A630.2.4.RB - 21st Century Enlightenment

The Video titled 21^st Century Enlightenment, by Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (RSA), takes a deeper look at where we were just a few centuries ago, pertaining to enlightenment and where we are now. Taylor (2010) gave us insight on century old values and how they worked for us. Additionally, he addresses the questions: “do these values still work for us?” and “Do they meet the challenges we now face?” An increase in education and innovation has pushed us passed the expectation of forefathers. It has catapulted the millennial generation into an era which daily ideas are changing the values, norms and lifestyle of modern society. 

In the video Taylor (2010) talks about how to live differently you have to think differently?  I believe what Taylor was trying to say is that in order to continue to move towards change we need to see things from a different perspective and not just only from the past. Taylor (2010) explains that to live differently we must respond purposely.  Brown (2011) explains that organizations either become more
adaptive, flexible, and anticipative, or they become rigid and stagnant, reacting to change after the fact and often when it is too late.
Taylor (2010) elaborates on this by stating that most of our behavior is the responses to the world around us, rather than the outcome of conscious decision making.

At one point in the video Taylor (2010) 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 believe he is trying to encourage us to expand our empathy’s reach. To elaborate, increasing our own understating not just what everyone else is thinking, and to make our decisions based on facts. In the military, complacency often occurs when the individual losses focus of their goals and objectives and usually follow what the crowd is doing. I saw this during my last deployment and people started to get complacent due to the high tempo. People were eager to get back home and it soon became a popular trend to become complacent with their jobs. Thankfully we had different programs in place to help personnel cope with change and to utilize their support groups, in order to minimize this effect.

Taylor (2010) argues that our society should eschew elements of pop culture that degrade people and that we should spend more time looking into what develops empathetic citizens. This ideology is strong and instrumental change that is needed in today’s society. To have this type of change, people should make the conscious decision for self-awareness and for individuals to take responsibilities for their actions. Is this task possible? Yes, but it’s going to take time and effort from everybody. Great nations weren’t built overnight and leaders are not born but made with diligence and determination. We need to have a mindset of diversity in order to encourage a healthy change where public disagreement is viewed as progress and not as an unhealthy habit of public disparagement (Taylor, 2010).  

At the end of the video, Taylor (2010) talks about atomizing people from collaborative environments and the destructive effect on their growth. This is true to say that in order to reach self-awareness and reach a sense of enlightenment we need to be ready and face change. We must put in the work in the effort to enhance change, and we must work as a team to ensure no one is left behind. 

In conclusion, to move towards change we must know who we are as human beings, have political debates about who we need to become, and have philosophical and spiritual debates of who we might aspire to be. This exercise was informative and eye opening. I hope to have a bigger role in my organization to help influence change and play my part in the bigger picture as an empathetic citizen of the Unites States Of America. I believe in order to create true awareness and enlightenment we must bring into the present what is of value from the past, and leave the rest behind us.

Reference:

Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Taylor, M. (2010). RSA Animate - 21st Century Enlightenment - YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&feature=youtube