Comments on “The promise of certainty”
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Seeing clearly
Thank you very much! You seem to have seen clearly the aim of the work.
I’ve been increasingly struck, in the past couple years, with how much current Western societies lack positive vision. We became disenchanted with systems that said “this is the True Way forward”—and rightly so. Unfortunately, with that, we implicitly stopped believing that “forward” is possible at all. I hope we can reverse that nihilism by observing that, in many ways, things are actually getting better even now, and that much more is possible. Letting go of nihilism could accelerate that.
A part of the past
I was involved in what I think you were referring to as the “trainings” in the bay area. I am reading your most excellent work as an outsider who was once an insider.
Solving our dilemma...
”…but we do regularly solve problems of ethics and direction; and therefore we can!”
A very hopeful statement! (just a bit of lighthearted snark!)
More seriously, the very idea of purpose implies the possibility and desire that we actually can move forwards towards that purpose, improving ourselves, our institutions, our interactions and relationships. Always keeping in mind as you have very clearly shown in this hypertext, the answer is never to be found in procrustean formula-isms, but rather in an ability to see, understand, recognize, utilize and release these abstract social and conceptual frameworks as appropriate in the myriad roles and circumstances we face in this novel environment of radical complexity of cultures, institutions, frameworks and relationships we now find ourselves in.
This hyperbook is the best diagnosis and description I have come across of the dilemma we individually and collectively face as human beings in the second decade of the 21st century. Seeing the problem clearly is the first step in beginning to solve it, and so you’ve done an enormous service to this task by writing it. Thank you!