550
M. R. Anastacio
financial system, in the tendency to monopolize the knowledge and the imposition
of a monoculture of minds.
In the face of the many serious economic, social, political, cultural, spiritual,
environmental and geopolitical problems that permeate contemporary society and
life on Earth, and the results that have been obtained, it seems that, in general, as
humanity, we have not been able to comprehend the root causes of such challenges.
Thus, it is important to reflect on some of the possible roots of the contemporary
challenges, since we are trying, as humanity, to act with palliative measures on
the effects exposed to the surface. It is important to understand that what has been
presented in terms of reality is the result of the structure that sustains it and the type
of soil and environment that nourishes it through the roots, which ultimately starts
to feed the effects that become visible.
According to Russel (1992), Scharmer (2010, 2014), Weil et al. (2013) and Capra
(2004), the aspects that challenge the current situation are only symptoms of deeper
causes related to the way we perceive realities.
The essence of the evils that afflict us is in our mind: we try to change the outer
world, instead of worrying about changing our mental attitude. We live a “cultural
trance,” addicted to the material world and hypnotized by a materialist stance that
makes us believe that outer well-being is the way to inner realization. Thus, we
become an explorer consciousness and, instead of ‘human beings’, we become a
human “having” and “doing” that functions as machines with set habits. Beings
marked by selfishness, competition, and the fear of the future, which makes us resistant to change, without noticing that most of the things we fear are illusions of our
mind (Russel 1992).
Weil et al. (2013, p. 15) call normose “the set of habits considered normal and
that, in reality, are pathological and lead to unhappiness and disease.” Or, put another
way, the force that makes us resist the change of opinions, behaviors, attitudes and
pathogenic habits endowed with social consensus and executed without their authors
being aware of the pathological character of their acts. In a way that all, normose
constitutes a form of alienation. Such aspects brought to the macro context, make
evident a psycho-sociological process that threatens life on the planet Earth. Therapy
for the contemporary crisis, according to Weil et al. (2013), begins when we become
aware of normose and its causes.
It is thus verified that the metamorphosis required in the age of destabilization
that we are going through, and the signing of a new time, invites us to transform
our worldview of reality. In other words, the paradigms that govern our reading of
reality need to be revised. In addition, we need to look at the roots, values and beliefs,
invisible aspects that manifest in the world and that create individual and collective
realities in the form of concrete effects.
The dynamics of the contemporary world leads us to the need to look at the
realities from an ecosystem perspective, considering the complexity and consequent
interdependence of human and nonhuman phenomena in the planetary context. Thus,
the challenges we are being called to face will only be transposed through a systemic
understanding of life, which requires addressing the development of complex thinking in the educational field.
M. R. Anastacio
financial system, in the tendency to monopolize the knowledge and the imposition
of a monoculture of minds.
In the face of the many serious economic, social, political, cultural, spiritual,
environmental and geopolitical problems that permeate contemporary society and
life on Earth, and the results that have been obtained, it seems that, in general, as
humanity, we have not been able to comprehend the root causes of such challenges.
Thus, it is important to reflect on some of the possible roots of the contemporary
challenges, since we are trying, as humanity, to act with palliative measures on
the effects exposed to the surface. It is important to understand that what has been
presented in terms of reality is the result of the structure that sustains it and the type
of soil and environment that nourishes it through the roots, which ultimately starts
to feed the effects that become visible.
According to Russel (1992), Scharmer (2010, 2014), Weil et al. (2013) and Capra
(2004), the aspects that challenge the current situation are only symptoms of deeper
causes related to the way we perceive realities.
The essence of the evils that afflict us is in our mind: we try to change the outer
world, instead of worrying about changing our mental attitude. We live a “cultural
trance,” addicted to the material world and hypnotized by a materialist stance that
makes us believe that outer well-being is the way to inner realization. Thus, we
become an explorer consciousness and, instead of ‘human beings’, we become a
human “having” and “doing” that functions as machines with set habits. Beings
marked by selfishness, competition, and the fear of the future, which makes us resistant to change, without noticing that most of the things we fear are illusions of our
mind (Russel 1992).
Weil et al. (2013, p. 15) call normose “the set of habits considered normal and
that, in reality, are pathological and lead to unhappiness and disease.” Or, put another
way, the force that makes us resist the change of opinions, behaviors, attitudes and
pathogenic habits endowed with social consensus and executed without their authors
being aware of the pathological character of their acts. In a way that all, normose
constitutes a form of alienation. Such aspects brought to the macro context, make
evident a psycho-sociological process that threatens life on the planet Earth. Therapy
for the contemporary crisis, according to Weil et al. (2013), begins when we become
aware of normose and its causes.
It is thus verified that the metamorphosis required in the age of destabilization
that we are going through, and the signing of a new time, invites us to transform
our worldview of reality. In other words, the paradigms that govern our reading of
reality need to be revised. In addition, we need to look at the roots, values and beliefs,
invisible aspects that manifest in the world and that create individual and collective
realities in the form of concrete effects.
The dynamics of the contemporary world leads us to the need to look at the
realities from an ecosystem perspective, considering the complexity and consequent
interdependence of human and nonhuman phenomena in the planetary context. Thus,
the challenges we are being called to face will only be transposed through a systemic
understanding of life, which requires addressing the development of complex thinking in the educational field.