Pandemic mode, episode 8

This editorial in The Atlantic is so good, I will risk coming across as a conduit of other people's opinions to share it with you all. Please read. Thanks to Sam Cox for sharing it with me. It makes just about all of the points I would want to make this week, and then some. 

But what it doesn't delve into is the answer to the deep question Sam raised with me and another good friend Nick Sailer, which is, how do we become good citizens?

In recognition of the start of the ninth week under the cloud of this pandemic, I will attempt to answer this question with reflections on nine quotes I hold dear to my heart:

Quotes 1-3 theme: We must step off the hamster wheel and engage in inner work that results in deep transformation.

1. We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what is important in life. 
-Tim Kasser

This is why I haven't been on social media for 2.5 years and why I am in the midst of a news fast. The tiny hits of dopamine we get from social media, advertising, and most television diverts our precious time, attention, and energy into frivolity. 

2. The farther the outward journey takes you, the deeper the inward journey must be. Only when your roots are deep can your fruits be abundant.

-Henri Nouwen

This is the message of Father Richard Rohr and his Center for Action and Contemplation. That name says it all: we must be transformed by contemplation if we are to have any hope of transforming the world without becoming conformed to its ways.

3. For if one knows himself, he will know God.

-Clement of Alexandria, quoted by Carl Jung

Christians tend to think of God as other, completely neglecting the transformative idea that God is not separate from us-- that we are God's vessels, embodiments of the divine with incredible potential for good.

Quotes 4-6 theme: We must use the clarity we obtain from inner work to make changes in our own life that will feed our continued evolution.

4. Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.” -Mignon McLaughlin 

Even if this sounds cliche, it's nevertheless a deep truth. With the clarity achieved from contemplation, we are more likely to see the right path to take amidst the fog of everyday life. And if we choose the right force multipliers, the benefits to us and the world will start exponentially accruing, activating a virtuous cycle. Check out your nearest bookstore to read all about the power of habit, atomic habits, etc. But don't forget to actually apply some of it to your life!

5. Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. - Ben Okri

This idea grows out of the work of Carl Jung, who has deeply influenced me over the last 9 months. Every memory we make and action we take is imprinted into our brain. Anatomically, this process consists of forging new synapses, reinforcing established ones, and altering neurochemical and receptor makeup. But psychologically, it consists of creating memories which eventually become partially forgotten or repressed, but whose signature remains, and returns to us in obsessions, compulsions, anxieties, and dreams-- the stories our brains create out of the raw material of our experiences. Few things imprint our neurology as deeply as narrative, whether the stories we tell about ourselves, others, or the stories others tell. Our lives, and the entire course of human history, turn on the stories we tell.

6. It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. But every now and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all. Some ideas are better than others. The machinery for distinguishing them is an essential tool in dealing with the world and especially in dealing with the future. And it is precisely the mix of these two modes of thought that is central to the success of science." -Carl Sagan

An essential aspect of the evolution of our minds is the development of a sophisticated web of mental models that work together to separate truth from fiction. We need a well-calibrated "Belief Bouncer" to keep us on the right track, out of ideological echo chambers, and open to true revelation.

Quotes 7-9 theme: We must not wait for a perfect opportunity to arise, but instead engage in thoughtful action wherever we are.

7. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wise people so full of doubts.” -Bertrand Russell

Doubt and error are unavoidable, recurring stages in everyone's journey. But we must not let that prevent us from acting out of core convictions that have been honed by habitual reflection. As Brett McKay likes to put it, "Get Action." The flip side of this, of course, is that fools reliably fall prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect, overestimating their ability and making other people's lives worse-- cf Jared Kushner.

8. We want to have certainties and no doubt — results and no experiments — without even seeing that certainties can arise only through doubt and results only through experiment. -Carl Jung

Like Steve Jobs liked to say, it takes a lot of hard work to make things simple, whether that's an object like the iPhone or the way one thinks about a particular topic. But we should always try to maintain the mindset of a scientist in our search for truth, and not be distracted by our primitive need for security, certainty, and comfort.

9. Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action. -Napoleon Hill

Part of what makes us human is our ability to plan. And the better planner a person is, the more awesome their life generally becomes. Conversely, those who live only for the moment mostly end in ruin. Just read Proverbs! But occasionally, they still end up as president of the United States-- so we're also subject to good fortune and bad luck! Just read Job! Nevertheless, our obligation-- and the only rational course of action-- is to accumulate AND APPLY as much knowledge as possible. 

Well, it seems impossible for me to get through a blog post without highlighting at least one of Trump's endless faults. But I hope that these reflections have helped calibrate you all to a deeper perspective, beyond the perturbations of the daily news cycle-- one that is defined by gratitude, humility, wisdom, self-knowledge, and conviction. And on this Mother's Day, may you find time to truly appreciate and enjoy the one(s) who have given the most to help you reach that pinnacle of human development.

Be well.