Denial

MIND SHIFT: While the Bush gang claims to spread "liberty" with "smart" bombs, they have confused us into thinking that "free markets" and "freedom" are the same thing. The dramatic difference between global "corporatization" and true democracy is one of the most important, and most hidden pieces of information in our culture.

MIND SHIFT: We all dream and make Freudian slips. Most of us over-react, rationalize, or give in to wishful thinking from time to time. Many of us harbor and hide irrational fears. We must entertain the POSSIBILITY that our misguided foreign policy, our epidemic of denial, our materialism and the insanity of the NeoCon agenda are all rooted in UNCONSCIOUS fears and needs.

MIND SHIFT: We don't measure possibility with a ruler or a bathroom scale. We try to measure it with ideas, THINKING. But all the INFORMATION we use to predict and anticipate was received in the past, and we know the present can always surprise us. In such a complex and rapidly changing world, an ability to creatively IMAGINE the near and distant possibilities, the best and worst scenarios, has become an essential survival skill.

MIND SHIFT: Like "CRISIS" the word "INFORMATION" has begun to lose its meaning. It is the most important force in the present-day world; yet our notion of Information is narrow and obsolete, and its importance is wildly "misunderestimated." Thinkers like Bateson and McLuhan help us redefine information as the driving force of change in the individual and in the culture at large. A free flow and critical understanding of information are essential to personal free will and to democracy.

We think it's easy to change our minds and hard to change the world but we have it backwards. When circumstances force us suddenly to change our minds, we often see how rigid and wrong our thinking was. If we can change our minds in foresight rather than hindsight, we may be surprised how easily the world will follow.

ISSUE: As the "greatest nation" the US ranks 16th among 18 industrialized countries, for spending per capita on public education. When the genocide, slavery and imperialism that were so much a part of our history are left out of our history textbooks, we can't really expect the next generation to question our present course.

ISSUE: 95% of media "news" (including the trusted PBS) is filtered through the lens of corporate sponsorship. Candidates must spend millions on TV ads to be "credible." Advertising has become attached to most every piece of public information. Is it any surprise that information about the military- industrial- corporate- media- pharma- lobbyist complex is missing from the public discussion?

ISSUE: The depth of corruption - mainly among the Republi- NeoCons - and the massive ineptitude - mostly among the Democrats - make the present US government the most destructive in our history. We find it hard to imagine that two elections have been stolen, that we were taken to war with lies masking greed and megalomania, and that the press and the "opposition" party stood by in mute agreement. Like a deadly addiction, denial spreads the need for more denial.

ARGUMENT: Bob Woodward's book accuses Bush of being in a state of denial. Denial is hard to prove, unless popular opinion confronts the "denier," or until "blowback" reveals the invisible clues that should have been obvious. The argument is that individual denial and cultural denial feedback into and reinforce each other; and that in the US, where a widespread Mind Shift is needed to trigger a massive Paradigm Shift, a majority of minds are isolated in an epidemic of denial.

ARGUMENT: Blind spots in our systems for seeing or knowing are not evident is what is seen or known*. They not only hide information, they conceal the fact that information is missing. Freedom cannot flourish and democracy cannot survive when important information is missing: important because it's missing, often missing because it's important.

Lies, taboos and secrets are forms of shared or public denial. Problem is when we - individually and in groups - lie to ourselves, shy away from taboos and keep secrets, we place obstacles directly in our own paths to knowledge, and ultimately power. Observe that the Bush gang represents a low point in criminal lying, taboo topics and paranoid secrecy.

MORE: LIES, SECRETS, TABOOS

Thinking is a "language-like" process. We create our mental models from our interactions with the world. Then our thinking - expectations and assumptions in particular - shape the way we see the world. A REVOLUTION IN THINKING is inevitable. It will come one of two ways: in 20 / 20 hindsight as we look back at the tipping point we could have prevented, or in "20 / 20 foresight" - the creative intelligence a truly civilized culture would use to avoid its own unintended consequences. Einstein suggested we'll need some such LEVEL OF THINKING to solve our "SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS"

THINKING: LEVELS: One of Freud's most important, and least discussed revelations, late in his career, was that self-deception is a powerful psychological force. Noticing his own, he saw that it makes us resistant to questioning our own thinking, blocks us from noticing our own blind spots. But of course it's easy to deny it.

THINKING: LEVELS: Of three unconscious forces, the Fear / Power nexus is the most ... um ... powerful. At the root of our being is the desire / need to survive; and that involves power over our bodies and our environment. The flip side is a fear of losing power. Without an understanding of this force that lies deep within us all, we cannot exercise collective power in a sane manner in the shared world.

Denial represents a fear of the knowledge that will force us to change - our thinking or our behavior. Yet when we shed our denial and deal with the reality of our present state, we are invigorated by the creative challenge. False fears and paranoia (in the unconscious) are always more scary than dealing with the actual crises and the realistic fears, no matter how big or how many.

MORE UNCONSCIOUS FEAR

Coined by Thomas Kuhn, the scientist / historian / philosopher, the term carries an idea that is central to information theory. There is a strong resistance to revolutionary ideas, both in our individual minds and in our shared assumptions. Our mindsets and mental models seem so accurately to reflect "reality," that we feel that they cannot be changed; until gradually more people accept the new possibilities, and a tippling point is reached. Suddenly a majority accepts the new thinking and are left with the paradox: "it's so obvious, why didn't we see this sooner?"