Belief creates the actual fact

Being convinced that something is achievable, makes it achievable. This is obvious in many cases. If you know something is achievable, you will doubt less, take more risks and go straight to the target. This is true in many types of progress, be it in personal performance or in group performance, in sports or in music, in technical innovation or in entering new markets.

But we could also revert the sentence: the actual fact creates belief. In many cases, we have belief because there is already some evidence that the goal is being achieved. Very often cause and consequence can't be clearly distinguished. They just reinforce each other.

There are goals that seem very difficult to achieve. Things like real human progress: "no more war", friendship and tolerance. Let us call it "peace". Can belief create peace? Yes, but this belief is very difficult. In that case, we can start with faith. In my language (Dutch) there is only one word for belief and faith: "geloof". This is a pity, because faith is not the same as belief. Faith is rather a combination of willingness to believe, loyalty and trust. But this Dutch ambiguity now leads me to the question if faith can create peace? Can faith create belief?

Well, it can't be proven scientifically. Historically, we can't demonstrate any real progress. In two thousand years time, we have moved as far as an asthmatic ant with a heavy load of shopping. Do we want to believe in peace? Yes, we want to believe and we should believe but at this point in time, it seems to remain a matter of faith.

Beschleunigung

Beschleunigung ("Acceleration") is a book written by German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. The subject is the pace of change in society.

The fisherman's story sets the scene very well. A lonely fisherman enjoys his fishing along the seaside. When an entrepreneur comes by, and tells him he could catch much more by investing in a new net, a new boat, etc... the fun is over. The fisherman asks the entrepreneur why he should change the way he fishes. Obviously: to become richer... Indeed, but what is the advantage of that? Well, you don't have to work anymore and you could spend your entire day doing what you like: fishing. Well, that is exactly what I'm doing already, says the fisherman. We all know the fisherman will now be condemned to change.

We all feel like the fisherman from time to time, we don't realise we chase the other fishermen as if we were entrepreneurs. Society is increasingly turning into a "maelstrom". "Fluids" and "turbulence" are the physical metaphors  for our accelerating society. The author believes this increased speed is not just to be understood as "more of the same in less time". He believes the "Beschleunigung" radically changed society.

He points out that acceleration manifests itself in different ways. There is the technical acceleration, well known as the multiplication of scientific and technical breakthroughs. There is the increased neurotic pace of daily life. And finally there is the increased rate at which we change our social environment: our work, our suppliers, our associations, and even our "life" mates. The author believes we have come to a point that these three accelerations are even reinforcing each other.

Hartmut Rosa reveals some underlying motives. The changing environment encourages us to keep all options open and we have become afraid of missing opportunities. On top of that, our uncertainty forces us to take nothing for granted. We have to justify what we are doing with our time and the pressure has become totalitarian.

Like always, there are paradoxes. The increased "turbulence" (my own metaphor) also leads to a new "steady-state" , even "status-quo". More and more, we have the feeling nothing "really" changes. For many  people, this lack of orientation and meaning is problematic.

It goes without saying that "Beschleunigung" is just one, interesting way to characterise "our time". There may be other ways to interpret the current evolution. Whatever the interpretation is, steadfastness and resilience in the pursuit of a meaningful life seem to be key qualities to survive well in the accelerating society.

I refer to my earlier blogs: "Lifestyle", "Time and energy in households" and "Status anxiety".