Blessed Unrest, The Book

A summary of:
Hawken, P. (2004). Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement inward History is Restoring Grace, Justice, together with Beauty to the World. Penguin Books: New York.

I receive got to admit, I was a scrap disappointed amongst this book. It's really optimistic, which is nice; but it didn't sell the optimism to me. For the most part, it seemed similar wishful thinking. I'm non only convinced of this dandy social movement; though I wishing I could believe similar Hawken. I wish, specifically, that I could believe that "the shared action of hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations tin move seen every bit humanity's immune response to toxins similar political corruption, economical disease, together with ecological degradation" (141-2) together with that this motion had whatever direct chances of succeeding inward healing the world; or fifty-fifty better, if the "underlying values of the movement," which I laissez passer on to actually empathise with, "are outset to permeate global society" (186). In some areas of my life, I'm an optimist; but inward this case, I tend to think that things are exactly getting worse together with worse.

There were, however, some interesting points to consider. And at that topographic point were some fabulous quotes inside together with from it, worth capturing.

One of the principal unifying beliefs of this so-called motion has to do amongst the perversity of our economy, which inward turns justifies together with necessitates all sorts of human horrors: "If at that topographic point is a pervasive criticism of global capitalism that is shared yesteryear the actors inward the movement, it is this observation: goods look to receive got move to a greater extent than important, together with are treated better, than people" (14). Interestingly, Hawken after writes the following:

John Maynard Keynes cautioned that nosotros alive our lives nether the illusion of liberty but are probable to move 'slaves to some defunct economist.' Even that description understates the problem. The earth may move caged yesteryear a defect of the entire economical profession - namely, the thought that nosotros tin assess value inward banknotes, or that nosotros tin undertand our human relationship to the cloth earth using an absttract metric rather than a biological one. The extraordinary advances made yesteryear Western societies will, inward the end, move subservient to the terra firma together with what it tin render together with teach. There are no economies of scale; at that topographic point is only nature's economy. We cannot plow dorsum the clock, or render to whatever propr nation on the planet, but nosotros volition never know ourselves until nosotros know where nosotros are on this land. There is no argue that nosotros cannot build an exquisitely designed economic scheme that matches biological scientific discipline inward its diversity, together with integrates complexity rather than extinguishing it. In accomplishing this, at that topographic point is much to move fained from those who receive got non forgotten the terra firma (100).

I think at that topographic point are 2 lessons to move taken from this quote. The initiatory off is that at that topographic point is something undeniably broken nigh our human relationship to our abstract metrics of value. How did coin move the only thing nosotros value? What has happened to social values, to spiritual values? As Hawken says, "A costless market, together with then lovely inward theory, is no to a greater extent than viable inward practise than a soceity without laws" (132). It is together with then of import that at that topographic point are people fighting against this illness (...though unfortunately, I am non every bit optimistic every bit Hawken, together with I think that this is a instance of David together with Goliath, 1 inward which I'd move shocked if David prevailed). Why are nosotros non sickened yesteryear the fact that all our action on the Internet, from using Google to posting on Facebook has a commoditized value to those companies? How is 1 to disengage from this sick human relationship amongst money?

And the minute is that it may apply inward some respects to the Internet every bit well. Yes, at that topographic point is no way to render to a fourth dimension when nosotros had non yet imagined the Internet. The earth is forever changed. But that does non hateful that it must ever be inward its electrical flow form. It tin move to a greater extent than resolutely a vehicle for social justice, for spirituality, for humanity. The telephone substitution is to never forget where nosotros came from.

Here's exactly a modest betoken worth considering: "Language is goose egg less than the living facial expression of a culture, portion of what [anthropologist Wade Davis] calls an ethnosphere, 'the total total of all the thoughts, dreams, ideals, myths, intuitions, together with inspirations brought into beingness yesteryear the imagination since the dawn of consciousness'" (94). Bearing this inward mind, I wonder what it agency for us culturally that our linguistic communication is morphing into text-speak, punctuated yesteryear emoticons. I'm certain it at the really to the lowest degree reflects our subordination to applied scientific discipline together with our sick ambitions to move similar the machines.

I works life it surprising that Hawken described Wikipedia every bit 1 of the manifestations of this supposed social movement. His justification is that it demonstrates a committment to collective activity, dependence, together with "the ascent of the amateur" (158). I do wonder whether the advertisement of the amateur is portion of what's non together with then dandy nigh the Internet, every bit I mentioned inward a previous post. But the message from this to me is that much of this is a affair of interpretation: Two people tin expect at the same thing, say Wikipedia, together with 1 tin run across it every bit a wonderful thing embodying what's best nigh humanity, piece some other someone tin expect at it together with run across it every bit a symptom of the dandy illness our age. I'm outset to realize that this is going to move 1 of the major struggles of my PhD, i.e. making a instance for why things demand to modify when some people run across the Internet every bit it is every bit 1 of (if non the) greatest liberators of humanity.

Hawken sees ideologies every bit harmful, together with makes no bones nigh this:

• "This is the initiatory off fourth dimension inward history that a large social motion is non jump together yesteryear an 'ism'" (15-6).
• "Ideologies prey on these weaknesses together with pervert them into blind loyalties, preventing diverseness rather than nurturing natural development together with the flourishing of ideas" (16).
• "In contrast to the ideological struggles currently dominating global events together with personal identity, a wide nonideological motion has come upward into beingness that does non invoke the masses' fantasized volition but rather engages citizens' localized needs. This movement's telephone substitution contribution is the rejection of 1 large thought inward monastic enjoin to offering inward its house thousands of practical together with useful ones. Instead of isms it offers processes, concerns, together with compassion" (18).
• "Ideologies exclude openness, diversity, resiliency, together with multiplicity, the really qualities that nourish life inward whatever system, move it ecosystem, immune system, or social system" (162).
• "History demonstrates all also eloquently that no ideology has ever amounted to to a greater extent than than a palliative for whatever dire condition" (163).

I do run across his point. And I am leery of edifice a instance or designing something based upon a given ism, thence portion of my aversion to religion. But I think the line betwixt ism together with worldview or morality is blurred. After all, he after goes on to depict a shift inward worldview that Karen Armstrong had termed The Axial Age, together with suggests that what nosotros are seeing straightaway is the latest manifestation, the latest flare of this moral shift. First of all, it's of import to understand what the initiatory off Axial Age is all about, inward the words of Karen Armstrong:

"The Axial sages were non interested inward providing their disciples amongst a fiddling edifying uplift, after which they could render amongst renewed vigor to their ordinary self-centered lives. Their objective was to create an only dissimilar form of human being. All the sages preached a spirituality of empathy together with compassion; they insisted that people must abandon their egotism together with greed, their violence together with unkindness. Not only was it incorrect to kill some other human being; y'all must non fifty-fifty beak a hostile give-and-take or brand an irritable gesture. Further, nearly all of the Axial sages realized that y'all could non confine your benevolence to our ain people: your line of piece of employment concern must somehow extend to the entire world.... If people behaved amongst kindness together with generosity to their fellows, they could salve the world" (185 - from The Great Transformation).

This was the fourth dimension of Socrates, Plato, Lao-tzu, Confucius, Mencius, Buddha, Jeremiah, Isaiah... together with it after saw a "second flowering" (184) inward Christianity, Islam, together with Rabbinical Judaism. Hawken's betoken is that this represents a motion recognized best inward hindsight: a motion for spirituality together with humanity. But further, he thinks that the same is happening now, though it is similarly hard to run across without the do goodness of hindsight. "Just every bit today, the Axial sages lived inward a fourth dimension of war. Their aim was to understand the root of violence, non to combat it. All roads led to self, psyche, thought, together with mind. The spiritual practices that evolved were varied, but all concentrated on focusing together with guiding the heed amongst elementary precepts together with practices whose repitition inward daily life would gradually together with genuinely modify the heart. Enlightenment was non an halt - equanimity, kindess, together with pity were" (185).

There is much to absorb from this inward a higher house quote. I think it actually highlights what is universal nigh spiritual practice, which is helpful for my purposes every bit it volition move necessary to distill the essence from these if I am to suggest a spiritual technological alternative. How tin a novel Internet move designed to cultivate the self (in an egoless way), psyche, thought (deep thought), together with mind? How grand this ambition is, if it is actually an endeavour to create an only novel form of human being! Dream big, eh?

Consider these 2 quotes:

• "Friedrich Hayek, Novel Prize-winning economist... was 1 of the initiatory off to recognize the dispersed nature of noesis together with the effectiveness of localization together with of combining private understanding. Since 1 person's noesis tin only stand upward for a fragment of the totality of what is known, wisdom tin move achieved when people combine what they receive got learned" (21).
• "Not suprisingly, people don't know that they count inward such a malordered, destabilized world, don't know that they are of value. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 good for y'all global civilization cannot move constructed without edifice blocks of meaning, which are hewn of reights together with respect. What constitutes pregnant for human beings are events, memories, together with modest dignities - gifts that rarely emerge from institutions, together with never from theory. As the smaller parts of the earth are knitted into 1 globalized unit, the 1 thing nosotros tin no longer afford is bigness. This agency dismantling the large bombs, dams, ideologies, contradictions, wars, together with mistakes" (23).
  

What I wonder is whether nosotros demand to pattern a localized option to the Internet, i.e. a infinite where people tin experience of import together with create pregnant together with forge existent friendships. This would be, every bit Wendell Berry (quoted yesteryear Hawken) describes it, an instance of "solving for pattern... a solution that addresses multiple problems instead of one.... Solving for pattern is the de facto approach of the motion because it is resources constrained. It cannot afford 'fixes,' only solutions" (178).

The existent enquiry this volume has made me enquire is whether the Internet every bit it is straightaway is actually the appropriate tool to back upward such a motion (assuming it exists). Perhaps it is worth considering whether at that topographic point are ways to pattern a novel Internet that could ameliorate back upward people fighting for humanity. How do nosotros back upward pity together with cooperation, for example?:

We are surfeited amongst metaphors of war, such that when nosotros remove heed the give-and-take defense, nosotros think attack, but the defence of the earth tin genuinely move accomplished only yesteryear cooperation together with compassion. Science straightaway knows that piece soundless inward diapers, virtually all children exhibit altruistic behavior. Concern for the well-being of others is bred inward the bone, endemic together with hardwired. We became human yesteryear working together together with helping 1 another. According to immunologist Gerald Callahan, faith together with honey are literally buried inward our genes together with lymphocyte, together with what it takes to arrest our descent into chaos is 1 someone after some other remembering who together with where they actually are (165).

I think this is where the immune scheme (as network, i.e. Internet) metaphor falls down. We look to presume that because nosotros are interconnected on the web, this fosters greater communication together with cooperation (I don't think nosotros tin pretend it supports compassion). Does it? Or does it exactly back upward the illusion of these? We demand to consider how it is nosotros tin genuinely pattern for this together with then that nosotros tin do dandy things every bit a species.

Some bright quotes from others works life inward this book:

• How is 1 to alive a moral together with compassionate existence when 1 is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent inward life, when 1 finds darkness non only inward one's civilisation but inside oneself? If at that topographic point is a phase at which an private life becomes genuinely adult, it must move when 1 grasps the irony inward its unfolding together with accepts responsiliby for a life lived inward the midst of such paradox. One must alive inward the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at in 1 lawsuit life would collapse. There are exactly no answers to some of the dandy pressing questions. You hold to alive them out, making your life a worthy facial expression of leaning into the light. - Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
• What nosotros telephone telephone Man's ability of Nature turns out to move a ability exercised yesteryear some men over other men amongst Nature every bit its instrument. - C.S. Lewis
• There is an respond from every corner of the globe... the enslaved, the sick, the disappointed, the poor, the unfortunate, the dying, the surviving yell out, it is here. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals
• Let no homo describe y'all ain together with then depression every bit to brand y'all loathe him. - Booker T. Washington
• The modern conservative... is engaged inward 1 of man's oldest exercises inward moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. - John Kenneth Galbraith
  
• But limits nonetheless be together with nosotros know it. In our wildest madness nosotros dream of an equilibrium nosotros receive got lost, together with which inward our simplicity nosotros think nosotros shall discovery in 1 lawsuit over again when our errors cease - an infantile presumption, which justifies the fact that childish peoples, inheriting our madness, are managing our history today.... We plow our dorsum on nature, nosotros are ashamed of beauty. Our piteous tragedies receive got the scent of an office, together with their blood is the coloring of muddied ink. - Camus, Lyrical together with Critical Essays
• I rejoice to alive inward such a splendidly disturbing time! - Helen Keller