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If you employ the paradigm of physics, most people think in
Newtonian terms when relativity and quantum mechanics might provide better
explanations or solutions to their problems. This is certainly apparent when we
look at the current populist revolution, which has resulted in the election of
Donald Trump, Brexit in England, and the rise of right wing politicos in both
Italy and Germany. Exasperated voters point to terrorism, lost jobs and unfavorable balances of trade and then
devise a strategy that’s right back there with Newton’s apple. There’s some
truth to it, but it doesn’t address more profound issues and problems. You don't treat an infection by simply attending to symptoms. Otherwise it will simply come back. That's why antibiotics were devised. Yes,
jobs might be lost to foreign workers who accept lower wages, but technological innovation has
been equally responsible for rising unemployment in certain sectors of the
economy. When you look at human psychology a similar attraction to surface
cause and effect still seems to prevail. The emphasis on behavior and
cognition is not mistaken. It’s just that it doesn’t tell the whole story,
which ultimately relates to motivations that fall outside the province of
reason. Why do some people make the same mistake time after time when they know
better? The answer is that something else is driving them—perhaps the need to
fail. Relativity and quanta are hard to understand, particularly because it’s practically impossible to see them in action. The same is true of the notion of the unconscious,
originally proposed by Freud. However, when simple explanations and solutions
to complex phenomena start to fail, the uncomfortable, unwieldy world of complex
thinking, with its disturbingly un-salt-of-the-earth type analyses will likely provide the
only direction in which to turn.
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