Peter E. Pflaum - Golden Globe - The Synergy Network
http://www.wiredbrain.net/  Pflaump@wiredbrain.com

WEEK 5: BLOCKS TO INNOVATION



          INNOVATION:
                              CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING.           
              
               People need to learn how to use their creative     
          brain power to solve problems.
                There are barriers to letting down the defenses
we build to protect ourselves from hurt and the fear of the new,
from change itself! (like this class)

Remember part 1.) Beginning 2.) Middle 3.) End - conclusion.
Sociology: Chapter 12 RELIGION Lebanon VALUES AND BELIEF          
SYSTEMS Social Science Chapter 5 Becoming a person -
Socialization 
THE RATIONAL SOCIETY AND THE CALL OF GOD, some reflections on
current attitudes 
      A passion for explanations of what is real and what
illusion is unique to humans as humans.  Awareness originates in
the universal feeling that there is more to reality than what we
see.  The human mind is a model making organ.  We have theories
and test them against what may be real.  This is the nature of
all curiosity.  "What is going on here?  What is really going
on?" 
      We are often aware that there is a further reality beyond
just appearances. Something more exists "some place" else.  There
is more to it, there is something else going on. Prejudice, false
assumptions, and conflicts arise out of the common desire for
certainty and the feeling of danger of the unknown.  People can
be extremely blind to reality and incredibly stubborn in their
fixed ideas. The reason for this concentrated attachment to fixed
realities is the dreadful fear of floating in a sea of
uncertainty.  The fright of being separated and abandoned, or the
feeling of being lost, even of being crazy, all these power ful
emotions arise out of uncertainly. Ideas and feeling are
genuinely strong and very scary.  The desire for union with the
pack and social certainty is fundamental in human psychology.  It
is the source for religion and the cause of the passion for
reasonable explanations.  
     Religion and science are not in conflict but respond to the
same set of human needs. This has been pointed out by social
anthropologist for the last half century.  Religion and Magic are
both forms of pre-science, trying to under stand, explain and
control what cannot be understood by experience alone; the
weather, other people, sick ness and death, the spirits and gods. 

     Basic feelings produce the impulse for religion and the
desire for reason and cert ainty through science and technology. 
The relationship of feeling to thought is fundamental. It is more
"I feel, there fore I think" - how do I get out of this mess, or
what do I do to feel better about what I can't change.  What
works for me?  How can I maneuver within what "they" think and
demand?   
     Most of the history of civilization was in cultures with
fixed, unchanging church-state dogmas. The uncertainty of
religion and the instability of the state (and other forms of
official belief systems) can cause chaos or creativity.  The
dereliction of the Medieval church and Holy Roman Empire led to
the renaissance and the industrial revolution.  The collapse of
communism in the Soviet Union may release  energy and creative
forces or increase chaos.  The reformation, counter- reformation,
and the rise of the national state were not easy or pleasant.  It
was violent and nasty.  The failure of certainty is not easy. 
The natural order of church-state and official authority is
comfortable for most times and peoples.  We do not have the
option of fixed systems today but still seek certitude in an
uncertain world.   
     Infants spend much time examining their toes. They finally
figure out what is "me" and what is "non-me."  Toes are part of
"me.  "  After a time they discover their mother is a "non-me"
and sometimes is "gone." When something or someone is not here it
is "gone" and only slowly do we realize there is some where
"else."  The game of peek-a-boo is such fun because it's magic.
The object is gone then it reappears from nowhere.  The child
becomes aware that mother still exists but is "somewhere else." 
It takes about three years to develop the ideas of "here and now"
and "somewhere else" and the idea of past and future. The fact of
"me" of "non-me" and of time and space are ideas and abstract
concepts. We live in a world of ideas whether we like it or not.
The "I" is our idea of the "me."  The "I" includes other peoples'
idea of "me" and my idea of what "me" should be. It includes
judgments.  People get easily confused about what is a feeling
like fear and anger, ( a physical event ) and what is a thought
or idea expressed in words and con cepts. Some ideas are
judgments or opinions such as good, bad, right, wrong.  Ideas are
expressions of an external reality and should be tested against
what is actually out there. Reality in its various forms exists
outside of the self and projections of self and is not just an
idea or opinion.  
     The growth of control and the feeling of authority comes
from outside and other people.  We learn to be human.  Poorly
raise children cannot control themselves. They are truly out of
control and do not know what they will do next. It is not a
comfortable feeling for them or those around them. The means of
social control is the feeling that "they" can come from somewhere
else and appear at any moment. The conscience is the internalized
other.  Animals and babies believe parents are always present and
can appear from somewhere else.  The basic level of conscience is
feeling about things and people not seen but still there. God and
Santa Claus knows when you are bad or good.  Heaven is somewhere
else, so is hell. Almost all people have a sense of the beyond.
As children we all have a common experience when people and
object appeared as if from nowhere. Small children have no a real
knowledge and awareness of "somewhere else" in time and space. It
came from the beyond. 
     The growth of awareness comes from separation - me and
non-me. The feeling of having a will and the need to control our
desires comes at an early age.  We become aware of the difference
between what we want and what we can have. We, hopefully, learn
we cannot have everything and screaming will not work. Babies
have motivation and learn to control their parents. But it
doesn't always work.  They have to learn to control themselves by
accepting the other. 
     The union of faith and reason helps us make sense of the
world. We need and use logic and intuition. We should not reject
either. We develop faith that mother will appear from the other
place. As we grow and develop reason we know more facts about
other places. We now know  where it is and what it is like. The
world becomes more predictable and makes sense.  Surely there are
worlds beyond the limits of con science, not dreams but other
realities. Surely the world works within the rules of right
reason.  
     Knowledge of the world produces sin. There is no sin in the
Acts of God and God's nature.  The unreflective passion is purely
what he is, like the laws of evolution, survival of the quick and
aware. Sin is willfulness - knowing better and refusing to
behave. The end of The Garden of Paradise in the land of Eden was
caused by the knowledge of good and evil.  Human conscience is
the source of saints and sinners. We know we often do not behave
"right" or do all that is required of us. We are aware of what
others think or want but go ahead and rationalize our desires,
irrational passions, greed, selfish ness, etc. doing as we will
rather than what we know we should.  Religion tries to civilize
us but sometimes fails. The law tries to constrain our bad
behavior but also fails. The only process  that works is good
families and communities that train children in the correct path. 

     There is a delicate balance between hope and fear, between
reality and illusion. We try to keep clear what are dreams, what
is magic and the shadow-lands of virtue or sin. We are aware of
the passion for the good, the true, and the beautiful but also of
greed and self deception that creates evil. (MTV) We make for
ourselves an intellectual and emotional construct of reality and
live in the gardens or prisons of our own making.  When we go too
far into realism we become sinful, when we go too far into dreams
we lose our God given reason and intelligence and behave like
beasts. 
     Objective and "right" reason with a respect for the "divine"
are the conditions for successful people and social systems.
Since becoming human is a social event, correct social habits of
child raising are clearly so important to human history.  C.  S.
Lewis, in "God in the Dock" (page 116 1970 Eerdmans Publishing,
Grand Rapids Michigan) put the idea this way.          
       Each generation is taught by an earlier generation. "The
moment we forget this we begin to talk nonsense about education. 
We talk of the views of contemporary adolescence as if some
peculiarity in contemporary adolescence had produced them out of
itself.  In reality, they are usually a delayed result -- for the
mental world also has its time-bombs - - of obsolete adolescence,
now middle-aged and dominating its form room.  Hence the futility
of many schemes for education.  None can give to another what he
does not possess himself.  No generation can bequeath to its
successor what it has not got.  You may frame the syllabus as you
please.  But when you have planned and reported ad nauseam, if we
are skeptical we shall teach only skepticism to our pupils, if
fools only folly, if vulgar only vulgarity, if saints sanctity,
if heroes heroism.  Education is only the most fully conscious of
the channels whereby each generation influences the next.  It is
not a closed system.  Nothing which was not in the teachers can
flow from them into the pupils.  We shall all admit that a man
who knows no Greek himself cannot teach Greek to his form:  but
it is equally certain that a man whose mind was formed in a
period of cynicism and disillusion, cannot teach hope or
fortitude."   
     What can be done then?  Is the decline of "American
Civilization" unavoidable?  Is the lack of nobility, civic virtue
and character foretold by Alexis De Tocqueville the first and
last word? Or is there a set of cycles from one extreme to
another as predicted by Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the
West." 
     The union of faith and knowledge increases the power and
utility of both religion and reason.  The old conflict between
science and fundamentalist religion is unnecessary. Enlighten
ment and the use of "right reason" strengthen faith.  At the core
of rational religion is "Right reason" guided by  objective moral
principles. The American Revolution was possible because of the
faith in reason. People could control themselves and their public
affairs. They no longer need established institutions of Church
and State. People used and believed in "Natural Law," the law of
God and man to find the right path for themselves. They had grown
up. They took a step into the unknown.  
     People have always looked for reason and meaning in life and
death.  Being human is both being an animal and becoming
rational. We are God like and also material creatures. The higher
powers of humans are the quality of reflection and understanding
of complex relationships.  Animals do not contemplate their
lives.  Animals do not test abstract theory against reality by
using models in their brains. Their imagina tions are limited. 
People can imagine new worlds.  Facts often follow vision. 
Political freedom, economic progress and increasing scientific
knowledge are connected.  The modern secular world is practical
and guided by the powers of reason.  Religion is also essential
to a functional society.  Right belief is a necessary part of
human happiness.  
     Human wisdom is very Ancient.  It is foolish and arrogant to 
ignore the historical and cultural information developed by
people living together for centuries in many cultures.  Tradi
tions in language and customs are useful guides to what has
worked. New knowledge, however, can be challenging to tradi
tions.  The basis of the reason-faith conflict is the human need
for certainty.  People feel comfortable in the past and the dream
of the past. They long and hope for the old comforts.  Religion
has helped people that feel uncomfortable with new ideas and
customs.  Religion has been the enemy of change.  Some
traditional churches seem to reject most of what has happened in
Western Civilization since the 15'th Century.  If a man is
drowning in a rough sea you cannot take away his life boat. If he
is now on solid land and is climbing the mountain, you can point
out that dragging the life boat with him is an unnecessary
burden.  
     The excess of individual desires causes social disruption
and ecological disaster.  Uncontrolled passion using the tools of
science and organization leads to self destruction and damage to
the natural systems. Ideology of the individual, personal
ambition and greed must be balanced with higher morality. 
Ecological disaster is the result of fractured and limited
thinking.  It takes the practice of faith to connect truth and
belief.  The issue of collective good and group factions can be
handled within a moral or religious context.  All societies have
integrated civic and individual behavior by using religion.  
Personal and self-interested factions can harm themselves. 
Freedom is possible with enlightment.  The unenlighted are slaves
to passion and lost in present time.   
     The enemies of freedom are the excessive desire for
certainty and order.  Patience with uncertainty is needed for
growth. The success of nations and the welfare of individuals
increases when the culture promotes individual characteristics
that live in harmony with natural forces. There are levels of
life and knowledge.  People are not all at the same level.  Order
requires social assumptions and beliefs that appear to others to
be illusions.  Understanding reality requires a certain
abstraction from society itself. The myths are parables of
journeys from the dream land into a higher reality.  The passage
is long and difficult.  We learn to be young and find it hard to
continue to grow beyond the illusions of youth. Sufis use an
expression "In the (social) world but not of the (social) World.
"  The rational and religious elements in humans are often not in
balance with the passions and material interests of individuals. 
"In the world" means the material and limited vision of the many,
(social illusions) "not of the world" means to abstract yourself
from the current noise and see things for what they are without
illusions.  Religion can be a guide to reality parallel with
science.   
     The union of faith and reason is clearly better than an
excess of either  The path must be made clear and people know
where they are in their jour ney.  The easy answers - just have
faith - or the divided soul - mostly in the rational,
businesslike "real world" where only Sunday is in the traditional
religious mode. Split personalities are not very useful to either
secular society or churches.  Once the churches realize they have
a practice to teach that does not conflict with reason and
technology but supports and shapes it - they can become a mighty
force in the modern world.  
      There are limits to knowl edge of correct social behav ior
and how to create a better person and society. It is not a new
question. It may not be possible to expand these limits to our
knowledge.  Science develops powerful ideas that explain reality.
We are not far from a unified theory in physics - light,
electricity, magnetism, mass and motion - explained by the strong
and weak forces of the atom. The study of man has more and more
"weak" ideas rather than fewer powerful theories.