Better Ways to Live Honoring Social Inventors Exploring New Challenges edition by Craig K Comstock Politics Social Sciences eBooks
Download As PDF : Better Ways to Live Honoring Social Inventors Exploring New Challenges edition by Craig K Comstock Politics Social Sciences eBooks 
Everybody knows what a physical invention is, but what is a social invention? On the community level, it can be as simple as a story-telling evening or an “abundance swap,” both among the many examples described here. On the global level, the Peace Corps was a social invention. "Better Ways to Live" celebrates many successful social inventions, and explores challenges that invite new ways of working together. It’s a form of creativity, inventing the social forms that enrich our lives.
Better Ways to Live Honoring Social Inventors Exploring New Challenges edition by Craig K Comstock Politics Social Sciences eBooks
Comstock argues that while ‘“gratitude” may sound goody-goody. It’s not.It can be hard to articulate gratitude after the habit of complaint, of self-doubt,
of disappointment, of denial.”
I am especially grateful for Comstock’s discussion of “mindful molecules”
(to which he dedicates a section of his new book), and his attempts to help
move the use of such profound materialities beyond the “medical model”
(which perpetuates a politics of inequality—“clients” and “professionals”—
and an attitude of dependence), and towards more egalitarian engagements
within mutually supportive communities. One of Comstock’s particular insights
is recognizing the dangers of “trivialization,” helping us to avoid the conclusion
that we already know what we’re talking about.
Comstock reminds us, among other things, that “before the government panic
about ‘drugs,’ a Stanford professor of engineering ran a research program in
the 1960s on using classic psychedelics to promote creativity.... What the
scientists found was that under these [carefully prepared] conditions the
molecules increased creativity” (p. 87).
Gratitude for mindful molecules is hardly a matter of “goody-goody,” given
that these botanically forged, atomically precise, “consciousness” catalysts
merit the label “thanatogen” perhaps as much as “entheogen,” because they
bring into “sharp focus ... one’s mortality” (St John, G. _Mystery School in
Hyperspace_ [p. 6]).
Comstock’s gratitude for mindful molecules is nuanced, cautious, and
relentlessly optimistic. I am grateful for this publication of his multiple
“reports on the wise use of psychedelics” (p. 88).
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Better Ways to Live Honoring Social Inventors Exploring New Challenges edition by Craig K Comstock Politics Social Sciences eBooks Reviews
OVERVIEW
Craig Comstock’s Better Ways to Live reports examples of inventing new social practices to address emerging social challenges, given the inadequacy of conventional responses. Most examples aim to promote social goods or to mitigate social harms. Some suggest how, facing trends they can’t stop, people might adapt or transform. Overall, the book provides lively summaries of a wide range of unfamiliar activism and commentary. (The reviewer – a political scientist who studies China – should note that he is an old friend of the author but is not featured in this book.)
Ten sections treat social invention at various scales, ranging from personal to local to global. At the intimate end are individual self improvement (mental expansion, spiritual development) and personal interactions (mentoring & therapy). At an intermediate scale are local social action (building community and inducing leadership, pursuing social justice and taking economic initiatives). The most difficult dynamics lie at the international scale (world politics and global warming). A section on “tough times scenarios” suggests both the gravity of the challenges and the depth of the likely accompanying transformations.
Deft writing makes these heavy topics read lightly, the opposite of a specialized academic monograph. Instead the book draws on Comstock’s broad interests and experiences, citing a wide range of authors and literatures. Few readers will already know all these and most will find new ones worth pursuing. The book provides several pages of discursive End Notes, a list of Books Mentioned (42), and a record of Original Publication or Broadcast. About two-thirds of the chapters were originally published in The Huffington Post and about a fifth are edited from interviews.
CONTENT
The book’s ten sections contain 44 short chapters, each “honoring social inventors exploring new challenges.” The exemplars include a few historical figures (Jefferson, Thoreau, FDR) and some recent national leaders (Kennedy, King). However, most are contemporaries of author Comstock “as friends, authors, mentors, or writers....” These are mostly “counter-cultural” figures, many with national reputations, but few featured by mainstream media. Comstock encountered about a third of them in southern Oregon, where he has lived since 2000.
Of course, readers may differ with Comstock about the relative priority of emerging challenges and the likely efficacy of novel responses. For example, this reviewer is concerned mostly with global dynamics (USA-PRC relations, climate change) and with improving conventional processes (national party politics, global political-economy). All the more so now that some important conventional processes are not merely inadequate but actively destructive of foundational conventions of democracy and science.
Comstock well understands conventional large-scale political and economic dynamics but critiques them mostly indirectly, by presenting unconventional supplements and alternatives. These are always informative and sometimes inspiring. Moreover, some may prove useful – even essential – for addressing the current crisis in conventional processes. However, if so, we need more critical assessment than Comstock provides of the actual effectiveness of the unconventional alternatives.
CONTEXT
This is the third book in Comstock’s “gratitude trilogy,” which reports constructive experiences of himself and others, evidently to “give something back” from a rich life. Even just the general notion of such a project deserves admiration and emulation, quite apart from the specific contents of its parts. (The three books are 2015 Gift of Darkness, 2016 Enlarging Our Comfort Zones, and 2016 Better Ways to Live, all from Willow Press in Ashland, Oregon.)
The first volume reported the struggle of a young Jewish man to survive in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. The second reported Comstock’s own mid-life explorations, which deepened his appreciation of family and friends. This third volume reports efforts to construct nurturing communities, to achieve effective citizen action, and to pursue justice and sustainability. The third volume and its examples again invite analogous efforts by others.
A fifth of the examples come from interviews Comstock has conducted for local public access television with “people and activities that arouse admiration and gratitude." All this using only his own talents, friends’ cooperation, and local station facilities. That constellation of resources is specific to Comstock, but again suggests that others can assemble their own constellations.
Comstock argues that while ‘“gratitude” may sound goody-goody. It’s not.
It can be hard to articulate gratitude after the habit of complaint, of self-doubt,
of disappointment, of denial.”
I am especially grateful for Comstock’s discussion of “mindful molecules”
(to which he dedicates a section of his new book), and his attempts to help
move the use of such profound materialities beyond the “medical model”
(which perpetuates a politics of inequality—“clients” and “professionals”—
and an attitude of dependence), and towards more egalitarian engagements
within mutually supportive communities. One of Comstock’s particular insights
is recognizing the dangers of “trivialization,” helping us to avoid the conclusion
that we already know what we’re talking about.
Comstock reminds us, among other things, that “before the government panic
about ‘drugs,’ a Stanford professor of engineering ran a research program in
the 1960s on using classic psychedelics to promote creativity.... What the
scientists found was that under these [carefully prepared] conditions the
molecules increased creativity” (p. 87).
Gratitude for mindful molecules is hardly a matter of “goody-goody,” given
that these botanically forged, atomically precise, “consciousness” catalysts
merit the label “thanatogen” perhaps as much as “entheogen,” because they
bring into “sharp focus ... one’s mortality” (St John, G. _Mystery School in
Hyperspace_ [p. 6]).
Comstock’s gratitude for mindful molecules is nuanced, cautious, and
relentlessly optimistic. I am grateful for this publication of his multiple
“reports on the wise use of psychedelics” (p. 88).
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