Yesterday, as is my usual pastime, I was solving some crossword puzzles. I do three or four a day from the NYT, WaPo, and elsewhere. This one was a “Classic” from the WaPo. One of the clues was “popular type of sunglasses.” My first guess was “aviator” which fit the space. A few clues later I had to change this because it no longer fit. My next entry was “Raybans,” helped along by a couple of crossing letters. It was correct, but that’s not the story. Today, I got an unsolicited email from Ray-Ban Sunglasses, advertising a clearance sale. I… Read More
Continue ReadingFraternal Twins Part 5
The Real Me The last few posts have been concerned with the routine ways we behave within and without institutions when our actions are controlled by the left brain. In this post, I shift to the other side as the master, which change also affects the basic nature of our behaviors. Again I include the table of behaviors for comparison purposes. I am using the word, real, in the sense of the existential use of authentic, but as the table and this series of posts have indicated our various modes of behavior suggest that we have multiple personas, each related… Read More
Continue ReadingFraternal Twins Part 4
Good and Bad Habits As I have been doing, I will start by adding the table I have been using to show the principal forms of human behaviors. Basic Behavioral Mode Master Hemisphere External World Mode of Being Behavioral Type Left Institutional Undifferentiated Routine Left Familiar Inauthentic Habit Right Familiar Authentic Caring Neither Anywhere Occurent Curiosity–Learning Neither Laboratory Occurent Scientific Study Right Anywhere Pure Occurent Wonder I have discussed the first line, focused on routine behaviors within institutions, in the previous two blogs. Today’s discussion centers on a similar behavioral pattern, habits, that is, repetitious actions in familiar situations, but… Read More
Continue ReadingFraternal Twins (Part 3)
Routines, Institutions, and Unintended Consequences Much of our time is spent acting within institutions without even thinking that our actions are being driven by a lot of rules and resources. From the moment of our birth, we are embedded within the structures of many intersecting institutions, and much of our time awake we act according to the peculiar structures that constitute them. The first of such institutions virtually all of us encounter from birth onward is family. Institutions are human creations. We create them by establishing their structure and keep them in place by re-embedding the structure through the actions… Read More
Continue ReadingA Passing Hero
One of my intellectual heroes passed away a few weeks ago (May 6). Humberto Maturana was 92. For those of you who may not know him, Maturana was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. I have collected a few snippets from the web below. Maturana and his student Francisco Varela were the first to define and to employ the concept of autopoiesis. Aside from making important contributions to the field of evolution, Maturana is also a founder of radical constructivism, a relativistic epistemology built upon empirical findings of neurobiology. In his own words: Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as… Read More
Continue ReadingFraternal Twins (Part 2)
Different Worlds—Different Human Beings Humans are different from all other species in many ways, but one that has been singled out is that we seek meaning. A corollary to this is Socrates’s warning that, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Heidegger wrote that only human beings make an issue about being, itself. Only we ask questions about what it is to be? This could be interpreted, again, as seeking the meaning of existence. We are also unique in our ability to create and use language in our quest for meaning and generally to express our intentions and feelings, and… Read More
Continue ReadingFraternal Twins (Part 1): Introduction (Reposted May 10)
Fraternal Twins Are you aware that there are two of you? Two different people live inside your skin. One, cool and controlling – rational, too; T’other, empathetic, unlike its twin. The left brain offers a world, abstracted, Defined by dead reductions from the past. Because all meaning has been subtracted, You’re run by rules memory has amassed. The right brain connects you to the present Where the real you acts in the here and now. Unlike the rule-bound left, you can invent; Now, the creative, caring you can show. Our modern culture has suppressed the right. That means there’s little… Read More
Continue ReadingSystems Dynamics and the Brain
Systems dynamics, for those unfamiliar with it, is “is a methodology and mathematical modeling technique to frame, understand, and discuss complex issues and problems. Originally developed in the 1950s to help corporate managers improve their understanding of industrial processes, SD is currently being used throughout the public and private sector for policy analysis and design.” (Wikipedia) I used it to support my arguments in my first book, Sustainability by Design, that the persistent problems we face are the result of failures to understand their root causes. The behaviors that underlie the failure to find effective solutions are, in systems dynamics… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Country Sleeps (More Poetry)
The Country Sleeps The last election now is in the past, And the right guy won to my great relief. The very last vote was legally cast. We have a worthy Commander-in-Chief. But the stench of the Big Lie lingers still; Truth hasn’t returned from its vacation. Although the results should produce a thrill, It’s much too soon to express elation. The cancer of MAGA waits, hidden deep In the heart of the body politic. Democracy is dulled and half asleep, Doped by electoral arithmetic. Will it awake soon? The jury’s still out. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of doubt.
Continue ReadingA Fish Rots from the Head
In the hundreds of thousands of words that have been written about the impeachment of Donald Trump, there is a singular omission: the word “corruption.” Maybe it does appear in places. I certainly have read only a minute fraction of everything that has been written, but the focus has been almost entirely on what is impeachable. Merriam-Webster defines corruption in several ways: 1a : dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (such as government officials or police officers) : depravity 1b : inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (such as bribery) //the corruption of government officials 1c… Read More
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