Climb Higher, Swim Deeper

This is Part 1 of the Impersonal Computing series. Check out Part 2 and Part 3.

When I write these newsletters, I try to be brief. I don't have the attention span to read an email for more than 5 minutes, so I figure you don't either. My lack of attention span is one of the reasons why my attempt to withdraw from the world for the past month failed miserably, but luckily, I've had a lot of time to meditate for the past month. This is great because I now have a ton to say about our impersonal attitudes toward relationships, but it's a problem because my first draft clocked in at roughly 20-minutes long.

So I broke it up into four separate posts.

This is the first part of my Impersonal Computing series, all coming to your inbox in our regularly scheduled cadence. Today, I'm just going to lay out some definitions of impersonalism and personalism and how they relate to spiritual life. In Part 2, I'll talk about how modern technology and society enable us to live an impersonal existence under the guise of personalization. In Part 3, I'll share why impersonalism in relationships is the root cause of our dissatisfaction. Part 4 will reflect on what we can do to help combat our impersonal attitudes and some concluding thoughts. This leads us to my significant reflection from the past month:

More often than not, modern technology amplifies our impersonal attitude toward relationships, which is the root cause of our dissatisfaction with life.

While impersonalism predates modern technology, I'm going to lay the blame for amplifying our impersonal ideas on modern technology. One of the foundational principles of the Industrial Revolution was interchangeable parts. Without being able to build machines that were all the same, mass-produced goods are impossible to build. But that relates to the creation of inanimate objects - how is that impersonal?

Simply put, impersonalism is a refusal to recognize the individuality of others and frequently takes the form of imposing uniformity on others. Systems are inherently impersonal, and while there may be some wiggle room in our jobs today, it wasn't like that 150 years ago. The factory jobs of the Industrial Revolution treated workers like replaceable parts and built a whole way of life around their work. It didn't matter if you weren't hungry during your scheduled lunch; you had to eat anyways. Impersonalism is the defining feature of material, manufactured existence.

impersonalism: a refusal to recognize individuality, characterized by imposed uniformity.

Naturally, personalism is the opposite of impersonalism. It's the idea that the individual matters more than everything else and that everyone has a unique situation. Think of the times you've opened your heart to someone who was just going through the motions and didn't care about your personal situation: how crappy did that feel?

I might be coming off as completely discounting impersonalism. That's not the case! Impersonalist systems aren't bad - they're merely less effective at bringing someone to the highest levels of whatever they're trying to get good at. The best way to give an example of the differences between personalism and impersonalism is by looking at sports.

In an impersonal system - like high school gym class - everyone is asked to run the same mile or taught the same techniques for swinging a hockey stick. If you finish the mile under a set time, you get an A. But not everyone has the same athletic capabilities; naturally, some kids will be more skilled than others. So much emphasis is given to making sure we don't leave the lesser capable people behind - judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree and all that - that we lose sight of the fact that the kid who runs a 5-minute mile gets the same grade as the kid who squeaks in under the 10-minute mile cutoff.

On the other hand, a personal system is one that not only refuses to judge the fish for not being able to climb a tree but encourages and evaluates the fish on its ability to swim. It also ensures that the tree-climbing monkey is encouraged and rewarded for climbing a tree well!

If you look at most pro athletes - even the ones in team sports - they have personal coaches and trainers. Some of the greatest athletes have coaches that they've worked with their whole life, opting out of the impersonal system entirely. Impersonalist systems are really good at establishing a baseline. But if push comes to shove, personalism must always be the default option, especially if you're serious about what you do.

This principle of personalism over impersonalism is useful in all areas of life, but it's maybe most important when it comes to spiritual life. For a generation that identifies with "spiritual but not religious" more than any other label, understanding that impersonalism is the cause of our dissatisfaction is crucial.

One reason that more and more people identify with "spiritual but not religious" is that their experiences with spirituality have been highly institutionalized. Any dissatisfaction we have with an institution is because it isn't properly serving the needs of the people in a way that considers their problems, i.e., isn't personal. Forming a personal spiritual connection with those around us, with the higher power we believe in, and having a more integrated personality are things many, if not most, sincere spiritual practitioners seek.

We need to be personal as spiritual practitioners because impersonal spirituality isn't going to get us to the deepest levels of satisfaction. It may bring us to a baseline of inner stillness, but we shouldn't be satisfied with simple neutrality: positive is better!

I'll pause here for now, and pick up in 2 weeks by elaborating on how modern society and technology enable us to live an impersonal existence, under the guise of personalization.

Happy to be back,
-Sid