introduction I have no idea what you mean by “New Normal”.
But see SEE DIFFERENTLY #ATMdif_1 below.
AGREE #ATMagr_2: Global Disaster Unfolding
A Thousand Miles:
“the world within which most people now live is unable to imagine the world I have been forced into ... it is clearly crazy, it sounds like a ‘conspiracy theory’, it couldn’t possible be true. Yet here I am, in a world I do not wish to live in, and as such, I am forced to take steps to change my world … I would call this the greatest coup in human history if that didn’t give the false impression that it was orchestrated rather than just unfolding.”
COMMENT:
I’ve placed the above quote under AGREE, but I’m not sure we are considering the same thing. When I look at the whole of human history from a hand-to-mouth existence on the savannahs of East Africa to our present worldwide civilization, on the whole I like what I see. I hope that humankind can continue to develop philosophy, science, mathematics, art, human rights and human well-being. My assessment is that such a future is presently in series jeopardy. Biological evolution has done its job. Humans are presently the most successful higher-order life-form on the planet. But nature has not necessarily evolved us to cope with our material success. I believe we have the capability of getting through the very dangerous time we have created, but doing so is certainly no slam dunk. On the dark side I see a future dystopia of waring autocracies along the lines of 1984 or Soylent Green. Further, I think that such a dystopia would eventually self-destruct and leave behind a planet which could no longer support an advanced civilization.
AGREE #ATMag_3: Global Disaster Emergent
A Thousand Miles:
“the false impression that [this disaster is being] orchestrated rather than just unfolding.”
“a global disaster wrought from the intersection of greed, fear, and foolishness.”
COMMENT:
I see humankind on a journey that began two hundred thousand years ago. Where humankind is today is the result of the physics of the universe and the interplay of the resulting human mind with Earth’s environment. There have been, and are, many human villains, but these too are the result of natural and cultural forces. Any more than it did for the dinosaurs, the universe is indifferent to whether or not humankind survives, and certainly indifferent to whether or not human civilization survives.
SEE DIFFERENTLY #ATMdif_1: New Normal
A Thousand Miles:
(a) “technology is being elevated above scientific investigation”
(b) “in general, societies around the world are focused on fighting disease rather than encouraging health”
(c) “enforcing censorship rather than engaging in debate”
(d) “this bitter world that has been forced upon us represents our planet’s first technocratic empire. Without a single shot being fired, it occupied nearly every nation on Earth practically overnight.”
My VIEW:
- The conditions cited in (a, (b), and (c) are occurring, but each has a role to play, and they are doing just that
- I think that to claim that we now live in a technocratic empire is an exaggeration. I agree that within many countries technocrats wield significant power, but ‘empire’ is a stretch. It seems to me that at present most technocrats are loyal to their country, so I don’t see this happening.
AGREE #ATM_agr4: Before the New Normal
A Thousand Miles:
“I hope to remind everyone of the many different worlds that we lived in before the New Normal”
COMMENT:
Again, I don’t know what you mean by “New Normal,” but certainly we lived in many different worlds in the earlier centuries of the previous millennium.
SEE DIFFERENTLY #ATMdif_2: Capacity to Think Undermined
A Thousand Miles:
“the New Normal undermined our capacity to think,”
MY VIEW:
At least since the dawn of settled agriculture, the capacity to think deeply has been a population rarity. I don’t see how the emergence of our First Worldwide Civilization has changed that.
SEE DIFFERENTLY #ATMdif_3: Freedom Undermined
A Thousand Miles:
“the New Normal undermined our freedom to live in different ways”
MY VIEW
I see two aspects to “freedom”: individual and group. My assessment in that at least in the democracies individual freedom has expanded. Although there has been a great homogenization of culture, within that groups are still free to create their own ways of being. I think it is likely that that there are more “deviate” groups today than at anytime in the past.
SEE DIFFERENTLY #ATMdif_4: Recover a Good Life
A Thousand Miles:
“find a way to recover the good life”
MY VIEW:
I suspect that the “good life” in ages past was so, at most, for only a privileged few. I don’t think a goal of humankind should be to return to the past. Rather, it is to create a future protopia where life, liberty, and the personal pursuit of a good life is the norm for ALL the inhabitants of Earth. [1]
Note
[1] What’s The Difference between Utopia, Eutopia and Protopia?, https://metamoderna.org/whats-the-difference-between-utopia-eutopia-and-protopia/
THIS REVIEW MAY CONTINUE AT “Spock’s Needs of the Many”