What divides humankind from one another are mental boxes and mental fences that have possessed and controlled millions (or billions) of minds. Before communication among us can redeem us from this tragedy, we need to develop the technology (and art) of managing mental models, instead of our mental models managing us.
In previous blogs, I have written about:
- L16- Concepts can block learning
- L21- On Michael Jackson, or our mental models of people we know
- Listening where mental models of people conflict
- Q16- Seeing world problems: building on Gregory Bateson
- Q7- We found the enemy: our own concepts!?
I love to listen the John Lennon’s (one of the Beatles) song, “Imagine.” His song always moves me to sadness seeing how people “kill and die for” their mental models, and how our concepts lead to “greed or hunger”. At the same time, listening to John Lennon brings my soul to a height my mind cannot verbalize. You can listen to the song via YouTube by clicking HERE.
Here are the lyrics of this beautiful soulful song:
- Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
John Lennon asks us to imagine an alternative world reality. He encourages us, saying “it isn’t hard to do.”
Can you imagine the world he is describing in his song? If you can — even for a brief moment as you savor the lyrics, the song and the man’s dream behind the song — then you have momentarily freed yourself from powerful mental models/fences that semi-consciously shape decisions and behaviors of millions of people in Planet Earth.
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JOHN LENNON
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