Don Thompson here.
I'm doing this podcast as sort of a random exercise, as I tend to do once in a while. I haven't been podcasting regularly for a few months now, and every so often I'll pop in with a podcast. I thought it seemed like an opportune time to do that, so I'm going to step through some thoughts that I have. I'm calling this podcast Notes from the Field.
Just to give some context, I'm basically in break mode—summer break, you might say—from teaching. Diana and I just got back from a trip to Hawaii, which was really great in many ways and very eye-opening in many ways. It was, in a lot of respects, a retreat, meaning that you go on such an adventure to contemplate, to recapitulate, to go over things in your mind, and to assess where you're at. So part of the trip was about that. Part of the trip was also about having fun, enjoying ourselves, and so on. I'll talk a little bit about both aspects of the trip.
One thing that I noticed on this particular journey was when we visited a few resorts. We'd stop in, have lunch, and check things out. There was a lot of activity happening with families, so I had a chance to observe what that was like for them.
Diana and I don't have any children. We have nieces, nephews, and family, of course, but we don't have children ourselves, so we don't really have that particular perspective of what it's like raising kids. While sitting by the pool, having lunch, sipping a smoothie, and observing people, you notice that children are very active in the pool area while their moms and dads are watching, hopefully making sure they don't get into any trouble.
Kids are pretty much innocent. That's basically what I noticed. They're innocent. They don't really take into consideration anything but the present moment—what's in front of them. In a way, they're naturally, organically mindful. They're simply observing what's happening in front of them without much consideration for the past or the future. They're just trying to have a good time.
That's a good thing. There's an innocence about it. Obviously, as we get older and become responsible adults, we move away from that sense of innocence into a greater sense of responsibility.
Now, some might say I'm over-idealizing children. They can be pretty nasty little things too and can wreak a lot of havoc. I don't pretend to be Pollyannaish about it. I understand that kids can have attitudes and create problems. But for the most part, what I observed was laughing, splashing, having a good time, and displaying an innocence that I thought was rather refreshing.
But I also thought about the cost of this particular reality—the reality of the resort. The resort is, in a sense, an imposition on nature. We have these buildings, pools, activities, and various things people can do to have a good time while at the resort, ostensibly in nature. Nature is the context through which these things occur.
You have a vast ocean in front of you, typically at a resort, so you can observe it, look out into it, and admire its immense scale. Oftentimes during this trip, I would simply look out across the ocean and into its vastness. It's sort of like looking into the vastness of the mind, you might say. That's one way to think about it. You can look at the open water as representing an expansive sense of self, or consciousness. That's one way to meditate on a body of water.
There are different aspects of meditation, different types of meditation, as we've discussed in this podcast before. Basically, you might say there is calm-abiding meditation and there is insight meditation. Those would be two major categories.
Calm-abiding meditation means you're settling the mind down. You're relaxing. You're perhaps focusing on a candle, your breath, or some other object of attention, and you're settling both the body and the mind into a state of relaxation.
Insight meditation is more of an analytical process where you're looking at yourself and your situation to try to ascertain what's really going on with your life. What's going on with me? Why am I where I am?
So I used the opportunity of going to Hawaii as both a method and a platform to practice both forms of meditation—calm-abiding meditation and insight meditation. I really thought a great deal about my life, and I think it was useful to do that.
One thing I noticed again at the resort was what I'll call the ubiquity of consumer culture. For whatever reason, world culture has wrapped itself around this idea of consumerism. Consumerism means buying things and living a certain consumer lifestyle, much of which has been developed in the West, and specifically in the United States.
This consumer culture developed, let's say, in the period following World War II during the 1950s and 1960s—with some brief pauses along the way—and was later reinforced during the Reagan years. In this consumer culture, what becomes paramount is buying things in order to fulfill your desires.
It is assumed that this consumer culture will both satisfy those desires and create economic activity, which is considered beneficial for society as a whole. People can make money. Our capitalist monetary system typically demands that you have some way to generate income. Because of that, it becomes almost a given that income is necessary for survival. You need money in order to survive in the world.
If you look at the root cause of much of the suffering in the modern world, a great deal of it has to do with a lack of money—or a perceived lack of money. Money is deeply tied to the idea that you need income in order to participate in consumer culture, to buy things that supposedly make you happy and satisfy your desires. That's essentially the way the system has been constructed.
If you look closely at most endeavors in life, if you peel them back to their core, you'll often find that they are, or seek to become, money-making ventures. You have a profession, and you seek to make money from that profession. You create a product, and you seek to make money from that product. You're a consultant, and you seek to earn consulting fees. The financial aspect is almost always assumed. It isn't really questioned. Very few people ask whether we really need to organize society this way.
I've talked about this a little in previous podcasts. As a society, we're still a long way from reconsidering this broader consumer-capitalist framework we've created. It has become such an accepted assumption that people think of it almost like breathing. There seems to be no alternative to the system we've built.
As I observe people blogging, commenting, complaining, or philosophizing about the world, I find that at the heart of much of it is dissatisfaction. Something isn't going well in the world.
So, if we do some kind of root-cause analysis on what isn't going well in the world, I think a great deal of it has to do with the fact—in my estimation—that we don't feel good about what we're doing to the world, meaning the environment.
We might not understand this consciously. It may exist as a subconscious feeling or intuition. But I think many of us sense that we're participating in a global consumer culture that isn't necessarily the best model for humanity.
A lot of people don't think about it. Many don't even consider it—they simply continue on. They may eventually be forced to consider it because environmental issues will continue to emerge, and we're seeing more evidence of that all the time: heat waves in Europe and elsewhere, along with other signs that things are beginning to break down.
When these developments begin to affect our consumer culture in more direct ways, then obviously they're going to become a significant issue. It will be a game changer when that realization becomes widespread, and people will probably begin to desire some kind of systemic change.
I do believe that the tendency toward democratic socialism that we're seeing in modern American politics is one indication that people are dissatisfied with the status quo and want to see some kind of different system put in place.
Democratic socialists have proposed ideas for recalibrating the emphasis of our politics and our social life to become more socially conscious and more collective in orientation. By "collective," I mean being concerned for the whole as much as for the individual.
American culture has traditionally been highly individualistic, emphasizing individual success and individual profit. In many ways, our current president reflects that tendency. He's almost like a caricature of it—a kind of satire of this entire self-interested attitude. If it weren't so tragic, it could almost be viewed as comedy.
The amount of money the president has made since taking office is astounding. It's remarkable that this isn't more broadly questioned as potentially being at least somewhat corrupt, or at the very least something that ought to raise eyebrows. Of course, people are questioning it, and rightfully so.
I think the result of this current era—the Trumpian era—could unfold in a couple of different directions. One possibility is that it moves toward democratic socialism. Another possibility is that it moves toward a more authoritarian form of capitalism.
It really isn't a foregone conclusion. It depends on what happens and what people become convinced is the right direction to take.
People in the United States have long been conditioned to believe that anything associated with socialism is inherently bad. Because of that, it's difficult to know what the future holds. Nevertheless, we do see democratic socialists gaining momentum in places such as New York and elsewhere around the country. These candidates are running for office, securing places on the ballot, and we'll simply have to see what happens.
So, I'm going to begin winding this down.
I made a note to myself about historical parallels. When we look back through history, I think we can identify some parallels with what's happening today.
Now, this is only a rough sketch. I don't pretend to be an accomplished historian. I simply notice recurring patterns in society that seem to be reflected in history.
Naturally, I look back to the Greeks and the Romans. It's difficult not to examine those civilizations when considering historical parallels.
In ancient Greece, there was a flourishing period of democracy—particularly the Athenian democratic period—and eventually that period came to an end. The Roman era emerged afterward, with a very different political structure.
In our own time, you can see a tendency within what I would call the Trumpian worldview to reshape our democratic system into something more authoritarian—a quasi-imperial system. Whether that tendency is conscious or subconscious, I don't know.
But I think Mr. Trump, those around him, and much of the billionaire class would like to see a resurgence of a more imperial attitude toward government.
In other words, what becomes emphasized is the strength of the imperial state, supported by a powerful military and administered through a centralized governmental structure. I think that's the direction they would prefer to see, provided that the billionaire class remains protected, sustained, and lightly taxed.
That, ultimately, is the principal concern. They don't want to pay higher taxes.
So, I'm going to leave it at that.
Thanks for listening, as always. These are simply random Notes from the Field. I hope you've found them interesting and perhaps useful.
I'll pop in again before too long to talk about these and other topics in a little more depth.
Thanks a lot.
