" OK! Boss, no problem. You want me to pepper the protesters with water, or do you want me to machine gun "em' down? I'll do it!"
I strongly doubt that Milgram or another researcher would find the same horrific results were he to choose his subjects among people from indigenous cultures where leadership is much more diffuse, rotating within the tribe according to the varying strengths of its members . Milgram's disturbing data says more about our culture than it does about true human nature.
Worthy has traveled to hundreds of places around the world, from dry-cultivated orchards on a Hopi desert mesa to flood-irrigated rice terraces on Balinese hillsides, observing how modern and non-modern cultures think about and shape nature and how nature in turn defines human possibilities. He takes a multidimensional look at the patterns to our behavior affecting this planet and the well-being of future generations. Worthy writes in INVISIBLE NATURE,
Humility is the appropriate response to uncertainty. The precautionary principle , which says that new technologies and policies must be shown not to be harmful before they're adopted, must replace techno-optimism, which gives new technologies the benefit of the doubt, as if they're persons with an inalienable right to exist. (p. 67)
That insightful statement was probably the seed that flowered into Merry's brief essay on humility with which I introduced this article.
Worthy understands the patterns. He lives according to epistemologist Gregory Baetson's dictum regarding the "pattern that connects" which is artistically and metaphorically related to in Rusty Jaw's image of the Hall of Mirrors above.
Kenneth Worthy's works should be looked into by readers of this article who are concerned about the future of their children and the planet. One can get an initial deep look into this man's Soul by listening to an interview of him by this author and his wife at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/10/03/kenneth-worthy-finding-the-human-place-in-nature .
To learn and explore more, you can visit Kenneth's blog at: http://kennethworthy.net/ . To read more on his book, I nvisible Nature , or to purchase it, visit: http://kennethworthy.net/invisiblenature/ .
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