From: Oldehippie1947@aol.com
Date: Thu Oct 03 2002 - 22:32:06 BST
Wim
I think you hit the nail on the head. Social change is certainly impacted by
the individual but social change occurs in the collective consciousness.
Advertisers understand this principle to a T. For change to occur, (sell
their product), you go after the market a stage at a time. There are the
innovators that start the process. This is a rather small segment. Then they
use tactics designed to hit each specific segment until they gradually have
created change. Their product becomes popular. There are more dynamic changes
occurring at a very slow pace, I call this the evolution of the mind, which
is as much a part of scientific evolution as when an entity slithered onto
land for the first time. This goes back to Pirsig's analogy of the horns on a
bull's head that represent scientific thinking on the one horn and romantic
thinking on the other horn with the answer to quality must lie somewhere
between the horns. He is talking here about an evolutionary change in the
process of thinking in the human species. I have suggested a name for this
process, "empathic rationality." It is the addition of empathy, (which is a
fairly recent addition to our thinking.) Oh, sure, you can find instances of
empathy throughout history it is because these people where the innovators in
this process of change. The concept of empathy wasn't even a part of the
English language until 1902 according to all resources. And I once again
suggest that the full process of empathic thinking is little understood. It
is still evolving. To better understand empathy is to possess it. That is why
it is such an illusive concept. To understand it is to possess and use it.
The good news is that it can be taught and learned. I maintain that the
single greatest practice mankind would benefit from is empathy training and
research.
Darrell
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