Within these there are sub-categories. Under homogenisation one could consider not just what we are doing to our children within schools, but the global influence of “Macdonald’s” and “KFC”. According to my taxi driver yesterday Tesco is taking over Thailand. That every town and city in England has new housing that looks pretty much the same would be another example.
All of the “bad things” that we do relate to the mentality of the control freak, who apparently believes that without his intervention the world would fall apart. Some people are intentional control freaks, for the purposes of getting rich or powerful or both. But then you surely know that without me pointing it out. Last night on TV (Barack Obama became president an hour before I wrote this sentence) it seems that it was a previous president who coined the phrase “The only thing to fear is fear itself”, which isn’t exactly the case, ignorance is very often something to fear, as is climate change. Yellowstone Park “blowing” again, which is virtually inevitable (unless we learn what could be done about it in time) and I certainly fear that, not in my lifetime probably, as it could destroy virtually the entire biosphere. Certainly fearing reality and not coming to terms with its disciplines (its patterns) affords us a slippery slope into the abyss. Maybe part of the problem is that as we understand more we can’t face reality, so “amuse” ourselves to take our minds off the haunting hopelessness we feel is lurking. Unfortunately we know more than most of us "need to know" on a need to know basis. So we are burdened with fear of things we can do nothing about. There is so very much that we can do something about if we decide to "pull our own weight" and refuse to remain disempowered. I am not talking of revolution, as all that makes space for is another set of mistakes, but a new recognition of who we are as individuals, who will not shut our eyes to obvious mistakes. Mistakes of course will be made, but we allow ourselves to be aware of them and determined to be heard when we point them out. By this "universal law" I have recognised, introduced, I hope that self correcting mechanism that we can all be engaged in, in the gentlest possible way will give us more of a chance to do better than this". Are we mature enough to both admit mistakes, and also not "score points" when others do likewise, and need us to tell them.
One pattern I would like to particularly mention is regarding the so-called unique properties of light, that it can be considered as both a particle and a wave. A great many things can be considered in exactly the same way, as individual items, or as a stream. Man is one such. Knowledge is another, life yet another. I have amused myself over the years (of comparative intellectual isolation) by seeking patterns, simplifying them to the nth degree, and transposing them from one discipline to another, to show me how to predict what comes next. By simplify I mean in the way the definition of an acid has been reduced to “an acid is a proton donor”. By recognising patterns, such as how crack propagation theory is not only useful when designing aeroplanes, but describes how to go about darning a sock (take the mend well past the weak point, and don’t make the mend too strong) and how societies and individuals fall apart, especially when “constricted” even to explain how a strike (industrial action / trades union) is broken.
From such pattern recognition, understanding that there is no such thing as darkness, only lack of light (you can’t switch it on can you?) there is no such thing as cold, only lack of heat, there is no such thing as silence only lack of sound, and a vacuum, which is simply a lack of matter, cannot suck, it of itself has no power, I conclude that there is no such thing as evil, only lack of good. Apparently Einstein also said something to that effect, but until last month (January 2009) I had absolutely no idea that he had. At one time I was extremely concerned about this particular conclusion. So when I heard Lord Elwyn-Jones on the radio (years ago now, who attended both the Nuremberg and Moors murder trials, and who should have known if anyone ever had) I wrote to him to ask him had he seen "evil" (and why I wanted to know). He kindly responded, quite quickly, to say that he never had. He did say that what he had certainly seen were people apparently totally incapable of empathy. He told me to "carry on" with what I felt needed to be said (not fear that I might inadvertently create a portal for the devil).
Another extremely valuable pattern is the "race for the space" hypothesis, introduced to me by Michele Odent in Exeter cathedral possibly 20 or more years ago. But I will explain that elsewhere, along with various other "universal" patterns.
Thanks
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