Greatest hits, Mon Apr 07, 2008
The world is made up of nearly seven billion people. In order to change it, you have to change the minds of those people. That’s a LOT of changing! Should we try to sit down and have a conversation seven billion times to change each individual mind? Obviously not. The travel expenses alone are prohibitive.
Margaret Mead said:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
So how does this small group change the world? By indeed, the only method that has ever worked.
Propagating ideas.
If an idea is specific but not simplistic, but can still be stated relatively simply, and the truth behind it is potent enough, iow if it resonates with enough people…if it changes enough minds….it changes the world.
But there is a problem….or two…hundred.
The first problem is, distribution. In order for an idea to change the world, it first has to achieve momentum and critical mass. It has to go viral.
Second: The world is so complex ….and cynical….that a single idea, expressed simply, without sufficient context and education, is no longer effective. In todays world, the idea must be marketed.
Third: Competition. See marketing above. See my sig line….”Reality is the result of war between two rival groups of programmers.” Put differently, the world is a battlefield of ideas. Whichever idea has won the current battle is the one that “rules the world.” Right now that idea can be expressed VERY simply, in one word in fact……”mine”
On this little website we seemed to have reached somewhat of a consensus that the idea we are marketing in competition to “mine” is ….”ours.” Cooperation instead of competition. The Greatest Good for all concerned.
This idea blankets just about every issue of the day that concern us. Peace over War. The defense of the Constitution, the document that codifies The Greater Good of the People over the good of the government or our rulers. Social Justice of all kinds, said social justice being predicated on the idea that we are all equals, that justice is “ours.” Go down the list of everything that is wrong with the world and you will find that everything we object to is based on the idea of “mine.”
Ideas are energy. The more people who agree that an idea is good, the more energy that idea has/contains. The more people work on refining, expressing and spreading that idea the more powerful that energy grows. The more that idea and it’s energy grows, the more like minded people that energy attracts. These people become a community, joining together so that (among the many other benefits)when one member of the community is tired, the momentum of the energy is not lost. IF that momentum can be kept rolling, eventually it will join with and reinforce the efforts and energies of others around the world who have the same idea. It will become viral, it will achieve critical mass.
It will change the world.
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Everytime we try to change it, it changes before we even get barely started, and it’s like trying to grab smoke or a greased pig or make a cat go for a walk around the block with you or put the sky in a box or tie up a gallon of water with string, or something. Farkin’ thing just won’t sit still and wait to be changed. Frustrating. 😉
Deprogramming and Hundredth Monkey; but the thing is timing is crucial, and it’s hard to predict ahead of time when the time is right/ripe. The ideas will need to appeal to the spiritual parts of humans, but be low-key enough to gain entry into folks who set much store by their identities and politics and have well-constructed defenses.. Tough gig, but worth talking about at length, Budhydharma. I liked this a lot. ;o)
It’s not so much the ideas that need nurturing but the people who have those ideas and live the implicit ideals. It is also the communities that those people form–it is essential that they create a “safe” place to nurture people and ideas–because sensitivity is one thing that seems to be frowned upon in American culture. I’m always astonished when bloggers viciously slam people for straying from whatever PC standards there are on any blog–even if the deviations are thoughtful and not really that far-out. Instead, we should be gently correcting each other (as is usually the case on this blog) and provide that safe place. On the other hand, we have to be careful to look more deeply into the things we say and comment more critically. A lot of cant seems to come out here and few ideas have been really debated in a dialectical way.
what happens when more people push ignorance as the new idea…….
actually I am serious about the question……
because I believe that is how we got here…..
perhaps it is not actaul that all of humanuity is able at any given time to embrace wisdom……..
perhaps in actaulity it has always been only about 17% of the individuals on the planet at any given time that can rise to wisdom……
the rest must use a simplifying reduction/belief to manage……
and in this arena the ignorance that makes us most comfortable is preferable…….
perhaps the world can not be changed in the way we would like…..
nor has ever been able to be changed in this way……..
perhaps change is very very slow……..
perhaps that is how we got here……
and it is a conundrum for us because the rate of change of the physical world is outstripping the rate of actual change within the genenome………
I don’t have a better idea.