What he denies is that God exists as a being or intelligence separate from the rest of the universe…. Spinoza’s argument is disconcertingly simple. God is “a being absolutely infinite,” and the idea of infinity “involves no negation”: it would be contradictory to say that there is some quality an infinite being does not possess or some space it does not occupy…. If God exists, then he must be absolutely everywhere; not even our own bodies and minds can be separate from him.
Baruch Spinoza and the Art of Thinking in Dangerous Times
The Constitution of Knowledge
Trump showed himself to be an attentive student of disinformation and its operative principle: Reality is what you can get away with…. Previous presidents and national politicians. They may spin the truth, bend it, or break it, but they pay homage to it and regard it as a boundary. Trump’s approach is entirely different…. He was asserting that truth and falsehood were subject to his will…. The lying reflects a strategy,… a national-level epistemic attack: a systematic attack, emanating from the very highest reaches of power, on our collective ability to distinguish truth from falsehood….
From The Constitution of Knowledge”
social-emotional learning
-
How one school is centering social-emotional learning
At Valor Collegiate Academy in Nashville, helping students thrive personally and academically through a weekly social-emotional learning practice called Circle is central to their values. The school encourages students to share what’s going on in their lives and to accept support, creating a community of care. According to one student, “It’s half-way between a group therapy session and an AA meeting.” (read more) [posted in Social/Education] On PBS Newshour here.
The NFL and the Egalitarian Cultural Revolution
By Wade Lee Hudson
Challenges to top-down power are spreading. Compassion-minded people are developing ways to empower people rooted in mutual respect. In his February 16 Washington Post column, Fareed Zakaria affirmed “bottom-up systems” that cultivate “organic communities, rooted in freedom and choice, built bottom-up not top-down.” Changes within the National Football League also illustrate aspects of this cultural revolution.
During this year’s Super Bowl, when he was angry about not being in the game, Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chief’s star tight end, walked up to his coach, yelled at him, bumped into him, and knocked him off balance. The coach, Andy Reid, shrugged it. off.
Bill Belichick, the former New England Patriots coach who led the NFL’s greatest dynasty, would never have responded that way. He was an authoritarian control freak who abused his players, including his premier quarterback, Tom Brady. His style has become outdated. Since he and the Patriots parted ways last year, no team has hired him.
Recently, Burke Robinson, a Stanford University management lecturer, helped the San Francisco 49ers to winning records with a new collaborative formula. This approach emphasizes the collective embrace of collaboratively defined core values and principles that provide a precise sense of direction.
The 49ers place their core values into two categories. “Talent” includes objective factors: speed, physical toughness, character traits, scheme fit, and football IQ. “Spirit” includes subjective personal qualities: loves the game, contagious enthusiasm, mental toughness, dependable on commitments, accountable to self and others.
They say their players “will represent our core values and beliefs in both their talent and spirit. We firmly believe that players who embody these core values will change the culture and reestablish the 49er Way — a Brotherhood that will lead us back to competing for championships year after year.”
General Manager John Lynch says, “Culture is the people you surround yourself with. We’ve got to bring quality people to have a great culture… We’re all a product of our experiences.” He says the team “indoctrinates” all of their people in this culture.
He considers their vision “our beacon that reminds us who we are and what we’re trying to be… If you’re on a sailboat, you have to know which port you’re heading for. Everybody in this building has got to know (what exactly we want). We’ve got to be able to articulate that. It’s got to be crystal clear.”
The 49ers emblazon their vision statement, place it on walls, and laminate it for distribution. It’s the “guiding light” for the entire organization.
This unity started upstairs with a collaborative process between the coaching staff and scouting department. It then spread and nurtured strong locker room cohesiveness.
“We haven’t been afraid to tweak the vision statement a little bit when things have changed,” Lynch said.
Others in the NFL are learning from the 49ers. Teams have hired away three coaching assistants as their head coach and selected two of the four participants in that original vision statement meeting as their General Manager.
Countless innovative projects in other arenas are developing similar approaches, even within hierarchical organizations. Key elements include maximizing collaboration on all levels. Articulating a written vision that everyone understands and embraces. Ensuring everyone has a voice and feels heard. Developing a collective culture that affirms both measurable goals and intangible personal qualities. Attention to the importance of culture. An intentional commitment to establishing new structures that cultivate personal and collective growth. Cultivating joy and contagious enthusiasm. Mutual support for self-development.
The Compassionate Humanity Community website has long affirmed these ideas.
Cultural changes in the NFL are also manifest in its Inspire Change social justice initiative. The NFL has dedicated more than $300 million to grants approved by the Player-Owner Social Justice Committee. This project “drives further progress” in police-community relations, criminal justice reform, education, and economic advancement. It is
aimed at reducing barriers to opportunity, particularly in communities of color, and showcasing how the NFL family is working together to create positive change. Inspire Change comes to life at all levels of the league — current and former players: NFL teams and ownership; and throughout the league office.
The Criminal Justice Reform component Just City
will continue its Clean Slate advocacy, which has sealed the criminal histories of hundreds of people and eliminated statewide barriers to expungement; expand Court Watch to bring more transparency and accountability to local criminal courts; and build out its Public Data Accountability Project.
The Police-Community Relations component includes the Vera Institute of Justice which “will partner with cities nationwide to implement policies that reduce the scope of law enforcement responses to health and social issues.”
These reforms are not revolutionary in and of themselves. Nevertheless, they plant seeds for an egalitarian cultural revolution. These seeds increase awareness of the need for more fairness and kindness throughout society.
Maybe someday, people who see the need for more mutual respect, bottom-up power, economic security for all, and personal and community empowerment will come together and demand compassionate changes in public policy, knowing it will be necessary to be in the streets in massive numbers, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience as needed.
Navalny
“To live is to risk it all. Otherwise, you are just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you.”
Aleksei A. Navalny
Aleksei A. Navalny
Seeing Addiction Clearly
February 14
Seeing Addiction Clearly
Americans fundamentally believe that people who suffer from addiction are morally flawed, and somehow don’t deserve all the help that we can give them.
Elon Musk: “Ultra Hardcore”
To be a man is to dominate others. This is what I absorbed as a boy: masculinity means mastery, power, control. To be socialized into manhood is to gain a love of hierarchy and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to preserve your own position within it. … (For Elon Musk these) avenues of escape…provided a terrain where the mandates of masculinity could be fulfilled, via conquests of a more cerebral sort.
“Ultra Hardcore” Ben Tarnoff
FromWade Readers’ Comments
Larry Walker:
This group (Social Permaculture) seems to be aligned with what you are doing. [MY NOTE: “Social Permaculture” is the praxis of permaculture methodology applied to social relationships.] (Larry’s email included the following.)
In India, pioneers from 16 countries — ranging from billionaires to folks whose life’s possessions fit into a backpack — flew in for our Gandhi 3.0 retreat, to nuance that throughline from me-centered transactions to we-centered relationships to us-centered emergence…. If, however, the personal, interpersonal and systemic designs start to harmonize, the laddership hypothesis is that the collective emergence of that ecosystem bends its arc towards greater compassion…. how do we differentiate inner voice from ego voice?… How, ultimately, do we throw a better party and build a new paradigm? (read more)
Wade Lee Hudson:
Thanks for the heads up. I added “permaculture” and “social permaculture” to my website to-do list. I do see considerable alignment. However, this report says nothing about “domination” or “mutual support.”
+++++
Re: “New Introduction”
Dan Brook:
One thing that the recent flare-up in the Middle East taught me, or rather reminded me, is that many people who want a fairer world, besides lacking nuance, also exhibit selective kindness, that is, being kind to one’s “us” and too often being unkind to one’s “them”. And it happens in our treatment of animals as much as in our treatment of fellow humans.
Wade: Indeed. Well put. Thanks.
+++++
Dan Brook:
Re: “A Little Hole in the Global Left: Israel, Gaza, and Humanity, by Dan Brook. “I have been terribly disappointed in so much of the American and global Left that is so reflexively anti-Israel that they don’t care about [Hamas goals and violence]…”
Criticize Israel when appropriate, but in this case, start with criticizing Hamas for its homicidal desires and murderous rampage. This is not meant to excuse occupation, but to contextualize it…. I strongly oppose occupation and injustice — Israeli, American, Russian, Chinese, English, French, and otherwise
+++++
Yahya Abdal-Aziz:
Your essay “Does “the System” exist?“ is a very clear explication of your thinking. I now have probably the clearest understanding of your concept that I’ve had in years. Thank you for writing and sharing it!
As a once (and forever) systems analyst, I’ve been thinking in “system” terms for most of my life. However, the use of the term “system” in philosophical, political and social theory can have quite different connotations than it does as a tool of business and information technology! Somehow, I’ve come to feel that the former (“social science”) fields’ use is more laden with moral value judgments than the latter (“business engineering”), which is, on the contrary, more concerned with objective and measurable facts … and this is, doubtless, an unwarranted bias.
All that my experience really shows is this: that some things are easier to measure meaningfully than others … Which of course I already understood, when during my studies and teaching, I encountered the fun task of devising appropriate measurement scales for psychological traits. (Including in the ’70s, a protracted, bemused and ultimately unsuccessful exploration of what kind of mathematics might support the concept of “latent variables”.) Humility, it seems, is a lesson that I am doomed to repeat, until – one day, I hope – it sticks!
Meanwhile, I have your fruitful analysis of the existing Top-Down System – and its contra-positive, the fabulous Bottom-Up System – as tools to help guide my thinking toward better ways of living and thriving together. Thanks again!
Wade: Especially considering your extensive experience with systems thinking, your comments hearten me considerably
Yahya Abdal-Aziz:
More analytical questions, then – if you will:
- Which form (structure, format) better supports collaboration?
- Would some other structure work even better than either “book” or “encyclopaedia”?
- Supposing we were to design such a structure (as if from scratch!), what would our design goals be?
Wade:
Good questions. Do you want to offer answers?
+++++
Yahya Abdal-Aziz:
This was worth the read, and a bit of thinking about. It also links other articles on aspects of anger, which I may spend some time exploring.
“Three Reasons Why You Need Anger.”
While anger gets a bad rap, studies suggest it can help us achieve difficult goals, if used wisely.
By Jill Suttie
Anger is not usually a pleasant feeling. When we feel we’ve been wronged—by, say, a slow driver or a boss or a noisy neighbor—our heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature go up, preparing us to confront the challenge. While releasing that tension may feel good in the moment, the aftereffects can be harsh….
Excellent article from a superb project, the Greater Good Science Center. I added it to Daily Reflections and my to-do list for addition to the CHC site.
+++++
Randy Thomas:
Remembering Mary’s MagnificatPoetry is one form of creative expression. In this our age, we need a diversity of creative words and inspiring images to change the current narrative. Poetry, prose, essays,plays, novels, rational analysis, dialogue and synthesis, art, music, Nature’s wisdom, astrophysics, cosmology, technology,
Ways of healing, integrating, and collaborative efforts of mutual empowerment to co-create more whole life affirming,sustaining emerging and evolving relationships. I appreciate your essays as words and meaning to better relate and understand this creative movement and potential to manifest and transform ourselves , systems, structures ,processes, in our world.
Wade: Peace. And thanks for suggesting “Mutual Empowerment” as the title for the newsletter and sharing with me the distinction between embodied and disembodied spirituality.
Rhonda Magee:
GOOD MORNING TO YOU
Rhonda sharing reflections – and a song! – onstage at “Wisdom and A.I,” hosted by Wisdom 2.0, October 30, 2023
Warm greetings to you. As we move into this new year, like many of you, I have been reflecting on how to make the most of this life, given all the challenges we face.
One thing seems certain: the times are calling – loudly – for greater capacity to hold together, as one, the things that appear to be separate, to make connections and common cause among things that appear different, or even seem to be opposed or opposite. Thinking of this, I am reminded that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thich Nhat Hahn agreed that doing so is an aspect of what they each, from their very different cultures, religious commitments and social justice locations, referred to as “Beloved Community.” As I’ve discussed in prior presentations, being Beloved Community today is an invitation to each of us to make this ideal real in our own life and times.
Of course, doing so is hard. I lean into practices that support us in the moment-to-moment work of cultivating a kind of grounded hope. This year, I’m focusing on sharing ways of deepening the roots of our wellbeing in support of this work, offering practices for moving through shadow and light, joy and pain in our own and in others’ experiences. I’m exploring more ways of deepening our ability to hold space for complexity and change, both individually, and in our relationships with others.
I look forward to re-energizing our resources together and joining with you again in beloved community in the coming weeks.
Book Cover Order a copy of
THE INNER WORK OF RACIAL JUSTICE here.
Links:
Listen now and reflect with Rhonda on the theme of “Being Beloved Community in a Time of Polarization.” (Dharma talk delivered by Rhonda V. Magee at the San Francisco Zen Center on January 14, 2023.)
https://www.sfzc.org/teachings/dharma-talks/being-beloved-community-time-polarization
And make a plan now to join Rhonda on March 17, 2024 at 10 am Pacific Time/11 am Mountain Time for reflections on the theme, “Leading with Clarity, Courage and Compassion.” Hosted by the Upaya Zen Center. For information and registration, visit:
https://www.upaya.org/program/gathering-dharma-with-hoshi-rhonda-v-magee-online-2024/
Wade:
Thanks for sharing. Great work. Carry it on.
The Good Life
“Today’s future-positive writers critique our economies while largely seeming to ignore that anything might be amiss in our private lives,” writes Kristen Ghodsee. Even our most ambitious visions of utopia tend to focus on outcomes that can be achieved through public policy — things like abundant clean energy or liberation from employment — while ignoring many of the aspects of our lives that matter to us the most: how we live, raise our children, and tend to our most meaningful relationships.
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life
Interview with “Fluke” author, Brian Klass
The 2/6/24 Amanpour and Company episode concludes with a fascinating interview by Walter Isaacson with Brian Klass, author of Fluke, Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters. I posted the complete transcript under Systemic/ Articles/Essays/Op-eds and linked to this comment on the Systemic/Books entry.
The points that struck me most strongly include
KLAAS: A fluke is a highly consequential event that happens by chance or is arbitrary or random. And so, I argue in the book that our world is shaped by these and our lives are shaped by these much more than we imagine, but we just pretend otherwise because it’s much nicer to imagine that we have neat and tidy stories to make sense of our world and our own lives….
I think this is the sort of way that our world works, is partly between order and disorder,… A single thing can tip you over that edge and create an extremely consequential event that shifts how the world works….
we have designed a world that is particularly prone to these avalanches because the sand pile is extremely high by design.
And what I mean by that is that you have this sort of system that operates with optimization and efficiency as its main priorities. And this means that we have no slack in the system. (Emphases added)….
If we had dealt with the problem of the lingering resentment in the American public, then Trump might have (failed)….
ISAACSON: How can an understanding of the role of flukes lead us to have a more resilient society, and let me even add a more resilient personal life?
KLAAS: Yes, I like this question because, you know, I think differently about the world and my own life, having written this book. I was not the same person three years ago. And the reason for that is because…I grew up in the U.S., where I was sort of told you have to sort of just make your own path. This sort of individualist mindset, the American dream, and so on. And it’s a culture that is extremely focused on control, right?
And I describe in the book how I was living, you know, what I described as a checklist existence. And I think when you start to think about the role of these forces that are sometimes arbitrary, accidental, and random, and also the chaos theory, the ripple effects of our decisions, it starts to liberate you a little bit, right? It starts to make you feel like, you know what, it’s maybe OK if I don’t have so much top-down control. And that’s what I’ve internalized as a lesson from the book.
In terms of society, I think the main lesson is resilience. I think that we have the tools to give us the illusion of control more than ever before. Because we have so much predictability and stability in our daily lives that we start to think that our world is also stable. And in fact, it’s the opposite. The stability in our daily lives is happening at the same time as the world is changing faster and more profoundly than ever before in human history.
So, in my view, this is something where politicians, economists, et cetera, need to understand that they are creating a world without slack, and the flukes are always going to be there. So, instead of imagining that we can have this top-down control, I think we have to have a little bit less hubris and also accept the limits of what humans can and cannot control. And I think that’s true for ordinary citizens as well as for politicians who are calling the shots.
Two points in particular strike me. First, Klaas’s reference to “a system that operates with optimization and efficiency as its main priorities” is intriguing. I’ve said that “the Top-Down System” is driven by people climbing social ladders to look down on and try to dominate and exploit those below and submit to those above. The drive to optimize and maximize efficiency seems consistent with my analysis. I want to get his book and see if and how these two drives overlap. I may need to modify my formulation.
Secondly, his comment about the drive to establish top-down control in personal lives suggests he has a holistic approach,. This comment encourages me to believe that his framework is consistent with mine, and I may be able to complement my analysis with his. Regardless, his assertion that we need to accept chaos in our personal lives is one I haven’t addressed before and will do so now.