Saturday, February 1, 2014

Finding A Good Therapist



I talked about MetaDiscussion in my last blog, and about why I think that "we", ie. our world, needs some therapy, or at least a bracing jolt of wisdom to wake us up from the current neurotic sleepwalk.

Who, though, are the wise ones to help us ? Elvis Costello asked that: Where are the strong ?  Who are the trusted ?  Where is the harmony ?  We are in times of deep and unfathomable change now, so we need to tap into essential wisdoms to help us understand and help talk us through what is happening.  

But pure wisdom on its own isn't enough either: it's not social.  There always have been vaults of philosophical thought out there describing how societies and publics function.  As we learned from the online Climate Science wars, professorial wisdom often suffers outside the domain of the university lecture and the old bearded wizard.  If the message isn't sociable, then it won't spread off campus.

Wouldn't it be swell if there were relevant and appealing thought leaders who could speak to the circumstances of today using the media of today and - AND - with an understanding of history and philosophy.  How would that look ?  And would you share it on Facebook ?  Click to share !

That is: please comment here with links any such people: social theorists, philosophers, even bloggers.  I'm finding these sites one by one, such as...  Ribbonfarm.  It was started by Venkatesh Rao in 2007.

Ribbonfarm

"The name ribbonfarm refers to the ribbon farms of 18th century Detroit — strips of lands 2-3 miles long, each with 2-300 yards along the Detroit river waterfront — that the then French governor used to resolve water disputes. I thought it was a great metaphor for a blog trying to get its thin slice of attention from the great river of eyeballs that is the Web. "

It's replete with philosophy, reflection, wisdom, Metadiscussion.  Like the latest, an interesting article on how the West vs the East look at organisms, government and society:  

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/01/28/technical-debt-of-the-west/

Thought leaders such as these will be our collective therapists; we need to share their wisdom on Facebook and elsewhere.  It's on us to start building new publics - new audiences that will entertain broader views, deeper reflection and more wholesome dialogue.

Next blog, we'll keep looking for therapists and thought leaders to guide us through the MetaDiscussion.

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