West facing Roman Empire-style collapse (Image: Getty)
AN obsession with rules and regulations is eroding the foundations of society, leaving the West facing a collapse akin to that of the Roman empire, a psychiatrist and author will warn in a talk tomorrow.Dr Iain McGilchrist believes that our way of thinking and seeing the world has become rule-bound and machine-like in a way that is “devoid of all that is human”.He suggests this may be because we rely too heavily on the ‘apparently logical’ left hemisphere of the brain at the expense of the more flexible right.
This means that too often we ignore our intuition in favour of the explicit regulations – even when the rule in question is flawed, he will say at an online event supported by health community Goldster in partnership with children’s residential and fostering organisation Care Visions.Dr McGilchrist fears that people are missing the bigger picture and approaching the wonders of the universe like a “petty functionary trying to solve a parking problem in a town centre”.He said: “Such a way of seeing is typical of the less intelligent left hemisphere of the brain, whose role could be thought of as a technical assistant to the more intelligent, more subtle, and more flexible right hemisphere of the brain – which literally sees and understands far more.“When it acts as a servant it is useful, but it is a disastrously poor master.“This way of thinking tends to spread rapidly when a once great civilisation is in decline. It happened in Greece, it happened in Rome, and it is happening again now.”Research has identified three key elements that lead to fulfilment and happiness – belonging to a coherent and trusted social group, a closeness to nature and a belief in some kind of higher power.“These are what the human spirit craves – not because it is weak, but because of its intuitive strength,” said Dr McGilchrist.But modern society has seen a rise in individualism and sprawling metropolises alongside a decline in spiritual beliefs.Dr McGilchrist said: “In our society we have done everything we can to deprive people of their rootedness in these three realms.“We live in an era that has done its best to destroy the sense of a coherent culture, with a past to respect and a future to strive for.
3D image left and right hemisphere of the brain (Image: Getty)
“We have made a whole-hearted attack on nature, in all its forms. And we reject the wisdom enshrined in ancient traditions of both East and West. We are told to dismiss our instinctual and intuitive beliefs and trust only crude, explicit rules and regulations,”he said.
Dr McGilchrist, a philosopher and neuroscientist, is the author of best-selling books including The Master and his Emissary, and The Matter with Things.His work describes the real differences between the two brain hemispheres. He identifies pinnacles in previous civilisations that he believes came from a reliance on the intuitive right brain. But when “greed and power led to the left hemisphere seizing control” they falter or collapse, he said.He explained: “The left hemisphere has only one value: utility.“All that is not immediate, explicit and manipulable is missed out. But unfortunately that is all that really matters.“It is the right hemisphere that sees that, and is guided by other values, such as truth, beauty and goodness, towards other goals.”
This, he believes, is the position we now find ourselves in. “We are now seeing only the map, not the world that is mapped. We are trying to live in the map, not in the real word. No wonder we are so unhappy, rudderless, adrift. And we are accelerating towards a cliff edge, out of control.“It is not that the brain has fundamentally changed over the history of the West: it is rather the way we have chosen to use it that has changed.“Our faculties are still intact if we only learn to use them again. In this sense it is somewhat like a radio set: you may choose to listen to only one channel, but the other channels have not gone away just because you no longer tune into them.”Dr McGilchrist argues we are losing our sense of spontaneity in life, pointing out that even simple pleasures such as visiting a museum may require an app to book in advance.Artificial Intelligence, he says, threatens to make us less creative and has already seen children learn less as they rely on it for their homework.“Everything we really value is far more subtle than any machine code or set of rules and procedures,” he said. “It involves reason, for sure, but also what our bodies, our emotions, our intuitions and our imagination can tell us.“This the left hemisphere cannot understand. It approaches us, our society, the natural world and the world of the sacred like a petty functionary trying to solve a parking problem in a town centre.
AI threatens to make us less creative (Image: Getty)
“We need to adopt a new way of thinking, a change in our hearts and minds, that is less self-centred, and more other-centred, to avert disaster. The march of tech is only going to make things worse, by de-skilling us, dividing us one from another, and vastly increasing the power of others to control us.
“The great German philosopher Hannah Arendt, who survived the Nazis, said that when there are things you cannot question, you live in a tyranny.
“We now, evidently, live in a tyranny.”
While there may be no simple solution, Dr McGilchrist believes we can all take steps to become more intuitive.
“A good place to start is simply to pause and marvel at the wonders of nature. Spending time, fully present, not looking at your phone, in natural surroundings, is good for your spirits, lowers anxiety, makes you feel whole again, increases your intellectual sharpness, and decreases antisocial emotions such as aggression and anger,” he said.
To find out more about the talk by Dr McGilchrist visit: https://goldster.co.uk/landing-pages/elgin-understanding-our-place-in-the-world/