By now it is obvious my blog posts are chronicling a
process, a very personal one. It is mine. It may be like yours, or not. Each of
us lives life moment to moment, much of it seemingly alone. But that’s not
true. We live in group, two by two, or more in family. Friends, work
colleagues, and associates gathered during daily routines. In time we have
circles of friends and associates that we know.
We relate to them. They relate to us. Our behaviors take on
a routine – expectation and action; reaction and further expectation, and so
on. Cues on our behavior emerge. We begin to sense, to know, what works well
and what does not. We seek approval and kindness. We avoid that which is
unpleasant. Unless of course we are the manipulative type of person who goes
around upsetting the status quo! Then watch out!
Most of the time people get along with one another. We do
our routine tasks and move on to other duties. We are rewarded by these
activities either with praise, acceptance or paychecks. Routines build around
this behavior. We persist in these activities for years and years accumulating
in a lifetime.
There is a context to this activity, however. That context
embraces your circle of friends, mine, and others as well. So now we have a
structure of a mini society in which much more activity is registered and
accomplished. Intertwining relationships and cause-effect-result occurs.
Complex social order emerges.
And those complex social orders beget more complex social
orders until we have a neighborhood, city, county, region, state and nation.
Beyond national borders are other nations, too. And cultures, religions, mores
and so much more of complexity in social order. Anthropology studies this order
of magnitude. So does sociology. And history is the ages long story of what
happens and when as peoples interact with one another: sometimes within nations
but also globally.
Complexity grows and grows. Exponentially it morphs and
creates new and broader meaning. The Big Picture is formed. Comprised by
millions and billions of little pictures.
When we deal with anything in our lives, is it the little
picture? Or is it a parallel of the big picture? Or what combination of all of
this is involved?
Keeping our perspective is the theme of this day’s post.
Perspective informs us by contrasting with other views of reality. Ours is not
the only reality. Yours is valid, too. And Joe’s and Mary’s and Vladimir’s. And
Mirazh, too. Let us not forget all of the billions of perspectives that exist
in the world.
Order. Order is needed in most things to make sense of it.
As well we need order to interact with it; we must to construct expectations
that guide our actions now and in the soon to be future. How else do we get
along in a complex world?
For now the complex world is nearby. It is in our nation. We
are experiencing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a ways with
which we are unfamiliar. The norms have shifted. As yet we do not know what
they are or will become. But change we know is here.
We don’t know yet if the change is real or lasting or even
correct. Will it change yet again into something more familiar? Or are we
creating an entirely new reality? What then, and how then, do we give it
legitimacy?
Legitimacy. An interesting word. What makes anything
legitimate? Surely not its simple existence? Certainly we have a broader means
to signify something is legitimate? Is this the role of governance? Is this the
social order seriously considering what is as legitimate or not?
If this is so I can better understand what is happening in America
presently. Just because something is happening in the White House or Congress
does not make it legitimate until society says it is so. Real or fake; right or
wrong; these are matters that society must take up and digest. Using these
before their time is a test. Tests work or fail. Let us see just how these
‘tests’ pan out.
What perspective will carry the day and our future? What
will become legitimate? Will long fought for principles continue to win
legitimacy? If so what portions of current events now before us will fall as
dust to the waste bins of history?
I think we have a lot of work to do, folks. A lot of work.
The story is not yet ended. It is just the beginning. I wonder if the
playwrights in the White House truly understand what they are dealing with?
Time will tell us, and them. I just hope it is sooner rather
than later!
February 17, 2017
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