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   In fifty years will people  be building mega-mansions or will they seek community in co-housing units like those in Holland and other Scandinavian countries?

Relational Worldview

Political and social mores over the past years appear to be spinning humankind toward chaos. Drugs, terrorism, low wage jobs, pollution and a growing homeless population give newscasters much to talk about. Recently, however, I’ve noticed that younger generations are slowly changing the paradigm. They live in a connected world and view the planet more holistically than people did when I was young. I find their ideas exciting and hopeful.

Social worker, Terry Cross, writes of two predominant world views, linear and relational. European and American cultures are rooted in the linear model based on the idea that cause comes before effect. To solve a problem linearly you identify it, treat it and observe the result. Linear reasoning moves from: A causes B causes C causes D and so on. This approach favors capitalism with its goal to make money for the individual and increase GDP for the country.

The United States is imbedded in this way of thinking. It rewards personal achievement based on hard work and predestination. The founders, influenced by John Calvin’s preaching, turned his religious thoughts into a justification for excessive wealth. Calvin was a theologian, not an economist, and his sermons were more humanistic than generally acknowledged. Unfortunately, beliefs in predestination led to many to accept the notion that those with capital are marked favorably by God. Communities of haves and have nots became tolerated as a just part of American society. Today, the “have nots” are growing at a faster rate than ever before, weighting the scale with poverty, discord and ignorance. The linear way of thinking is not working to solve the world’s problems.

 A relational model differs in that it is based on harmony. It views life as a continuous balancing act between interrelated influences that include the collective thinking of the culture. Its goal is to meet the needs of the community, not just the individual. The relational model seeks balance between four elements, context (culture, community), mind (cognitive and emotional processes), body (genetic, gender, condition, health), and spirit (learned teachings, metaphysical and innate, both negative and positive). Cross gives an example of how the model helps individuals.

“Death is an example of an event that threatens harmony. When we lose a loved one, we feel grief emotionally; physically, we may cry, lose our appetite, or not sleep well. However, spiritually, we have a learned positive response, a ritual, called a funeral. Usually, such events are community events, so the context is changed. We bring in relatives, friends and supporters. In that context, we intellectualize about the dead person. We may recall and tell stories about him or her. We may intellectualize about death or be reminded of our cultural view of that experience. Physically, we touch others, get hugs and handshakes; we eat, and we shed tears. 

“These experiences are interdependent and play off one another in multi-relational interactions that, if successful, allow us to resolve the grief by maintaining the balance. If we cannot, then, in a Western sense, we are said to have unresolved grief or, in some tribal cultures, to have a ghost sickness or to be bothered by a spirit. Different world views often use different conceptual language to describe the same phenomenon.”  A person can only move on if he or she returns to a state harmony. 

Relational thinking is gaining traction as a tool for solving larger societal problems.  For example, environmental issues through a relational lens looks at competing interests with the goal of bringing them into harmony.  It would explore how to balance personal earnings with clean drinking water, rising global temperatures, the number of fish in the oceans, adequate food production on land, sources of energy for transportation, home and business use, clean air and a fair distribution of property.  Balance would include human beings and animals sharing the earth with survival depending on a symbiotic relationship. A relational view, has no place for a capitalism and colonialism that are designed to keep people in poverty.

Changing a system based primarily on the rights of the individual to embrace the collective rights of community is not easy. Yet, it is slowly happening. Despite the greedy people splashed over the news, I see signs of moving towards social and environmental harmony. Many people are trying to change the current paradigm, or at least bend rules to put our ecology in a state of balance. I hear angry talk of unbridled wealth and power and also listen to young thinkers working to restore equity.

 It takes a long time to change the way a culture thinks. Eventually, however, most do evolve. Look around and you will see that your community no longer resembles that of your childhood. Change continues. I have become increasingly aware of how younger generations are leading the way towards harmony. 

Do you have friends who tune into Marie Kondo’s program to de-clutter. She is influencing People worldwide to downsize and and stop purchasing items that are not highly valued.  Many Millennials live this way already preferring experiences over possessions. They spend their money traveling and participating in groups that share a common interest. Have you noticed how more people are leaving their cell phones tucked out of sight during meals. They are also changing their diet to embrace more organic and plant based foods. Young adults easily accept sexual, religious and racial differences. Schoolchildren lead marches for gun safety and a sustainable environment. Youth seeks a balanced way of living that will provide for them throughout their lives.

 I find the slow movement, a fascinating shift to promote a slower pace of life. One branch of the movement, “slow technology,” is according to technopedia “designed to curb some of the damaging effects of excessive technologies in human life, primarily through promoting slower or less extreme interactions with certain technologies. In general, the slow technology movement seeks to alter how humans interact with technologies including mobile devices, social media, email and other relatively recent innovations that tend to be highly addictive, or at least consume a lot of time.“

Younger generations are bringing about systemic changes that encourage face-to-face relationships and living lightly on the planet. It will be intriguing to see if Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram go the way of so many tech companies or if they will evolve to embrace a more harmonious footprint? Ten years ago who would have thought eBay’s traffic would decline? 

The slow movement says it’s time to get bored, for that brings about inventiveness. I’m not bored and probably not as inventive as I was when young, but I sure am having a blast watching thoughtful young adults conceive of ways to save the planet. 

References: 

Cross, T. ( 1997) Understanding the relational worldview in Indian families. Oregon State University. CROSS 

Feuerherd, P  (2017) John Calvin: The Religious Reformer Who Influenced Capitalism. Daily. retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/

Slow Technology Movement .Technopedia. retrieved from website  (2019) https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28641/slow-technology-movement 

SlowTech, retrieved from web site 2019 at http://slowtech.org/