OS 10.me.2

revised 7/3/09

Here’s more from the TED conference given by William McDonough: “Our culture tortures itself now, with tyrannies and concerns over limits and fear, but we can add this other dimension of abundance.”

These “tyrannies and concerns over limits and fear” infest everything. All our systems, from the family to the nation, all our relationships, our work, our hopes and dreams, even our vacations. It's all built around prevention of loss. In the end they lead to a culture of fear. These fears in our primordial condition emerge insecurities emerge in social tyrannies and fear-based responses to existence. They color our perspective and give energy to our responses, so that our default setting is to assume and plan for the worst.

We build whole societies this way and when these societies live shoulder to shoulder, war is inevitable. We tend to ignore or even reject the abundance all around us. Imagine a world where the default human setting was to assume the very best will happen, and to plan for it.

Our tyrannies infest daily life in tiny little ways. Here’s an example: the social revulsion against telling someone they have hurt your feelings. The practice of telling people how you feel when they hurt you is not wrong. It’s difficult, so we call it wrong in order to avoid doing it. We call it “socially unacceptable” but the truth is we're afraid of it. It's dysfunctional because it stifles communication. If it stifles communication, it hinders relationship.

Imagine a world where we felt fear at the prospect of NOT communicating our feelings. I don’t mean shouting or getting in someone’s face. I mean respectfully, courteously explaining yourself. Try it. I guarantee you hold back. And I further guarantee you hold back not because it’s wrong, but because it’s scary.

The tyrannies are not basic to us. But the fears from which the arise are. To fix the situation, we must undertake the adventure into ourselves. The simplest fear or insecurity is an opportunity to take the first tentative step on the road that leads to your utter-self, the self you dream of when no one's looking.

That is a mythic journey.

Ever forward.

Posted via web from Ever Forward