Message: 5 Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 12:21:10 EDT From: TIELLIS@aol.com Subject: The Logic of Despair

Dear Friends,

I've read with interest the last few exchanges with Jay and the rest of you, noting once again the dexterity with which Jay can refute any hopeful scenario whatsoever, with his grim and relentless Darwinian/Malthusian logic.

He may well be right. But the future hasn't happened yet, and--as is the nature with evolving complex adaptive systems generally--"it ain't over till it's over." That is, no prediction based on current trends can be any more than an approximation of what actually happens in the future, because of the inherent complexity of the system, and its sensitivity to random local perturbations ("The butterfly effect").

Jay's arguments are also based, it seems, on a rigidly deterministic reading of "human nature" as genetically pre-ordained toward selfishness, short-sightedness, and power-seeking through violence. But genes incline--they do not compel. As biologist Richard Lewontin has observed, any organism, humans included, are the largely unpredictable consequence of three randomly interacting variables: (1) genotype; (2) developmental noise; (3) environmental influences. These are not *separate* variables to which we can assign percentages, but interactive variables which reciprocally modify one another as well. The upshot is that genetic determinism is a reductive oversimplification of a complex phenomenon. "Human nature" is not a fixed or knowable entity, since it, like the "nature" of every other organism or species, is an unpredictable interactive combination of those three variables. And here's the point: the third variable--environmental influences--includes, crucially, both social and cultural influences for humans, as well as personal and familial. We are not simply a product of "nature" nor of "culture" but rather of the ongoing and ever-changing interaction of the two--all of which is sensitive to local perturbations, and hence unpredictable in detail.

This established fact is grounds for hope, however dark our horizon may loom. There is always the chance, however slim, that some new inventions, or even more important, new and self-replicating "viral ideas" (like Christianity during the post-Roman descent of Europe into tribal chaos, or like the Gaia concept in the present) can spread rapidly, especially over the Internet, and alter the course of the future.

Furthermore, the logic of despair is self-validating: if people *believe* that nothing can be done to prevent our global slide into chaos, violence, and starvation, then in fact nothing *will* be done. Conversely, if we trust that things can and should be done to mitigate this horror, and to ease the path to a (largely unknowable) sustainable future, then we will act accordingly--and the future will be altered to the extent we do.

--Tom

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2000

Answers

I think that Jay and the others are in fact looking for solutions. They may be pessimistic but they are trying to deal with the facts as they know them. This will not be the first time in history that major declines have happened. It may be the most global. However, I wanted to share some thoughts on depression and despair. Depression and despair are the handmaidens. They arise unbidden. Each of the people we have looked at experiences these two sides of the same coin when the energy from the shame within them overwhelms. Depression is a helplessness. It is a feeling of not inadequacy but no adequacy. Like being in a huge vat of mud and not being able to move fast enough. It is not being able to change the circumstances or environment or behaviors. It has been called anger turned inward. If it was turned outward it would be aimed at the circumstances/ environment/behaviors (persons) that are creating the helplessness. Depression is related to the past. It arises when all our adaptations fail to relieve energy of our shame. The energy of depression is pervasive and is a mood and in the gut. Despair has to do with hopelessness. This relates even more strongly to time. It has to do with the future. It is a fear of a continuation of the present situation. It is same old, same old. It is the feeling that there is no freedom from the repetition of the patterns of adaptation. These patterns are unsuccessful in getting our needs met and they will go on and on and on. So the future is bleak and hopeless. Depression rises out of the gut from the energy of a failed past and flows into the head dampening action. Despair arise out of the mind because the idea of a future is in the head. Despair flows into the gut dampening the emotional energy for action. They are truly the two headed face of shame in control. John

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2000

John,

Rather than dispair and depression, how about weariness and realism. A prof. of mine responded to the question of whether he was still pessimistic said "a pessimist looks to the future and sees bad things, I look at today and see them, I am a realist."

No good way to whitewash over what a disaster this century has been. Sucks for humans and sucks for most other life forms. But its been an inexhorable exponential all my life and totally obvious to any thinking entity---yet there is no evidence of a global mind or global culture emergent to control the global economy/civilization and its impact on the biosphere.

This is a serious shortcomming (that I expected to be resolved by the mandala of whole earth rising over moon's horizon and the recognition by man that its all one planetary edge and he is all one species. fool that I am.)

Am I missing something your trying to point out John?

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2000

No, David you are not missing my point. Weariness and realism are not excluded from depression and despair. Weariness is very much a part of both. Realism is may well be those rosy glasses we all wear removed. I don't think we can dwell in the dark night of the soul for long and survive. So we each of us are groping to make nice. This won't be the first time that human short sightedness got the caca kick out of us nor the last. It is however on a scale never before experienced.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000