I want to move towards a Second Order Culture. After months of hard effort I am now able to say I have done my best and can let others do their best. This, by the way, is not the same as trying to be THE BEST. I consider that ambition to be a construct of the First Order which I hope we are able to differentiate from. I have less interest in diversity as I am diversity with integration. When we have too much diversity too fast some of the regulars get resistant to change and defensive postures start to dominate. I am not able to figure out what happens next ahead of time, i attempt to communicate from a desired outcome and trust the wisdom of the system to learn something about itself. This is a Batesonian aesthetic. It is a principle, rather than a best practice.
When a system is too complex, best practices arent going to work. And if the system tries to stay too simple, it will not move fast enough and get eaten up. So, we seek a Goldilocks zone, not too loose, not too tight, not too fast, and not too slow. We need to work with principles and a willingness to experiment. That is why I am not interested in leading, I am interested in creating conditions for a movement to happen.
It was said in the last Cafe, that a civilization doesn’t die, it commits suicide. That is sobering thought. We need movements to deal with the polarized field of leaders in opposition who do nothing but maintain the status quo. This statement is an effort towards integration. I imagine we are not able yet to figure this out as a group. We need trans-contextual capacity to pull that off.
Here is a map, made by Doug, of the conversation between Barrett and myself, in the last Cafe. I find this kind of communique can become a new kind of memory. Without memory we are doomed to extinction rather quickly. I hope we can start to find new ways of embodying a collective memory. This is very different from a digital message. An analogue relies on gesture, has shape and size and a rhythm, it can be symbolic and points to a shared reality, has a sense of scale. We cant make meaning without making sense. A feeling and a form as Langer suggests.My felt sense is that humanity is loosing its memory really fast. Both the old and the young are loosing it. I think Langer would agree if she was here. Her books are widely available but she is not easy to understand. But that is way too big a topology for what I imagine the Cafe can take on in such a short amount of time. I will chunk down and chunk slow for awhile.
I will be relaxing a bit, taking a break from the Cafe next week, to take care of personal business and draw a few pictures in my notebook, as I reread Feeling and Form. This is a very big book and it may take a couple of weeks to do that book justice. I feel that I need to stay focused, with the decade or two that humanity has left, to share a soft focus, and with a sense of modesty. We have to find the right pace for absorbing new materials. The Cafe is too fast for this. Langer would require a long study group and I find little time for that. Where is the context? I cant find it. Is there a relationship between Bodhi and Langer? I am getting quesy, which is not a good sign. This is my feedback to the Cafe society. I hope this makes sense to someone.
Good luck and may the force go with you.
