Bucking the System

"I don't know what it is, but ever since I reached my 40's my bullshit threshold has gone way down." - My friend Anna in Palmer, Texas

Day 85. I hope this is just a phase, because if I feel like this and blog like this for the next 280 days, I can probably kiss my book deal bye-bye. Not that I've yet kissed it hello . . . .

I have the opportunity to interact with amazing individuals each and every work day. This is a privilege for which I am deeply grateful. I am privy to human secrets that, over time, have accumulated and culminated in what I sense are universal truths. We all want to be loved. We are all pained by unfairness, exclusion, and abandonment. We think we ARE many things that we are NOT, and we think we ARE NOT many things that we ARE. We are profoundly influenced by early life experiences. We will all die.

In addition to discovering truths taught through individuals, I have bumped into some truths within systems. My tolerance level for many of these truths is declining with age. Here are some consistent ones: The masses regress to the mean; they don't evolve to the optimal. The mistakes and flaws of the few result in consequences applicable to the many. We compress data so thinly that truth becomes the ooze scraped off the sides. When there is too much stimulation, we overlook, overgeneralized and under analyze. Systems reward that which perpetuates the system, not necessarily that which improves it. Objectivity is lost proportionate to the amount of investment in a certain outcome a system holds. Rigid systems are the most pathological and least able to grow. Most systems operate at the lowest level of Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Reasoning: Don't do it if you'll get caught and punished. A corollary: no one thinks they will get caught. Advancement in systems is usually based on playing by the system rules rather than true criteria of superiority. The behavior of systems can often be explained by fear leaking out sideways.

I realize that, by definition, members of effective and ethical and healthy systems aren't coming into the office of a psychologist to report how great things are. Overexposure to the problematic aspects of life is an occupational hazard for shrinks. It's hard for my perspective not to become permanently bent. The definition of what constitutes "news" in our culture, along with how this news is reported, also contributes to the negative slant on my opinion of systems.

At the system level, I am certain that the practice of Buddhism is also fallible. At the level of my cushion, however, I'm going to keep sitting real still, watching for universal truth.

Gassho,
CycleBuddhaDoc