updated 12h ago
The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
We have achieved mastery of the linear domain, and attempted to expand that domain to cover the universe. Most real-world systems, however, including living organisms, are hopelessly nonlinear. From this realization will arise a new approach to engineering and to problem-solving in general that does not start by breaking the problem into pieces. Ou
... See morefrom The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
All the causes of boredom are permutations of the interior wound of separation.
from The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
his book Elements of Refusal establishes that the Revolution must go much deeper than that,
from The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
There is no self except in relationship to the other. The economic man, the rational actor, the Cartesian “I am” is a delusion that cuts us off from most of what we are, leaving us lonely and small.
from The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
Boredom, that yearning for stimulation and distraction, for something to pass the time, is simply how we experience any pause in the program of control that seeks to deny pain.
from The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
Post-technology technology, if I may use such a phrase, will take as its model the cycles of nature and in particular, the “magical” practices of ancient people. It will seek attunement and not conquest, and it will be occupied not with control but with beauty. This mode of technology, which I will describe later in the book, will not be a separati
... See morefrom The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
Under the delusion of the discrete and separate self, we see our relationships as extrinsic to who we are on the deepest level; we see relationships as associations of discrete individuals. But in fact, our relationships—with other people and all life—define who we are, and by impoverishing these relationships we diminish ourselves. We are our rela
... See morefrom The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
This, in a nutshell, is the ascent of humanity that Jacob Bronowski was referring to in his classic The Ascent of Man, after which the present volume is ironically named.
from The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago
When we knew every face intimately, there was no need to generalize into “people.” Our ancestors experienced a richness of intimacy that we can hardly imagine today, living as we do among strangers. It is not only social richness that is muffled underneath our words, it is the entirety of sensual experience. Margaret Mead once observed, “For those
... See morefrom The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
Philip Powis added 1mo ago