steeples

STEEPLeS is an acronym for the seven elements of a holistic and systematic development framework for change for the better:

Social  Technological  Environmental  Economic  Political  Legal  Spiritual

 the concept has its own  website - click  HERE

overload

Distractions are forever appearing. They ruin attempts to focus. It is a mindbrain thing. But there is an antidote in mindfulness. Guided attention. Guided away from the undesirable (egoic lose/lose and lose/win) towards the desirable (non-egoic win/win).

Nothing comes from nothing. My conscious thought trains get loaded in the unconscious. The thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) churn together to find links between immediate inputs from the sense organs, and historical items from memory.

‘Truth’ takes a bashing. A human mindbrain is shaped by nature, nurture and chance. This is the best that can be done to speedily shape and reshape ‘reality’ in a particular time and place eg the snake in the path is in fact a piece of rope. Better safe than sorry. It is often sensible to be pessimistic and neurotic. Remember - heavier than air machines can fly. The world is flat. Atoms are divisible. God is dead; and a woman’s place is in the home.

I have lived and worked in five countries as a teacher, education advisor, and as a plain language
editor. My personal ‘reality’ has taken several blows as I have interacted with people in different cultures and climates, and with cutting edge thinkers and activists. This has given rise to various periods of cognitive dissonance. The verities are never in fact eternal.

There is the problem of ‘speaking truth to power’ when there is no truth. But there is also the notion of ‘the best working hypothesis in the light of evidence currently available’. This has led to recent advances in evolutionary psychology and behavioural economics when they are linked to progress in neurology. The advanced line of scientific thinking relishes the notions that ‘the only certainty is doubt ‘and’ the only constant thing is change’.

 I was distracted many times while writing the above paragraphs. But most of the time I noticed them arising and thus pulled attention back to the focus topic.

NNS

Human beings are familiar with the idea of ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘ego’. They also have a robust sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’. If my ‘I’ is not cut short it can be expected to last for about seventy years. ‘Us’ can be more or less lengthy depending on its size which can range from family through various levels of community and leading to the brotherhood of an enlightened man who acts, ideally, as the custodian of life on this planet.

In the grander scheme of things an individual human being doesn’t count for much but they can create stories that validate themselves in all manner of strange and hierarchical ways.

Human beings have mindbrains which are capable of seeing patterns and these have changed, often radically, in the last few millions of years. The stories are built on nature (genes), nurture (brainwashing) and serendipity (chance). It is not easy to figure how much of the three sources are involved in creating individual ‘realities’. However, recent  research suggests that blind chance is more potent than was earlier thought.

Ref:  New Scientist. Chance: The science and secrets of luck, randomness and probability (Kindle Locations 8-9). Hodder & Stoughton. Kindle Edition.