Category Archives: Models

Examples we can productively study

Digital Doping

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Our minds have important things to tell us. But they need time alone with the person they are attached to.

Try a simple exercise for a few days. Make a point of noticing what others are doing when they have some moments alone.  Perhaps a person is waiting for an elevator, standing on a street corner looking for their ride, sitting in a classroom waiting for a session to begin, or standing on a magnificent beach at the “golden hour” just before sunset.  The question can always be the same:  are these folks in a temporary lull looking for a way out of the moment?  Do they need the distraction of a digital fix?

The answer is often yes. We exist to be busy, or at least to do something that passes for it. Showing that we have something to do seems to validate our sense of importance.  But there is truth in the idea that we would be better off if we were doing less and thinking more.

We almost always seek an exit from any opportunity to be in our own heads.

There may be a little bit of confirmation bias working here, but I’m struck with how even a moment of solitude needs to be broken by attention to unknown and usually unimportant messages on a phone. The sunset and our own internal thoughts will have to wait.  We usually seek any exit from any opportunity to be in our own heads. We’d rather be “checking:” the label now attached to a state of near constant digital distraction.

That’s unfortunate, because our inner selves probably have some useful things to tell us.  The linear thinking that makes creativity possible requires sustained attention. The ordering of pressing priorities needs concerted mental effort. Seemingly “doing nothing” as we gaze into the distance without the sedative of digital doping can actually be productive.  We certainly understand this with regard to children.  Being on a task for a long period is not what they need.  In fact, like the rest of us, they must have generous amounts of time to be in the moment: time to daydream and, as they grow up, time to make decisions about what matters and what comes next. These are the rudiments of consciousness.  And because much of our interior thinking is language based, it takes time to “listen” to ideas and emerging formulations that we should want to know better.

In addition, there is always an outside world worth a closer look.  A typical moment may not quite live up to a sunset over the ocean.  More prosaically, it may be the wind making tall trees dance, the beauty of a sudden stillness, or it may be the sight of a child utterly alive in a moment of play.

Face it: most of us are stuck with the same unproductive behavior repeated with a frequency that would make an obsessive blush. Phone checking is now a recognized addictive behavior.  Some folks can’t go more than a few minutes before checking it for messages. Some sleep with their devices.  Most use phones as alternate sources of stimulation in meetings and classes, and even during meals with friends and family.  It’s become a kind of faux-consciousness that is, frankly, intellectually impoverished.  We use our devices to avoid listening to what can be useful chatter from inside. The only ways some of us get back in touch with ourselves is sometimes to make a show of it, such as sitting on a yoga mat where studio rules require that digital devices stay outside.

You might be surprised at the novel and productive ideas your inner self is ready to share.

Socrates gave us the overused by valuable reminder that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”  He meant something quite cosmic by it.  But we can scale it down to be a simple prescription for the few precious minutes we can capture here and there to maintain a sense of centeredness. We might be surprised at the ideas our inner selves are ready to share.

The First Amendment

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                                                                    commons wikimedia

The idea of a “bulwark against tyranny” is probably an overused phrase.  But it applies perfectly to the First Amendment, the core American canon that may be our best export.  

These are days Americans are scrambling to remember the school civics lesson that explained rights of advocacy guaranteed by the Constitution.  In those classes long ago the Amendment probably registered as just another academic exercise. But the present instability of the Presidency requires that we be awake and pay heed to its words.  As students we were assured that The Amendment ratified in 1791 was our birthright.  We may need to test that promise.

The wording is brief but empowering.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Even as non-experts we can still understand the broad outlines of the Amendment’s five overlapping guarantees:

  • We have the right to be practice a religious tradition or not.  With few exceptions pertaining to a church’s tax status, the “Establishment Clause” and its related “Free exercise” clause means there can be no imposition of state or federal laws that would require or limit religious practice.  Action by the President to circumscribe the rights of Muslim residents or visitors thus offends one of  the most honored principles in the American project.
  • We have the right to say and print what we wish, though where we exercise these rights can be altered by public safety concerns and limits on trespassing.  Most protests in cities and towns, for example, require notification of the police and permitting. In the workplace expressing political attitudes at work breaks no laws.  But those views can still get you fired.
  •  Freedom of association and a assembly is a basic right. And though an elected official retains the power to determine how and when, we have the right of “petition:” to meet with elected officials or their representatives. Town hall meetings or visits to the office of a member of Congress are not gifts from the member, but a constituent’s right.
  • In light of the President’s reprehensible description of the media as the “enemy of the people,” the guarantee of a free  press has added importance.  The press is the only form of business given constitutional protections, and the license from the Amendment is broad.  Media outlets are given leeway to “publish”  not just accurate information, but misinformation and hostile judgments of others. As it should be–and unlike the United Kingdom–libel is difficult to prove in American courts.  In practice, the greatest protections of speaking and writing go to artists and journalists portraying the work of public figures.

We actually honor the First Amendment by tolerating speech and published material at the margins, including–in many cases–communications that on other grounds are repellant and uninformed.  There is irony that our most cherished national value is frequently paired with words and actions most of us could not endorse.  But it’s enough to tolerate the authors of sometimes ill-considered ideas.   Protecting them protects us all.

The idea of a “bulwark against tyranny” is probably an overused phrase.  But it applies perfectly to the First Amendment, the core American canon that may be our best export.