Time Compression, not Growth is our Postmodern
Problem?
Encouraging Savings Would Help Savers and Growth
The universal savings account idea is an excellent one, but
whether it is a political winner that eventually can be
adopted in a simple, economically efficient form isn't so
simple.
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/encouraging-savings-would-help-savers-and-growth-letters-to-the-editor-1409602307
I apologize for not being able to see the whole article as I
write, but there is a national dialogue in progress and other
sources.
That being said, my concern/rant is further upstream.
As I try to encourage @F-L-O-W, testing/questioning
assumptions before accepting them is pretty key.
The assumption that I continue to test is...growth the answer?
The target, the design, the end?
I keep thinking there must be another way than
Encouraging Savings Would Help Savers and Growth
While it's not explicit in the byline, the question of
"helping growth" is on my mind.
Growth of course happens when a bb is born and in many parts
of the world, it's still happening at a fairly rapid
rate...and I'm not sure it needs help growing faster
(Philippines = 3.36 live births per female, last count)
The question I have surrounds "limiting growth" and a switch
from the underlying (?) paradigm of growth to sustainability
and my sense is that growth may not be the problem, but it's
the carrier?
Now no one wants impositions on personal freedoms, especially
those which lead to lower conception, so lets shift the focus
to after birth--perhaps an appropriate metaphor (or not!).
The majority of our issues today are coming from "time
compression".
While sitting on the terrace in Camotes early morning in a
gentle rain, I observed the following:
image.jpeg
My apologies for the low resolution but I'm using an old
iPhone;)
Here's what I want you to focus on in the picture:
There is a long boat right above a sand bar, which is being
"poled" by a human towards the market early Sunday Morning,
August 31, 2014...you just just makeout his pole in the
low-resolution photo taken from my terrace.
I watch these--often home made--long boats being poled across
this section of "San Francisco Bay Camotes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_Cebu every morning
as they haul their products to the market in San Francisco
Camotes.
It dawned on me as my thoughts range widely staring out in the
open ocean and into the bay to watch the daily goings-on that
it is time compression that has created the greatest number of
issues that postmodern leaders will face--NOT growth.
Helpful Hint: Growth has become a panacea for
almost every malady or problem we have on the planet today,
including the infamous "limits to growth" model now displayed
by in the http://www.clubofrome.org/?p=2107 (this page
particularly interested me because it is labeled with the year
2052 (my 100th birthday, and my stated goal for longevity,
although my behavior will probably interrupt that mark!)
and...growth masks the underlying compression of time
@F-L-O-W.
Action Step: I'm going to ramble a bit to get
to where I need to go and for extraverts that means
unnecessary wording...I apologize.
1) Technology has allowed the "time" it takes (chronos from
Elliott Jaques http://www.economist.com/node/13599026 work on
time) for something to get done to shrink.
In my "long boat example" above, the time it takes for the
long boat to be poled across the bay to market is shortened by
a dramatic amount using oars (an increase in technological
complexity), or a motor.
2) Now what happens with the "time saved" by technology?
This is the $64,000 question!
3) When we look at the purpose of life, we get "so far" 8
different answers based on a set of color-coded value systems
emergent from Dr. Clare W. Graves research on values.
http://spiraldynamics.net/DrDonBeck/essays/human_capacities.htm
and I'm attempting to emerge a 9th "answer" @F-L-O-W, which is
"growth is NOT the answer, it is noise, --a means--not an
end."
4) At the 9th System, the purpose of life is "Happiness"
@F-L-O-W defined simply as that "means behavior" which
provides efficient, effective and sustainable returns to "ends
motives" at lower levels of growth and consumption.
5) The idea being here is that we face "limits to growth" that
can be "delayed" in time for technology to mitigate cause and
effect.
6) With that being said, where does the idea of "time
compression" fit into this particular TPOV?
Have to digress a bit further for context and summarize:
-Each of the "9" (philosophical/epistemological) values
systems produces it's own purpose for "life"...
-The dominant philosophy at this time seems to be to "use
technology to shave off the time for doing work to allow
wo/man to reach their "potential"...
-I think you will find penultimately little argument with that
if you were to conduct a pole (hehe)...
kidding aside...
We support "technology" when it shaves time from work...along
with that changing the very fabric of complexity
[and for long time readers, this is where time span has
weaknesses: note to future writing--> in 1900, it required "x"
amount of time span to accomplish "work"...indicating a
capability based on a loose association with the amount of
time a manager would allow a subordinate to have discretion
(oversimplifying), in 2011, much of that same work has
"shrunk" its time span. Is the work less complex, and is the
time in which the manager would allow discretion shifted?
According to time span theory (from Jaques), there are
questions raised about the role of time compression.<--for
future reference.]
Therefore wo/man (following along with my logic on time
compression--not growth--as the problem)...are freed to from
the menial tasks (poling a boat across the bay) to accomplish
their "potential."
Time compression then, is about releasing the inherent
potential of man-->and therefore the purpose of life!?
7) This is how far you have to go back to actually understand
why growth is noise and not signal and that to continue to
amplify growth plays into the hands of "limits to growth."
side note: why care about all this stuff?
that's another $64,000 question?
too much "time" on my/our hands?
if we were spending half a day poling a boat to shore, would
we necessarily have the time to sit and research, not alone
think about the "purpose of life" or the purpose of survival
(system #1) would have us occupied enough?
8) Without answering the question posed in 7), I want to
circle back to time compression.
if time compression is the issue, then an entirely different
set of thoughts begin to emerge regarding possible solutions.
9) Weaving the 9th System and Happiness, creating
sustainability, lowering consumption, delaying (strategically)
accelerating complexity due to "time compression" (first time
I have shown that link, btw), the Buddhists professed an idea
that may have benefits to our little "monkey minds"--or at
least my own small mind.
[While I have already introduced a number of concepts
requiring unpacking, here's yet another that is a linchpin...
let me see if I can articulate it...
ONCE we set into motion a pattern of behaviors based on a set
of "governing assumptions" we seem to work within the range of
complexity governed by those assumptions--however--making
everything we can more and more complex (horizontal) until we
literally expend every inch of complexity space within that
range of vertical complexity or stratification of complexity.
This is NOT such an easy thought to unpack, yet I believe as I
am able to unpack this thought over time, we can add the
thinking to the toolkit of the postmodern leader.]
10. As a stepping off point for the action step promised
above:
EVALUATING how time compression "saves" us time, allowing for
the monkeys (worms in some cases) in all of us to play to our
potential, MAY--in fact--be creating most of the misery on the
planet.
Therefore, engaging yourself in "time expansion"
(decompression) in particular areas of your life, may actually
thwart the monkey mind that has us running, jumping, buying,
selling, trading and generally being confused, overwhelmed and
in some cases, unhealthy brought about by the fueling of
nonproductive cycles (using 9th system orientation where
nonproductive means you have ventured too far from the "gurl
who brung you")...of course there are those 1-5% who are
motivated and brought by "gurls" where monkeying-around is an
ends motive--not to be confused however by the noise that
these people can create in their crazy-making!--most of us
(95-99%) would benefit from "less NOT more!"
Examples:
Spending time gardening
Poling a boat
Sitting on a terrace
Not putting the kids in every sport (except for those 1-5%
whose genetically-guided "ends" system benefits from those
means).
Reading a book
Walking instead of riding
In short?
We have too much time on our hands.
EXPANDING, thus decompressing time, leaves us with LESS time
on our hands and in "most" cases requiring a lot fewer
resources.
As I watch the boat being poled across the bay, I thought to
myself..."there are still people doing that...?" and then it
struck me, that they might "have" to do that...then I thought
"we should do something about that so NO person has to pole a
boat?-->then it struck me again--as if the first bell wasn't
loud enough...WAIT, maybe it's a good idea that the person
pole that boat, we show them the way to the NEXT level of
technology...we give them the NEXT tools and all we have done
is create new--MORE COMPLEX--problems for them.
It's like our program to help the poor get electricity (which
I have written about) because no "right-minded" person would
say that it's a good idea to live without the modern
accoutrements of life right?
Well, if the person doesn't have the capability to deal with
the NEXT level, you have just helped them to MORE problems!
This is what happens @BS?
BS (blank slate) wants us to believe that there is a "pot of
gold under that rainbow"...a place to get, a mountain to
climb...and yet?
It's all an "illusion" trumped up to drive growth, consumption
and demand--an idea that "seemed" like a good one back in
earlier times....
What we now take for granted @BS, that no person should live
without electricity or pole a boat...is an assumption that is
NOT tested or questioned, and yet...
MOST of the problems in the postmodern leadership world are
emergent from the failure to test our assumptions and beliefs
that found our behavior.
MOST of the world is "growing" too fast, developing too fast,
the structures of knowledge have not sufficiently been
scaffolded enough to allow a density, or frequency robust
enough to keep the system from collapsing in on itself as we
are seeing in the current collapse wave, and the responses to
this lack of cultural density and frequency required to match
the post modern time compression/complexity that has started
to destabilize ALL, but those whose cultural density and
frequency is engineering the time compression/complexity.
That group is shrinking rapidly as time compression allows
people to reach their potential, but potential (en masse) is
not growing as rapidly as time
compression/technology/complexity are scaffolding--with FEWER
and FEWER people able to take advantage of the time
compression emerging.
What happens as capability (potential and applied) trails time
compression?
More and more wealth, greater gaps, and more resources being
transferred in the process.
Another one of those $64,000 questions...is this the purpose
of life?
Again, this question must be answered by each person, group,
community, or culture and from what I see, most are mummified
at the prospects because they have fallen victim to accepting
a set of assumptions which no longer hold validity in
postmodern times--compression.
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