mirror's edge
Greeting the chaos we see...
Solutions to complex problems take many dissimilar minds and points of view to design, so we have to do that together, linking up with as many other us-twos as we can to form networks of dynamic interaction. (Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk)
In the state of this world, it is very easy to become discouraged and even hopeless. Our complex modern life, with its digital speed and its devotion to productivity and runaway growth, overwhelms us and leaves us feeling depleted and daunted. We long for slick and quick fixes to the problems generated by our slick and quick pace of living. We search for one-size-fits-all answers to the problems of our one-size-fits-all systems. And we cast about for a hero who will save us from ourselves, piling our expectations onto both politicians and dissidents, expecting that some single leader or policy or maverick will appear on the scene and sort it all out. When these heroes, answers and fixes fail to materialise and deliver, we often slump back, shrug our shoulders and give up. We resign ourselves to cynicism and despair: there's no way out, we decide; we're doomed.
I've reached that point myself, at different times and in different ways. The relentlessness of bad news and adversity and just godawful bullshit has led me from everything from disgust and dismay to profound depression and actual insanity. In the worst crisis, my sense of possibility plummetted and hit the ground like Wile E. Coyote, in an explosion of dust and noise. But just like that plucky creature, I managed to get up and try again, and here is something I learned from the experience: complexity is not a purely intellectual concern. Complexity lies in the mirror. When we learn to love what we see there – with all its intricacies and its challenges – we gain a level of insight which offers us hope, renewed energy and the possibility of solutions.
The solutions to complex problems are themselves not simple or straightforward. And they are not merely puzzles to be figured out in our brains. The complex problems of our modern world involve myriad different types of system entangled with one another: material, physical, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, personal, global, historical, economical, mental, social, biological... and endless others.
When we step back and try to see it all, what we perceive is chaos. We often ascribe a moral judgment to chaos, seeing it as something bad, to be feared. But that is nonsense – chaos is simply a natural state:
Here is the real world described by new science. It is a world of interconnected networks, where slight disturbances in one part of the system create major impacts far from where they originate. In this highly sensitive system, the most minute actions can blow up into massive disruptions and chaos. But it is also a world that seeks order. When chaos erupts, it not only destroys the current structure, it also creates the conditions for new order to emerge. Change always involves a dark night when everything falls apart. Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning, then chaos ends and new order emerges.
Back to the wise observation made by Yunkaporta above, describing dissimilar minds as the source of solutions. Rather than demanding consistency and even harmony, he understands that we need all types of perspectives to participate in the creation of solutions. And rather than pitting us in a race for the prize, he appeals to the power of collaboration – again not as consistent and harmonious alignment toward a single point of agreement, but rather as dynamic interaction among multiple points within multiple networks. It is all these small shifts that together lead bit by bit to the larger paradigm shifts we need in order to face these problems of ours.
I think this brings us back to the mirror. When we can find love within ourselves for our own flaws and limitations and edges, we are then able to find love for all the flaws and limitations and edges that make up this difficult, complex world. We find the bottomless resources within us and bring them to play, in all our dissimilarity, with one another. It may sound quite sentimental but in truth, it is the hardest task we face in this life, when we step up to that mirror and greet the chaos.
Love this Julia! I wonder whether thinking in terms of “dissimilar minds working together” is a big leap in thinking for many of us who are far more used to centering around a particular world view or approach or method as the way to address problems. I am learning to get more friendly with chaos and see it on my good days as a source of creative potential. And… I also see the need for moments of similarity with others to calm my nervous system. Then I can get back into the mess.