"At each moment of need the human mind accesses solutions to overcome the current pressing problems. Once there were predictions that the world would run out of wood to burn…then we discovered coal. Then came oil and electricity; and once again we are standing on the collective problematic precipice of need – will we leap into the abyss of chaos and breakdown? Or will humankind somehow breakthrough yet again? In times of need, new solutions come into existence. We need to prepare for the structural changes that will accommodate these new developments. Instead of lingering in the stagnant swamps of static thought, we should be acquiring an evolutionary perspective. And this is a perspective of sudden and innovative breakthroughs (what evolutionary biologists refer to as ‘punctuated equilibrium’)* Just as in our human fossil record, so too in our patterns of human consciousness: long periods of stasis followed by sudden leaps of progress and change. Often in those periods of stasis the seeds of developmental change are planted. The farmer knows that planted seeds do not sprout overnight. Philosophers, artists, creative change agents, amongst others, all work to plant the seeds of evolutionary potential. Then when the right temperature arrives (when the ‘cosmic wind blows’), the crops will gain their moment of optimum nutrition and push rapidly through the topsoil to partake of the sun’s rays – rapid growth will thus occur." Kingsley L. Dennis
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 03:12:03 +0000