Complexity
We live in a world that is not just complicated (with many moving parts) but also complex (with many parts that are interconnected). We must take into consideration many different things and events that simultaneously impact our life and work. The systemic impact of this complexity is great. It is very hard in mid-21st Century life to make sense of or even find meaning in that which is occurring every day. At a personal level this means that we often must spend considerable amount of time trying to figure out what is happening before making decisions or taking actions. Slow thoughtful analysis is required (rather than fast “knee-jerk” and habitual thinking) This requires discipline and sustained concentration—which is hard to maintain in our fast-moving world.
There is an alternative. We can choose to reframe our world so that it is not complex. We can ensure that fast, habitual thinking wins the day. This requires that we radically distort the reality of our mid-21st Century life. To do this distorting of reality, we must join with others who distort their world in a similar manner. We can engage in even greater distortions when relating to these other people who perceive reality in a manner that is aligned with our own perceptions. We are in an echo chamber with think-alikes. We devote energy (and money) to ensuring that those who lead and have power are also thinking like us. They might even have helped to “teach” us how to think in this simplistic and fast manner. We are fully devoted to these people who are now in authority—or are vigorously (and often violently) seeking to be in authority.
Ambiguity
Living in the mid-21st Century we are likely to find that many of the things we encounter and events that are happening can be quite confusing. Our world is often not very easy to observe clearly and the conclusions we reach about reality are often not consistent. Our collective blurry vision has an important systemic impact. As a society we can’t trust the accuracy of that which we see or hear. Furthermore, we can’t trust what “experts” tell us about the world in which we are living. If we are being honest with ourselves then we are forced to adopt a social constructivist view of the world. There is no fundamental reality that can somehow be accurately assessed. Rather there are alternative constructions of the “real” world—which leave us with no clear, unambiguous sense of what is real and what is false. The traditional objectivist perspective must be abandoned. There is no objective way in which to assess the real world.
What does this mean for us personally. It means that we often must look and listen a second or third time to ensure that what is seen or heard is accurate. And we must examine our own assumptions and our own constructive frame of reference to fully understand the way in which we are viewing the world—with all of the distorted lens and shades that are blocking our vision. At a collective level, Plato’s Cave is fully in operation. We are viewing the shadows cast on the wall rather than the actual objects that are casting these shadows. Furthermore, we are often not even seeing the shadows. Rather, we are listening to someone who is interpreting the nature and meaning of the shadows for us.
How do we deal with this very troubling ambiguity and the implications of a social constructive perspective? There is a strong inclination for us to return to an objectivist perspective. We can do so by subscribing to the reality offered by one particular “expert” who arrives at our doorstep with a mantle of authority. This authority can come from academic or research-based pedigrees or from a position of power. Unfortunately, academic and research-based credibility can readily be questioned given the inherent instability of academia and research in the mid-21st Century. It gets even worse when this instability is accompanied by acknowledgement of social construction as an underlying framework for assessing the value of expertise that is offered. Better to turn to the second source—that is much more stable and reassuring. It is authority embedded in power that will often win the day when the world is saturated with ambiguity.
