Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Interesting articles and discussion on risk and flow.
If our survival were truly secured, then risk taking would be a natural response to the boredom of heaven. But, ironically, even though mankind has never faced the degree of peril now present in the world, we are hellbent on endeavors fraught with danger. Global warming, the threat of nuclear holocaust and the general inhumanity to man that now pervades the planet ought to be enough to assuage any brand of boredom. Instead, perhaps due to nothing more than fatalism, we look for evermore dangerous tempters of fate. The handwriting on the only wall that counts says we are not doing a very good job of mastering the planet...so we look for ways to prove the mastery of ourselves. Or is it the illusion of mastery itself that tempts and isn't that where the risk lies? The more we step away from the fully conscious facts of our own reality, the more risk we accept. In that sense, the soldier who goes off to war in the hope of defeating an oppressive tyrant assumes the lesser risk. Not doing anything would only assure the pain ridden existence that Tim speaks about. I suppose it's all context and perspective. If we enlarge both of those, I think the risks will be lessened. As for flow... another name for that might be sustainability and that will keep all of our juices going.
If our survival were truly secured, then risk taking would be a natural response to the boredom of heaven. But, ironically, even though mankind has never faced the degree of peril now present in the world, we are hellbent on endeavors fraught with danger. Global warming, the threat of nuclear holocaust and the general inhumanity to man that now pervades the planet ought to be enough to assuage any brand of boredom. Instead, perhaps due to nothing more than fatalism, we look for evermore dangerous tempters of fate. The handwriting on the only wall that counts says we are not doing a very good job of mastering the planet...so we look for ways to prove the mastery of ourselves. Or is it the illusion of mastery itself that tempts and isn't that where the risk lies? The more we step away from the fully conscious facts of our own reality, the more risk we accept. In that sense, the soldier who goes off to war in the hope of defeating an oppressive tyrant assumes the lesser risk. Not doing anything would only assure the pain ridden existence that Tim speaks about. I suppose it's all context and perspective. If we enlarge both of those, I think the risks will be lessened. As for flow... another name for that might be sustainability and that will keep all of our juices going.
