Generally, people (myself included) seem to suffer from having a personal blind spot. There are many things that in hindsight are obvious and still at the time we denied that it was so.Currently, the "Western world" seems to be deep in a group of these. There are so many I don't know where to start.
I expect you have a list of your own -
the financial crisis
climate change
executive salaries
our pension services
my spelling
etc
etc.
So what is this and How does it happen?
An over view is that people are good at developing generalisations. These serve us well and make us more efficient.
They are not quiet habits but more short cuts - we know the way things "work" so we can save a lot of time and energy by assuming that that is the way things actually are. Much of the time this is true. However, there are times when it isn't and there comes a time when it is dangerous to keep using it.Unfortunately, this requires us to let go of the shortcut and expend time and effort creating a new one that works in the "new" world. AND when the pressure is on is the worst time to be testing and developing a new shortcut. This can result in disaster.
So why do we find this so hard to make these changes?
Maybe its so hard because it is not clear that the world has really changed until it is too late to invest in bringing ourselves up to date :-)
ReplyDeleteWelcome! This is one of the most interesting first blog posts I have seen yet. I look forward to following your posts. Good luck with the rest of the program!
ReplyDeleteFiona
Thanks for visiting my blog. All the best with the rest of the course - look forward to dropping by occasionally !
ReplyDeleteFood for thought! I was discussing with my husband the other day about how ingrained it seems for humans to deliberately annoy themselves. He said - well chimpanzees hate the rain but do not move when it rains, preferring to grumble about it. Our need to annoy ourselves seems to have ancient roots! Perhaps this need is mixed up with the need for the status quo to remain the same ... my husband refers to this as 'moral panic' - I will refer you to his blog when he gets around to uploading that article!
ReplyDeleteI love the painting you have on your blog page. It looks part mandala part aboriginal. and the colours are very warm. Where does it come from?
ReplyDeleteThe painting is from an Australian Bush food Site. Cannot remember which one
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