Uncommon Wisdom Conversations With Remar (Flamingo)

I read this over Christmas break, and it was a nice book to relax with on vacation. An easy read that follows the development of Capra’s holistic/ecological themes through various fields (physics, spirituality, economics, psychology, medicine, etc.). Capra is interested in understanding the world

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from an ecological or “systems” perspective, that is seeing social institutions, economics and other fields as organic structures composed of many interacting parts, movements, and levels. The book’s conversational format allows these abstract ideas to be explored with actual examples and in a back-and-forth style that leaves plenty of room for clarification. I was introduced to several thinkers I had not encountered before, two of whose books I’ve since purchased (see related quotes at bottom).

The book is liberal in tone in that it covers ideas that challenge the established order (pharmaceutical based medicine, capitalist economics) and explores researchers and writers that were pushing the boundaries of their disciplines. An example of this type of writing: “As the pharmaceutical industry has conditioned doctors and patients to believe that the human body needs continual medical supervision and drug treatment to stay healthy, so the petrochemical industry has made farmers believe the soil needs massive infusions of chemicals, supervised by agricultural scientists and technicians, to remain productive”. (Pg. 182).

The book was published in 1988 so it’s possible many of these ideas are dated, but I felt it was quite modern, dealing with issues that in my opinion are even more pertinent to today’s society. For instance the conversations and ideas of Fritz Schumacher and Hazel Henderson are very relevant to a society that, after the Great Recession, is perhaps reevaluating its commitment to overconsumption.

Here’s some further quotes referencing individuals I wish to read up on further:

Referring to R.D. Laing:

“This is where Laing parted company with most of his colleagues. He concentrated on the origins of mental illness by looking at the human condition – at the individual embedded in a network of multiple relationships – and thus addressed psychiatric problems in existential terms. Instead of treating schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis as diseases, he regarded them as special strategies that people invent in order to survive in unlivable situations. This view amounted to a radical change in perspective, which led Laing to see madness as a sane response to an insane social environment”. - Pg 95

Referring to Hazel Henderson:

“To provide economics with a sound ecological basis, Henderson insists, economists will need to revise their basic concepts in a drastic way. She illustrates with many examples how these concepts were narrowly defined and have been used without their social and ecological context. The gross national product, for example, which is supposed to measure a nation's wealth, is determined by adding up indiscriminately all economic activities associated with monetary values, while all nonmonetary aspects of the economy are ignored. Social costs, like those of accidents, litigation, and healthcare, are added as positive contributions to the GNP, rather than being subtracted. Henderson quotes Ralph Nader's incisive comment, "every time there is an automobile accident the GNP goes up," and she speculates that those social costs may be the only fraction of the GNP that is still growing”. - Pg. 235

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