While I have focused on personal alarm systems, collective alarm systems are prevalent in society. When a particular community, state or nation seeks only to establish security and safety (S²) then alarms are likely to be sounded in response to oppressive, authoritarian rule, rigid dichotomies (we/they, good/bad, right/wrong) and a lack of initiative among those living and working in this S² societies. The alarms are sounded from deep in the silos that may provide superficial and often temporary security and safety for those living in these confined spaces (Weitz and Bergquist, 2024). Similarly, the alarms sound in a society that is enthralled with innovation and that which is new and shiny (O²). These alarms are likely to take on the form of deeply felt collective exhaustion (Newport, 2016). In an O² saturated society, there are likely to be troubling increases in stress-related health issues, demand for mental health services, and abuse of a wide variety of substances.
Alarms, Allostasis and Polystasis
The personal alarm systems impact not only on the behavior of those facing a polarity, but also their brain and body. Peter Sterling’s (2020) model of allostasis is certainly relevant. When faced with the downside of a specific polarity, our predictions are “alarming” with regard to what could happen in and to our body if we continue to do what we are now doing. If we fear boredom (S²) or fear its opposite—this being anxiety (O²)—then we can predict that our body will have to change.
Boredom will bring about the need for activity, while anxiety will bring about the need for defensive action. Both of these predictions require that we mobilize our sympathetic system. Our baseline changes. We are no longer seeking parasympathetic rest but are now preparing for sympathetic action. But there is no direction in which we should direct our action. The alarm has signaled the need for action–but no one and nothing is pointing the way forward. If we then fail to take any action, the sympathetic system will be serving no important function. It will do more harm than good. We burn up while remaining immobile.
What happens at the behavioral level? Here is where Polystasis kicks in. The alarm sounds and we pay attention. Our predictions are now challenged with regard to the current way in which we are operating. Our S² needs in life (security and safety) might not be easily met anymore. They come at considerable cost to our freedom and sense of self-respect. The ways in which we have been fulfilling our O² aspirations (opportunity and openness) might not be working. We are exhausted and overwhelmed.
Our baseline is also challenged. We grow restless and want to find more challenges in our life. We are anxious and wish for less challenge in our life. Given these challenges to our baseline and predictions, we re-visit the other polarity. We can either bounce over to this other side (and then bounce back to the current side), or we can pause for a moment in order to reflect once again on the positive and negative forces operating on both polarities—and can possibly find ways to engage both polarities.
Expanded Graphic Representation of the Trust Polarity
I can now offer an expanded representation of the Trust Polarity, having introduced the alarm systems that Barry Johnson considers to be critical in the movement of one’s attentions and preferences between the polarities. Here is the expanded representation:
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