19. We are Cursed And Blessed.


We are Cursed and Blessed.

Bob Komives
::


Life reproduces itself, but imperfectly. This imperfection creates an intricate, diverse biosphere.

Humankind has two traits that distinguish us from other species. I believe these traits contribute to our unique role in the biosphere.

We have a brain that has somewhat independent hemispheres in which we process information in at least two different ways at the same time. We have social systems that tend toward stability, but in which we often and inevitably undergo instability.

We seem cursed by the anguish of war between the conscious and subconscious and between the logical and intuitive factions in our brain. We seem cursed by bloody and bloodless wars between factions in our society.

Other species evolved with greater social order. Compared to our own, their brain parts seem to work in harmony. Our unstable society may well be a curse brought on by our unstable brain. Yet, our creative ability to explore the workings of the universe through art, science, engineering and fantasy is a blessing that we also owe to that curse. If there is to be a utopia, we must find it in how we manage our continuing instability.

All species can perceive scarcity in resources, and they see an apparent need to manage scarcity by preventing any change that instability will bring. We, alone, have the blind management power, at this tick in the evolutionary clock, to destroy life and its biosphere of change.

It is also only we who can hope to notice, midst war and destruction, the wealth that instability and change have wrought within our biosphere. Only we can hope to see that beneath the apparent rules of scarcity and competition lie more general rules for us to follow-
rules for abundance, and rules for cooperation.
Blessed Curses

Humankind seems cursed by its heritage of imperfection in ways that other species are not. Yet, we are blessed with a preeminent role in the biosphere. Richard Restak described well how our semi-independent brain hemispheres process two ways of thinking that are generally coordinated but often conflicting. This duality is mirrored in our culture. We experiment with: democracy, dictatorship, republic; polygamy, polyandry, monogamy; matriarchy, patriarchy; monarchy, anarchy. Only the human species has a restless urge to understand and perfect.


Competition seeks instability.
One individual,
one group
tries to gain advantage over another.
When too successful,
competition fails.
It can produce a stable dictatorship,
monopoly,
slavery.
Cooperation seeks stability.
It too can fail
if it is perfectly successful.
Stable wealth stops evolving.
Rebels appear.
Feeling stifled,
they promote instability.
We play hopscotch
through patterns of opposites:
cooperation or competition,
with
stability or instability.
War -unstable competition.
The marketplace -stable competition.
Tradition and rules -stable cooperation.
Invention and information,
though often spawned by cooperation,
bring change -instability.
Each pattern brings the other.
The market creates incentive for invention:
a better mouse trap,
a five-cent cigar.
Invention produces new traditions:
stay home
to watch a ball game at the park,
go to the park
to get away from my computer-cottage office.
A stifling tradition brings revolution and war.
We are special
because we can notice these patterns,
seek to understand them,
and decide to participate.

What Makes Us Special

If an objective visitor from outer space had arrived on Earth a few hundred thousand years ago she would have had to stay around to notice that we naked apes were in any way special. Today, she would quickly pick us out of the crowd. We have made ourselves quite noticeable. Electric hair dryers, tennis shoes, oil spills, and political conventions make us stand out clearly in the crowd of earthly creatures.

We see correctly that we are special, but we have tended to think incorrectly that we are special because we are better. "Better" is a subjective evaluation, but if we equate it with "more perfect" we are wrong. We are special because we are less perfect. We are cursed with imperfections that bless us with flourishing culture. Individually and in groups we play dynamic roles that never allow our species to settle into a comfortable niche.


:: Bob Komives, Fort Collins © 2006 :: Plum Local IV :: 19. We are Cursed and Blessed ::
With attribution these words may be freely shared, but permission
is required if quoted in an item for sale or rent

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