The Great Reduction.

Our brains are amazing. Countless synapses, countless more pathways, unfathomable complexity and subtlety. Why then do we typically use them in mundane simplistic mode? I’m not talking about picking up a cup of tea, that in the scheme of things is pretty complex, I’m talking about judging simplistically, black or white, profit or loss, rich or poor that even a tree would be ashamed of. I say a tree because science has shown their roots are connected over large areas by fungi that helps them pass nutrients from strong to weak, older mothers to younger saplings to ensure the health of all; a World Wide Web combined with a National Health Service, all done silently and seamlessly under our feet. And this generosity is across all species. Nature has countless pathways of unfathomable complexity and sublime subtlety. Yet we just see a tree, $200, a cow, £150, an acre of land, £2,000 and so on in a reduction of breathtaking simplistic stupidity. Commoditisation at this level misses all subtlety. Matchbox toys, a company I once worked for, borrowed to expand but became so over-geared it couldn’t pay the interest even in good years, and went bust. Experienced engineers became insurance salesmen, one got a fish round, another sold double glazing. A vibrant ecosystem of skill and friendship died, corrupted by accountants. Schools have also been corrupted by numbers. What was once an enjoyable mutually creative endeavour has become a fearful scrabble for a league table position. Another ecosystem corrupted by simplistic accountancy. Whatever we do in the name of numbers corrupts because of its gross simplicity. Where old forests flourish neat rows of conifers grown for profit become diseased like cows and chickens, and if Britain measures us by GDP we won’t flourish either, and neither will our GDP. And now this pandemic is attempting to destroy the many million small ecosystems under our feet that bind us together in countless unfathomable ways. Jobs, sport, pubs etc, all gone in weeks like rows of ailing conifers stoically standing two meters apart. This great reduction, our reliance on crude simplicity to underpin our judgements of value stubbornly remains as driftwood to cling to having forgotten how to use our brain’s ‘countless synapses, even more pathways, unfathomable complexity and subtlety.’ And luckily Coronavirus has give us six months to think about it. We must surely become gardeners of ourselves not accountants of all we survey. Now think of a bank statement and then listen to this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC3GrzoQG9U