Rethinking Our Wiring, Or...

Rewiring Our Thinking

A few weeks ago our friend Tim King pointed us to the recent work of Jeremy Rifkin in a post titled Hard-Wired Hope For Humanity. Based on Tim’s recommendation I’m about 25% through Rifkin’s latest book, The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. This book has been so jarring that I couldn’t wait until I finished it to commend it to you. (At 675 pages it’s also a long one, so it’ll be a while before I’m done anyway!)

Rifkin details recent advances in neurological science which indicate that we (and a few other mammals too, apparently) are soft-wired with what are called “mirror neurons”. These neurons allow us to feel another’s plight as if we were experiencing it ourselves. In other words, our brains are wired for empathy.

This research flies in the face of the popular recounting of Darwin’s earlier work which would have us believe that we are wired for self-interest, for competition, and that “survival of the fittest” is the governing principle of humanity.

Currently I’m in the section of the book covering child development, touching on how this empathic drive can be nurtured, or stamped out depending on the blend of nature/nurture. Fascinating.

This is very interesting work, but here’s why I’m so excited about it and what I see as it’s possible Kingdom implications:

Love your neighbour.

Crazy, right?

Maybe not. Maybe this was how we were created in the first place. Or more to the point, maybe the seed of this ability has been planted in our brains, and our collective journey towards Christ-likeness, toward the “Kingdom coming”, has been about nurturing this God-given characteristic, about the evolution of our collective consciousness.

Perhaps it’s ironic that as Followers of Jesus we grumble about how hard it is to be more like Jesus (and design our eschatology around the concept that we don’t need to anyway) because, damn it, we’re just so selfish… even while the scientists reveal that we’re actually designed to love the other!

We’ve talked before about our spiritual DNA, about how we are destined to remember that we are beings designed and created in the image of God. Some call it a journey to return to the Garden. I call it the Kingdom coming in it’s fullness. Maybe, in a sense, we’ve overly-spiritualized this. I don’t think Jesus will return “in the blink of an eye” but am becoming more and more convinced that biblical prophecy has been fulfilled, and we are left to “live into it.” Maybe Jesus returns in the sense that the collective Body of Christ (that’s you and me) continues to evolve into the role.

And now, research indicates there may a physical aspect to this. Amazing.

Of course, there's something I'm not telling you. Rifkin talks about the empathy/entropy paradox, in that we're starting to develop our empathic consciousness just as we're possibly on the cusp of destroying our environment. I'm not sure he would call himself optimistic.

Here’s one of those excellent RSA animated videos on a summary of this thinking, taken from a talk by Rifkin earlier this year. It’s well worth the 10 minutes. Let us know what you think. (The full 52 minute presentation this shorter film is cut from is available here. If you have the time, it is stunning.)

Comments

[Erin Wilson]

Thoughts?

-holy crap.
-I wish I could have slowed that down to 1/2 speed.

-I've long suspected that many animals are empathetic. Makes it much more devastating to me to see them caged, used + abused, forced to perform for our entertainment, etc. I wonder if they're more advanced in the empathy department than we are.

-if this is true (and it makes so much sense I have no reason to believe that it isn't), it makes me wonder about the way we read scripture. Presumably, those living 2000 years ago were soft-wired to be less empathetic. And those living 4000 year ago were even less so. It tends to put things into really interesting context.

-tons more thoughts rolling around. Thanks for posting this, Mike!!

[Doug]

I saw this video about a month ago, and a few thoughts came to me then: (1) it would sure be nice if society ran this way, and (2) how on earth would it actually happen?

On the former point, I agree with the author that we are "wired" with certain [whatevers] (I'm not a neurobiologist) that are not only capable of feeling and thinking and behaving in ways that are nondestructive and are socially positive. Furthermore, it was meant to be that was from the beginning. While I would question that competition and self-interest were Darwin's faulty creation, and I would question that the new research "counters" this notion, it is very encouraging that neuroscience contributes to the social science of how we relate to one another. As a student of economic philosophy, human beings cannot and are not intended to exist alone: we relate to one another. How we related to one another is key to progress, social justice, and to our souls. While I think Mike misrepresents the supposed Darwin view of "self-interest" and "competition," he is right that those things are not the complete story of human beings' interaction with one another socially.

The second point ("how on earth would it actually happen?") is more critical in many ways because it has to do with the praxeology. As a follower of Christ building for the Kingdom of God (and my eschatology is likely aligned very closely with Mike's), it is my responsibility and at the core of my social being to serve others and love our neighbor. Doing so in my personal sphere is key, of course, but even encouraging others to do it on a larger sphere of influence is important, because it's a big world out there!

Mike, it's interesting that you bring up "love your neighbour" because it is one of the biggest reasons why I believe Christianity and libertarian philosophy are immensely compatible. While I'm still in the middle of writing on it, essentially loving your neighbor begins with respect and deference to one's neighbor and his/her preferences. Freedom inherently limits the boundaries by which we must operate as individuals toward our neighbors. Yet this is only a starting point, and does not reach into the "love" part. But it sets the foundation for it.

But here's my fear, which reminds me of Greg Boyd's comment to Jim Wallis in a debate I heard (via podcast on Boyd's website), "I don’t see how our commitment to Christ gives us a unique privileged stance on having an extra wisdom to tell government, 'Here’s what you should do.' The hope of the world isn’t found in our tweaking the government the right way." Now, Mike didn't say anything about government, so I'm not trying to take us down that road. But the point of the quote is the bolded part: "the hope of the world." The hope of the world is in Jesus. Not the right laws, not the right constrains on individuals' economic decisions, not on the right "leaders" in world power, not the right type of authority in power. These and more is why I reject state-based solutions to things. But I'm getting off-topic.

Mike, I loved this article. I'm sure my ending comments don't make it out to be that way, but I wanted to share a few of my own thoughts. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much.

Another link regarding this article from an institution I respect: http://blog.acton.org/archives/17655-humans-are-not-economic-automata.html

[Jonathan Brink]

Mike, Daniel Goleman's Social Intelligence breaks down the mirror neuron process exceptionally well. When I read this idea it really struck me as obvious but not. We relate by reconstructing what the other person is feeling.