Most people’s life story is one of relentless reinforcing of the idea we have very limited individual autonomy – agency for exercising meaningful choice. As children, students, workers, union members, religious adherents, etc. choices within each institution are for the most part severely bounded. Choosing a certain path, such as an engineering degree, for example, however broad it may be at the outset, leads to a continued funneling of choices to an ever-tighter range of options, as specialization takes precedence over any notion of keeping one’s options open.
Institutional and certainly political systems have a bias toward being closed rather than open and welcoming new ideas and people. These confining systems have the apparent advantage of efficiency – they are management systems disguised as “natural” ways of doing things. Efficiency in this sense both promotes economic productivity and reduces the potential for chaos to be unleased on a “do your own thing” world.
Everyone is somewhere on the spectrum of how they deal with a chaotic world. There are the obvious, “expected” things that you do to relate – education credentials probably being at the top of the list, and in earlier times that worked reasonably well. At the same time, the downside to this way of doing things was that education and training became increasingly specialized as the world became more and more complicated. Now, so many things are in “disruption” mode that your traditional education, already fairly narrowly focused, desperately needs a broader framework. With a broader perspective, you can see the changing world from a position of strength – with more objectivity and creativity. You can begin to accept that you, personally, are the ultimate “refuge” from worldly turmoil, in all its forms.
Look at it this way: What is it about the people you find engaging right now? Most likely, these are people who are expressing themselves from a position of strength, which may be solidly based or just captivating for whatever reason (which might include a secure platform of knowledge and relational skills, for example). In this sense, they are their own “brand”; they project the brand image and the brand image reflects them back. You can do the same thing.
At the same time you can reflect on what you get from structured, traditional education vs what we get “naturally,” including common types of disinformation, vs what do we need to get but probably do not have access to, through a readily accessible channel.
Why should we care? Because this non-definitive, confusing information mix of traditional, discipline-specific education in combination with the bombardment of media-generated information makes us vulnerable.
No one wants to admit they do not know, or are not aware, of anything critically important.
Institutional knowledge of the type passed on to offspring, and common in other animals, is sidelined in modern, specialized, family-fragmented life.
Being relatively uninformed increases the temptation of attaching your identity to something that is attention-getting and seemingly persuasive, but, unless you look deeper, may not be lifting you up. These include:
o Most religious groups
o Political groups and/or their spokespersons
o Religious-political groups
o Celebrities
o Brands
o Gangs, including informal groups that may or may not be illegal
o Family
Ultimately, we are all competing, in some way for some things:
o What you can achieve, independently, according to some measure of accomplishment
o Skills you can collect, having varying degrees of marketability and personal enjoyment
o Influence
o Mates, friends
You can influence other people and even the world at large, but the one thing you have the most control of is you. If you believe this, what would you most want to do next?
1. Sharpen my skills and/or get new ones
2. Ramp up my ability to relate to people
3. Expand my perspective on “the system” – how things work or get stymied. Traditional education will not be much help here, but other sources of knowledge are readily available
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