Human Limitations

At our June 4^th meeting we continued to delve into the human condition and the fallible ways we manage our societies. One speaker presented positive anecdotes about government response and helpfulness. Without disputing the phenomena, others questioned the underlying motives and thought that little more than lip service is given to all but the most powerful. Like us, public officials just follow human nature.

But the flaw is not simply that we're human. It's that humans are animals and as such have a limited capacity for the acquisition and processing of information. And our attention focuses narrowly on our immediate needs. The world may have become too complex and our personal lives too busy for us to give much thought to the bigger picture.

As they are boons to information dispersal, we considered television and the internet and their amazing effect on our culture. Notable exceptions aside, they usually overload us with a blur of images and crude content aimed squarely at people's carnal frivolities and desires… so we're told.

And useful information that does get in is filtered through perception and prejudices designed to serve biological needs. We discussed how facial symmetry and other cues mold our perceptions of others and alter the interactions to come. One lamented the tendency of inattentive voters to focus on candidates and single issues, prioritizing "personality over policy". Given the mortal limitations of the electorate, it's no wonder our system falls short of the ideal.

Our group looked at the Peter Principle, the idea that individuals are promoted up to a position in which they are incompetent. Can much the same be said of governments and societies? By inertia or design, dominant institutions become removed from the everyday, and their leadership, insulated and weak, undermines those who would threaten the status quo. Rome, the Chinese monarchy and the United States of late were given as examples of greatness and decline.

So is this the fate of nations? Are all peoples destined to repeat the history that seems to be their nature to create? If not, what force can alter that history? Toward the end of our discussion, the word "religion" was uttered....

Spirituality seems like a primal need for our kind. And it has certainly shaped civilization. But is it being radicalized today? Politicized? Should church and state be allowed to marry? Can the world's philosophies ever find common ground? Join us June 18^th, 3 PM at the City Café as we consider faith, salvation or damnation.