"When you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean
where no land is in sight, and view the four
directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not
look any other way. But the ocean is neither round or
square; its features are infinite in variety. It is
like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only look
circular as far as you can see at that time. All
things are like this.
"Though there are many features in the dusty world and
the world beyond conditions, you see and understand
only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to
learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know
that although they may look round or square, the other
features of oceans and mountains are infinite in
variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only
around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in
a drop of water."
- "Actualizing the Fundamental Point", Eihei Dogen
When I saw the chart reproduced here:
http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm
it struck me as odd for two reasons. First, I am sure
that I've seen it before, with the same distribution
of voters, only for a different election. I believe it
was during the primaries. Second, according to this
chart the average IQ of citizens of Mississippi is 85.
That would legally qualify as mentally retarded.
Adults with an IQ of 85 would probably not be able to
drive, and may be able to read at a fourth grade
level. I have never been to Mississippi, but I have
never heard anything to suggest that the average
citizen would qualify for assisted living under Social
Security.
These subliminal considerations were hovering just
below the level of articulation as I looked at this
chart, generating a low-grade feeling of uneasiness. I
didn't pause long enough to consider it. Instead I
gleefully forwarded the link to a politically-active
friend of mine.
Then I saw this:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/bush_iq/
I saw in microcosm my willingness to uncritically
accept evidence that supported my basic world view,
and my ability to disregard compelling contravening
evidence. This is one of the ways that my beliefs
shape my perception of the world.
In the aftermath of this election, there has been a
great deal of analysis concerning what happened.
Arianna Huffington puts forth a cogent analysis
arguing that liberals were incapable of formulating a
positive vision. Ralph Nader has come out saying that
this is evidence of the bankruptcy of the Democratic
party. Many analysts ascribe the failure of Democrats
in this election to their inability to speak to core
moral values held by many voters. Some
politico-historians focus their assessment on the
alienation of the South from an
increasingly-intellectual Democratic party.
All of these explanations contain important
information. It is also clear to me, knowing what I
know of human behavior, that none of these people have
a clue as to what 'really' happened.
I would even make the stronger claim that nothing, in
fact, happened.
Carl Jung made a career-long study of the medieval
alchemists and noted their tendency to use archetypes,
dream-images, and mytho-poetic language to describe
the fundamental nature of reality. It was inevitable,
Jung said, that these scientists, peering into the
impenetrable darkness of matter itself, would find
their own psyches staring back. When we apply
explanatory models to phenomena that are fundamentally
unknowable it is an invitation for our psyche to
project its own contents onto the great screen of
nature. So we have the transmutation of elements,
chemical bonds depicted as mystical marriages between
deities, and the snake biting its own tail describing
the structure of benzene.
Now we peer into the darkness of complexity and seek
to make sense of the aggregate behavior of 116,000,000
people. What do we really see?
The obvious truth is that no one knew how this
election would turn out. If Kerry had won,
commentators would now be speaking with equal
conviction about why things went that way. Yet
suddenly many people are clear and certain about what
occurred. Where does this sudden certainty come from?
In the view of the psychologist Carl Rogers, the
journey of psychological maturation facilitated by
therapy is the movement from closed, binary, rigid,
static ways of thinking toward ways of thinking that
are open, nuanced, flexible, and dynamic, and that can
accommodate a plurality of competing perspectives. I
can see this process occurr within myself as I move
away from fear. As my shock subsides, I become less
driven by my deep anxiety and dissonance to seek a
clear, rigid understanding of what occurred. I feel a
call to spend a moment dwelling in the darkness of my
feeling-response to let my eyes adjust to the light
before I attempt to formulate a response.
Gradually as I recede from the emotional shock of what
occurred, I find my analysis of the election changes.
I move gradually from this:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/president/
to this:
http://www.boingboing.net/images/Purple-USA.jpg
Against myself I am less divided as my heart opens to
the variegated complexity of human experience, miracle
still.
where no land is in sight, and view the four
directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not
look any other way. But the ocean is neither round or
square; its features are infinite in variety. It is
like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only look
circular as far as you can see at that time. All
things are like this.
"Though there are many features in the dusty world and
the world beyond conditions, you see and understand
only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to
learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know
that although they may look round or square, the other
features of oceans and mountains are infinite in
variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only
around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in
a drop of water."
- "Actualizing the Fundamental Point", Eihei Dogen
When I saw the chart reproduced here:
http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm
it struck me as odd for two reasons. First, I am sure
that I've seen it before, with the same distribution
of voters, only for a different election. I believe it
was during the primaries. Second, according to this
chart the average IQ of citizens of Mississippi is 85.
That would legally qualify as mentally retarded.
Adults with an IQ of 85 would probably not be able to
drive, and may be able to read at a fourth grade
level. I have never been to Mississippi, but I have
never heard anything to suggest that the average
citizen would qualify for assisted living under Social
Security.
These subliminal considerations were hovering just
below the level of articulation as I looked at this
chart, generating a low-grade feeling of uneasiness. I
didn't pause long enough to consider it. Instead I
gleefully forwarded the link to a politically-active
friend of mine.
Then I saw this:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/bush_iq/
I saw in microcosm my willingness to uncritically
accept evidence that supported my basic world view,
and my ability to disregard compelling contravening
evidence. This is one of the ways that my beliefs
shape my perception of the world.
In the aftermath of this election, there has been a
great deal of analysis concerning what happened.
Arianna Huffington puts forth a cogent analysis
arguing that liberals were incapable of formulating a
positive vision. Ralph Nader has come out saying that
this is evidence of the bankruptcy of the Democratic
party. Many analysts ascribe the failure of Democrats
in this election to their inability to speak to core
moral values held by many voters. Some
politico-historians focus their assessment on the
alienation of the South from an
increasingly-intellectual Democratic party.
All of these explanations contain important
information. It is also clear to me, knowing what I
know of human behavior, that none of these people have
a clue as to what 'really' happened.
I would even make the stronger claim that nothing, in
fact, happened.
Carl Jung made a career-long study of the medieval
alchemists and noted their tendency to use archetypes,
dream-images, and mytho-poetic language to describe
the fundamental nature of reality. It was inevitable,
Jung said, that these scientists, peering into the
impenetrable darkness of matter itself, would find
their own psyches staring back. When we apply
explanatory models to phenomena that are fundamentally
unknowable it is an invitation for our psyche to
project its own contents onto the great screen of
nature. So we have the transmutation of elements,
chemical bonds depicted as mystical marriages between
deities, and the snake biting its own tail describing
the structure of benzene.
Now we peer into the darkness of complexity and seek
to make sense of the aggregate behavior of 116,000,000
people. What do we really see?
The obvious truth is that no one knew how this
election would turn out. If Kerry had won,
commentators would now be speaking with equal
conviction about why things went that way. Yet
suddenly many people are clear and certain about what
occurred. Where does this sudden certainty come from?
In the view of the psychologist Carl Rogers, the
journey of psychological maturation facilitated by
therapy is the movement from closed, binary, rigid,
static ways of thinking toward ways of thinking that
are open, nuanced, flexible, and dynamic, and that can
accommodate a plurality of competing perspectives. I
can see this process occurr within myself as I move
away from fear. As my shock subsides, I become less
driven by my deep anxiety and dissonance to seek a
clear, rigid understanding of what occurred. I feel a
call to spend a moment dwelling in the darkness of my
feeling-response to let my eyes adjust to the light
before I attempt to formulate a response.
Gradually as I recede from the emotional shock of what
occurred, I find my analysis of the election changes.
I move gradually from this:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/president/
to this:
http://www.boingboing.net/images/Purple-USA.jpg
Against myself I am less divided as my heart opens to
the variegated complexity of human experience, miracle
still.