The
title 21st Century Enlightenment is to give us insight on where we
were just a few centuries ago and where we are now. Taylor explains that we have powerful new
insights thanks to new emergences in scientific disciplines and social sciences. Great philosophers of our past knew that
enlightenment meant that we could not confirm to religious doctrines as well as
to our own intuition. Just because it seemed right at the time since that is
what we were told it was and still in within our power to educate ourselves on what
is going on around us….that we must enlighten ourselves and those around us. We need to become more self-aware and self-sufficient
to continue the 21st century of enlightenment.
In
the video Taylor talks about "to live differently, you have to think
differently"? I believe what he was
trying to say is that we need to stop looking back at the past and look to
toward the future. We need to be
positive and be willing to help each other out as human beings instead of
shutting each other out and keeping our faces buried in our phones and other
social media outlets. That has stopped
us from being aware of what is going on around us. Taylor explains that we need to see ourselves
and the world in a new perspective, perhaps see ourselves in new a light and
then will help us see the world differently.
We need to put out positive attitudes as this will come to us as
well. There is a saying that what you
put out is what you get back. So if we
want to live differently (happier, healthier, longer) we need to think
differently (be happy with who you are, see the good in others, encourage don’t
discourage). We need to actually make changes
in the world and not just talk the talk we need to walk the walk. We should be approaching the world and life
in a more holistic way instead of trying to find a “pill” that makes it all go
away or that conforms to what ‘should’ fit into a one size fits all.
At
one point in the video Taylor argues that we need "to resist our
tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or
false that which is only strange".
I feel that what he is saying is that we should not just go along with
the crowd, we should question the whys of things, make our own decisions based
on facts not hearsay or fears from the past.
We can have diverse values and traditions and these do not have to fall in
line with what is ‘normal’ or right for everyone else. I had a professor as an undergrad for
Abnormal Psychology who loved to tell us, “Question everything assume nothing”. It took me a couple of years to really
understand what she meant by that. It
seems that Taylor may have been saying the same thing here. We cannot just accept things because that is
the way it has always been done or that is what everyone else is doing so that
is what we should be doing. In the
organization I work for we are making changes for the better. We are questioning why things are done the
way they are and we are coming up with better and more efficient ways to do
it. Change should be embraced not shied
away from. We cannot be afraid of these
changes but strive to understand them better.
With
so many advancements in technology we are now sponges of everything that
happens around us because we know about pretty much anything and everything in
an instant. Imagine what it would have been
like during WWII if we could have seen exactly what was going on in Germany,
the things that Hitler was doing to innocent human beings for no other reason than
his own twisted thoughts on what the world should be like. Do you think that he would have be able to do
as many things as he did or would have the people raised up in protest to what was
happening and yelled loud enough for something to be done? Perhaps. As human beings most of us naturally want to
help as we are more empathetic to each other but we must continue it on a
larger scale. We should not be judging each other on who we want to love or
marry or the color of the skin of the president. We should not care what celebrities are doing
or what reality show is better. We need
to develop that empathetic attitude more and show each other that we care that
real world matters are more important than what is happening on Facebook or
Honey Boo Boo or Teen Moms.
At
the end of the video, Taylor talks about atomizing people from collaborative
environments and the destructive effect on their growth. What is the
implication of these comments for organizational change efforts? We need to start with ourselves and go from
there. Changes can happen with just a
few people but the more people you get to make changes for the better the
faster it will happen. Organizations are
changing so rapidly to keep up with advancements in every way and we can start
with these small changes as individuals and we need to start now. Putting action into motion creates change now
and we can learn from this and grow as well.
I can use these lessons from the video now in my department as far as
how to deal with individuals as well as the group. Understanding how actions and decision affect
as a group makes a big difference in how we will interact with each other. I need to be aware of how these consequences
with affect the team and how to ensure that we stay cohesive as a group.
Taylor, M. (2010). The 21st Century
Enlightenment. Retrieved fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&feature=youtu.be
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