EP 49 Why Are We Counterproductive?

A friend recommended I listen to a podcast on stupidity, where the question was posed:  "Why are we acting in ways that hurt ourselves and others?  Are we stupid?"

(The podcast was from Dystopia and it is in Swedish.  You can download it from here https://sverigesradio.se/topsy/ljudfil/srse/7878377.mp3)

I find that when we act in myopic ways that are counterproductive to ourselves and possibly others it is often related to an addiction.  And it can be argued that our current systems, such as capitalism, lead us in this direction.   

Also, to be able to make a living we will often be asked to follow the rules of a system that is in the end detrimental to the planet at large and to humanity in particular.   Thus we may end up doing the opposite of what we actually intend.  Perhaps we wish to heal people and so we become a physician, but end up having to follow absurd policies that end up creating more suffering.

We ask how we ended up with such systems and go even beyond capitalism and to the need of organisational capacity, which in the past has been tied to structures of power.   We look at how inefficient these structures are at utilising the human creative and problem solving potential and mention alternative ways.

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