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In the following context, I'd like
you to read an array of beliefs:
Our actions are determined by our
beliefs. And our beliefs are shaped by the stories we tell
ourselves. So what happens when the stories we tell ourselves
are inaccurate? The short answer is: we find ourselves
engaging in actions that aren't aligned with our best
interests.
Charles Eisenstein has made a profession out of studying the
intersection of economics and philosophy. And he thinks that
over the past several generations, enabled by an unprecedented
subsidy of abundant cheap energy, our society has become so
far decoupled from natural laws that it has adopted a paradigm
of thinking (or "stories") dangerously irrelevant to the
future we face.
As resource scarcity increasingly expresses the natural forces
that applied to our grandparents' generation and those prior,
we are still living under a mindset that assumes predictable,
endless growth.
Think about it: most people reading this and nearly all of our
national leaders have come of age in one of the most, if not
the most, extraordinary economic periods in history.
The exploitation of petroleum fields ushered in a global
prosperity not dreamed of before. Decoupling gold from the
dollar has allowed those living in the US to increase debt
much, much faster than GDP for the past forty years.
This behavior is empirically unsustainable - but to almost all
of us, it feels "normal", because it's all we've known.
And it's coming to an end."
http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/charles-eisenstein-time-better-narrative/71231
I'm not sure I agree with the
contention of the authors, in fact I don't, not about
everything...whether its coming to an end or not, we may be
hitting a cul de sac, but a leap out of the current trajectory
by some new set of beliefs is entirely possible, if not
probable.
HOWEVER, that is not why I'm
writing.
I disagree wholeheartedly that we
have at the heart of our behavior rational processes or
beliefs.
Beliefs in my view, are nothing
more than
artifacts left over...after the behavior and
what caused the behavior. Almost all of what we do is directly
resulting from the unconscious which has had it's way with
us...and then we make up the stories--as beliefs--about how
the world is.
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