But lately, I've connected with a lot of wonderful people, around real philosophical topics: hopes, challenges, fear of regrets, aspirations, and dreams...
It's good to be vulnerable together.
It makes us stronger.
I meet people who have dreams in their heart, goals on the line, pasts to come to terms with. As I stand at the crossroad, as one without a job or a place to call home, I feel that I can offer a mirror for all kinds of transitory states. You are safe with me.
Interestingly enough...
There is a phrase I had never heard before, and which I heard twice in the span of one week: ''la gestion du changement'' (the management of change). It is apparently becoming an important professional field. I thought it sounded like a hubristic and absurd concept; How do you expect to manage change? How dare you suppose you could control the situation?
But then I realized that managing doesn't necessarily mean controlling. And I became curious...
Everything is constantly and perpetually changing, mutating, evolving. Life is synonym with Change.
It is my belief that many of the challenges humans come to face -individually and collectively - come from our inability to accept the facticity of Change. We deny, we delay, we resist, we argue, we collapse... We have a hard time accepting that things don't last forever. They die, and new ones emerge.
Of course, it's not easy to say goodbye to what we knew, to what we'd come to feel comfortable within, and to take a step toward the unknown. It's scary as hell, and it's certainly disorienting. It can feel quite disempowering.
So how do we say "yes'' to Change? How do we ''manage''? How do we adapt?
In the business world, it is said that the creation of efficient communication systems is one of the keys. I think it is fair to say that we could apply this rule to the sociological in general. The more information is available and up-to-date, the more people will be able to follow the course of what's going on. This alone makes us feel safer and more empowered. An efficient communication system should also allow for the exchange of information. The best example for all of this is certainly the advent of the internet and the essential role it has played in the globalization era.
I cannot help but wonder about the conundrum of ... let's call it ''verticality versus integrity''. To what extent must information be organized in order for it to be pertinent, clear and thus efficient? Should it be chosen, filtered, and distributed from the top down? Who gets to choose? Doesn't that sound scary to you? Doesn't it smell of authoritarianism?
Isn't that what democracy stems from? Isn't that why we've created ''open source'' systems?
Could the masses handle Change on their own? Do we have the capacity to discern the information that's relevant, and to mobilize on our own?
I think of Egypt, I think of the comfort that comes with centralization. I think of the challenges to decentralization... And I wonder...
And how does this all translate to the personal level? What does an ''efficient communication system'' mean, when we speak of an individual dealing with change. One can deny, postpone, or rebel against the reality of it, but Change is. Failure to acknowledge and say ''yes'' can only lead to more suffering.
So how to ''manage''? I don't have the answer, but I am tempted to draw parallels... macro to micro. What are the different ''departments'', (or ''centers'') at work in the organization of a human being? The body, the mind, the heart, the spirit... Different people will have different ideas on this subject..
(What's yours, dear reader?)
Can we create open information systems between those different ruling centers, so that each may communicates its needs, its fears, its desires, its wisdom?
I think we can. I think we need to talk about those things. I think we need to take the time.
Increasingly, a lot of changes are upsetting our planet, our so-called nations, our geopolitical structures... as well as our careers, our love-life, etc. How do we manage?
Change triggers emotions. It is fear which often lurks behind what we like to think of as rationality. This is what experts in ''change management'' are beginning to talk about, as they are touring all the big companies.
I wonder if they suggest the creation of forums where people can address their fears and emotions. I wonder if we can come to a point where we find safety and courage in the knowledge that we are all in this together.
We are all in this together.
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