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Faith is Hard
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Faith is Hard

... When Hell is Others

In the early 2010s, I took a few courses at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at the university where I worked. Specifically the intersection of Environment and Culture - it's as cross-disciplinary, I think, as a topic can get! I really loved the provocation of thought, induction of clarity, and transformation to more sophisticated, DIALECTICAL views of what's wrong with the world and how to go about fixing it ... it sings of pragmatic idealism! A summary would be:

1) GROUNDING in INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY (from basic needs to higher motivations) and COMMUNICATIONS (especially semantics and argument/debate i.e. informal fallacies);

2) BROAD PERSPECTIVES on ENERGY EXCHANGE (from physics and biology to psychology and the laws of thermodynamics as they apply to economics), COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS, and HOLISM/SYSTEMS THEORY, for all three of which the current global monetary system is just one example (an example of what ISN'T working, isn't sustainable);

3) FAITH in THEORY and PROCESS of both INDIVIDUAL & SOCIAL EVOLUTION (with the requisite understanding, reason, wisdom, and - at times it seems infinite - patience);

4) EXPLORATION, UNDERSTANDING, ACCEPTANCE and RESPECT (if not agreement) for diverse and diverging perspectives and INCLUSION of and ENGAGEMENT with their supporters (vs. dogmatism and obstinance); and

5) ENGAGING, EXCHANGING, EDUCATING and EMPOWERING by EXAMPLE (pardon me, avid alliterate :)), while BEING MINDFUL & OPEN to the idea that the process is RECIPROCAL; that all of us, at the core of our nature (as Nature sees it), are simply "units" of constant evolution/change - never complete, never completely right.