I am thoroughly enjoying the podcasts of Alan Watts’ talks at the archive of alanwatts.com. Today, on the bus into Vancouver I listened to part four of “Seeing Through the Net” in which Watts talks about trust and control.
The essence of his argument is this: in Judeo-Christian societies, humans are said to be born with sin, and are therefore inherently untrustworthy; to be precise, humans are unable to rely on their own judgements to make good decisions and decisions for the good. And so the way to deal with a population of largely untrustworthy neer-do-wells is to create an eleborate system of controls in society to ensure that behaviour is managed and the chaos doesn’t get too overwhelming.
In contrast, Watts says, many societies, including traditional Chinese society and, I would argue, many First Nations societies see humans as essentially good and capable and trustworthy. If you can view humans like this, then you can see a room full of people as a roome full of potential, and an organization of people is one essentially capable of doing good in the world. All you have to do is trust these inherent capacities.
This control issue crops up everywhere. If humans are essentially untrustworthy then we need laws to keep the peace and agendas to keep them on topic. We need rules, regulations, measurements, standards and assessment and evaluation criteria that judge the largely untrustworthy human against the perfect ideal, in order to see how badly they failed to achieve perfection.
The kicker for me in listening to Watts comes when he says that the problem with this logic is that if you believe that humans are inherently untrustworthy, then you cannot possibly trust your own thoughts about that. It takes you into a strange loop that is inescapable. On the other hand if you begin with the assumption that humans are good and can be trusted, you can trust that assumption and engage others in your work and adventures.
It seems to me that this is a critical part of the infrastructure that underlies how we choose to be together in organizations and communities. If we can trust each other, then we can trust that any sticky place we come too will be resolved by the people we are with. If we can’t trust each other, then we can’t trust ourselves first of all, and the world becomes a sad place full of controls and statistics and punishment and devoid of the life and creativity and passion that we see in places where people are truly alive.
I try to work with people who believe in people and who trust them to find their way. It just sank in today a little deeper how profoundly this either/or really is. So here is a renewed call for a practice of deep and radical trust in the person sitting next to us. To the extent that we can trust them and validate their agency and potential contribution as a human being, we can do the same for ourselves. And vice versa.
[tags] alanwatts, trust, control[/tags]
resonanting with the call. . .
Beautiful post, Chris, especially that part about the strange, inescapable loop in which outer and inner trust are mirrors for one another. Either we are spiraling toward separation, conflict, the hope of rescue and need for control, or spiraling toward capability, community, freedom, and meaning.
Well said, Chris. I had often wondered about the gulf in my beliefs and those of westerners, some of whom come into my organization with that sense of doubt and mistrust. It is not a useful springboard to fruitful working relationships, and takes some time to manage. Yet those same westerners might say, ”˜You can trust me,”™ and not be willing to give the same to others. However, those that do trust, regardless of culture, make for some wonderful, long-term business relationships.
Funny that whenever I come to crossroads in my life, your blog always has a message for me to stop and think, ponder about what is my role in what is unfolding and how to address it with strength , respect and natural wisdom…….
thank you again my friend,
Ida
For me, this difference in belief cuts right to the core of my own personal evolution.
What I’m not sure about, and maybe you can help with this, is whether what I perceive to be a sea change in human consciousness is really just my own noticing of this difference due to my own perception shift, or whether it is really happening.
And does that question really matter? If it’s happening for me, it is as it is . . . and the (my) world will conform to my reality . . .
My head hurts.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post!
Tina, That’s hard to say…but a useful starting place may be to trust in what you are seeing! And…I know what you are talking about.
Jack, thanks…I often wonder why people say “you can trust me.” It usually engenders the opposite reaction in me.
Ida…hi buddy. Good to see you around. Say hi to Sonny if you see him!
Chris
I would like to comment. I have a different worldview. you said in judeo-christian… humans are born with a sin nature. Who said that man or God? Jer. 17 maybe-the heart of man is deceitful above all else. Your comment about the first nation societies… Have you ever read about the Iroquoi tribes- some not all- they would torture the Jesuit missionaries,They would cut their hearts out and eat it right before their eyes before they died! I wouldnt’ hesitate to sit next to this guy on the bus and offer him a sandwhich-organic of course- wouldnt’ you? Closing-thank God- I just caught a film called ee-taow. It’s about a tribe
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