January 24, 2025
Principle 1. The Principle of Adaptation. Fourth Week.
“To Go Against the Evolution of Things is to Go Against Oneself”
Last time: Is it dusk or dawn? The Game of Name It!
This time: The weight of the future, a link to a short film and the game of Explain It.
This Week:
Over the previous three weeks we focused on the general structure, and implications of the principle, we also investigated how this principle may have impacted our past as well as the present. This week we turn to considering how I might understand it in light of what hasn’t yet happened, to what I believe will happen in the future.
Almost everyone has anxieties about how their lives will play out in the coming weeks and months. What will happen with their job, or exams, or health, or relationships… Also, many of us find the wider environmental, social and political future looks very bleak.
And of course, in the end… well there’s the end. How will I position myself (adapt myself) in front of things if they continue in the way I believe they are inevitably heading?
What are the problems, pressures, challenges, or difficulties that I think I will have to face? How might this principle apply? How will I adapt to them? What light does it shed on these circumstances? How might it change things?
Explain It.
The rules for week’s game are simple, and summed up in the name of the game, Explain It.
In this game we need to engage another player (or players). If I can manage to talk to someone that’s great but if I can’t, whether because of my personal circumstance, shyness, etc. I can write down my thoughts in a brief email — whether I send it or not is another matter. The point is to put my thoughts, and intuitions into a form that is suitable for sharing.
Of course, if I do find myself with no one whom I can either ask their opinion, or tell mine, I might well reflect on what that absence implies, and perhaps even take measures in enrich my social environment. There are of course many ways to do that, get together with some friends or family, volunteer for some activity, take up a sport, get to know your neighbours, and so on.
In this game our interest is on engaging and communicating. Convincing, preening, recruiting, etc. are outside of the goals of the game.
At our next meeting we can discuss our discoveries about, and our difficulties with this week’s reflections.
The weight of the future:
Looking to the past for explanations of the present seems to be a reasonable approach. It certainly is a common one; whether it is the therapist focusing on my childhood in order to help me find the roots of my current problems, or the astronomer explaining the shape of the universe around us as the consequence of the big bang. Nothing seems more natural than to understand our circumstances or ourselves from what has happened previously.
Silo however, gave priority to the future, pointing out that for humans at least, what we believe will happen shapes us as much, or even more than what has already occurred. Take a person with a difficult past who believes that tomorrow will be great, compare them with a person whose life has been wonderful but who believes tomorrow is a disaster waiting to happen. Consider all the changes that could occur in someone who believes they are about to lose their livelihood – how they suffer even though the event hasn’t occurred. Compare that to the situation of a person who believes that they are about to get a great, high-paying job. Obviously, their internal states are very different. In the second case their suffering recedes, their preoccupations vanish, they feel stronger and confident.
However, in both cases nothing has really happened, the only thing that has changed is an image of the future – a future that may turn out very differently than imagined. No doubt what has happened in the past influences the present situation – that’s widely understood but – in these examples, what is producing changes in the present is to be found in the future. It is something that has not happened, and in fact, may never happen.
Back to our principle:
Of course, you might already be familiar with these examples, and considerations. I hope that is nonetheless an encouragement to add your own. Some old examples can be enjoyable, or even valuable when revisited. I think the following video, which you may know, is one of those.
This week rather than share more ramblings and reflections I am including a video courtesy of Rafael Edwards (who also did the illustration included this week). I hope you enjoy it and find it as interesting as I did.
If you speak Spanish, you’ll find that the song that accompanies the silent drama supplies a narrative. I think that those who don’t speak Spanish will have no problem following the story. The opening title is simply this month’s principle in Spanish.
https://youtu.be/O3Bl3FOySzY?list=UUQ0q_lNxhNVZN-Z7S6XWNwg
Coming Up:
Next week we will use that fifth meeting of the month as an opportunity to reflect on how things are going for us.
Remember:
The point isn’t to conform to some external code or set of rules (even if I call these principles of valid action). Rather, our focus is on the register that is produced in me when I act. Am I moved towards greater unity, or toward contradiction? Has my action left me feeling more in agreement with myself, or more conflicted, more at war with myself?
Worth Repeating:
What suggestions would I give to someone interested in applying this principle to their future situations?
Want More:
Join us at our weekly meeting. Every Wednesday at 6:30 PM ET.
Ask me for a Zoom link or find it on our Facebook Page (Community of Silo’s Message Toronto Annex)
Note:
Thanks, once again to Rafael Edwards for his illustrations and this week’s video.
These notes have been posted on Facebook and sent to our email list. You will also find them along with other comments, and reflections on my website: dzuckerbrot.com
