Complexity, Alfred North Whitehead, and Obama’s suits

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them. — Alfred North Whitehead

These decades will probably go down as one of the most interesting (um, yay?) times in history. The twinned cultural phenomenons of #MeToo, #TimesUp, and Black Lives Matter along with Trumpism, authoritarianism, and neo-fascism show the stark divide between the left and the right. Each thinks the other side is filled with sociopathic or narcissistic cult members simply spewing mind-control jargon (those Russian hate-farms are earning their overtime, big time). And we seem to be at an impasse.

One of the reasons I’ve switched from journalism and facilitating creativity is that I wanted to become more actively engaged with creativity and, well, creative thinking itself. I admire journalism, but it’s still passive consumption. What the hell is going on in our brains right now?

One hypothesis: complexity. We’re being asked to deal with more complexity these days than ever before. And, yes, each generation has said this (the Greek philosophers thought writing was going to ruin the world), but this time … well, it’s still true. But what’s new is that we keep growing and moving exponentially faster and faster, and, of the late 1990s, when now have the ability to reach out to most human beings around the planet within seconds. The average human on Twitter would probably see more diverse types of pain and suffering in an hour than the average human would a few hundred years ago. Not worse pain and suffering, just more kinds of it. Authoritarianism? It can sound pretty bewitching when you’re overwhelmed and just want everything to slow the fuck down.

So perhaps the impasse is this: We’re in a new era of complexity. Some people will deal with that very differently than others. Obama had a capsule wardrobe of suits (and meals) picked out before his first day as President. Blogs and posts about Bullet Journaling have taken off. Even this pandemic was a welcome relief to some wanting to escape the hamster wheel we didn’t realize we were on until a virus made it all stop.