Wisdom in a World in Crisis: The Counterintuitive Need to Slow Down and Find Spaciousness
The Great Simplification #217 with Iain McGilchrist
For many of us, our instinctual response to rising conflict and instability might be to recede further into pragmatism as a way to survive. Yet, if our cultural values and ways of life are what got us here, rooted in narrow-boundary, cold, and logical thinking – then perhaps moments of turbulence like these actually call on us to change our way of thinking entirely. Is this moment our opportunity to pivot toward worldviews that emphasize the intangible qualities of life, and could that shift cause a cascade through our actions and decisions, leading to more balanced decision-making for the betterment of everyone?
In this episode, I am rejoined by philosopher and neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist for discussion on how our left-brain dominance obscures our sense of value, especially for abstract qualities such as truth, goodness, and beauty. As a way to reclaim an appreciation for these things, he urges us to slow down, create spaciousness, embrace silence and deep listening, and resist the mania for productivity in our modern culture. Iain and I also discuss consciousness, panpsychism, and panentheism, exploring the thread that there might be some form of universal current running through everything, uniting us all. Bringing everything together, Iain calls for a recovery of humility, compassion, awe, and wonder and insists that even a small percentage of people genuinely living differently could begin to shift cultural consciousness.
How do the things we choose to pay attention to affect our ability to see what’s important in the world – and subsequently what we value and prioritize? What would it feel like to treat each day as a gift rather than a problem to solve, and how might that shift our relationship with time, mortality, and meaning? Most of all, is it possible for some subset of humans to reground ourselves and our behavior in the interconnectedness of life, and could those small changes add up to meaningfully alter humanity’s current trajectory?
Want to dive deeper into the concepts covered in this episode? Follow along with the Show Notes & Links to Learn More, which you can find at the bottom of the page for every episode of The Great Simplification, or you can download them here.
In case you missed it…
In last week’s Frankly, I opened a new series called How to Think About the Future. I began with some comments I’ve heard repeatedly on this platform: why cover nuclear, plastics, renewables, or climate when something else is the real issue? I observed that these questions come from people who have already settled on a single storyline about what’s coming, and are filtering everything else through it. Our actual reality is much more complex and unknowable, and even the most well-informed perspectives may only be able to capture pieces of the bigger picture. I emphasized that even my own base scenario – that the global economy is likely to hit a wall in the relatively-near future – should be held with humility.
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Such a fascinating conversation, thank you both. Around minute 20, listening to Iain's reflection, I thought to myself...
"The left brain keeps you alive, the right brain makes life worth living."
Thank you Nate and Iain. You help me retain some love and faith in humans, and show me I am not so alone as I often feel. I just wish more would take time and share this and consider your insights. Love Iain's 3 guiding elements : Humility, compassion and awe . The first is the biggest obstacle, especially when it is not met with compassion. I am attempting to make them the bedrock, of my actions.