Opening Insights: Are You Listening?
The insight of great writers has been with us for millennia.
The willingness of the world to hear, understand and accept the wisdom they shared has been lost on many people. We read the words, we think we understand and grasp the insight shared and we think, it will never happen to me. Or... we just wait for something to happen.
Informational Insights: Orwell vs. Huxley
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.
Source: Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Who was right and who was wrong?
Does it really matter?
The reality is, if we look closely we see, the control through learned fear conditioning that Orwell warned of, at work in our world. We also see the control and manipulation of emotions (pain/pleasure senses) that Huxley warned of.
Possibilities of Consideration: Learning from the Wisdom of Others
If there is no love then fear, jealousy and envy move in and take over.
Fear, jealousy and envy cannot cohabitate with love.
When we come from love we are able to recognize and apply our gift of reason to understand
that hurt and fear is the absence of the fulfillment of our basic needs.
RICHARD JORGENSEN
People use fear to motivate and manipulate. They use fear to drive action. There are instinctual reactions to fear: fight, flight, FREEZE. Hence, using fear as a motivator is not necessarily a viable/universal solution to evoke motivation and change.
The issues of overcoming and rising above one’s fears is vastly different from applying fear to evoke emotional reactions and behaviors. When we seek to overcome fear, we make a logical and conscious decision to examine our own intentions and actions. This is not fear mongering, this is a process of discovery.
- What if you could be a part of cultural transformation?
- What if you could be a part of empowering your organization, community and country?
- What if you could be a part of the social, economic and cultural growth and empowerment of your world?
- What if you could do something to reverse the addiction problems within businesses, communities and schools?
- What if you could create value for your people, employees, families, organizations, communities and country?
- What if you could share your wisdom, insight, knowledge and experience to help educate others?
- What if you could be a part of a solution to unite and support people in developing collective and individual sentience?
Add Your Insight: Living Your Passion…
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
FRANK HERBERT