The disorientation of our times and the need to re-orient.

In unfamiliar terrain – as today’s world of fire, flood and famine is rapidly becoming – we social animals become disoriented. This is evident in our susceptibility as individuals to the likes of Q-anon and collectively in our willingness to go along with the tired formulas of neo-liberalism.?‘Making sense’ is what we humans are deep programmed to attempt.?And when we fail to make sense of current challenges, behavioral nonsense is the outcome. ?Got to do something about that.

It must have happened to humankind before, or to our progenitors.?After the last ice age for instance. ?The known external world changes and we humans must rack our big brains to decide what to do about it. ?

Survival, to the social animal has several aspects to it. ‘Where is the next meal to come from’ is always a central question. Next, ‘what is happening to the supply of edible things in our patch’, then, ‘what is our strategy for ensuring a flow of things to eat’.?For frail, naked, early humans, as well as us ‘moderns’, the strategy question was/is always about collective action.?Then it was about the organisation of hunting parties, and where to migrate when game moved away. [[1]].?Now, as the climate changes, it is about regenerative agriculture, sustainable fisheries and other aspects of food security.?Since such interests are shared, the necessary thinking must now be - and must then have been - shared.?Graphics probably help then as now.?Evidence in the Lascaux caves[2] [see picture]. Evidence in UN trend diagrams for instance[3]. ??

Modern humans have swapped cave debates for exchange within elaborate on-line information bubbles.?Regrettably, today’s web and social media encourage closed circuit exchanges with like-minded people [or their deputising a.i. bots]. Print media also encourages like-minded-ness; witness my Guardian addiction.?But occasionally I do break out into less familiar territory. ?The FT [Financial Times] is not my regular reading, but on Wednesday 31st May, it somehow caught my eye. It revealed “a political war over the role of the insurance industry in global warming”[4]. ?I had to read carefully to get the drift.?The article is about insurance, so it’s about money and risk.?Oil industry entities, in normal times, face various risks, technical failures, fires, dry wells, etc., and rely heavily upon insurance. ?Many risks can be attributed to bad luck. ?But today’s risks include the political; the possibility that financial assets become stranded when political support drains away, state subsidies are withdrawn, or licences refused.???So, what do we learn??It is ‘not the economy, stupid’, it is ‘the political economy’. ?And politics is a process that lets contentious posturing take precedence over empathetic reasoning.

Two things about bubble living. One is that it tends to limit horizons. There is ‘a view from the board room’, or ‘a union perspective’, or ‘the understanding of a scientific community’ or the ‘lay man’s view’.?Each perspective is conditioned by the situational knowledge and interests of the incumbent. The other thing about bubble living is that it may be experienced as more or less comfortable [compared to expectations] leaving a person content or discontent with life situation or chances.??

For life in a social bubble to be in any measure satisfying it must meet at least some of a person’s psychological as well as physiological needs.??Basic to such needs, according to Abraham Maslow’s classic theory, are the physiological needs for food and shelter[5]. Next in the hierarchy comes safety [then a cave to shelter in, now job security, ‘roof over head’]. Love and belonging form the next tier [then as now, at a guess[6]]. ?At the apex of human needs comes esteem, and finally, self-actualisation.?Maslow’s is a very individualised theory of action.?

For life in a social bubble [or cave] to ‘work’ it must produce basic survival goods – food, security, etc., the people involved activating and experiencing the higher elements of social satisfaction in so doing.?Successful social organisational formulae evolve. Whether it is a hunting party, or a widget factory, today’s activity or proposal can be understood and supported or opposed by reference to ‘yesterday’s experience’[7].?In unprecedented situations – the converging crises now upon us – there is no relevant ‘yesterday’s experience’, and the big human brain flounders in uncertainty.

In heightened uncertainty, what we humans do is hunt around in our heads for something to assuage our anxieties.?We may instead feed our fears.?Lacking grounding in previously successful ways out of life’s current dilemmas, the mind seems free to explore realms fantastical.?Different minds take different directions. ?From evidence,

·????????some seek solace or assurance in the image of the authoritative – perhaps authoritarian - state.?Nationalism, even Fascism, is back in fashion in so many countries.?

·????????others find faith in Freedom, freedom from social obligation it seems (other than family), certainly from welfare state type commitments.?To get there, they follow any leader that promises delivery of same, happen they be narcissists or con artists.

·????????a third type of mind responds to chronic uncertainty by seeking fellowship, finding it in groups or sects founded on shared understandings of what ails the world, and who it is that conspires against them [particularly the ‘deep state’].

·????????a fourth kind of mind looks on askance, prone to despondency, if not despair.

In ongoing political discourse such minds do not readily find common ground, even common language.?Hence today’s so-called culture wars.[8]??Today’s posturing, ‘progressive’ vs ‘war on woke’.

I recognise that I have the fourth kind of mind. I may be prone to despondency but see glimmers of hope in two things.?One is the continuing efforts of so many scientists world-wide to ground public knowledge in fact.?The other is what might be called the deliberative trend, in thoughtful individuals, in communities, and across trans-national networks of people, thinking together, exchanging views, about how to make a difference.?Much more is needed.?But I guess it can be done.

[1].. or driven away by human hunting activity – if there was anthropogenic awareness in cave dwelling communities.?

[2] Dordogne, France: although today we, having lost the codes, can only speculate as to their meaning. But in this picture it does not look as though early human came of best.

[3] https://www.vox.com/2019/11/26/20983626/climate-change-un-emissions-gap-report?

[4] ‘Insurers in turmoil after ESG wars spark exodus from climate alliance’ Ian Smith and Kenza Bryan,?FT 31st May 2023, [p31].

[5] Abraham H Maslow 1943?A theory of Human Motivation?[2022, Wilder Publications]

[6] All reference to the thought patterns of our cave-person antecedents must be speculative, based upon backward projection of ideas about the thinking habits of present-day human beings. What were the cave paintings about? Were Bison pictures about trying to bring back a profusion of Bisons; much as Liz Truss’s sacrificial UK Government Budget was an attempt to bring back UK prosperity?

[7] A personal experience here. A communal hunt proposal was the main purpose of a village assembly meeting in Mankgodi, at which, by chance, I was being introduced [as my second study village in 1970].?Date and time for this hunt were agreed. But it did not happen. Two explanations were forthcoming for this failure, both pointing to perceived dangers in a proposal that lacked favourable precedent. One was that chiefs had been known, in times past, to arrange for an ‘accident’ on such occasions, to eliminate an enemy. The other was that a communal hunt might now be illegal, and this new foreigner [me] might be a spy who would inform government of the event.

[8] A gardening culture war is currently being fought out on Facebook - I acknowledge participation - between “the neat and tidy brigade” and followers of the “wilding tendency”.