Tuesday 23 October 2007

Pic of the day: I was playing a game when I realized something...

Integrity and integration

I think the largest problem facing the rich world today is lack of integrity. (For the poorest countries, I'd still say clean water, food and basic health care.) And by "integrity" I don't mean some woolly moral demand, but rather the original meaning of structural soundness. Integration of the soul, so to speak.

This is not to say that you can't live a good life with multiple personalities, although there seems to usually be more mental problems for those who are structured that way. But if you have multiple personalities, at least they ought to work for a common goal if you want to have a reasonably happy life. This can be hard to bring about, but that is not my topic today. What bothers me is that even with a single personality, it is still hard to make it work for a common goal...

Unfortunately I suspect that the computer game The Sims 2 is portraying people all too accurately in that their goals, their wants and their autonomous behavior are only vaguely related. A lot of people, including to some degree myself, act this way too. Most don't seem to be aware of it, though.

To illustrate this with our fictional little people, the sims have basic needs such as food and sleep and company. They also have a personality that is partly inherited, partly random, and optionally modified by their upbringing. Finally they have an aspiration which is chosen when they become teenagers. Every morning they wake up with a number of wants and fears. Their wants are largely determined by their aspiration, such as knowledge, family or popularity. A knowledge sim might want to improve a skill, while a popularity sim might want to make a friend. Unfortunately, the sims don't do this on their own. It could still happen by accident – if you make food often enough, you will improve your cooking skill for instance – but most likely it won't. This is where the player comes in, prodding the little electronic people to do what they really want instead of just what comes naturally to them.

In real life, it is the thankless role of the nagging mother or wife to push people to do what they claim they aspire to do. You could say that this person is holding up a mirror to their family member, or rather two mirrors: The mirror of their stated goals, and the mirror of their current behavior. These two rarely have much to do with each other, contrary to what you like to think. So you have to either change your behavior, change your goals, or come up with a good excuse. The latter is by far the most common.

***

At least in our time, it is the norm to presume to be in control of one's body. We don't habitually explain our behavior by saying that a spirit made us do this or that. The exception being the spirits in booze. No, my friend, the booze did not make you do it. It only makes you more impulsive, so it is easier to do what comes naturally to you. It takes much stronger stuff than alcohol to make people do something they don't really want. What can happen, however, is that parts of us are hidden from view. This is part of the problem, and a part I have worked with in my own life for many years. But the disturbing truth is that even when the hidden parts become revealed, they don't necessarily evaporate. You can look right at the kettle and it still begins to boil eventually.

Even so, I think integrity must begin with introspection. If we don't know what's in our life and on our mind, our behavior is bound to surprise us again and again. Meditation and contemplation may seem a bit woolly and mysterious perhaps, but a good starting point would be afterthought. I remember from my own youth reading some text by Elias Aslaksen (a Norwegian Christian mystic of the 20th century) where he quoted the Norwegian Bible, which said "afterthought shall keep watch over you". To Aslaksen, this wasn't really a religious commandment. It was an opportunity. I agree with him. Of course, other religions have other phrases to encourage the same activity, but this seems like an obvious entry point. Anyone can hold afterthought. All you need is a little slice of time.

It can be as simple as this: "What did I just do?" Often we wander around in habits, and we are vaguely aware of what we do, but not really. Before we can ask why, we need to know what we did. One psychologist gave a bunch of people a timer which would beep a certain number of times a day. At that point they were to, as soon as possible, jot down what they were thinking when the timer went off. Less accurate, but perhaps more practical, is to take some time in the evening to reflect on the day that has passed. Some Christians do this during evening prayer, but don't let that stop you.

The best part about afterthought is that it doesn't stay that way. After seven times seventy times of thinking: "What did I just do?" you start thinking "Just what am I doing?" and eventually "What am I about to do?" or even "What am I thinking about doing?" At this time, afterthought has turned to forethought, and we are watching the kettle as it tries to boil.

Unfortunately, even this is not enough to leave us entirely as captains of our fate. I'm really sorry about that, and I hope this doesn't make you all just throw in the towel. You see, it is at this point that the whole topic of integration comes into play. Ken Wilber, the leading light of the so-called integral philosophy, has a rather plausible theory. He thinks that parts of our lives are split off so early – before the age of rational thought – that they cannot be controlled simply by rational thought. The classic examples in the West would be food and sex, the attitude to which is largely laid down before we master the complexity of speech.

Even Wilber fails to mention defecation in that list (at least when I saw it) despite the immense human suffering and loss of life that follows from potty training gone horribly wrong, and the failure to mention rectal problems until the cancer has pretty much taken over the body. But enough about that for now. Let us just accept the fact that for most of us, there are parts of our lives that are not well integrated with the rest.

So what is the next step? I don't really know, except for divine intervention, which obviously isn't available for all of you. I'm still working on this one. But first and foremost, I believe, we have to be wary of our own hypocrisy. This is not limited to religion, but is found wherever there is an advantage to be had by being overestimated. As long as we can get away with saying one thing and doing another, there is a strong selective pressure on us to do just that. So in that respect, integrity and integration really are the same thing. A structural soundness of the soul.

Why is this important? Isn't the soul only of interest for people who want to go to Heaven, and then only right about the time of departure?

No. I am talking about the psyche, the software that runs on our brains. Its backup and restore functions are certainly still a matter of faith, but its influence on our lives is not. If our thoughts and feelings are fragmented and contradict each other, we are not going to reach our goals. We are also not to be reliable to others, since the part of us which they rely on may not be the part that is in control when they need it. Unless our wants are aligned with our goals, and our fears with our risks, we will continue to fail except (like the sims) when our random activities sometimes cause the right result. There are various degrees of this, but I hope we can agree on the direction.

People have far more money than any of their ancestors, but are still unable to pay their bills. They have vast knowledge, but are unable to maintain good relationships in their own family. They have plenty of time, but it brings them boredom. They have satisfied all essential needs, but suffer depression and anxiety. In my experience, it is integrity. To integrate – to become who we are – takes a lifetime, so I sincerely hope I am not finished yet. Still, someone had to say it.