Crisis in Perception – Respond by Evolving Character
Humanity has reached a turning point defined by a simple truth: our survival on Earth depends on our ability to change ourselves. Like no other time in human history, every individual, in every community, of every nation has become part of one global community; yet overall, many of the customs and habits from which our societies operate are magnifying potentials for the destruction of human life, and the biosphere. Entangled in a complex web of global conflicts and crises, what is done in one region of the Earth, now intimately affects all others; the pollution from our industries, the gains and losses of our economies, and the displaced refugees from our wars are no longer limited by the borders that once separated us. There is nowhere to hide from the fate of humanity’s challenge to climb out from the midst of our own shadow(s) and find light in a new stage of human development.
There are those of us who can envision a global community of peace, based on a united purpose of living in harmony with each other and with the Earth. Presently however, in contrast, as habitual modes of being unconscious incline conventional ways of thinking to fail, as unnecessary limits to human development are perpetuated; we stand to repeat what history could otherwise teach us to change. With confusion on the rise worldwide, if we are to change our trajectory from being ensnared in destructive forces that engender global conflict to consciously embracing creative forces to cultivate global conflict-resolution, then how we think must become the central issue.
It has become customary to search for answers to our problems outside ourselves; as when activists take to the streets to demand social justice; corporations celebrate new technologies that will cure what ails us; economists speculate on how to achieve relief through perpetual economic growth; politicians make promises based on the benefits of their brand of public policy; all with the supposition that adjustments in the objective circumstances of humanity could be the mechanism that will finally realize potentials for peace in society. However, when we approach our complex global conflicts from the most comprehensive perspective, we are able to realize that the barriers to conflict-resolution do not stem from a lack of “practical” solutions, but rather, from deficiencies in the quality of character enacted by individuals.
We need go no further than the climate change crisis to understand this point. Over the recent decades since scientists began to warn society of the dangers associated with the effects of emissions on the climate, not only has a strong consensus of certainty developed within the scientific community, but also a steady ideological shift toward environmentalism in the public; as well as a relatively rapid technological movement in the development of sustainable energy innovations. Empowered by new ecological insights and readily available practical solutions, it simply appears that we have only to act to avoid catastrophe. Yet, with nothing less than the survival of humanity at stake, why is it that our political leaders actively deny the existence of climate change, uproot environmental protection policies, refuse international cooperation, and actively work to favor extending the fossil fuel industry’s dominance over the energy sector; despite such abundant evidence that doing so will cause continued ecological destruction?
In principle, the same question could be posed to an individual person battling with an addiction; take smoking cigarettes as an example. Many smokers are aware of the large body of scientific research demonstrating that smoking cigarettes can lead to various health issues, diseases, and ultimately to an early death. Yet, those same individuals, informed of the risks associated with their behavior, continue to smoke, nonetheless. Just like in the case of climate change, the problem does not stem from an absence of practical solutions. In fact, the opposite is true when you consider the significant number of resources available to assist smokers to quit. Furthermore, when asked, many smokers will even clearly admit that they would ultimately like to quit, however, despite their best intentions, they continue to smoke. Possessing the desire to quit and access to the resources to do so, why is it so difficult to quit smoking?
At both the global and the individual level, the difficulty in our efforts to change comes from the power that habits have on behavior. When we think and act in certain ways, over time, we will form habits. The more time that passes, the stronger the habit becomes, and the harder it will be to make a shift; every cigarette smoked serves to strengthen the habit. The metabolic processes of the body habituate to the regular intake of nicotine, to the point where an absence of nicotine will cause the body significant stress. A smoker’s day to day activities become so intertwined with the habit that it becomes hard to imagine life without smoking; everything in daily life can become a cue, to reach for a cigarette. Even one’s social relationships are affected by whether or not the people around them smoke. The longer a person smokes, the more the identity of being a “smoker” will take hold in their understanding of self. And although medicines and therapies can be a helpful assist to quitting, for real lasting change to take root there needs to be a change within oneself; what is needed is a change in the character of our personalities.
Our character is how the dynamics of our thinking and feeling are expressed in our behavior; which determines the effects of our habits of perception on the world around us. Here I am intending to use the terms thinking and feeling symbolically, to represent an expansive set of categorically related terms – thinking is meant to represent more interpretative faculties such as reason, logic, analysis, discernment, etc.; while feeling is meant to represent more visceral faculties like emotion, passion, intuition, impulse, etc. Both sets of faculties constitute forms of human perception within our personalities that are in constant dynamic interrelation. The dynamics of how these two poles of thinking and feeling are, or are not, in balance is reflected in both subjective and objective outcomes in our lives.
Everything we do, from the most mundane to the most profound, is an expression of our character. The various spheres of influence present in our lives – physical health, family life, cultural context, natural environment, education, racial identities, spiritual orientations, and political affiliations – have effects on the formation of our personalities, as we gradually grow more and more conscious, in our development from youth to maturity. Concurrently, the growth of self-awareness within our personalities, if regularly cultivated, provides us the opportunity to creatively shape how we see the world and how we act within it.
Character can be interpreted by means of qualities, containing potentials for health, compassion, sustainability, creativity and balance; and as well, potentials for illness, ignorance, waste, destruction and chaos. The quality of our individual character is determined by how the dynamics of thinking and feeling within ourselves shape our conceptions, choices, and actions; thereby influencing the outcomes of our behavior. The freedom to make choices arising from our self-awareness is inextricably tied to the responsibility that arises from how we choose. This is the distinctive challenge that lies at the root of human nature.
The choices we make express our character in subtle ways: do we hold the door for people behind us, or charge inside without a look back; do we stop our cars and allow pedestrians cross the street, or do we assume the next car will stop; do we smile and express gratitude to the grocery clerk for bagging our groceries, or do we walk away without engagement? Likewise, the choices we make express our character in the most fundamental of ways: do we think that the universe is random and meaningless or do we see ourselves as parts of an integrated (w)hole; do we see ourselves as separate from everyone around us or do we see ourselves as members of one human family on Earth; do we allow differences of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and religious orientation to become sources of conflict, or do we see these differences as comprising a mosaic of potentials that inform what it means to be human?
When we act from dynamics such as ignorant perspectives, limited identities, selfish interests, or orientations lacking sufficient compassion, we induce deficient character that promotes conflict within and outside ourselves. The more we allow our choices to be shaped by such dynamics, the more chaotic tendencies will tend to dominate the character of our perception. (Remember the smoker, moving closer and closer to death with every choice to light up). Yet, even more important to realize at this time in history is that, the more that chaotic tendencies dominate the character of individuals, the darker the cloud that forms over human history. The worldwide stream of news stories describing poverty, violence, environmental degradation, political deadlock, oppression, and corruption is a mirror, showing us the extent of our urgent need for change in how our individual character shapes humanity at large. As my father, Gola Wolf Richards, once wrote, “When the scope of personal cultivation is lacking on the part of able individuals, then the scope of advancing human potentials will be lessened among the weak”.
The large-scale problems that threaten humanity are aggregations of countless choices guided by the character of how we think as individuals. This point is echoed in the work of system thinkers Frijof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi, when they explain, “Ultimately, these problems must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which is largely a crisis in perception. It derives from the fact that most people in our modern society, and especially our large social institutions, subscribe to the concepts of an outdated worldview, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with our overpopulated, globally interconnected world”.
The character of human perception defines the course of human history. Like all other forms of the evolution of life, human consciousness grows as it adapts to greater and greater complexities, challenging humanity to transcend greater and greater limits of awareness. And when how we understand ourselves and the world around us is incapable of adapting to the challenges we face, we experience crisis in perception. As Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”. Consequently, in order to survive the crisis before us, we must evolve beyond the limited perspectives that confine our growth; by reaching for wisdom to change our perspectives and realizing how collective peace is achieved through individuals learning how to resolve conflict within themselves.
How do we go about learning how to evolve the character of our perception, in order to better resolve conflict? In the next installment of Language of Change, I will discuss the art of contemplative self-cultivation as a means to this end.
