The Four Horsemen of the...
On 29-10-2020 17:49, Waldemar Schmidt wrote:
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> Dear Fellow TOKers:
>
> I have been encouraged to share the following with you - in the hope
> that comments might be garnered.
>
> While musing about the ToK the other night I managed to generate a
> pre-Hallowe'en scare - as if American politics today isn’t scary enough!
> Well, if not a scare, then at least a stab of intense desperation.
>
> I was pondering Gregg’s depiction of “the digital identity crisis,”
> which is composed of:
>
> * The meaning crisis.
> * The mental health crisis.
> * The techno-environmental crisis.
> * The digital globalization crisis.
>
>
> In one perspective, these might seem as four distinct problems of the
> present.
>
> I compared those 4 crises within the perspective of the 4 existential
> domains of the ToK:
>
> * Matter.
> * Life.
> * Mind.
> * Culture.
>
>
> Then the horror arrived as it became apparent that the Anthropocene is
> characterized by existential crises in *_all four_* of those TOK
> foundations.
>
> For instance:
>
> * Matter.
> o Our actions are leading to an (probably) unavoidable
> planet-changing and existential-threatening climatic alterations.
> * Life.
> o Our actions are producing to an uncontrolled biological
> extinction event.
> o Our careless impingement upon and constricting many other life
> habitats has led to life-, societal-, and
> civilization-threatening pandemics
> * Mind.
> o Our actions are producing a myriad of mental health problems,
> of which suicide is one aspect.
> o We are drifting further and further away from our historically
> effective community practices.
> * Culture.
> o Our failure to propagate effective education (at least, here
> in USA) has left us with an inadequate world view which is
> ineffective in coping with current problems and crises.
>
>
> There are, of course, multiple other crises which may be added to each
> component of the list.
> To make things worse yet, it is intuitively obvious that the
> identifiable problems in each TOK domain are interconnected and
> interactive!
>
> In short, we are effectively destroying the foundations of our
> civilization (way of llife), if not our very existence.
>
> Frightened yet?
>
> If not, let me add another area: energy.
>
> Matter appears to have “precipitated” out of the big bang energy.
> The ToK doesn’t comment to much on energy except as a precursor to
> matter - ie, the foundation of the other 4 levels of existence.
> That’s probably because, as Feynman noted, we really don’t
> adequately define or understand the concept of energy. ("/Energy/
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikiquote.org_wiki_Energy&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=I5Hxt6bmq_8puZce_odpQrSNXtnbaFtsCfxILks20oU&s=XucRn2bdZuj-dM74cs0hUZV1Ciw-Rfk7O0vfKqnyttE&e=>/ is
> a very subtle concept. It is very, very difficult to get righ/t.”
> - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikiquote.org_wiki_Richard-5FFeynman&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=U4SB5dmMcEFwj0eaCYFBi-VxmDAYGZSRsLUB_LHpHX4&s=5r5UdjsWwLFDzPa7CedFL9rW1NyjGRqpNaZw-7NbAl0&e=
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikiquote.org_wiki_Richard-5FFeynman&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=I5Hxt6bmq_8puZce_odpQrSNXtnbaFtsCfxILks20oU&s=DyVNwuexhDMkveIvGkrjNWSY5_JSEOlsVG9o2I9KPxY&e=>;
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Richard-5FFeynman&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=U4SB5dmMcEFwj0eaCYFBi-VxmDAYGZSRsLUB_LHpHX4&s=dG6Ddw7ZDqEi0PVf0cFoqN-zWXibV6_e0f536qdSh9w&e=
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Richard-5FFeynman&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=I5Hxt6bmq_8puZce_odpQrSNXtnbaFtsCfxILks20oU&s=WsptVFar0Kwy5SjNg8zHXrLwPCXsGu_bFjz7RNPNHxQ&e=>)
>
> * We are profligate users of energy and _choose_ to pollute our
> world providing it.
> * We are quite effective at producing localized, sudden, massive
> amounts of destructive nuclear-based energy.
> * We have not yet - and likely will not - master the production
> of energy in controlled fashion which does not result in
> pollution - ie, we surely need to turn to non-carbon- and
> non-nuclear forms of energy. Such a change will severely
> impact how we live - and we don’t have the resilience and
> wisdom (at this point) to endure that change.
>
>
> At this point, I am frightened, or at least desperate.
>
> It is interesting to find another way in which the ToK System provides
> a coherent and consilient understanding of our existence, practices,
> and results thereof.
> In addition, the ToK system provides the foundation to anticipate and
> apprehend what is needed in order to overcome the course on which we
> are so obdurately entrenched.
>
> Which leads me to wonder, is there enough time to do so?
> I’m not at all assured of that.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Waldemar
>
> */Waldemar A Schmidt, PhD, MD/*
> (Perseveret et Percipiunt)
> 503.631.8044
>
> *Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. (A Einstein)*
>
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--
*Lene Rachel Andersen*
Futurist, economist, author & keynote speaker
Co-founder of Nordic Bildung and the European Bildung Network
Full member of the Club of Rome
*Nordic Bildung*
Vermlandsgade 51, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
www.nordicbildung.org
+45 28 96 42 40
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