THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
What does it mean to flourish when the systems we depend on are under strain?
Flourish in Times of Struggle is a new podcast series for people who want to move beyond personal resilience and grapple with the deeper structures that shape our lives. In this opening episode, Michael C. Patterson introduces the series’ focus on systems, legitimacy, and collective action—and invites listeners to think together about how healthier, more democratic forms of governance might emerge.
Earlier Flourish As You Age podcasts focused more on personal change and development to promote brain health and mental management.
THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
MIND - Why Our Mind is Conflicted
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We continue to explore how the two hemispheres of our brain influence us in different ways. In this episode I borrow a story from Iain McGilchrist who, in turn, borrowed it from Friedrich Nietzsche. McGilchrist uses his story - The Master and His Emissary - as the title for his book that first introduces his "hemisphere hypothesis." The two main characters in the story represent the Right Hemisphere (The Master) and the Left Hemisphere (The Emissary). It tells of their relationship and of the destruction of their realm that follow the Emissary's usurpation of leadership from the Master.
I have taken the liberty to change the gender of the leader to a woman and to add some embellishments that I believe help illustrate McGilchrist's full thesis. The essence of his idea is that the two hemispheres have different ways of relating to the world. When they cooperate, under the guidance of the Right Hemisphere, things go well. But when the Left Hemisphere dominates - as it does in modern culture - our minds get muddled and the culture starts to unravel.
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