Stepping outside of the thinking of our opponent (“the extractors”) speaks to the need for whole systems change, as does the famous Bucky quote.

In a very powerful way, you have communicated the feeling of being crushed while caught in the psychological pattern of thinking within the oppressor’s framework while working through complex problems generated out of the extractor-matrix and attempting to oppose their forces through their channels, by their rules. In this work, there is a feeling of being damned, crushed by insurmountable ‘evil’.

It’s a paradoxical predicament, because we all feel the need to work for change. But then, there is a sense of futility in working through the available channels, because the systems are so fundamentally broken. So for instance, voting feels like a meek play at expressing democratic voice, because of the systemic problems with electoral politics.

Clearly, whole systems change is critical, and thankfully there are very many people with this in mind who are practicing Deliberate Intent. We sense a receding from the available social media channels, because of their futility in supporting coherent, generative intersubjective processes of sensemaking — real communication, deliberation, and collaboration. During this media recession and phase of dis-ease and fear, pioneers are focusing on new possibilities. This is essential, that we create these distributed protocols for collaborative sensemaking — they will support the revolution of collective intelligence.

In the meantime, what do we do?

I want to really simmer in this analysis, because I do feel petrified by my fixation on thinking about systems change and wicked problems. I know the forces are deeper, more internal. And in exploring the ecological thinking of Nora Bateson, she’s showing how ideas themselves are interactive and generative, how they communicate and transmute. And as you are saying, the perpetuation stems from being captured within the opponents thinking.

This is a very deep and paradoxical field to explore, and it’s in our story playing in our hearts, this story resonates in our soul and we see it all around us. I will leave it there.

Thanks for writing.