Dissonance We Created

Bow River

Ian Lungold used the analogy of a light bulb. To paraphrase: back in the 1700s, most people had a good idea where all the basics they needed for life came from and how they came to be. If a chair broke, they fixed it or made a new one from the supplies within walking distance of their home.

Today, if a light bulb burns out, you cannot make a new one. You don’t know how and you don’t have the materials or the tools. Our homes and our lives consist mainly of items we rely on every day to maintain our lifestyle and yet have no idea how to produce ourselves.

This inability to maintain our comfort level through our own industry creates a white noise stress in our lives that manifests in our behavior in ways we cannot clearly tie to anything.

Personally, this is the best explanation I’ve ever heard about that underlying feeling that we are not in control of our lives in any substantial way. Set aside for moment the spiritual fact that our lives serve purposes we may not be aware of and let’s talk about what we commonly call reality.

First, from the coffee that wakes us to the bed that receives us at the end of the day, most individuals either cannot or do not produce for themselves. I don’t care what you’re good at; you are not good at creating everything you use in your life.

Over time, many humans have switched from creating their own necessities to making money to buy those necessities. On the one hand, it’s a simple thing; don’t let yourself run out of spare light bulbs. On the other hand, someone decides we need to know the impact of our light bulb dependency on the planet or poor people on the other side of the world and suddenly it’s not simple any more. We have a moral obligation to change our light bulb habits.

Enter dissonance; defined on Wikipedia  this way, “In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel "disequilibrium": frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.” 

I believe dissonance is so prevalent in our society today that we have created Poster Children/Whipping Blocks for issues that are so complex the average person cannot know all the facts, pros and cons or history about them. We really don’t know how satisfying key personal needs slipped out of our control.

Monsanto has become the evil empire responsible for all food corruption in our lives. Monsanto is the favorite poster child/whipping block for every poor choice a North American makes about what they put in their mouth. Forget the fact that Monsanto is only one company that produces agricultural chemicals and seeds; they are the problem. We hold up the Monsanto poster child/whipping block image as the evil that kills humans with food.

The oil and gas industry takes the brunt of every environmental wrong humans do to the planet. Big Oil (at least an acknowledgement that there is more than one company) is killing all of us. Its poster child/whipping block image is the evil that kills the planet.

At least in the culture where I live, these poster children/ whipping blocks make it possible for ordinary citizens to both grasp some of the challenges we face and ignore personal responsibility for solutions. Ironically, it is by passing off personal responsibilites that we created this situation. I do not grow my own food.

What makes me uncomfortable with this state of affairs is that it simplifies the problems too much. It is not solely Monsanto’s fault that our food system no longer focuses on nourishing human bodies. Nor is it solely Big Oil’s fault that humans are ripping apart the planet for our energy and other needs/wants.

I once had a Board Member tell me, “We don’t talk to the public about this because they’re too stupid to understand it.” The public is not stupid; the public is overwhelmed.
I contend that the answer to many of today’s First World problems lies in figuring out how to make change happen through rebuilding trust in communication.

I certainly don’t know what to believe any more regarding some key aspects of my health, financial well-being and community engagement. And that, my friends, causes much dissonance.