The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zikek is a piece of work. He would be the first to admit it, too. However, Zizek is one of the few polymaths who talks about the need for a new grand theory of everything and yet can actually deliver one. I disagree with him on some matters, but strongly support his contention that we as a society risk losing a sense of what is happening amidst so much complexity, who we are, and where we are going. He is right to say that journalistic shorthand labels such as a post-modernism simply don't work. They not only fail to explain current realities; they actually make discussion about them more difficult.
Zizek says that the West needs to withdraw and think. Let's simply call it stop and think, since we Americans would have a difficult time dealing with the word withdraw. Nonetheless, we need to sort out the unprecedented events happening around us these days, why they are happening, and what to do about it. Yet we know in everyday organizational life how painfully difficult it is to get people to take a moment to stop and think. The U.S. Congress comes to mind, right? Why is that? Have we forgotten how to think, or at least how to think well? The best leaders create opportunities for their people to think and then to build plans based on the products of that mindfulness. Regrettably, too many folks in leadership positions are as caught up as the rest of us in the unrelenting pace of doing to create new, thoughtful narratives that better explain what we are doing and to help us do it better - or not at all. (See August 24, 2008 entry, Why We Fail To Learn).
Zizek calls for greater development of cognitive mapping skills to help us achieve these new and better ways. Otherwise, we are getting near the time when some imaginary global parent of ours should pick us up by the scruff of our collective neck, issue a "time out," and send us to our room to think about what we have just done.
p.s. Agree with his politics or not, the endlessly fascinating and always controversial Zikek uses movies as teaching tools as well as anyone I have ever seen.
Zizek says that the West needs to withdraw and think. Let's simply call it stop and think, since we Americans would have a difficult time dealing with the word withdraw. Nonetheless, we need to sort out the unprecedented events happening around us these days, why they are happening, and what to do about it. Yet we know in everyday organizational life how painfully difficult it is to get people to take a moment to stop and think. The U.S. Congress comes to mind, right? Why is that? Have we forgotten how to think, or at least how to think well? The best leaders create opportunities for their people to think and then to build plans based on the products of that mindfulness. Regrettably, too many folks in leadership positions are as caught up as the rest of us in the unrelenting pace of doing to create new, thoughtful narratives that better explain what we are doing and to help us do it better - or not at all. (See August 24, 2008 entry, Why We Fail To Learn).
Zizek calls for greater development of cognitive mapping skills to help us achieve these new and better ways. Otherwise, we are getting near the time when some imaginary global parent of ours should pick us up by the scruff of our collective neck, issue a "time out," and send us to our room to think about what we have just done.
p.s. Agree with his politics or not, the endlessly fascinating and always controversial Zikek uses movies as teaching tools as well as anyone I have ever seen.