The way we frame events greatly influences how we experience them. In turn, the way we think of our lives greatly determines the relationships we have with ourselves and the world. Futurist Sohail Inayatullah points out that distancing is one of the prime tools of Critical Futures Studies. When we are too close to a problem, too close to the present, it is hard to see it as the unique little moment in history that it really is. French postcritical philosopher Michel Foucault was fond of pointing out that the present is just one of many possible "presents" that might have eventuated from the long run of history. He said that every dominant society depicted itself as the ultimate culmination of ineluctable historical forces - with itself as the ultimate expression of that historical process (I do have some differences of opinion with Foucault, but I won't go into them here).
In the spirit of these thoughts, here's a wonderful little video which just might help you gain a different perspective on your life.
Go lightly,
Marcus
I loved this little video, Marcus. May I borrow it for a post?
ReplyDeleteOf course, Nancy! It's not my video after all! Glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteThe key message is at the end - "Appreciate what you have, and work for a better world." The two go together.
ReplyDeletePowerful video. It really DOES put everything into perspective. Thank you for the comment you made about free will versus predestination. We're going to put it up as separate post. It's terrific!
ReplyDeleteNancy - I was about to ask him the same thing!
ReplyDeleteFeeel free to use anything here you want, Trish and Rob. I note there's an awful lot of typos in that post of mine on your blog. Perhaps you can just run it through the spell checker if you are going to re-post it. I should have done that myself, but was a little short of time, and I didn't plan to actually write a long post - it just turned out that way! Marcus
ReplyDeleteThanks Marcus, really enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete