Tag: cybernetics

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Blame and Fear

I blame you.
You blame me.
They blame us.
We blame them.
Blame fans the flame
Of aggression and hatred.
Rage burning….
Churning through senseless cycles
Of twisted, knotted stomach wrenching
Heart ripping agony.

Who’s to blame?
We pin it on someone… anyone
We don’t even care anymore
We don’t even know anymore
Who’s to blame.
It matters not.
Just need someone to blame.

Blame teachers
Blame politicians
Blame Republicans
Blame Democrats
Blame ISIS
Blame the U.S.
Blame Iraq
Blame immigrants
Blame ….

Whatever the problem
Must have someone to blame
Like a child falling off a bike
Then blaming the bike.
Gotta be someone’s
Or something’s fault.
Gotta have a cause to blame.
Can’t just be mutuality.
Gotta have a bad guy.
Can’t just be a tangled web.
Can’t just be relationships gone awry.
Can’t be MY fault.
Can’t be OUR fault.
Can’t be WHITE people’s fault.

The endless recursions of blame
And hate
And fear
And blame
And hate
And fear
Run our lives
Ruin our lives
Without us even knowing
We sink deeper into the darkness.

The only way out …
Gotta stop the blame.
Gotta stop the hate.
Gotta stop fear.
Care for everyone.
Everyone who is alive
Has the same desires …
To be loved
To be safe
To feel wanted
To love
To be happy.

Something has been twisted
Completely out of kilter.
When blame, hate, fear take over….
We’ve succumbed…
The strength of humanity
Is in our power to care…
And not to succumb to
Blame, hate, fear.
We need to
Feel our shared humanity.
See our shared humanity.
Taste our shared humanity.
Smell our shared humanity.
From every pore
From every molecule
From every breath
From glimpse of life.

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Beyond Systems 2: Borderless Cognition

As discussed in my last posting, the mere mention of “systems” brings to mind images of mechanistic-like dynamics. But, this sort of association with living “systems” is problematic. In the embedded video of hawks catching prey and flying through various habitats, we can think about the dynamics of what is occurring, but not so much as a system, but as something beyond a system … as complex interactions and complex, non-linear paths of information flow, and all kinds of relationships and the dynamics within these relationships.

EBS Global Documentary: Goshawk, the Soul of the Wind Spot
Posted on Facebook by: Atmaca Alemi / Sparrowhawk World Community

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FbnPxoSANd0

This is a great video to consider in terms of what we might think of as distributed, borderless cognition. If this Goshawk had to think about each maneuver and each object, he or she would not do well at all. In fact, these maneuvers would not be possible. When you look at this video, the hawk is acting as if her thinking is at the tips of her wings and the edges of the tree limbs and at the tips of her talons and the edges of the tree trunks and in her eyes and all the way along in front of her to whatever objects there are. This is what Gregory Bateson talked about as a cybernetics of cognition. The information flows from the wings to the air to the trees and back again; from the legs to the talons to the trees to the talons to the legs; from the brain to the eyes to the scene in front to the eyes to the brain; and so forth.

There is no real separation…. Just what we impose. And, that imposition is just that… “an imposition.” We impose separation. We impose mechanism. We impose parts and wholes, We impose all sorts of labels. But, they are all an imposition to seeing and understanding the reality of our living world.

The same holds true for an athlete. If a basketball player had to think about every move, he or she could not dribble or make a shot, especially in the midst of an intense game. The thinking has to be distributed and borderless.

We also can call this cognition “being present in the moment.”