[Seattle-editorial] Fwd: Deficit Disorders for a World on the Edge

[Sheri Herndon]

:))
====== Forwarded Message ======
Date: 11/20/03 8:40 PM
Received: 11/21/03 5:16 AM -0000
From: cii at igc.org (Tom Atlee)
To: cii at igc.org (undisclosed list)

Dear friends,

I have a good friend who is extremely creative and can track three or 
more conversations or activities at the same time.  But he has a hard 
time staying attentive during long meetings and often forgets things 
he promised to do.

He is said to have ADD -- Attention Deficit Disorder.

It seems odd that I who am only able to track one or two 
conversations or activities at once am not said to suffer from MTADD 
-- Multi-Track-Attention Deficit Disorder.

The "deficit disorder" label suggests that someone or something needs 
to be fixed.  So it might be useful to think about what REALLY needs 
fixing in this world and set up "deficit disorders" to help us attend 
to them all.  I imagine starting with these:

LEDD - Local-Economics Deficit Disorder - inability to shop anywhere 
but chain stores or malls.

BLPDD - Big-Lie-Perception Deficit Disorder - inability to recognize 
red-white-and-blue (or any other kind of flag-waving) lies when they 
are being repeated over and over by authorities and mass media.

ADDD - Appropriate-Disturbance Deficit Disorder - inability to make a 
fuss when things are really bad, degrading, stupid or dangerous.

LTTDD - Long-Term-Thinking Deficit Disorder - inability to envision 
the natural consequences of what we do as we pursue our short term 
pleasure, security, profit or power.

CAWDD - Clean-Air-and-Water Deficit Disorder - inability to find 
fresh air to breathe and pure water to drink.

QDDD - Quality-Dialogue Deficit Disorder - inability to hear -- and 
be heard by -- people different from ourselves.  QDDD also shows up 
as a persistent failure to explore together questions of mutual 
concern for mutual benefit, rendering entire societies alienated and 
subject to take-over by special (and not so special) interests and 
extremists.

JMDD - Joy-and-Meaning Deficit Disorder - inability to find, create 
and relish deep (or bubbly) joy and meaning in our individual and 
community lives.

With different criteria, we can detect different deficits:

CDD - Conformity-Deficit Disorder - inability to merrily go along 
with peers, pundits, presidents and public relations professionals 
even when what they're all saying is certifiably crazy.

CCDD - Corporate-Control Deficit Disorder - unseemly lack of complete 
corporate control over some few remaining aspects of our lives, 
minds, privacy, honor, wallets, societies, DNA.... whatever.

PMDD - Profit-Motivation Deficit Disorder - disabling lack of desire 
to make money at every opportunity, by any means necessary -- or to 
hand over our bodies, minds, time, dreams, communities and 
environments to someone else who is eager to make money with them.

ExDD - Extremism-Deficit Disorder - suspicious attachment to 
civility, justice, pluralism, balance, reason, dancing, different 
colored socks, tolerance, and democratic sensibilities in general.

PDD - Patriotism-Deficit Disorder - inability to recognize our 
country (preferably the United States) as the best one ever in the 
world, always and in every detail.

TTDD - Toxic-Tolerance Deficit Disorder - inability (or ornery 
unwillingness) to tolerate an environment teeming with harmless, 
healthy toxins.

DDD - Denial-Deficit Disorder - inability to act as if everything is 
perfectly OK and proceed with business-as-usual in the face of, well, 
you know, all sorts of things that it wouldn't be appropriate to talk 
about here....

Of course, business-as-usual is sustained by

FTDD - Free-Time Deficit Disorder - persistent inability to find time 
for playing, love-making, reflecting, doing good, exercising our 
citizenship, creatively goofing off or hanging out with family, 
friends and neighbors. And of course there is no time to find out if 
our individual bustles are adding up to something that looks 
suspiciously like a lemming parade.

As David Brower once asked:  If our trek takes us to the edge of a 
cliff, is it progress to take the next step?

Which brings us back to Attention Deficit Disorder.  Isn't our whole 
society a little deficient when it comes to some pretty important 
kinds of attention?  Maybe we could all take a "time out," realize 
we're in a trance, and wake up from our culturally conditioned ADD. 
We could reclaim our attention, our citizenship, our humor, our hope, 
our future....

We could become selective -- freeing ourselves from deficit disorders 
that degrade or endanger life while rejoicing in the many delightful 
deficit disorders that help us be life-affirming, co-creative spirits.

Like my friend, seeing so much of life that it is sometimes hard to 
concentrate on the tiny part of it everyone else wants him to 
concentrate on...


Let us serve life well, whatever we do with the deficits we find in 
and around us...


Co-heartedly,
Tom




________________________________

Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * PO Box 493 * Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org *  http://www.democracyinnovations.org
Read THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY *  http://www.taoofdemocracy.com
Please support our work.  *  Your donations are fully tax-deductible.

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