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Application to Political Change
Regarding political change - and especially military applications - "doing more of the same" - within a first order-change context - is the norm. Sure enough, we can observe two things: 1) as the French saying goes, "the more things change, the more they remain the same", and 2) an emergent phenomenon - which in systems theory is called a "positive feedback loop". Bateson referred to the term "schizmogenesis" to describe a runaway - an escalation without limits that, if not halted, can lead to a breakdown in a system. Here, again, "more of the same" intensifies and exacerbates the problem to an extreme degree.
Speaking about his kind of escalation, Edgar Morin asks all human beings to contemplate this vital dimension: the reality of runaway positive feedback in our world, a phenomenon that is currently
"overtaking all sectors of life... The rate of change is itself accelerating. The question now becomes whether we have crossed a critical threshold in the process of acceleration/amplification that could lead to an explosion or implosion involving any number of deadly global threats."
In contrast to this scenario, former Czech president Vaclav Havel's words exemplify a second-order-change perspective, which is especially relevant to our usual consensus trance:
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We need to be able to examine and step out of unquestioned frameworks... into those that are more encompassing.
Love of wisdom, psychotherapy, recovery movements, meditation, prayer, and an understanding of complexity and higher levels of change all exemplify obtaining a larger perspective from which to see and act. Each invites us to move "above", "beyond", or "meta" to the paradigm of domination.
Conclusion
While it may be counter-intuitive, I am suggesting that durable cultural change begins with a change in consciousness, rather than merely with outer action/activism.
How might our political/social change actions be transformed, if we entered these more encompassing levels of consciousness?
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