MASTERY: CLEAR MIND / STRONG MIND

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, nothing more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “who is to be master, that’s all.” -Alice in Wonderland

In today’s world, as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow, those that define reality with their language, narratives and symbols are the masters. In my more than two decades of work with leaders and innovators in spaces as diverse as maximum security prisons, billion-dollar corporate c-suites, non-profits, NGO organizations and startups very few understood this truth. Over time, if our work together was successful, they would learn to see the world through this axiom and everything would then change.

Behind this axiom is a riddle, a riddle I hope to unlock in the course of my writing. The achievement of mastery empowers me to be the master, it makes me invincible against the forces of confusion and illusion. Those that have become masters by aligning themselves with the forces of confusion and illusion have not achieved mastery. They do, however, define reality no more and no less than the master backed by the achievement of mastery.

So let’s start by unpacking the incredible geography of confusion that dominates this experiment called civilization. The intensity of confusion is obvious everywhere. People lack purpose, institutions lack coherent strategy, governments cannot coordinate even a modicum of useful activity, a well known host of potentially devastating scenarios threaten humanity and few, if any, in leadership positions know how to even think about these scenarios, let alone prototype viable solutions.

The source of the confusion, however, is far more elusive. Our starting point, then, is to arrive at the source. Our guide here, not so ironically, is the antagonist Humpty Dumpty — We speak in service to the cultivation of power. In our case, we aim to cultivate the power and courage to see in such a way, as Aristotle teaches us, that we are able to face up to reality.

All of the confusion, and subsequent debilitating issues we face on the planet are the inevitable consequence of two realities.

The first is that we have chosen to shape our lives within a framework that is most accurately called the plantation economic framework. There are masters and then there are classes of slaves: field slaves, house slaves and the head slave. We figured out that the plantation is the most efficient way to extract resources out of the earth and labor out of people for the cheapest possible cost, so we embedded it everywhere.

The second is that our public (and nearly all of our private) education system is designed around the plantation model. Without exception, it creates workers and trains these workers early on to compete with each other, to tolerate sitting inside for 8 hours a day, and to be obedient students. For those that are unwilling to yield to the implicit rules that govern the public and private education experience, there are jails, graveyards and sub-human survival wage jobs. For those willing to follow the rules, there are human living wage jobs and a sense of cultural belonging.

Every element of institutional life that we see has gone sideways: abuses of power, dishonest leadership, pervasive surveillance, mass incarceration, ecological devastation, public and state violence, political demagogy and financial injustices are all potent, yet entirely predictable outcomes of the plantation economic framework that serves extraction. To rally against any one of these individually as if they are somehow aberrations from a norm— as many are doing these days for example with their analysis of the current candidates for president- represents a dangerously incomplete analysis of the present set of circumstances that govern our society.

Perhaps even more importantly, they will, without exception, undermine any of our efforts to create a better future. One cannot utilize the amazing potential in mathematics if one is ignorant of the axioms that stand behind every calculation. One cannot be an agent for change if one does not understand one’s role — often deeply invisible to even the most discerning leader, critic or activist — in perpetuating the plantation reality. And to be clear, I am not referring to the customary refrain of self-shaming around one’s carbon footprint here.

Once we see clearly how the plantation framework defines reality, we can then begin the hard work of creating a non-plantation future. And this hard work begins when we turn our gaze to those that defend the plantation and those that fight against it. Look closely, and you will see that they share a similar confusion despite the appearance that they are opposed to each other. In fact, they need each other in order to solidify their sense of being right. And being right is a perfect way to be within the plantation. The plantation thrives when everyone gets to be right.

Now of course, very few people have the courage and clarity to acknowledge this truth about themselves. To face up to reality would alienate them from the plantation, which inevitably threatens to be incredibly disorienting and destabilizing.

The alternative is to solve the riddle, or at least crack it open a bit. Be the master: of your mind, your emotions and of the material economic realm. Accomplish this level of mastery, and you will find yourself senior to the plantation framework.

Culture creates reality, pre-programs experience, determines its proofs. Once the matrix is set, it is only in dreams or at the periphery of sound and sight that other possibilities present.— June O’Brien

But here is the rub — your meditation practice, your circle process, your hedge fund, your startup, your hard won new economic framework, your smart ideas, your non-profit work, the training with your trusted teacher and most of all, your clear intention — won’t get you there.

Here is what will:

· Practice the carriage of nothing into your interactions with others and when experimenting with new ideas. Look for a clearing where everything suddenly becomes unfamiliar.

· Practice jettisoning your knowledge and certainty in the face of challenges to your beliefs as well as your sense of what is up and down in the world.

· Build power into your body.

· Figure out how to evolve your nervous system.

· Challenge yourself to see things plainly. Learn to speak concretely, without manipulation and persuasion.

- Stop caring whether you are being understood and supported. This kind of caring is a trap nearly impossible to escape from, and will make your mind lazy and your body weak.

And most of all, never underestimate the power of the plantation consciousness to influence the ways you think, speak and act in the world. One who is in service to the development of mastery accepts this requirement unequivocally. This acceptance is where all the humility and power comes from.

One last insight, perhaps the most important one to share: the dissonance between the world, your potential and all the rabbit holes carefully prepared for you to fall into NEVER goes away.

If it has, chances are you are lost again.

Will, lost in a sea of trouble,
Rise, save yourself from the whirlpool
Of the enemies of willing.
Courage exposes ambushes.
Steadfastness destroys enemies.
Keep your victories hidden.
Do not sulk over defeat.
Accept good. Bend before evil.
Learn the rhythm which binds all men.

ARCHILOCHOS (7th century BC)

Kenneth Rexroth // Translations from Greek and Latin

Andrew Markell is the Co-Founder of Exile, a company that creates, advises and helps capitalize transformative companies and market ecosystems dedicated to empowering people + planet.