Howard Bloom on Boom and Bust in bacterial colonies (as in, he’s anthropomorphically talking about bacterial colonies here):
What will save us? Boom and bust. The pendulum of repurposing. And the way it crops up in our kids. Our children can be born as Cain or Abel, as hunters or settlers, as explorers or homesteaders. Yes, like you and me, our kids will look superficially like pink string beans with long threads. But in reality they will be born in two different forms. As spreaders or consolidators. As rebels or conservatives. As searchers or structure makers.
We old timers are built to stay in one spot and to glom up the goodies. We are built for boom. We do very poorly when the food supply goes bust. But some of our kids are natural-born bust-escapers. They are born to be dissatisfied, born to say good bye to our sedentary lifestyle and to our parcel of tasty property. Their “strings” are shaped for a restless quest. They are born to seek their fortune.
Bloom could as easily be discussing humans here – or anything else in the universe – as was his point. We’re built so that some of us are this, some of us that, some maintainers, some adventurers. What I’m interested in for the moment is the adventurer archetype and the chronic dissatisfaction it entails.
The soul of the artist or scientist is one which constantly runs away from itself. No achievement remains worthwhile to them; the artist’s acidic hands dissolve whatever they grab. I have observed this in others and in myself. (I have this kind of soul, even if I don’t know whether I have any worthwhile artistic or scientific abilities.) They destroy themselves to construct the world.
The existence of the chronically dissatisfied explorers of the universe and its pulse from the heart of humanity was preordained by…the universe.
I’m finding solace in this natural state of dissatisfaction upon this realisation. There’s a chance I’m like this for greater benefit; humanity is a superorganism with essential explorer cells which require dissatisfaction – pain, malaise, boredom – for functioning. I belong to humanity, and it belongs to the universe.
I like the universe part, but I’m not sure about the humanity part. Maybe. People are OK.
