Stability in an Unstable World

Stability in an Unstable World.

The world is changing. There is nothing new in that. What appears to be different is the pace of change.

Wherever you choose to look there are examples of accelerating change.

We see it most obviously, in technology and information, while others focus on the environment and the unprecedented pace and spread of earth changes. Many have been exposed to humanity's changing nature through a generation of children who are either on an evolutionary fast track or have popped in from somewhere very different to Earth. Unfortunately, where many are feeling it most keenly or a likely to notice a difference is in economics, institutions and societal structure.

We have reached a growth point in so many different areas where we are hitting the vertical part of the exponential curve and with that comes the certainty of explosive change.

I use the term explosive as it comes from an incredibly prescient passage written in Dee Hock's book Birth of the Chaordic Age:

When there is an explosion in the capacity to receive, store, utilize, transform, and transmit information, the external world changes at a rate enormously greater than the rate at which our internal model evolves. Nothing behaves as we think it should. Nothing makes sense. The world appears to be staging a madhouse. It is not a madhouse. It is merely the great tide of evolution in temporary flood, moving this way and that, piling up against that which obstructs its flow, trying to break loose and sweep away that which obstructs its flow, trying to break loose and sweep away that which opposes it. In such times we experience extreme dissonance and stress.

At the heart of that dissonance and stress is paradox. Simply put, what was true yesterday is not necessarily true today.

To summarize Dee Hock's observation: Your external world is changing much faster than your existing belief patterns, mindsets, and emotional reference points will be able to accommodate. In order to navigate this 'explosion' it will become increasingly important to access your internal guidance system. You will require discernment rather than judgement and have convictions in your truths in the moment whilst remaining awake to the possibility, in fact the probability that those truths will be transitory.

Those clinging to old patterns, belief sets, structures and identities are likely to be swept away in a sea of change.

Does change necessarily imply instability?

Change in itself does not necessarily result in instability. It is more the resistance to change which causes discomfort. Even more distressing is when tried and trusted tools of the past no longer prove effective.

The metaphor which springs to mind here is our 'battle' against infection. Antibiotics were an incredible breakthrough, yet evolution has provided the microbial population with the information to render most of our most existing antibiotics impotent. Clearly we need new thinking on this matter, but most resource is directed to finding new more powerful antibiotics.

The human race has differentiated itself on earth using the game of separation. We have come to believe that our destiny is separate from nature and our identity is unique as the controller of nature. This mindset is again beautifully described by Dee Hock:

Deep in most of us, below our awareness, indelibly implanted there by three centuries of the Industrial Age, is the mechanistic, separatist, cause-and-effect, command-and-control machine model of reality. 

This mindset is already creating instability all over the world. We believe that ultimately our well-being lies in our ability to control our environment, be that food, water, energy, people, emotions, money...whatever. It is the desperate attempt to control things and keep them as they are which is causing so much stress. On so many levels the controlling forces on the planet are demonstrating a King Canute like behaviour.

Whilst this is perfectly logical in the old paradigm, we encounter our emerging best friend, who goes by the name of Paradox. Simply stated, a paradox is where what is a truth or fact today is not so tomorrow. 

 The discomfort we feel when we can't incorporate a piece of information into our existing world view is called 'cognitive dissonance.' It's an unpleasant sensation - like an itch you can't scratch. So it's something that we all try to avoid.

Be prepared for plenty of cognitive dissonance as;

The earth changes affect your physiology.

The technology affects your belief patterns.

The economy affect your mindset.

The volume of information risks overwhelming you.

There are three ways to respond to this situation:

The first is to cling to our old internal model of reality and attempt to impose it on external conditions in a futile attempt to make the world conform to our expectations. (This is the current course of action that those in power are engaged in and unfortunately we can expect more of the same).

The second is to engage in denial. This is extremely popular with the majority of people. The Roman Empire used to placate the populace with bread and circuses. The current version of that is McDonalds and Plasma TVs. What I find amazing is the number of very well educated people who continue to carry on keeping their head down, accepting societal dysfunction, so long as they are not directly affected.

The third is to attempt to understand and change our internal model of reality. This is the most challenging. It will involve challenging your beliefs, your sense of time and place and in fact your very identity.

The third option requires tremendous faith, an open mind, a reliable inner guidance system and individual stability, for there will be many selecting options one or two.

Love

Bill