Lateral Drift

by Handsome Matt

I’ve been reading Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and something has stuck with me. Robert M. Pirsig mentions the idea of lateral drift. Moving across a problem, instead of attacking it directly. A change in perspective, can lead to new solutions.

Pirsig goes on to expand that concept to address current rational thought.

Daily, it becomes more and more inadequate to address the demands, developments, and problems facing society. And instead of expanding our rationality, of pushing it out further and wider to allow for new perspectives, it just destroys itself more and more.

Look at the dogmatic protection of certain scientific theories. As holes are punched into the Big Bang and theory of Evolution, instead of admitting it may be a wrong hypothesis (the scientific method) a more complex and bloated set of theories and hypothesis are used to buttress. And when that fails, competing theories are outlawed and their supporters are banned. Not very scientific at all.

This is an important concept to understand in regards to environmental issues and discussions.  We need to expand our reason, our rationale, our whole system of thought. Like the “renewables only account for 10% of our energy production, therefore they can’t meet the demand” logical fallacy; we’re stuck in a circle that needs to be broken open.

And it needs to occur in the very near future.