Incomprehensible Complexity; The Problem of Modern Problems

Please note that I use some unique, experimental grammar in my writing. As such, I've made a little reference guide to help you out!

| - Unities; used to indicate interconnected, multi-layered concepts.
|| - Reflections; used to indicate related but distinct concepts.

Incomprehensible Complexity; The Problem of Modern Problems

We are living through a time of great geopolitical, economic change. The old agreements, assumptions, and relationships that underpin the international systems that underpin our everyday lives are shifting in ways that are difficult to comprehend, let alone understand. People are more anxious about the future that they've been in decades - for themselves, for their children, and for their children's children.

Yet when we go looking for answers, we are assailed on all sides by con-men, grifters, opportunists selling us appealing solutions, but these solutions aren't actually solutions. More often than not these are simplified explanations, disinformation, delusion, and snake oil - easy, magical solutions for all of life's woes.

When we cannot even conceptualize the globalized systems that our problems exist within, how do we even know what our problems are? How do we solve problems that we cannot even comprehend?

There is a fundamental truth about all of the mess of interconnected bureaucratic, political, legal, economic systems that our modern societies are founded upon. All of these systems are made by & for, Humans - homo-sapiens.

In order understand how human nature influences the complex, interconnected systems of politics, trade, and economics that are the foundations upon which our societies are built, we must understand the foundations upon which we - homo-sapiens - are built.

Therefore, understanding the fundamentals of how we - homo-sapiens - function on a neurological | psychological level is crucial for understanding how we - homo-sapiens - operate on personal, social, and societal levels.

I'm going to spare you the length, technical info-dump on Human neuro-psychology (for now). Instead, to illustrate my point, let me go on a few brief tangents.

Human Reality; Violence

All forms of weaponry are evolutions on the concept of throwing rocks at each other.

One of the inevitable facts of the Human reality is that we are primed for Violence. It is baked into us at a fundamental level; in our psychological architecture | our neurology.

Even if you do not consider yourself a violent person - by nature or by disposition - you must acknowledge the simple, basic, fundamental truth: that we are Human, and Humans - homo-sapiens, the greatest of the great apes, the all time heavyweight intellectual champion of the Homo genus - are really good at employing Violence as a problem-solving tool. That is a fact. It is also a fact that people do not like to acknowledge, because it makes us uncomfortable.

We - homo-sapiens - like to think that we're better than our base nature, that we have somehow surpassed it, and yet Violence was - and to a degree still is - part of our personal & social lives. The fact that we are capable of inflicting Violence on ourselves and on our environment is something that most people understand intuitively on some level, and it informs the ways that we engage with one another.

Because of this, we also intuitively understand the potential fallout of Violence on a human scale; retaliation, anger, resentment, hatred, and a myriad of social consequences. It is this intuitive understanding of personal consequence informs our judgements, which in turn influences our behaviour.

Human Reality; Consequences

Actions have consequences. This is simple lesson, yet one that we - homo-sapiens - never seem to learn.

Another fact about Human reality is that we - homo-sapiens - are bad at considering the consequences of actions if they do not immediately affect us. I don't think this is a radical assertion to make. If we don't face immediate or straightforwards consequences for our actions, then we have no incentive not to engage in those actions.

You aren't going to get punched in the face for making inflammatory comments under a Facebook post.

Consequently, if we - homo-sapiens - are disconnected from the immediate consequences of employing Violence as a tool to get what we want, we are more likely to employ Violence, since there is no immediate, personal, Human incentive not to use Violence.

Consider the wars of the modern age: Iran. Ukraine. Sudan. Israel. Venezuela.

All of these conflicts have had wide-ranging political & economic consequences that impact people far beyond the frontlines. Supply chain disruptions leads to shortages of critical resources like energy, fuel, fertilizer, even food and water. People are killed & injured, and even more are displaced from their homes, placing massive burdens on their neighbouring countries to care for these refugees.

Have the instigators of these conflicts faced the consequences for causing so much death & devastation? No. They are insulated from the immediate, violent, consequences of their actions.

Yet there are still consequences to these conflicts, ones that have rippled across the globe, a societal tsunamis tearing through the systems of trade, economics, and politics that our modern societies are built on; Consequences that affect the everyday lives of people like you & me.

Our Human reality is so interconnected, so interwoven on a scale never-before seen at any other point in human history, and because this system is so complex, so interlinked, the consequences of employing Violence resonate far, far beyond the battlefield.

Human Reality; Disconnection

If the potential consequences of employing Violence in the modern age are so significant, why does conflict still occur?

I'd argue answer is that in the post-WWII, post-truth information age that we live in - an age of deeply interconnected global politics, commerce, and economics - we ironically are more disconnected than ever before.

The nuances of our politics, our economics, our environment, our social relationships, and even our own sense of physical existence within the world have become so complex, so abstracted from the machinations of our day-to-day lives that we cannot perceive the Shape of our shared Human reality, nor the potential consequences of disrupting it.

The internet has become a tool of disinformation, division, and misdirection rather than truth, knowledge, and enlightenment. Politics has become a sport, a Colosseum for clashing ideologies to fight to the death rather than working to improve the lives of the governed. International trade is becoming a weapon of coercion rather than cooperation, and nobody seems to agree on a definitive answer for what we - homo-sapiens - should so about it.

The Big Problem of Modern Human Reality; Incomprehensible Complexity

So, what? Is that it? Are we doomed to extinction because we - homo-sapiens - cannot comprehend the complexity of the world we have built for ourselves?

I say no, but in order to explain myself, we need to have a better understanding about ourselves first.

We - homo-sapiens - aren't wired to intuitively comprehend the consequences of our actions & behaviours within a global systemic context, simply because the consequences of actions within this global systemic context aren't clear & immediate. Consequences that resolve on societal scales & generational timelines are too abstract for the Human mind to intuitively comprehend.

Consequently, the scale of Violence we - homo-sapiens - are capable of committing in the modern age is literally incomprehensible, because we - homo-sapiens - are not naturally inclined to conceptualize abstract future consequences of our actions within the global geo-political-economic system.

The root cause of this dilemma, of the incomprehensibility of consequences at scale, is a dual one:

• We lack a common understanding of how Human - homo-sapiens - nature operates on a biological | neurological | psychological level, and how this informs our patterns of behaviours on societal scales.
• We lack a common, conceptual of understanding of how Humans - homo-sapiens - Shape | are Shaped by the geo-political-economic systems that form the foundation of our modern society.

Put another way, Humans aren't naturally inclined to interrogate how we think or act on a personal scale, let alone a societal one, and we don't intuitively comprehend the scope of vast, abstract, interconnected systems.

This dual non-understanding allows for the emergence of disruptive leaders to assume influential roles in governments, corporations, and international institutions, people who do not understand or do not care about the damage that they do to the system or to others. Historically, the emergence of such leaders has lead societies to catastrophe over and over again, because when people cannot comprehend the potential consequences of their actions on a societal level - or simply don't care about the consequences for society - it inevitably leads to cascading consequences that resonate far beyond the normal realm of normative Human considerations; our immediate thoughts, emotions, impulses, desires, and needs - both physical & psychological.

History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.

The reason we - homo sapiens - broadly lack this comprehensive understanding of the consequences of Human actions within the incredibly complex geo-social-economic systemic structure is because it's really, really, really difficult for us to conceptualize intuitively. And let's be real, most of us - homo sapiens - ain't got time to understand this crap. Most of us are just trying to get by. We live in our everyday Human realities; confronting the challenges presented by our immediate environment, both physical & social.

People live in their own little bubbles. This isn't good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral. It simply is, and we must acknowledge it as such.

Likewise, trying to provide a conceptual framework for people to generally understand the vast, interconnected complexity of the modern Human reality is really, really, really difficult. Everything is interconnected with everything else that it becomes nigh-on impossible to disentangle & simplify individual issues enough for people to comprehend them without losing the very framework of interconnection that underpins the whole tangled mess of problems to begin with.

Trust me, I work for the government.

Not everyone who works in government administration is a lazy PoS. Some of us want this bullshit to work better than it does, but fixing | improving institutional systems requires an unintuitive broad, abstract perspective to even begin to conceptualize the nature of the problem itself, because it's a Human societal problem - incredibly complex, utterly stupid, and somehow it still works. Mostly.

The Solution?

How does one comprehend the incomprehensible?
How does one conceive the inconceivable?
How can one understand the complexities of the Human reality in which we exist?

The answer to this problem is a Human one. You | We are capable of learning how to understand both how our own psyche operates, and how complex, interconnected systems operate. Before we can solve the problem, we need to have a shared understanding of what the problem even is. We need to view the problem through a different lens | approach it from a new direction.

I won't say I have all the answers, but I know that we need to change the way we view the problem.

If I want someone to understand a complex problem like the potential consequences of violence in a globalized geo-political-economic system, I can't just start ranting about the interdependent intersections of psychology, climate, economics, governance, culture, and philosophy and expect people to magically comprehend what I'm am trying to convey. That's not how people - homo-sapiens - absorb information.

Instead, I've gotta break it down and explain these incredibly complex concepts using analogies within a compelling, entertaining narrative - keeping the audience engaged in such a way that I can show them what I understand; Give people a new lens, perspective, paradigm to view the problem through; To understand the nature of the world and the problems that we - homo-sapiens - face, we must first understand how we Humans conceptualize what the world even is. Only through building a basic, common perception of Human reality can we confront the problems of the modern age in a cooperative, constructive manner.

This is one of many reasons why creativity and narrative and storytelling is so vitally important, because stories are the most effective method we - homo-sapiens - have to teach us about ourselves, the world around us, the connections that bind us together, and the divisions that seek to tear us apart.

Through stories, we comprehend the incomprehensible, conceive the inconceivable, reframe the problems we face within the globalized, interconnected context of modern Human reality, to build a foundation upon which we - homo-sapiens can work together; finding Human solutions to Human problems.

Through stories we learn to empathize with one another, understand the world we share, and find common ground that we can all stand upon rather than allowing ourselves to be swindled by snake oil salesmen, political pundits, or ideological extremists.

Post-Script

For as much as you | we hate governments and big corporations for their inefficiencies, greed, and ineptitude, they're still the ones trying to hold some semblance of order & stability together.

Understanding how institutions function is vital if we wish to improve the systems that govern us, which I believe is a better option that total system collapse or revolution - provided we come to a common understanding how how institutions work, which are in turn created, operated, and sustained by Humans - homo-sapiens.

If you wanna read more about stuff like this, go check out my blog. I need to start posting more frequently, and know there's an audience for my words really helps with my motivation!