"Relating Deeply and Facing Reality" with Ashok Panikkar Fractal Friends

The guest in this episode is Ashok Panikkar. Ashok is committed to helping develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions that are vital to strengthening the culture of democracy in the face if the eroding of confidence in liberal democracies and the rise of illiberal and authoritarian regimes. This episode promises to get us to question everything we thought we know about democracy, rights and freedom.

In this conversation we talk about how democracy depends on people understanding our interrelatedness and highlights the importance of developing quality relationships. We talk about how conflict and diversity are deeply connected with each other and how both require care and attention. The way that we engage with conflict and diversity can lead to either positive or negative experiences. 

We talk about facing reality, and how despite what it seems, we are living in the best time in history. We need to be thoughtful and careful about what parts we want to criticize or change, and what parts we want to keep the same. We talk about how our current culture (especially capitalism) encourages the "Commodification of the soul."  We consider the power of understanding that as individuals we are pretty small in the big picture and this understanding can liberate us from the prison of identity and as free individual we can really embrace the joy of living in uncertainty and complexity.

Music: "Temperature Rise and Fall" by Sky Nelson-Isaacs