Amerika

In an effort to uncover The Human Problem (or The Civilization Disease, as it is sometimes called), Outside In looks at a recent exploration of human linear thinking in defiance of obvious reality:

[H]umans are, by nature, envious, resentful and unable to comprehend, let alone appreciate, a sophisticated economic system that has evolved in spite of, not because of, our best efforts.

Humans possess a massive ability that overshadows all other knowledge because it is more easily accessible to our minds. This ability is our faculty to assess risk, and with it, our analysis of the degree of order to any scenario.

Disorder implies greater risk; order implies stability.

As a result, our minds tend to want to impose order on any situations we encounter, but this question depends on how well we know what order is. Our tendency is to like blocky structures in which all elements are equal because from a linear thinking perspective, this is orderly and permits assembly-line style processing.

Nature is several steps ahead of us however and prefers ecosystems, or organic, systems which are “self-arising” through a process of internal conflict, unequal roles, and a few principles which translate into radically different results in different highly particular situations.

Evolution allows these systems to “emerge” by starting with simple principles and developing in reaction to conflicts. This ensures that every granular detail is consistent with the comprehensive whole, and relates to the founding principles which govern the system.

Humans remain confined within the boundaries of their linear thought because to do otherwise is to relinquish the illusion of control by the ego, a necessary fiction perpetrated to enable our parallel-thinking brains to assume they are the product of a single will. However, humans have the ability of choice, both among internal impulses including thoughts, and between actions they can take, so can re-program themselves to think in a non-linear manner.

Tags: ecosystemics, linear thinking, the civilization disease, the human problem