Relatedly, here are some of the trends that I hope can be reversed. Pointing them out is a form of hopeful activity for me, because, like Rumplestiltskin, these are problems which cannot be solved unless they are named. Proviso: this list is WEIRD and is based on anecdotal observation from my own North American, relatively well-off life.
The skills we are losing were core human technologies, and, like reading and empirical science, hard-won. Specifically, we need to reverse declines in:
- Getting along with one another. Rapid differentiation of communities -- and indeed, the refactoring of the idea of 'community' as an affinity group -- has undermined the ability to do everything from build affordable housing ("NOT IN MY BACKYARD" etc) to respond to an actual, literal ground war in Europe against an unprovoked attack.
- One 'floor' down from that last point -- we've lost the ability to deploy what I'll call _imaginative_ or reflective empathy.
I'm using this term-of-art to distinguish what I'm pointing at from reflexive empathy, which is when you immediately experience slights to people with whom you identify as happening to you. Sadly, we've gotten a lot better at reflexive empathy, and a lot worse at its more cognitive, cosmopolitan sibling. This is a serious regression.
- Reductions in the number of close relationships. I don't have the stats handy but they are striking. Now, we all know that people who are lonelier tend to have worse quality-of-life and shorter lifespans, but what we don't talk about enough is the effect on thinking. People who are more isolated have fewer 'windows' on their train through life, and gain less understanding of this world. Every friend or social relation is a sort of window through which you get a fresh perspective, and with fewer windows, you will have less information, have fewer opportunities to practice vital skills, which, like singing, are either used regularly, or lost entirely.
Can these declines be reversed? Sure! Can we reverse them in time to fight climate change, instead of each other? ....Um! Let's blow on those dice and call it wind power ;D
The skills we are losing were core human technologies, and, like reading and empirical science, hard-won. Specifically, we need to reverse declines in:
- Getting along with one another. Rapid differentiation of communities -- and indeed, the refactoring of the idea of 'community' as an affinity group -- has undermined the ability to do everything from build affordable housing ("NOT IN MY BACKYARD" etc) to respond to an actual, literal ground war in Europe against an unprovoked attack.
- One 'floor' down from that last point -- we've lost the ability to deploy what I'll call _imaginative_ or reflective empathy.
I'm using this term-of-art to distinguish what I'm pointing at from reflexive empathy, which is when you immediately experience slights to people with whom you identify as happening to you. Sadly, we've gotten a lot better at reflexive empathy, and a lot worse at its more cognitive, cosmopolitan sibling. This is a serious regression.
- Reductions in the number of close relationships. I don't have the stats handy but they are striking. Now, we all know that people who are lonelier tend to have worse quality-of-life and shorter lifespans, but what we don't talk about enough is the effect on thinking. People who are more isolated have fewer 'windows' on their train through life, and gain less understanding of this world. Every friend or social relation is a sort of window through which you get a fresh perspective, and with fewer windows, you will have less information, have fewer opportunities to practice vital skills, which, like singing, are either used regularly, or lost entirely.
Can these declines be reversed? Sure! Can we reverse them in time to fight climate change, instead of each other? ....Um! Let's blow on those dice and call it wind power ;D