New Order in Society
Clearly the change in social orders is far-reaching; the social tensions associated with it have not yet been resolved.
On the one hand, science and technology have opened up immense new possibilities for a much better life for much of humanity than was ever possible before.
On the other, the rise of industry and the growth of technology have given rise to crises in politics, economics, ecology, and the conflicts between and within nations have brought us to the brink of destruction.
Indeed the ever-increasing torrent of change threatens to sweep humanity into a “black hole” singularity. What is inside that singularity is unknown.
Will it be increasing misery and ultimate extinction, or an unimaginably different and better way of life for all?
In the past, changes in the fundamental order of society have been followed by a period of violence and destruction. This stage of internal conflict and confusion arises when successive notions of order are believed to be incompatible or irrelevant to each other. But is it necessary for a change in order to occur in this way?
Is there an intermediate domain in which transition can occur without this associated confusion?
Is it possible for a range of different notions of order to be held in active suspension within “the mind of society”, so that a free dialogue is held between the old and the new orders?
In such a case it is is possible that an entirely new kind of movement could begin, in which the whole society would be in a constant state of creative transformation without disruption.
Unfortunately up to now, those who have called for major changes in society have given little importance to the question of creativity. Indeed history shows that there has been little conscious realization of what actually takes place during a major change, or where accumulated changes are leading.
In general, society changes when a mass of people simply react to particular problems and pressure which have been allowed to accumulate. Even when a few individuals have attempted to confront the issue of change in a creative way, they have been hampered by the various issues and problems.
People, for example, generally tend to be rigidly attached to the an implied infrastructure of their cultural milieu so that they resist all social change in a blind and often destructive way.
Others, however, are rigidly attached to the call for revolutionary change and pursue their ends in a similarly blind fashion.
Clearly what is called for is a kind of free play within the individual and society so that the mind does not become rigidly committed to a limited set of assumptions, or caught up in confusion and false play. Out of this free play could emerge the true creative potential of a society.
New Order in Society by D. & D. (1987) in collaboration with 1BIT© (2020), edited & reintroduced 04.2020 © M. Production
Triple-A Society