https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/halloween-petition-date-october-trick-or-treat-costumes-a9022551.html
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/growing-push-to-move-halloween-over-forecasted-rain-1.4662466
Our culture has a growing sense of flexibility. I think something like this would not have even occurred in my youth. Like the thought to even be able to do it wouldn't have occurred.
One could see it as a culture where everything is altered to be more convenient, a sort of snowplow parenting, a putting of convenience over tradition and dealing with adversity.
Or one could say we're letting go of the old limits on our thinking, going what makes sense instead of what we've always done, loosening up our minds to fully live our best lives.
I wonder how it affects social cohesion and inclusion. When decisions get made emergently and creatively, unless you have a rock solid communication system and the population is very socially and idealistically cohesive, or has some sort of meta-decision-making scheme that puts everyone on the same page, you're going to end up having two Halloweens.
I see this working best in a very small town!
Emergent decision making works best in populations that are very cohesive and in clear communication. Outside of that, it can be chaotic. We have all have the experience where a plan is in place and one person asks about a change at the last minute and everything goes a little sideways.
If populations are resilient to complexity, both emotionally and logistically, not minding if things happen twice, don't happen, get delayed or people get left out, then emergent thinking is very workable. Populations like this must have a bigger picture goal beyond the immediate logistical results. They must also have a strong capacity to hold their own experience without blame and be willing to learn and respond constantly from a place of curiousity and fear management. I have seen this happen in subcultures and it can be very energizing and rich.
Our current culture does not have this capacity. We are half way to emergent decision making, in that our minds have opened up to question social forms and traditions that don't always serve us. How liberating this is!
We however still lack of the other side of it, the emotional capacity to live in this more fluid world without fear. In some ways we have more to fear, since instead of one authority figure to be afraid of, we have a billion authority figures, in the form of the people all around us, each with our own desire and beliefs, telling us who we should be and what we you do, even (and perhaps ironically) within this culture of freedom.
I mean, this completely makes sense. We've only known the authority model, so we still use it, in both aggressive and passive aggressive ways. Even while we try desperately to be accepting of diversity, our habits of judgment and control are strong. We're like children raised by unreasonably judgmental, fixed mindset parents who have to figure out how to grow ourselves up on a different model.
What does it look like to have a mind willing to be truly emergent and flexible?
Maybe this year, two Halloweens?
Is that a scary thought to you, or a cool one? Our culture is changing and we don't really know who we are becoming. Some people feel really good about these changes; other people are scared. I'm somewhere in the middle, like most of us, I guess.
But pretty sure the bitching about snowplow parents or inflexible thinkers on the internet ISN'T the solution. I'm going to sit back and just see what happens, trying to be curious but probably also being fairly judgmental towards everyone, mainly by habit. And since it is Halloween (officially, although apparently some towns in the US celebrated it LAST night) I'll be wearing my Star Trek uniform and looking forward to social utopia.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/growing-push-to-move-halloween-over-forecasted-rain-1.4662466
Our culture has a growing sense of flexibility. I think something like this would not have even occurred in my youth. Like the thought to even be able to do it wouldn't have occurred.
One could see it as a culture where everything is altered to be more convenient, a sort of snowplow parenting, a putting of convenience over tradition and dealing with adversity.
Or one could say we're letting go of the old limits on our thinking, going what makes sense instead of what we've always done, loosening up our minds to fully live our best lives.
I wonder how it affects social cohesion and inclusion. When decisions get made emergently and creatively, unless you have a rock solid communication system and the population is very socially and idealistically cohesive, or has some sort of meta-decision-making scheme that puts everyone on the same page, you're going to end up having two Halloweens.
I see this working best in a very small town!
Emergent decision making works best in populations that are very cohesive and in clear communication. Outside of that, it can be chaotic. We have all have the experience where a plan is in place and one person asks about a change at the last minute and everything goes a little sideways.
If populations are resilient to complexity, both emotionally and logistically, not minding if things happen twice, don't happen, get delayed or people get left out, then emergent thinking is very workable. Populations like this must have a bigger picture goal beyond the immediate logistical results. They must also have a strong capacity to hold their own experience without blame and be willing to learn and respond constantly from a place of curiousity and fear management. I have seen this happen in subcultures and it can be very energizing and rich.
Our current culture does not have this capacity. We are half way to emergent decision making, in that our minds have opened up to question social forms and traditions that don't always serve us. How liberating this is!
We however still lack of the other side of it, the emotional capacity to live in this more fluid world without fear. In some ways we have more to fear, since instead of one authority figure to be afraid of, we have a billion authority figures, in the form of the people all around us, each with our own desire and beliefs, telling us who we should be and what we you do, even (and perhaps ironically) within this culture of freedom.
I mean, this completely makes sense. We've only known the authority model, so we still use it, in both aggressive and passive aggressive ways. Even while we try desperately to be accepting of diversity, our habits of judgment and control are strong. We're like children raised by unreasonably judgmental, fixed mindset parents who have to figure out how to grow ourselves up on a different model.
What does it look like to have a mind willing to be truly emergent and flexible?
Maybe this year, two Halloweens?
Is that a scary thought to you, or a cool one? Our culture is changing and we don't really know who we are becoming. Some people feel really good about these changes; other people are scared. I'm somewhere in the middle, like most of us, I guess.
But pretty sure the bitching about snowplow parents or inflexible thinkers on the internet ISN'T the solution. I'm going to sit back and just see what happens, trying to be curious but probably also being fairly judgmental towards everyone, mainly by habit. And since it is Halloween (officially, although apparently some towns in the US celebrated it LAST night) I'll be wearing my Star Trek uniform and looking forward to social utopia.
