Thanks Durwin for this link. I scanned the front page and it certainly is fascinating to see the scholarship and seriousness going on today around this topic. Yes, I have always been part of the criticism around how "news" (in particular) is so absorbed in the negative, dark, evil, conflict side of life, and few want to promote the 'good news', so to speak. Several populist organizations pop-up now and then, at least back to the early 1980s to foreground the latter and offer more hope for humanity and our future. Unfortunately, they don't go far, or stay very marginalized relative to media and "news" rhetoric that preys on the fear and negative of life. I have watched this positivist-movement of story-telling the 'heroics' from the everyday from the sidelines, I have not always been impressed in their deeper motivations and critical awareness, but were more reactionary trying to balance the other side. Anyways, "heroism science" seems much more impressive initially in its scholarship to also assess and critique the notion of heroism, the construction of 'heroes' today. I'm all for that. I include an excerpt from their front webpage here, and then I'll comment on it relative to my thinking on fearlessness movement:
The 21st century has marked a shift in research trends across a number of disciplines, especially due to the increasing relevance of technologies in our daily lives and the demand for more complex and creative ways of thinking about our world. In particular, the focus in the sciences, psychology and the social sciences which have traditionally concentrated on the study of disease, evil, maladaptive and irrational behaviours, is now moving towards understanding positive behaviours and promoting personal and collective well-being. This has signalled an unprecedented rise in the study of such fields as resilience, flow, spirituality, sustainability, leadership, faith and many more. Heroism and heroic individuals represent the pinnacle of humanity – what we can become, do and experience. But, as we are discovering, decoding the heroic process, its antecedents and impacts is far from simple. Heroism science seeks to uncover the many complex layers of this state of human consciousness which has fascinated us since the dawn of humankind, as we look to the future in both awe and fear of what we might achieve.
This positivist-movement in psychology and social sciences is like Abraham Maslow's project in leading humanistic-existential and transpersonal psychology to be more interested in human potential than human failing and pathology. Fine as that is, my own framing is a little different. I would locate Maslow's project, like the human potential, new age, and now heroism science in the framework of my own developed theory of the spirit of fearlessness. This theory, most basically in a nut-shell, says that when fear appears, so then does fearlessness. This is the dictum I use and it requires critical assessment ongoing. It is a description of a movement, simply, from fear to fearlessness. This dynamic, imperative (and telos) is arguably at the most basic level "system regulation" for any living system. At the more complex, even metaphysical level, it is a way of integration, balancing, transforming that which is unhealthy and non-sustainable (e.g., Phobos-Thanatos) with sustainable and healthy forces/processes for development and evolution (e.g., Eros-Agape)--this latter e.g., is found in discourses from around the world and through time, in the form of Fear vs. Love or some close configuration. The love (Love) being the positive force (so-called) and fear (Fear) the negative.
Hero narratives, and the archetype are ancient vehicles for the transport of this movement--arguably, the movement of the spirit of fearlessness. A good integral science of heroism, or philosophy of heroism, ought to take this in to account, that is, if it really wants to penetrate deeply into the dynamic of the "hero" and all its aspects. I'm guessing, so far, the science of heroism will be somewhat lacking on this emphasis of (on) fear(ism) and fearlessness. Again, I ask all who join FM ning to look at the very first Forum piece I put up here on the history of the Fearlessness Movement (which, could be interpreted as a history of heroism, in the broad sense). I'll keep my eye open on this new field of study.
Comments
Thanks Durwin for this link. I scanned the front page and it certainly is fascinating to see the scholarship and seriousness going on today around this topic. Yes, I have always been part of the criticism around how "news" (in particular) is so absorbed in the negative, dark, evil, conflict side of life, and few want to promote the 'good news', so to speak. Several populist organizations pop-up now and then, at least back to the early 1980s to foreground the latter and offer more hope for humanity and our future. Unfortunately, they don't go far, or stay very marginalized relative to media and "news" rhetoric that preys on the fear and negative of life. I have watched this positivist-movement of story-telling the 'heroics' from the everyday from the sidelines, I have not always been impressed in their deeper motivations and critical awareness, but were more reactionary trying to balance the other side. Anyways, "heroism science" seems much more impressive initially in its scholarship to also assess and critique the notion of heroism, the construction of 'heroes' today. I'm all for that. I include an excerpt from their front webpage here, and then I'll comment on it relative to my thinking on fearlessness movement:
[excerpt from https://heroismscience.wordpress.com/]
The 21st century has marked a shift in research trends across a number of disciplines, especially due to the increasing relevance of technologies in our daily lives and the demand for more complex and creative ways of thinking about our world. In particular, the focus in the sciences, psychology and the social sciences which have traditionally concentrated on the study of disease, evil, maladaptive and irrational behaviours, is now moving towards understanding positive behaviours and promoting personal and collective well-being. This has signalled an unprecedented rise in the study of such fields as resilience, flow, spirituality, sustainability, leadership, faith and many more. Heroism and heroic individuals represent the pinnacle of humanity – what we can become, do and experience. But, as we are discovering, decoding the heroic process, its antecedents and impacts is far from simple. Heroism science seeks to uncover the many complex layers of this state of human consciousness which has fascinated us since the dawn of humankind, as we look to the future in both awe and fear of what we might achieve.
This positivist-movement in psychology and social sciences is like Abraham Maslow's project in leading humanistic-existential and transpersonal psychology to be more interested in human potential than human failing and pathology. Fine as that is, my own framing is a little different. I would locate Maslow's project, like the human potential, new age, and now heroism science in the framework of my own developed theory of the spirit of fearlessness. This theory, most basically in a nut-shell, says that when fear appears, so then does fearlessness. This is the dictum I use and it requires critical assessment ongoing. It is a description of a movement, simply, from fear to fearlessness. This dynamic, imperative (and telos) is arguably at the most basic level "system regulation" for any living system. At the more complex, even metaphysical level, it is a way of integration, balancing, transforming that which is unhealthy and non-sustainable (e.g., Phobos-Thanatos) with sustainable and healthy forces/processes for development and evolution (e.g., Eros-Agape)--this latter e.g., is found in discourses from around the world and through time, in the form of Fear vs. Love or some close configuration. The love (Love) being the positive force (so-called) and fear (Fear) the negative.
Hero narratives, and the archetype are ancient vehicles for the transport of this movement--arguably, the movement of the spirit of fearlessness. A good integral science of heroism, or philosophy of heroism, ought to take this in to account, that is, if it really wants to penetrate deeply into the dynamic of the "hero" and all its aspects. I'm guessing, so far, the science of heroism will be somewhat lacking on this emphasis of (on) fear(ism) and fearlessness. Again, I ask all who join FM ning to look at the very first Forum piece I put up here on the history of the Fearlessness Movement (which, could be interpreted as a history of heroism, in the broad sense). I'll keep my eye open on this new field of study.