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Psychology of SustainabilityEmbodying cyclic environmental processes- / - This paper is a contribution to reflection on viable strategies
for sustainable development on the occasion of the
UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) Introduction IntroductionThe term "psychology of sustainability" seems to have been launched as the title of a paper by Alice Jones (1996) although described in 1995 by her as follows:
According to Giuseppe Carrus and Mirilia Bonnes (2002):
Throughout the past decade, there has been increasing interest in eco-psychology, notably through the creation of an Ecopsychology Institute and the availability of ecopsychological resources on the web [more]. But it is interesting that the emphasis is to a significant degree on the personal implications: the skillful application of ecological insight to the practice of psychotherapy; the study of our emotional bond with the Earth; the search for an environmentally-based standard of mental health; and re-defining "sanity" as if the whole world mattered. It is perhaps the latter focus that is closest to the preoccupation of this paper with the psychology of sustainability. A related pattern of significance is associated with "psychological sustainability", as in the case of Esalen's proposed approach to prosperity:
The focus below is to follow Alice Jones with respect to the "very personal nature of what is implied". However the emphasis here is less on adopting personal behaviours consistent with sustainable environmental programmes and more on understanding how any ability to act in the environment in a sustainable manner is intimately dependent on the ability to act in a sustainable manner with respect to one's own internal psychological environment. Indeed it is argued that unless experiential understanding of one's psychological environment consciously embodies analogous cyclic patterns and processes, it is unlikely that social behaviours with respect to the environment will themselves be sustainable -- however strong the declarations of intent or the initial commitment to sustainable patterns of action. The "pattern that connects"Sustainability might be usefully understood as the "pattern that connects" which Gregory Bateson highlighted in suggesting that if it is broken all quality is then destroyed. This is most obviously seen in the case of broken food webs which result in the destruction of ecosystems. It is also evident in the case of water and weather systems, whether the broken patterns lead to flooding or desertification. The challenge of sustainability is that people in industrialized societies have little obvious reason to care for loss of such quality -- despite continuing creative attempts to encourage them to understand otherwise. Fundamentally such patterns are distant and irrelevant to an urbanized population. When "dirty" water is flushed and "clean" water comes out of a tap or a bottle, the sense of the water cycle is lost -- or even desperately repressed to avoid recognition of the path taken by the recycled water that is available for consumption. The challenges of sustainabilty are typically presented in linear terms as the increasing threat of: global warming, environmental pollution, shortage of water, loss of biodiversity, and the like. The solutions are presented in corresponding terms of the necessarily linear counter-measures required: reduction of emissions, water conservation, protection of species, etc. Neither the descriptions of the problems, nor of the solutions, recognize the cyclic nature of the patterns that need to be engendered for any change to be sustainable. Indicators focus on linear measures of increase. There are few, if any, measures of the nature of cycles. Even the "recycling" advocated in relation to sustainability programmes is subject to linear measurement. The question to be asked is whether a linear framework can engender or engage a cyclic perspective. More specifically, can a linear framework ensure sustainability that is dependent on cyclic behaviour? The pattern that connects to ensure sustainability necessarily involves behavioural cycles -- whether habits, instincts or rituals. Linear initiatives, whether framed as growth or remedial programmes, are necessarily characterized by a beginning and an end that defines them as unsustainable -- however much lip service may be paid to building in follow-through processes. Programmes are instruments of linear thinking and as such are incompatible with the cyclic quality of the behaviours necessary to sustainability. Elusiveness of sustainabilityMany have remarked on the vagueness of "sustainability" -- and the abuse of the term which this encourages. There is a sense that what is signified by the term can only be described by unsustainable practices, namely by measures of unsustainability. A major challenge of the arts is to describe the positive conditions of "living happily ever after". In practice this can only be briefly suggested as a sequel to (or in dramatic anticipation of) the violence and tensions with which it is contrasted. The same might be said of sustainability. In practice it is simply boring over any extended period of time. Nothing "happens" -- or is likely to happen -- which, ironically, may be the future of sustainable development strategies as currently envisaged. The challenge of any description of sustainability is further highlighted by Francisco Varela:
There is a sense therefore in which it is unsustainability that lends itself to description, whereas description is essentially alien to the processes and conditions of sustainability. Description can perhaps denote the boundaries of sustainability, namely the grey areas of transition from sustainability to unsustainability, and in so doing indicate by inference the nature of the processes that lie within those boundaries. As with the challenge of containing plasma in nuclear fusion, sustainability has to be held away from the walls of the conceptual container that brings it into being -- in order to avoid it being "quenched". Environmental learningIn 1997 Alice Jones with Steven Gordon pointed to the value of "thinking like a watershed" as a key to stormwater management. This suggests a more generic case for exploring psychological patterns that may be mnemonically isomorphic with cyclic processes in the environment. The point of doing so is to obtain an intimate sense of what is important to one's psychic well-being in such processes that may then give new meaning to caring for processes in the external environment. Again, if one cannot sense the importance of certain cycles in oneself, caring for their external counterparts ultimately lacks significance and is essentially irrelevant -- whatever the exhortations regarding future threats. Movement in nature may prove to be a key to sustainable strategies. These are exemplified by weather cycles with which people are most familiar. Examples ionclude:
Curiously it is the Chinese, over millennia, who have seized upon such phenomena as the metaphorical key to a comprehensive system of transformational processes considered by them to be basic to the many aspects of governance -- whether by an emperor or by any individual. As explicated in the I Ching, this "Book of Changes" is a major challenge to the post-modern world to create a "model" of greater relevance and interest to people at every level of society [more; more]. The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential explored its use as a template for the generation of metaphors relevant to networking (1986) and policy-cycles (1991). The web variant has extended the experiment to apply to: dialogue, vision, transformative conferencing, policy-cycles, networking, sustainable community and sustainable lifestyles [more]. For those inclined to such taoist perspectives, it may well be the "happening of nothing" that is the key. Contemporary ironies of sustainabilityThere is an historical irony to the fact that the recent period, which has seen emergence of interest in sustainability as a policy issue for states, has also seen the emergence into public debate of the challenges of male impotence and erectile dysfunction -- namely the unsustainability of erections. The special twist to this irony is that the uncontrollable pursuit of traditional remedial aphrodisiacs has been a major factor in exacerbating the consequences of trade in endangered species and products derived from them (eg powdered rhino horn, dried penises of various species, etc). The decimation of some species, such as tigers and rhinos, has been linked to the continuing popularity of centuries-old sexual and other medicinal folk remedies in Asian cultures. In Chinese traditional medicine, animal parts -- known in East Asia as pu foods -- are reputed to endow a man with the potency of the animal itself, or with the potency implied by the shape of the appendage. The importance attached to "sustainability" in this sense has been powerfully demonstrated in the West by the popularity of Viagra and similar products. In Europe an estimated 36 million men suffer from erectile dysfunction. These include those decision-makers most responsible for developing an effective response to the challenges of sustainability -- such as Eurocrats, and Members of the European Parliament, who have a Viagra allowance of around £35 a month (Guardian, 9 Aug 2002). In the USA, more than 7 million men have used it to improve their sexual function. It has been prescribed there more than 22 million times. It is available in more than 90 countries worldwide. It is claimed to work for up to 82% of users. Arguably more attention, publicity and resources, has been given to the need for "sustainable erections" than to "sustainable development". The importance of such potency to human reproduction and its contribution to the increasing challenges of over-population need no comment. But the psychological implications of erectile dysfunction and impotency on policy directives relating to sustainable development merit some reflection. In this light, it is also ironic that thinking about sustainable development tends to be undertaken using a masculine mind-set [Janis Birkeland, 1999]. Chris Dutilh and Gerda Casimir (2002), for example, review the main forces counteracting sustainable development. Their hypothesis is that those forces are inherent to the dualistic nature of each individual, having both an outgoing (masculine) element which aims to manifest itself, as well as a caring (feminine) element which is concerned about continuity and future generations. They conclude:
This is now becoming evident in the focus on the information and "knowledge" required for sustainable development -- framed as the need for male-dominated computer technology and software, and as ensuring the penetration of the internet "across the digital divide". As marketable products, such "hard" information will be the prime characteristic of the UN's World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva, 2003; Tunis, 2005). There is little understanding of the "soft" information and insight required in the process of giving substance to alternative realities -- the kinds of information notably documented by Darrell Posey (1999) and furthered by Terralingua [more]. UNESCO, as the agency responsible for the UN Summit, could be usefully challenged to rectify any such imbalance, especially given its transversal concern with women and non-western cultures. Dutilh and Casimir see the challenge to be one of identifying responses to unsustainable development from a complementary perspective. Indeed, for a planet ravaged by masculine initiatives and the exploitation of non-renewable resources, it is only too appropriate for a "sustainable system" that such a period should be associated with male impotence -- a condition which the raped often wish upon their rapists. It is also ironic that a dangerous consequence of pollution and environmental stress has been the proliferation of oestrogen surrogates, falling sperm counts, scrambling of the male hormone, all leading to the "feminization of nature" [more]. But in the search for balance from a softer perspective, the question is who is acknowledging the dysfunctionalities that are liable to become obvious as a consequence of feminine initiatives -- in an immediate future in which, ironically, the fertility of the planet may prove inadequate to sustain the human population. In a "blip" culture habituated to "zapping", sustaining attention is increasingly recognized as a challenge by educators, advertisers, and controllers of complex systems. Over-exposed to the stress of modern life, individuals (notably children) can suffer from various "attention-deficiency disorders" with symptoms such as: inattention, distractibility, disorganization, daydreaming, lack of foresight, carelessness, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, lack of persistence, procrastination, hyperactivity, restlessness, excessive talking, and impulsiveness. These all undermine any ability to recognize or respond to longer cycle concerns fundamental to sustainability. As a political cause, sustainability is subject to the observations of Geoffrey Miller's controversial suggestions that political opinions are effectively courtship displays (in: Political Peacocks, Demos Quarterly). Miller's hypothesis explains a number of aspects of political culture supposedly baffling without it: the interest in politics of the politically impotent; the disproportionate favour 'caring' politics find with women (not actually the case in Britain); the drift away from 'stimulating' radical opinions to reassuring ones in later years. He explains sudden upsurges in political interest like those he observed at college in terms of the "frequency-dependent selection" biologists observe in animal courtship, where certain signs are only attractive if popularly reproduced. [more] Ironical also is the extent to which those promoting sustainable development exemplify their linear thinking through the focus on "targets" of "campaigns" requiring "mobilization" -- namely through the use of military metaphors which might well be considered as fundamentally incompatible with the mind-set required to achieve sustainability. Even more curious is their use of the phrase "meeting targets" -- which in that context might be as meaningful as an encounter between George Bush and Osama bin Laden. As the former has perhaps realized, the latter is not standing still in anticipation of being "acquired" as a target. Ideally the static "target", once "hit", is conditioned by the "impact" of the (powerpoint) "bullet" into some new pattern of behaviour. In the real world however, "targets" are on the move and will be induced to move even more unpredictably by being "targeted" or "hit". Unless the "targets" are to be considered as fundamentally masochistic or stupid, they will tend to react "negatively" to being "hit" and having their behaviour "modified". But perhaps those "hitting" such "targets" see the situation more as do cattle herders, or abattoir slaughter-men, who direct cattle by using electrical prods? Any such framings of course raise questions about the supposedly two-way nature of the communication process. [more] Given the focus on military metaphors in the pursuit of sustainable development, perhaps the most profound irony relates to contemporary attitudes to death itself. Animals of every kind are slaughtered unthinkingly in their millions -- many to the point of extinction, or at least to the point of their exhaustion as a food stock (cf overfishing, etc) -- with the complicity of the FAO. The 20th century has seen the highest slaughter of human beings in the history of the species. And substances are deliberately produced and consumed that have a high probability of causing ill-health and death -- with the complicity of the WHO. But at the same time, there has never been greater concern to sustain human life beyond previous natural limits, to the point of expending the major proportion of medical resources on the last three months of a life. If immortality treatments were available, no cost would be spared by the few to benefit from them -- whatever the effects on the many. Through systematic denial, the challenge of responding to the effects of overpopulation on sustainability has been effectively delegated to such "culling" procedures as war, starvation and disease. Although some continue to follow the outmoded tradition of being prepared to die for their country or people (most recently as "terrorists") -- few, if any, are prepared to die for the planet. This is in marked contrast to the approach to human sacrifice in many cultures of the past. Sustainability and spinIn the past decade "spin" has become recognized as the distinguishing feature of contemporary politics and governance and of how business is done by those of any competence (supported by "creative accounting"). The mediatisation of politics and commerce has encouraged the competitive use of spin to ensure that a positive light is cast upon any proposed initiative to minimize recognition of its negative consequences. In fact, presentations in support of new projects essentially require that a "positive spin" be placed upon a proposal in comparison with "negative spins" that may be deliberately or inadvertently associated with competing proposals. When initiatives subsequently fail in any way, suggesting incompetence on the part of those who undertook them, then damage limitation again calls extensively upon such spin techniques -- again possibly through placing some form of "negative spin" on those making such suggestions. In this sense it might be said that the perception of sustainability is intimately related to spin -- whether in accusations of unsustainability or in claims in favour of it. In both cases, claims have been made in such a way as to be deliberately misleading in order to make political points. It is of course correct that buried beneath such spun facts are those which validate arguments. The challenge of modern society is that adequate resources can always be deployed to conceal or devalue such facts through spin. Ultimately it is only situations such as when houses are flooded that might be said to escape the use of presentational spin -- although even then it is immediately deployed to cast blame elsewhere. Given the preponderance of spin, it may be useful to explore the extent to which all sustainable collective initiatives are necessarily characterized by spin. In this sense spin ensures forms of stability and coherence that are prime characteristics of sustainability. This recalls the use of "spin" as a property of fundamental particles or of planetary rotation. In the case of particles, it is defined in the terms such as the following:
In the case of astronomy, two forms of "spin" are distinguished:
The concerns of particle physics and astronomy for spin are linked in the focus of mathematics and physics on "spinors". Spinors have played a crucial role in both throughout the past. Spinors are used extensively in physics, but they may offer a means of understanding relationships between social groups identifying with alternative realities. It is widely accepted that they are more fundamental than tensors (of which they are the "square root"), and the easy way to see this is through the results obtained in general relativity theory by using spinors — results that could not have been obtained by using tensor methods only [more]. The foundation of the concept of spinors is groups; spinors appear as representations of groups. Spinors and groups are both widely used in the theory of elementary particles :
There may well be a case for exploring insights into the pattern of distinctions between fundamental particles as a source of clues to why conceptual models (and their social manifestations) are "charged" positively or negatively with respect to their perceptions of each other -- and so determining their interactions. Might it be possible that there are parallels deriving from constraints on human thinking (cf Lakoff and Núñez, 2000, on the cognitive science of mathematics) with properties of quarks such as strangeness, charm, topness, bottomness, and flavour [more] ? It is curious that the degree of complexity and sophistication considered necessary and admissible to handle the phenomena of astronomy and fundamental particles is several orders greater than that considered appropriate to the challenge of sustainable development and its governance. And yet in the case of fundamental physics its results are sufficiently concrete to produce nuclear weapons and power stations. But in the case of the far less sophisticated models considered adequate for sustainable development and conflict resolution, the results have proven more than inadequate to a challenge of ever-increasing magnitude. In the case of physics success is of course achieved by extreme reduction in the focus to conditions under which all parameters can be effectively controlled. Sustainable development, on the other hand, has to deal with open systems -- which would surely argue for conceptual models of greater complexity than are required for the "simpler" systems of nuclear physics. Perhaps those concerned with sustainable development could learn from the multidimensional tools with which physics is obliged to work -- rather than assuming that the tasks can be handled with the tools with which they feel comfortable. Openness and closureAchieving sustainability calls for a response to the openness by which humanity is surrounded. Unfortunately the only conceptual tools available are tools of closure. Closure has been defined as the property of a system to maintain its own internal order and identity within defined and permanent boundaries. Circularity is fundamental to most notions of closure. In this sense it is useful to look anew at the process of closure as has been done by the philosopher Hilary Lawson (Closure: a story of everything, 2001). For him:
To what extent are the various approaches to sustainable development, and the search for alternative paradigms, to be considered as efforts to achieve new -- and more encompassing -- forms of closure? In contrast to Ken Wilber's (A Theory of Everything: an integral vision for business, politics, science, and spirituality, 2000), and without reference to it, Lawson's "story of everything" engages in the self-reflexive process of reviewing itself as an exercise in closure. Lawson however fails to cite Orrin E Klapp who used the metaphor of the operation of the iris of the human eye, in response to light, to discuss the challenges of responding to information overload (Opening and closing: Strategies of information adaptation in society, 1978). What is humanity trying to achieve through global frameworks, programmes, and strategic intiatives? Sustainability of collective initiatives -- and the dependence on spinPrime examples of collective initiatives -- that must necessarily distinguish themselves by an alternative modality within society to ensure their sustainability and identity -- include:
In each case, a physical barrier may be used to encircle the initiative and separate it from society -- especially if it is secret. This may be matched by physical security procedures and by formalities restricting right of access to "authorized personnel" -- or even to differential pays scales, privileges and perks (as exemplified by the European Commission). At the same time importance may be attached to the image of the initiative to the wider world -- requiring attention to how it is presented and "spun", especially if it may be perceived as controversial. In a real sense therefore the initiative may be understood as having to spin in order to ensure its coherence, integrity and sustainability. With respect to social experiments towards sustainability, this is especially interesting in the case of intentional communities. Curiously many of these physically bounded alternatives require "a key" to be turned to open portals between their reality and the outer world -- a process also evident in the case of entering space vessels. All such initiatives may be viewed as "models", and as members of a more general set of conceptual models of which only some take material or organizational form. As with the material examples, all models (including belief systems) may then be understood as "conceptual fortresses" operating in a different mode (responding to the sound of a "different drummer") from their environment and requiring a particular dynamic to ensure an identity distinct from it. Individual egos might also be usefully seen as each associated with a form of spin through which personal identity is sustained. The "whirling dervishes" deliberately spin to enter a different reality [more]. In this sense there is a transition from the environment "into" the space of the model that is most obviously marked by security procedures, but possibly by jargon or language (as explored by David Cooperrider and colleagues [more; more]). Within the model, people tend to use different points of reference and to have a different dynamic. As for people on the Earth, it is the rest of the solar system that spins around it. Such a transition is well understood when stepping onto a roundabout rotating in a playground -- or onto other spinning fairground rides (of much greater complexity) which offer thrilling experiences that contrast with the reference framework of normal gravity. The problems of this transition are also illustrated by the challenges of astronautics to match velocity and orientation with a spinning satellite before docking with it or landing on it. In neither case can the spin be "stopped" as desired by the musical: Stop the World I Want to Get Off (1962) ! Expressed in such terms, it becomes clear that sustainability as a policy goal needs to be seen in terms of the dynamic relationship it has as a model with the larger social environment. Such an environment is composed of many other models spun in different ways by their proponents or in relation to those that oppose them. Whether or not a sustainable initiative encompasses such unsustainable initiatives in some way, or merely competes with them, the spin that characterizes each of them with respect to the others calls for special attention to the process of transiting from one to the other. From an astronomical perspective, different degrees of sustainability might be associated with models of different rates of spin. How sustainable is a model with a very high rate of spin? Spinning an alternativeIt is curious that the industrial civilization that is such a challenge to sustainable development was initiated by an industrial "revolution" -- and long-heralded by the invention of the "wheel". It is equally curious that radical socio-political transformations have long been described as "revolutions" -- just as advances in knowledge are described as conceptual "revolutions". What is it that "revolves" and with respect to what? How might this help to understand a sustainable development "revolution" -- or has "sustainable" been implicitly defined in that context as having no "revolutionary" characteristics? Is any alternative to unsustainable development possible without some form of spin? Space colonies are seen by some as an alternative to the challenges of an over-crowded planet -- although with remarkably little effort to determine how to overcome the psychosocial dynamics that have created the problems on Earth. It is curious that astronautics has made it clear that construction of habitable space colonies will in all probability require that they be "spun" to create a sense of gravity to make them viable for humans. In physical terms it becomes clear that such spin is required with respect to the surrounding environment. Access to such environments will then typically be via the axis of spin -- although, ironically again, the docking manoeuvers and terminology recall the challenges of consummating a courtship relationship. In psychosocial terms in interpersonal relationships, "spinning" also has a long history. This starts with the process of "spinning a tale" to young children. It is however a characteristic of the role of any good storyteller. The process draws the listener into the framework of an alternative reality -- to make it "real". The importance of this process in modern finance is described with the phrase "talking up" -- typically used to boost confidence in a failing currency or corporation, to make "real" a condition which may otherwise appear contrary to the facts available to those who are otherwise informed. The problems of spinning by corporations have been strongly highlighted during 2002 through the use of "creative accounting" -- and the dramatic loss of confidence in the financial reporting of even the most reputable companies and the failure to sustain share prices in the stock market. Sustaining confidence is fundamental to the capitalist system -- and to any sustainable reality. The notion of "spinning a line" to present an alternative reality was perhaps at the origin of the term "spin". Corporations in particular have used it to keep out of trouble. Consultants are now arguing that it does not work in the long term. For example, Reputation Qest specialises in risk communication, teaching organizations how to be pro-active in managing issues in order to deliver a "sustainable reputation" [more]. Spinning a line is also described in terms such as "doing a number" on someone to entrap them in an alternative framework, possibly as part of a courtship process governed by the criteria that "all is fair in love and war". It is most often used by commercial representatives in the selling process. Various forms of entrapment may be considered [more]. The process by which coalitions emerge, through an increasing degree of self-reference and self-citation, can be understood as a form of spinning -- associated with the process of "talking it up" and "psyching up" the participants. As with space colonies, individuals and groups may also be understood to be "spinning a habitat" for themselves -- the psychosocial form of "cocooning". It is a way to to protect oneself sustainably from the harsh, unpredictable realities of the outside world [more]. Gated communities can be considered as armoured cocoons -- currently providing a form of psychological sustainability for 4 million Americans. The nomenklatura constituted by the Communist elite was effectively a form of politico-administrative gated community offering immense economic privileges -- now echoed to a considerable degree by the eurocracy of the European Union [more; game]. Psychosocial cocooning is considered most problematic in the case of certain forms of sect. The concept of cocooning points to other lessons from its metaphorical roots -- the cocoons spun by silkworms, other insects and spiders. The features juxtaposed to create a psychosocial cocoon, and the resultant web of mnemonic associations, recall the mnemo-technical role of structures such as "memory theatres" (see Frances Yates, The Art of Memory). Such devices compensate for attention-deficiency disorders, erosion of collective memory [Judge, 1980] and the inability to comprehend the longer-term cycles fundamental to sustainability. The traditional mnemonic role of beaded circlets in this respect merits wider recognition with respect to the challenges of sustainability [Judge, 2000]. Language itself may be understood as an intimate (deep structural) equivalent to such mnemo-technical structures -- a web by which an alternative reality can be sustained [more]. In this light it would be interesting to compare natural languages in terms of their capacity to sustain sustainability. Given the more than 290 artificial (non-computer) languages identified on the web [more], it might even be possible to craft such a language to have significant advantages in this respect -- as a secular "wholly" language for reasons analogous to the need for "holy" languages [more]. Alternatively much might be accomplished by envisaging its characteristics, notably in contrast to one impregnated with military metaphors. Given the call for a compensating feminine influence, it would be intriguing to discover whether explicit use of gender, as in languages such as French, remedied to any degree the tendencies to pseudo-neutrality evident in policy English -- criticized by ecofeminists as "manstream" and based on problematic assumptions relating to environmental ethics and the dialogue between ecofeminism and deep ecology (see Greta Gaard, Ecofeminism. 1993) [more]. Alternative realities can perhaps be usefully understood as "strange attractors" engendered by particular sets or structurings of human values [Judge, 1993]. Such attractors give rise to spin-type psychosocial activity in their neighbourhoods --- as with moths around a candle flame. The future may see interesting explorations of the relationship between attractors and spinors in the light of the multidimensional spaces explored in astronomy [more]. A form of spin or hype may be used to "talk up" realities that do not exist -- or which might exist with a different way of seeing. Ambitious conferences of modest success, focusing on vital issues relating to alternative psychosocial realities, can be transformed in this way to provide role models for the future [cf experiments with psycommunities, transdisciplinarity, and culture]. How could this be most creatively done for the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002)? Transiting between realitiesA fundamental challenge of the psychology of sustainability is the relative status of alternatives, whether to a dominant mind-set or to one another. As with religions, ideologies or opposing schools of thought, how are they to be understood as co-existing? How does anyone enter or exit such realities -- especially in the light of the challenges of any necessary "indoctrination" in order to get in and of any "deprogramming" in order to get out? These challenges are complicated by the zealotry of those providing the indoctrination or opposing any subsequent deprogramming. They are further complicated when experienced as traumatically radicalizing (in the case of politics) or as profoundly intimate (in the case of religious conversions). A thesis, or argument, considered "sustainable" within one reality may be viewed as absolutely untenable or "unsustainable" within another. Under such circumstances, it is not sufficient to consider that alternative realities and paradigms can simply be explained rationally and explored in that mode. This is only true in the case of relatively trivial, or specialized, alternative models that lend themselves to purely intellectual exercises or to exploration as in any new game. This assumption ignores the complexities of the experiential dimension. In the light of the above points regarding spin, it is more interesting to consider the relationship of one reality to another as like the challenge of getting onto a moving roundabout at a playground. Although, if the roundabout is framed as the classic "rat race", the challenge is how to get off it. More com |