Unfolding Dialogues to Explore Constructionist Practices that Address the Pressing Global Issues of our Times
Are Relational Practices, Dialogue, and Collaboration Enough?
Read the Brief Encounter here. Then, as part of our Brief Encounter article this month, we invite you to join in an online conversation.
Please join us in imagining how constructionist ideas and practices can contribute to a transformation of some of the globe’s more pressing issues: climate change, autocracy, racism, ethnocentrism, food insecurity, etc. Share details of people, groups, or organizations that are making a difference by reconstructing cultural institutions and practices. Share your thoughts and concerns about the very challenging issues we face globally. Sheila McNamee will read and respond to your comments and integrate into next month’s Brief Encounter. Let’s be in dialogue!
3 Comments
Sheila
As I read through Sheila’s very important questions and concerns about the limits and potentials of our constructionist ideas in the face of global challenges, my whole body is filled with unease. I feel stuck.
I am a 33 year-old clinical psychologist, but this feeling is not new to me. It takes me back to my youth, when I was struck by a John Mayer song, where he goes: “me and all my friends, we’re all misunderstood; they say we stand for nothing and there’s no way we ever could; now we see everything that’s going wrong with the world and those who lead it; we just feel like we don’t have the means to rise above and beat ‘em; so we keep waiting (waiting!) waiting on the world to change.”
Sheila’s provocative questions make me ask: are we, as a social constructionist community, waiting on the world to change?
Of course I do not think we are. Over the last several decades, we have witnessed the blossoming of many different practices which are directed to changing social relations at different levels. From the relationships that inhabit a single individual (i.e., different practices of therapy as social construction) to those relationships where individuals inhabit (i.e., families, local communities, and even governments), our efforts are multiple and widely diverse. I see this variety as our biggest resource, and reason for commend.
When it comes to global issues, however, there is probably still a long way to go. I do not think we should see this as the way, but an invitation to finding ways.
Personally, I usually like to look at my surroundings and ask myself: who can I connect with to make my professional efforts more impactful? Can I take these ideas to someone who had the means to broaden and strengthen them? I am thinking here about a big range of social actors, such as politicians, business people, news staff, digital influencers, etc., who might be impactful in ways that my single actions are very often not.
I am also trying to be aware of how I can use my own privileges in the way of amplifying these connections and making them worth the while of others.
And, while I am always inevitably left with a feeling of “this is not enough,” I try to take comfort in the fact that this is probably something anyone with a consciousness (including those who are working at a global level, say, at the UN, for instance) also feels at times…
Pedro, thanks for your thoughtful comments. My hope is/was not to infuse us all with discomfort (of the “there’s nothing I can do” sort)! Perhaps I’m looking more for a discomfort that calls us all to ask what more can we do. And, you have so nicely responded to that call. If we each just take one small step beyond our comfort zone — like reaching out to politicians, digital influencers, journalists, etc. — we might initiate a ripple of broader social transformation! Thanks for joining the conversation!
Hello Sheila, In your rich tapestry you ask “is it possible to refrain from judgement of one who believes the color of one’s skin is surely linked to the degree of one’s humanity?” A few years ago I wrote a poem (below) titled “Non-judgement day: a proposal”. It sprang from these thoughts: practitioners in our fields have a committed regard for non-judgemental posture in our practice taking us on a road paved with opportunity and hazard. And secondly, perhaps with a bit of British irony, we need a secular version of Judgement Day (no disrespect towards its sacred context).
As you imply we are depressingly at the mercy of people, forces and movements for whom ‘non-judgemental’ is an alien concept. Dictators, bullies and racists favour the rhetoric of belittlement and as in Ukraine, violation through violence. We are faced even in the UK, supposedly the mother of parliamentary democracy, with erosion of democratic principles and conventions even as our politicians rightly condemn Putin’s assault on freedom. I must admit to feeling a bit like a ranting teenager, freighted with dangereous thoughts paralysing action. I lack an impactful platform while watching many so-called leaders abuse theirs in a self-serving manner. But yes, as you suggest and Pedro endorses, there are many things we can do if we take power individually and collectively, designing practical initiatives as we go and constantly pushing beyond our expectations even amid disappointments.
So the specific suggestion I propose, somewhat presumptuously, is that the Taos Institute might be the perfect forum to establish ‘Non-judgement day’. What does ‘non-judgemental’ mean for ourselves and our clients? How does it play out in practice? How do we reconcile this core value with our own opinions and indeed our judgements? The attached poem starts off with some warm and cuddly possibilities but culminates in a darker challenge: we have to find ways of engaging in dialogue with our adversaries. I wonder if there is any appetite to establish ‘Non-judgement day’ as a forum in which we could explore and roll out its possibiities?
NON-JUDGEMENT DAY: A PROPOSAL
on this day we will swim
in a sea of listening
on this day we will celebrate
description and dialogue
on this day we will be charmed by
diversity’s palate of minds and colours
on this day we will roam in a place of difference
and wonder at its power
on this day we will make light
of our biases and prejudices
on this day we will be happy
for those we thought we didn’t like
and cherish those we love
on this day we will savour our mistakes
and learn from them
on this day we will refrain from belittling cliche,
and comparison
on this day we will not slur or defame
not betray or inflame
on this day we will open ourselves up
to intimate and universal empathy
on this day we will talk with someone who will
simply understand and we will simply be
on this day we will choose
not opinion but not knowing
on this day we will break bread
with those who would kill us
and even those we would kill
on this day we will forgive others and
forgive ourselves
©copyright Greg Spiro London May 2018
all rights reserved gregm31@me.com