Who Will Lead the Next Tipping Point?

Whether or not you use the catchy phrase “tipping point,” behind it lies an idea whose time has come. This is the idea that there is a collective consciousness, a mind shared by an entire society. Polls give us a snapshot of the social mind as it applies to issues of the day. But that is more superficial than collective consciousness, which isn’t defined by opinions or even beliefs. Rather, it’s a shared awareness of who we are and where we are going. When major changes occur in society that affect everyone, such as the outbreak of the Civil War or the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the collective consciousness has shifted. But before the shift can occur, the weight of collective consciousness must decisively tip one way or another. (more…)

Finding Your True Self, or The Problem With Socrates

I was one of many readers intrigued by a recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about finding out who we really are. Under the title, “In Search of the True Self,” the piece was by an associate professor at Yale, Joshua Knobe, who attempts something very ambitious. He wants to solve the dilemma that humans are divided between our civilized and our animal nature. The question is far from abstract. Sexual drives have brought down governors and congressmen; violence in the form of terrorism obsesses us; and thousands of deaths by gunshot every year are part of the background of American life. So much for the animal side. On the civilized side we have philosophers pushing the value of reason over passion, the doctrine of “know thyself,” and Freud’s argument that civilization cannot exist without paying the price of suppressed unconscious drives, most particularly sex and violence. (more…)