A630.2.4.RB_HallMike

I am going to go ahead and warn you up front, this blog is quite pessimistic – I get downright depressed when I think about what our society has become…

 This talk is titled 21^st century enlightenment to promote the author’s proposed change in the way we think, the magnitude of which would be on the scale of the great enlightenment.  The author proposes that we move away from the individualism that has been prevalent during the last couple of centuries and instead move towards a more conscious society that is self-aware of both societies’ needs as well as their own needs.  While I also wish we were a more conscious society (both within our country and the world), you must first believe that mankind is not a selfish creature – something that I am nowhere near ready to accept: one only needs to look at areas where western society breaks down to see that we are still animals when it all comes down to it (see New Orleans after Katrina).  Also, I think this enlightenment has already happened, just not in the west: many Asian countries are great examples of an empathetic society that is willing to sacrifice some of their own freedoms/comforts for the greater good of their society.

When he states, "to resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or false that which is only strange” he is referring to people’s desire to resist change within their lives.  If something is new to someone or upsets their rhythm, they tend to think that it is not correct, even though it can be shown to be 100% correct.  I completely agree with this statement and actively think about this when change is introduced into my world.  I discussed an experience with this last week.  When my new CO came on board and decided to hold people accountable to using the procedure, many people where very reluctant to do so, even though they knew he was right – using the procedure wasn’t familiar which meant it wasn’t right.  You could further generalize this with every change of command – every time a new CO comes in and shakes the boat, people are quick to say the new CO is wrong when in reality they are just upset that he is changing the status quo.

I think it would be great (marvelous would probably be a better word) if we could move away from pop culture as it stands now, however that would require society to completely change and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.  I am not sure how to really go about explaining it however I do have an example of it:  on the YouTube column to the right of this video – a political commentary – there was a road rage video showing 2 guys fighting on the side of the highway.  People want to see that sort of thing – train wrecks – it is the same reason why people slow down to 10mph when they pass a car crash… they just want to see what is going on.  As long as channels are owned by businesses, the channel will always move towards things that draw in the viewers and the sad fact is that shows like The Jersey Shore gets rating whereas shows like Modern Marvels do not.  I picture our society moving towards what the populous was like in the movie Idiocracy instead of the enlightened one that the author wants us to move towards.

Towards the end he discusses moving society towards one that is more creative and intolerant of negativity, rigid thinking, and self-promotion.  I think that these again are great goals and are goals that are achievable in the small groups and businesses, however applying them to the population writ large is not possible as the world stands today – people are way to self-centered.

As I just said above, there are some things that can be taken away from this video and instantly applied to current life.  First and foremost is the discussion that not all things that are new are wrong – actively keeping an open mind about change is instrumental in today’s world that is always changing.  Secondly, applying the empathetic ideals to your business is achievable and would result in an efficient company.

On a side note, I am not sure where he gets the statement that our history is one of diminishing person to person violence – the 20^th century saw the 2 most destructive wars ever known to man and the invention of the most deadly weapons ever created.  One could argue it is precisely the fact that we can kill each other so efficiently that has reduced the war casualties over the last 50 years however millions of people die annually due to violence throughout the world, and will continue to do so – us killing each other is one of the only things that has been constant throughout human history.