The Human Experiment:
Crisis & Denial

MISSING INFORMATION (continued)

There are two thresholds between understanding the map and navigating the territory, one conceptual, one of orientation and scale. There is a critical and dangerous impulse in the problem-solving process: to race to implementation before "problem-perceiving" and "problem-defining" are complete, or even stable.

AN INTELLECTUAL ABSTRACTION

Every question seeks an answer but requires another: "Is that the right question?" Editorials and talking heads ask, "Why didn't we see this coming?" or, "How did they allow this to happen?" What this did we not see? Which this flew in under the radar? How many of this were swept under the mental rug? The unnecessary war or the inevitable crash? Global warming or health care? The Bush madness or the necessity of an Obama? Or the idea we would have to confront a mindset?

Every duality, no matter how perfect, implies a third position, that of the observer or of synthesis.

To notice or admit my denial I have to observe it from a different mental POV. Einstein said, "The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." But we cannot continue to take steps back from every mental frame, as if in an infinite retreat. Once the issue of a mindset and the problem of denial are acknowledged, we are in a position to perceive more flexibly the reality that surrounds us. Once the veil of assumptions and preconceptions is lifted, or even noticed, the entire situation can be seen in a different light. The problem, the crisis, the mental frame, the fear, the beauty, the limits and the opportunities: all can be re-imagined.

It's too early in a beautiful new day to rain skepticism on the inaugural parade, but let's bring an umbrella. The solutions must match the scale and speed of the crisis, which have yet to be measured or described. It's one of many dilemmas: Obama has to consider how serious to make the crisis seem to be. He's on a rhetorical tightrope between crisis management and pragmatic solutions, risking a fall into panic on one side or deeper denial on the other.

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