“At least Thomas Jefferson wasn’t afraid to write new code”
On sparking new code in Kenyan communities
The NYT Op-Ed, The Charitable-Industrial Complex has served to coax me way out of my comfort zone and add my voice to the mix. I’ve been intently following the threads I’ve found and chose to jump in on Twitter:
Michael Rosen @MLInnovations @peterbuffett Your heart is in right place. I applaud that & encourage u to engage, not antagonize. It’s together that we’ll find solutions.
Nirvana Cable @nirvanacable @MLInnovations Did @peterbuffett op-ed cause hostility? Or Amygdala Hijack? Defending culture disallows transcendence, where path is clear.
Michael Rosen @MLInnovations @nirvanacable So, what’s clear path?
Hoping to respond to Michael via email, he replied I could send my +140 character response via twitlonger.com. Preferring @Medium, here I go…
Michael, the path I see is each of us—all humanity—gets to say what we need and together negotiate how exactly to make it work for each and every one of us. That’s the path. The rub is having ground rules that will allow the path to be walked.
I’ve observed in myself and others just how much emotion gets triggered by the possibility of all humanity coming together around anything. We argue for our position(s) rather than negotiate ways to have our real needs met. We go into Amygdala hijacks when we think someone is taking away something that we have consciously or unconsciously categorized as keeping us safe.
Peter Buffett explains his sense that “Culture has us in a total stranglehold” by pointing to: “In a very good hour and 22 minutes… Joseph Chilton Pearce lays it out pretty straight and to the point. Joseph Chilton Pearce: The Biology of Transcendence — Living Dialogues w/ Duncan Campbell
It is my experience that the way culture has us in a total stranglehold is that we argue for—and from—our culture. Here in Kenya, I have engaged communities to examine whether or not their culture’s unwritten and largely unexamined social norms are capable of getting citizens where they say they want to go. We’re doing a deep dive into two social norms that we are calling The Culture of Silence (the legacy of oppression) and Wanting Something for Nothing (the legacy of aid).
By inquiring into the consequence of these norms—from the ground rules of inquiry—we are finding communities willing to transcend beliefs that have held them hostage and, once realized, they are free to co-create—negotiate—new social norms. We end up consciously working to create a new story, one that can be owned by everyone involved.
This is painstaking work, and we are finding that talking together to examine whether or not the current cultural norms will get the communities where everyone wants to go is the path. Now, the question is whether or not we will stay on the path when emotions get strong and we want to argue with each other rather than stay in negotiation.
Note: The title of this post is taken from one of Peter’s replies to Wayan Vota’s, Time for a Moonshot, an Open Letter to Peter Buffett.
