Accelerating Change

The title of this blog is Cusp of Reality. Equally it might have been The Challenge of Vision.

This is a distressing time in that it seems events are moving faster and faster. We are talking about the PostCapitalism society and world conflicts are accelerating after a hopeful period.

Frustration With Research

When I decided upon psychology as my career I was intrigued by the human mind and what I ran into at once was the fact of needing to do research to foster development. Too often though the reality I found was that psychologists looked to an area of study and then would tweak the research to be able to publish a paper. it generally was not groundbreaking.

Sorry if my colleagues find that offensive but my personality type gets in my way all the time. I want to forge into possibilities. And that means taking risks and fostering speculation as a way to open new possibilities. 

The bottom line is that I find much of what is going on out there in this rapidly changing world is narrow-minded. The world is racing forward and, too often, it seems we are being left behind. Let me offer some examples.

The Depth and Meaning of the Women’s Movement

Maybe I’m not looking in the right places but I find the commentary about women too often stifling. There are some outstanding books written by women about the coming days of women. Yes, I said days of women. In this country we are seeing a marked change. I won’t even attempt to catalogue what is happening but the subjugation of women is not just being challenged, but it is clearly coming to an end—and the changes are worldwide. One indication is that we suddenly are seeing markedly smart, perceptive and capable women appearing as commentators on television. Can we have some broad based search of this movement? Why now? Where might it lead? And to my male colleagues—Will men please wake up! Especially older white men.

Jobs and the Future in a Rapidly Changing World

I realize the call for coal jobs to come back was a political ploy but in so many areas the expectation for the future is narrow. Artificial intelligence among other tech areas is racing forward and I hear next to nothing groundbreaking in terms of looking at how people need to be prepared. We need research first of all looking at what might be the jobs needed in the future and then we need to look at how people can be prepared. And there is something even more fundamental. We are seeing whole categories of our citizens who are dismissed as future hires because we have not looked at their abilities in an enlightened fashion. I know from my career and my evaluation of intelligence that there is unexpected potential. And when I bring it up, it is dismissed out of hand. A stunning lack of willingness to even attempt vision crucial for our future. Not to say these studies will be easy. No, they will be extraordinarily 

challenging and the time to begin is now.

Then There’s Transformation

Transformation is another one of my favorites. The situation we have now has great potential and that means we may be looking at transformation in the near future. Of course the other possibility may be devastation which strongly suggests we need to be paying attention and work hard in our own behalf to transform our future in a positive fashion. Currently our country is in the throes of a major political and ideological crisis. We can only hope that we will gain control of it and put ourselves on a more positive track. 

Responding to the World As It Is

We can’t afford to continue as we are now. We talk about a rapidly changing world but chatting about it is not a good way to approach the future. We need comprehensive and groundbreaking research. Often that is considered more than challenging but risky as well because the undertaking requires trying things which may not work. It would require constant revision and refinement. Yes, we have a choice. We can be passive or we can vigorously start challenging the meaning and possibilities of our future. There I go again. Always the initiative type personality.

What possibilities have you run across that requires research and exploration?

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

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