I really admire Iain McGilchrist, and I agree our society feels more broken than it ever has (in my lifetime anyway), but McGilchrist did not offer a very clear diagnosis. His left-brain / right-brain hypothesis rings true, but he lost the narrative when he tried to point to concrete manifestations. At that level, it sounded like a fruit salad of generational grievance – kids these days.
McGilchrist didn't mention "wokeness" specifically (that I can recall), but his critique was recognizable. The idea is that there's an illiberal left that's actively silencing all discussion (i.e. dissent) around a range of issues, but the only example any of these critics ever seem to mention is gender. It seems to be just this one thing that's so incendiary. Okay, issues around race are sometimes mentioned, taking distant second place.
So is there really a widespread cultural problem of ideological intolerance on the left, or is there just passionate skirmishing around a couple of issues? And are people really being silenced in a broad and systematic purge, or is it mostly just loud disagreement with a tiny handful of genuinely unjust persecutions? Finally, is this really new, or have there always been waves of skirmishes around new and marginal ideas?
But the really big question I have here is, why this? It seems like such a strange and small thing to have spent so much of this hour on. Certainly we are seeing the confluence of multiple crises, and certainly we need to act. Iain McGilchrist is someone I still believe can help point us in a better direction. His books are brilliant guideposts, but sadly, he did not do his own work much justice in this appearance. We need to hear more from Iain McGilchrist, but this was not it.
Thank you for this video, David. Iain spoke about his concerns in another interesting YouTube conversation with Mark Vernon several months ago. I’m very glad he is speaking out publicly.
Iain McGilchrist is right to highlight the erosion of our sovereign freedoms that have been long fought for. I absolutely agree with his analysis there, look at what is now happening with PayPal. I think this overreach and tyrannical action by authority and corporate structures is escalating and becoming pervasive. I know little about his hemisphere theory, however the mechanics of the left brain sounds just like the mechanisms of the cultural left ideological narrative in our current epoch. Very interesting and insightful, thank you.
Your work in the Sensemaking series helped me thru pandemic part 1, I am calling it. ( perhaps we are now in pandemic part 1a!?!?!)
This latest that came to me via email is so relevant to what I’ve been feeling, sensing and writing about in a haunting sort of way on my astrology blog.
The ideas from McGilchrist makes it crystal clear.
Quite frankly I never could remember which brain hemisphere was which, until this very clear concise description coming along at a time when the tension and stresses brought about by the birth pangs of the labor of transformation are reaching a climactic pitch.
So it seems.
I believe this to be a necessary transformation that we, as a global community are in the midst of.
To be awake and aware. To have the capacity to understand our interconnection to each other, whether we agree or disagree.
To respect, trust and have faith in the power of forgiveness and compassion that we must practice with ourselves and then with each other.
Most importantly to take responsibility for some seriously faulty thinking based on the over valuing of the Left brain hemisphere.
Left brain hemisphere is an important component to living in grounded reality however it must be balanced with the resources and heartfelt intuitive soulful singing of the Right brain hemisphere.
Now to value the resources of the right brain hemisphere in balance with the left hemisphere.
A very important message. The right brain is the creative side and that is what we need to use now to get out of this mess, if we can.
I really admire Iain McGilchrist, and I agree our society feels more broken than it ever has (in my lifetime anyway), but McGilchrist did not offer a very clear diagnosis. His left-brain / right-brain hypothesis rings true, but he lost the narrative when he tried to point to concrete manifestations. At that level, it sounded like a fruit salad of generational grievance – kids these days.
McGilchrist didn't mention "wokeness" specifically (that I can recall), but his critique was recognizable. The idea is that there's an illiberal left that's actively silencing all discussion (i.e. dissent) around a range of issues, but the only example any of these critics ever seem to mention is gender. It seems to be just this one thing that's so incendiary. Okay, issues around race are sometimes mentioned, taking distant second place.
So is there really a widespread cultural problem of ideological intolerance on the left, or is there just passionate skirmishing around a couple of issues? And are people really being silenced in a broad and systematic purge, or is it mostly just loud disagreement with a tiny handful of genuinely unjust persecutions? Finally, is this really new, or have there always been waves of skirmishes around new and marginal ideas?
But the really big question I have here is, why this? It seems like such a strange and small thing to have spent so much of this hour on. Certainly we are seeing the confluence of multiple crises, and certainly we need to act. Iain McGilchrist is someone I still believe can help point us in a better direction. His books are brilliant guideposts, but sadly, he did not do his own work much justice in this appearance. We need to hear more from Iain McGilchrist, but this was not it.
Thank you for this video, David. Iain spoke about his concerns in another interesting YouTube conversation with Mark Vernon several months ago. I’m very glad he is speaking out publicly.
Iain McGilchrist is right to highlight the erosion of our sovereign freedoms that have been long fought for. I absolutely agree with his analysis there, look at what is now happening with PayPal. I think this overreach and tyrannical action by authority and corporate structures is escalating and becoming pervasive. I know little about his hemisphere theory, however the mechanics of the left brain sounds just like the mechanisms of the cultural left ideological narrative in our current epoch. Very interesting and insightful, thank you.
David, it’s been a while.
Your work in the Sensemaking series helped me thru pandemic part 1, I am calling it. ( perhaps we are now in pandemic part 1a!?!?!)
This latest that came to me via email is so relevant to what I’ve been feeling, sensing and writing about in a haunting sort of way on my astrology blog.
The ideas from McGilchrist makes it crystal clear.
Quite frankly I never could remember which brain hemisphere was which, until this very clear concise description coming along at a time when the tension and stresses brought about by the birth pangs of the labor of transformation are reaching a climactic pitch.
So it seems.
I believe this to be a necessary transformation that we, as a global community are in the midst of.
To be awake and aware. To have the capacity to understand our interconnection to each other, whether we agree or disagree.
To respect, trust and have faith in the power of forgiveness and compassion that we must practice with ourselves and then with each other.
Most importantly to take responsibility for some seriously faulty thinking based on the over valuing of the Left brain hemisphere.
Left brain hemisphere is an important component to living in grounded reality however it must be balanced with the resources and heartfelt intuitive soulful singing of the Right brain hemisphere.
Now to value the resources of the right brain hemisphere in balance with the left hemisphere.
I am so grateful to understand what that is!
Thank-you for this.
Blessings and peace to All.
And I mean it!
Let’s do it! 🕊