![]() After reading Glenn Parton’s wonderful essay The Machine in Our Heads, which I would urge everyone to read, I was inspired to try again to articulate, in simple terms, the environmental philosophy that underlies much of what I have come to believe in the last five years, and which has driven much of my recent lifestyle and behaviour change, and the writing of this blog. Here’s the latest attempt, talking to myself out loud:
Please let me know what you think of Glenn Parton’s essay. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I have little use for psychologists, but I found Parton’s paper very compelling. If you enjoy The Machine in Our Heads, you might also like his Humans in the Wilderness paper, published in the remarkable Canadian eco-philosophy magazine, Trumpeter.
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dave you got it – i’m right there with you
Dave, thanks for putting out this essay. Unusual to see a psychological analysis, especially connecting the global with the individual. I’ll have to think about this essay a bit more…my own paradigm is that the ‘false self’ is a separated self, from nature, from the divine, from our own original self. I don’t like the term false, even though it is accurate. Seems too negative.
Thanks as always Dave. Points 1 – 4 are key for me, and I focus in on 2 and 3 – the “dis-ease” we are living is cultural, and this is where we must start.Given your career, you may know of or remember this name – Roger Harrison. He was one of the “grand old men” of the OD world, a contemporaryu of Dick Beckhardts and the Lippett brothers and so on. One of the inventors of “Power and Role Negotiations” in group processes, etc., etc. He would have had much to say about Knowledge “management”, particularly the tacit side.He wrote a brief piece in the mid-90’s, which he passed out at a small private workshop I attended, titled “A Time for Letting Go”. In it he suggested that organizations and the dominant mental model of growth have many many parallels with the world of addiction (something I am sure you and I would agree with), and that consulting – the work he did, you did, I did – was so very often collusive, enabling of that addiction.And then he goes on to examine the grand tradition of detachment found in most responses to addiction and codependency.I have never found this article in a book or magazine, and just found my paper copy whilst cleaning. It was extraordinarily impactful on me and my life when I first read it in 1997.I have posted it on my blog, attributing it to Roger, here:http://www.blogue.com/wirearchy/2004/03/21#a650
You might have read these already, but David Edwards recently published two articles that somewhat relate to this topic (he deals with the effects of the corporate world on our psychology and identity): Breaking the Chains of Illusion and Breaking the Chains of Illusions — Part Two: The Catastrophe Of Corporate Work. Edwards’ book Burning All Illusions also is a good source on this issue. See also Fritjof Capra’s Web of Life if you haven’t.
Dave, Jon and Dirtgrain: what a wealth of articles. I’m all set for my week’s worth of reading.
Thanks, everyone. Shari — I agree with your suggested renaming of ‘false self’. Jon & Jan: Thanks for the additional excellent reading sources.
I have been reading your articles for awhile and this one was just too good not to comment. Great perpective, I believe alot of people are coming to this same point of view. I have been studying with this shaman Martin Prechtel who has this same point of view but from a Mayan spiritual perpective. http://www.floweringmountain.com It is really cool to see both views, one spiritual and one more logical.
Must be a good essay — it reminds several folks of connected works. Here’s mine:Re 1: I mentioned Elisabet Sahtouris’ “Earthdance” previously; it certainly fits here. You can find it online at ratical.org/lifeweb.Re 3: Another book that makes this point is Gary Alexander’s “eGaia”. Shari, he also talks about separation, using the term “disconnection”.Re 7: Again, a book that I mentioned previously: Paul Rezendes’ “The Wild Within”.Re 10: Dave, as you know, I’m also working on possibilities for a Plan B. My belief, however, is that the idea of a few bright people inventing a plan that everyone then implements simply won’t work (see my comment to your review of Singer’s book). I also believe that trying to meet force with greater force is doomed from the start. Finally, I believe that the seeds of the solution are all around us, and that the best use of bright people is to recognize them, raise awareness within and among them, and act as something roughly analogous to gardeners to an organically growing solution. This will take a combination of boldness, humility, and patience. (For an interesting analogy, Google for “sahtouris imaginal disks”.)