Fascinating lecture on creativity from John Cleese of Monty Python fame…
To be at our most efficient, we need to be able to switch backwards and forward between [open and closed] modes [of thinking]. But — here’s the problem — we too often get stuck in the closed mode. Under the pressures which are all too familiar to us, we tend to maintain tunnel vision at times when we really need to step back and contemplate the wider view.
This is particularly true, for example, of politicians. The main complaint about them from their nonpolitical colleagues is that they’ve become so addicted to the adrenaline that they get from reacting to events on an hour-by-hour basis that they almost completely lose the desire or the ability to ponder problems in the open mode.
via John Cleese on the 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative | Brain Pickings.
I may be totally off the mark in thinking this post is a nudge to some politicians, namely PM Harper and President Obama, to consider a new way of dealing with some problems, e.g. decriminalization or outright legalization of drugs, ideas advanced during the current Summit of the Americas.
Backwards and tunnel-vision me thinks this is a hare-brained idea. The thinking seems to be:
• Police enforcement has not been able to eradicate the drug trade.
• Hey! let’s legalize the drug trade.
• Poof! the problem disappears and all’s well with the world.
BS.