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Civilization as a Self-Terminating Algorithm: Tyson Yunkaporta on PYP 436

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Tyson Yunkaporta is an Australian Aboriginal artist, philosopher, and researcher who lectures on Indigenous Knowledge at Deakin University in Melbourne. He's also the author of Sand Talk, a book that has influenced my thinking more profoundly than any other.

Basically, Yunkaporta turns the lens of anthropology around and puts Western civilization under the microscope, showing us how insane and unsustainable the entire project is.

The usual “cross-cultural” pattern involves Western academics explaining “primitive” cultures whose land settlers have stolen, while science plunders their plant knowledge and pop culture appropriates the trinkets and baubles ripped out of the context of their deep traditions.

In Sand Talk, Yunkaporta surveys the last 10,000 years of civilization from an Indigenous perspective, and shares Indigenous thinking that, he claims and I agree, can “save the world.” Rather than focusing on the content of Aboriginal culture, he urges us to become familiar with the knowledge processes that generated that content. Because those knowledge processes are alive, and vibrant, and critically relevant to the crises that humanity faces today.

I heard about Sand Talk from frequent podcast guest Glenn Murphy, who had to tell me to read it far too many times. Once I did (technically, I listened to Yunkaporta reading the audiobook, which he does brilliantly, and which compelled me to buy the hardcover edition as soon as I was done), I reached out to the author requesting an interview with me and Glenn.

It turns out that Yunkaporta has been fascinated by the martial art that Glenn and I practice, a Russian form called Systema. (Glenn's my instructor, and host of the Systema for Life podcast.) A lot of the conversation includes the two of them yarning (or yarning-adjacent) about the similarities in their two worldviews on topics such as energy, flow, community, haptic cognition, as well as violence and its necessity, and humane approaches to harm reduction.)
In the conversation, Yunkaporta exploded several myths that I've lived by. We discussed:

  • the mistaken view of the centrality of “fight-or-flight” in the human experience
  • the futility of “self-improvement”
  • the central mistake of Western civilization
  • the roots of narcissism and why they're so hard to escape in our culture
  • the myth of the selfish human, and where it comes from
  • the biased data set that underlies junk anthropology about violent cavemen
  • our entire culture as a “self-terminating algorithm”
  • what happens when violence is made opaque and driven from the commons
  • how the education system domesticates humans in order to foster obedience
  • the centrality of conflict to human existence, and why it must be spread around like manure to grow new things
  • the false choice of all binaries
  • and much more…

Links

Sand Talk, by Tyson Yunkaporta

Yunkaporta's professional page at Deakin University

A fun Systema video montage

Glenn's Systema for Life podcast

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

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