Missing the forest for the trees
“Missing the forest for the trees” is a pervasive problem in our culture. With real consequences.
There is a reason for this. In brief, it’s a result of the objectification of our world: “I, the subject, am here. Objects are out there”. This false perspective leads to an unintegrated view of the world in which we struggle to see how everything is interrelated. Unless you’re moving in the quasi-perfect confines of experimental physics, simple cause and effect is actually pretty hard to come by.
The consequences of such an existence befall us every day. They include but are not limited to: electing politicians with no character and integrity, being dependent on dating apps to meet people, relying on drugs for our health, going to university primarily for the degree and electing a career path just for the money.
All of these are examples where we chose a simple, usually lazy solution at the cost of our long term physical, mental and societal wellbeing.
If we’re to overcome this, we need to zoom out, behold the whole forest and integrate.
