Constraints

In our present multi-crisis, a systemic crisis that seems to penetrate every sphere from the personal to the global, we are apt to ask what caused it or how to fix it, but are soon compelled to settle for a too simple answer to either question, or just give up and place our faith in God or authority (which comes down to much the same thing in practice). In the past two years, I have heard a lot of questions asked, but I have not heard anyone ask a very basic one: what factors have constrained the paths that led us here and continue to keep us from finding answers and solutions. In other words, we need to ask not why and how, but why not and how not. 

Some factors are very big and beyond our control. One set of constraints is environmental and ecological. Along with the laws of physics, these are things we cannot control or transcend. These are things like the amount energy available in the Solar System and Earth, the quantities of minerals and gases there, and the amounts of all of those that are available to sustain life. For a subset of them, we may be able to manipulate nature to work around the limits for a while (as we have done with so many diseases), but need to recognize that nearly every one of those work-arounds has had unintended consequences, some of which are beyond our abilities to cope. 

There are also a huge set of technological constraints. A few of those are beyond our capacity to change, such as the amount of energy required to move a given quantity of freight by a given means, but most of the technological inevitabilities in which we believe simply are not. Too often we are made to believe this by those who have a vested interest in those "inevitabilities." We can say no, or a qualified yes, or explore alternatives, but we have to be aware of the possibilities and the paths we might take, and there is where the main set of constraints on our finding answers comes into play. 

Most of our constraints are built into our behavior and thinking by the societies and cultures in which we have lived our lives, and in which our parents, grandparents, and ancestors back to the dawn of behaviorally modern humans have been confined. There has been change and evolution over time, generally much more than we are willing to admit, but they constrict us and keep us staring at the wall of Plato's Cave. 

Let us ignore the personal ones, for the moment, and look at some of the bigger ones that entrap large groups, whole countries, and entire civilizations. These are mostly at the level of religions and ideologies. Has it ever struck you that virtually all of these are based on one of three things (or, more usually, a combination thereof): attitudes towards the supernatural, attitudes towards money, or attitudes towards race and gender? Anyone who tries to push against these constraints is a dangerous heretic, radical, or deranged person. Why are our political ideologies constrained by these things? Can we think of nothing else to use as a basis for society than shared beliefs, economics, or prejudice? How about a society based on celebration of difference, on ecological principles, and mutual admiration? (Sounds utopian, does it not, but what have we to lose when the alternative is increasingly dystopian?) All of these are human creations. Humans create theologies to explain how they feel about their gods and the supernatural. Humans created money about 5000 years ago (which is also when they seem to have begun codifying sophisticated theologies) and coins only about 2700 years ago. As to racial prejudices, while those have always existed, our modern "scientific" racism is only a couple of centuries old. Gender roles have fluctuated a great deal over time and space. Most aspects of how we thinking about gender is clearly within our control. 

There are a lot of lower-level obstacles to change, from gerrymandering to skewed media, to lack of education. All of those were put in place either intentionally or unintentionally by humans. There is a lot to undo, but it can be undone, it is humanly possible. And there are lots of things at the personal level too. Asking ourselves about the forms we follow in our daily living or the ways we think about reality. We need to start asking ourselves every day why we do the things we do and think the things we think, but, even more so, ask ourselves what keeps us from doing and thinking things differently. It is hard, never easy, but necessary. These are things that are very deeply ingrained in us, much of it from infancy, but often, as in the case of phobias and prejudices, based in multigenerational patterns of thought and behavior within a family or group. Perhaps some of it is even epigenetic.

If we are to find our way out of all of our messes, political, environmental, diplomatic, etc. we have to begin thinking about all of these things that constrain us, that keep us from taking other paths, or even knowing that other paths are there. We have to do it on multiple levels at once, but we have to start with the personal and the group, simply to find the most basic changes we can make, even if each of us has to start with the tiniest of steps.