It’s Organic!

‘It’s truly organic’ says Gary answering to my question. ‘I used just a little salt against pests but there is nothing chemical here – maybe apart of rain. Rain – only that could be chemical’ he laughs.

I am having a quickie interview with Gary for the Magazine in regard of his role as a Garden’s Guardian and Gardener. We are both looking at the lavish, promising plants. In a few months dark and neglected, bushy and full of nettles backyard changed its appearance into a neat and clear pampered garden with a place for BBQ. Definitely, it’s a “Wow!” moment for me. Apparently, vegetables do not originate from supermarkets but grow in fields and gardens. I have a feeling of approaching a mystery of nature, which, myself being a city boy, I might be never able to fully fathom.

‘When did you start this garden?’ I ask

‘Well, it started in February with Mark who had lived here. I had been helping him.’ Gary explains. ‘When he moved out I took it over. And now – look!’ He beams proudly.

‘It’s wonderful! Did you have some help from the staff?’ I want to know.

‘Yes, Steve helped quite a lot. At the beginning he was running this project, I mean, he was responsible for it as a staff member.’

‘What about other clients?

‘Some of them helped me as well. For example, together with John we weeded the garden.’

‘Great. So what do we have here?’ I ask

‘Tomatoes, carrots, Brassica oleracea, baobab…’
'Brassica oleracea?'
'Yes, Brassica oleracea, you know, cabbage'

I decide it is a time for a joke. ‘And where do you grow marihuana?’ I ask.

‘Oh no, there is nothing like that here’ Gary smiles. ‘Only good, legal stuff; I mean, plants.’

‘You put quite a bit of effort into this garden. How do you feel about it? ‘

‘You know, it was the first time in my life when I have done something like that. It’s very therapeutic. It feels different when you take care of garden and watch how it grows. And it is not just for me but also for others. We had a barbecue here already at least once. It feels great and it has been very helpful, very therapeutic.’

MG

What kind of map do you have?

A map is essential for travelling as a visual representation of the area we travel. In life paradigms serve as maps. Paradigms are models of reality. These are what we think, imagine and believe about the world, the life and ourselves. Our beliefs about the world don’t mean the reality itself. Alfred Korzybski stated: “the map is not the territory". Similarly, an oil painting depicting the landscape is not the landscape itself. It is the representation and an artist’s individual interpretation of the real landscape. All of us are such artists when we paint with brushes and colours of our minds the world around us.

Firstly, we perceive through our senses only a portion of reality. Some species such as dolphins and bats have different senses not available to us, and we do not see in infrared of ultraviolet light. Secondly, only a small percentage of the information reaching our brain reaches our Consciousness. It can be compared to illuminating the surface of the water with a reflector. A bright spot of light slides the surface of the water. The water seems to be a lake or a river but in fact it is an ocean. And there is no way to tell what is under surface of the water or where is the nearest beach. In a sense each of us is a drop of water which reflects the universe. Senses are in fact extensions of the brain. Technically speaking, eyes do not see but the brain “sees” (interprets) through the electrochemical impulses reaching the brain. Information that comes to the brain is filtered and interpreted for example through the prism of personal filters, experiences, preferences, etc. Going deeper into that, we could discuss the nature of reality, quantum physics and interesting philosophical questions. It is worth remembering when we try to answer questions such as: What is the world, who we are and where are we going? What does it mean to be a human?

I think the questions are more important than the answers. The questions channel our minds and our thinking. The questions remain mostly the same but the answers tend to change along our development.

Over the centuries humanity has reached thousands of unique worldviews. Every ever existing society tried to find their answers to the above questions. That wealth of humanity can help us better understand life and ourselves. Ken Wilber, the creator and propagator of the integral theory of everything, put it like this: “all views have a degree of truth” because “no human mind can be 100% wrong. Or, we might say, nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time”. At the same time nobody has the monopoly for the truth. All worldviews turning what they really are – ways of thinking, models of reality, paradigms – into undisputable truths, dogmas – are harmful. Dogma – the term not restricted to religion – deceives, deludes, impoverishes, restricts Dogmatic attitude regardless of the subject is an open demonstration of delusional conviction: “I know better because I know the truth, all other people are wrong and I am not going to listen to them. “

What is behind such a dogmatic attitude? The mentality of “Us and Them”; dichotomy good-evil, black-white; mentality of “besieged fortress”; the ongoing effort to “fight for the faith” or for the ideology; ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom; complete confidence in the superior authority and its representatives, fear of committing thought crimes; defensive attitude against other views or lifestyles regarded as wrong, sinful, dangerous, etc. The world is a stage on which the conflict takes place between good and evil. Of course, that’s just a one version of manifesting human Ego.

It is often necessary to take a step back from the painting to see the whole. A piece of jigsaw puzzle says very little about the whole picture. Being limited to just a one worldview is like fixation on a simple element of the puzzle. Broader perspective on human development is proposed by theory called Spiral Dynamics. It applies to both individuals and societies and it is associated with people as Clare W. Graves, Don Beck, Chris Covan, Ken Wilber. Spiral Dynamics is a very plausible model which uses colours: Beige, Purple, Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow, and Turquoise for different stages.

The dogmatic attitude mentioned earlier is characteristic for Blue. Above the Blue there are further four phases’ developments of consciousness which are also psychological structures, value systems and ways of adaptation in different spheres of live.

Field of knowledge called memetics is another interesting way of thinking about culture. For memetics the central concept are memes – units of cultural information. Just as there are genes in genetics (biology) so there are memes in memetics (culture). “Virus of the Mind” is the revealing title of Richard’s Brodie book. Memes are mind viruses which compete with each other in our minds. Examples of highly contagious memes are fashions and religions.

Assimilation of new points of view is beneficial because it allows to better understand the world and ourselves. With new ideas we can create new and better maps of the world. Oliver Wendell Holmes put it like this: “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

© MG copyrights

It is getting better

My grandmother used to say better before the war even apples had been better. Individuals and societies - many of us humans tend to embellish the past and complain about the present. This phenomenon is variously manifested but one question remains: Is the world really getting worse? And is that true in the past life used to be better?

The fact is that in the past people used to live in much worse conditions. Nowadays our life is much better in terms of its quality and in terms of life expectancy. With that statement may disagree various fundamental religious groups within Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the Judeo-Christian tradition time is linear - it has the beginning and it has the end. In those traditions people are awaiting for the Judgement Day, Armageddon, the end of human history and punishment all wicked and unbelievers. Then in the paradise (on earth or in heaven) there will be everlasting true peace and justice. According to such beliefs before will be 'better' first must be 'worse' because only if there will be miserably enough here the God Almighty will intervene at the end of times. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, referring to the Bible, believe that we live in the last days which are hard to bear, and soon God will bring the world to His divine order.

But the facts are that we live better and better. Take the account of the violence. In modern societies, death as result of violence affects only a small fraction of the population. We live longer, many diseases have been eliminated, and hygiene and living conditions have been improved. Old nightmares of humanity decimating population of the medieval Europe - famine and plague - have been eliminated in modern societies. Tourism and leisure have been invented. And I would say we just have started - our modern civilization just has started some 200-300 years ago with the industrial revolution.

The picture is different for preindustrial societies. According to some researches endemic tribal warfare and vendetta causes from 15% to 60% mortality in primitive populations still existing in places where time has stopped - e.g. Yanomami Indians of the Amazon jungle. In the Bible there are descriptions of unbelievable violence and cruel warfare. There were no human rights. Life was short, difficult and far more brutal.

If we take into account the history of mankind up to contemporary times we can notice without doubt the quality of our modern life is far better than reality everyday life of our ancestors.

See what says Steven Pinker about the myth of violence: VIDEO

© copyrights MG