Intro to the Care/Aware Index

I am not a social scientist, nor philosopher, but I play one in the blogosphere. And in that capacity I suggest that humanity has the ability now to solve many of its most of its threatening social problems. Simplistic explanations for violence and famine such as Evil, or the difficulty in getting disparate groups to agree, are just not productive. But, my simplistic explanation might be – many social problems are caused by people who aren’t aware or don’t care about others around them.

Think about poverty, crime, intolerance, war… We now understand much of what causes or contributes to all these issues.  We extract natural resources and manufacture vast quantities of goods. Grow crops that resist disease and drought. Identify the perpetrators of crimes from invisible traces of their presence. And write literature about struggle and oppression that change public consciousness. And yet many of the same societal ills that plagued us two thousand years ago are still present. To reduce their causes down to awareness and caring offers a set of root causes that a large and diverse group might agree on. It also gives small groups of individuals a means of evaluating how we all affect each other in our daily life, where we can do something about it.

Assessing how much we are aware and care about others is a good framework for exploring our interdependence, for understanding how we all affect each other. And it is self reinforcing. Once we understand how much we affect each other, how much we rely on each other, we just might be motivated to become more aware, and to care more.

When a person encounters someone who isn’t aware of them, or doesn’t seem to care, negative interactions result. These unpleasant interactions can range from a person walking away frustrated with a dimmer view of humanity that will probably turn into a bitterness or apathy later, to name calling, to verbal altercations, or even physical violence. The alternative is to assess the person who was unaware or did not care.  To attempt to understand, within reason, if that person was aware or uncaring. Like anything, measuring awareness can range from simple to easy. Did that person see or hear the other person? (fairly easy) Is a person who became upset with another for not seeming to listen aware that person has a hearing problem? (more difficult) As we delve into the more difficult issues of awareness, we cross over into the realm of caring, because a person must care about her surroundings to take the effort to become more aware.

While awareness is a somewhat objective measurement, caring can be much more subjective. People can care in many different ways. Here’s how to measure if someone cares – if that person wants or tries to have mutually satisfactory or agreeable interaction. While mutual satisfaction can be difficult to achieve, using it as a goal creates a nice framework for us to gather information. It leads to questions we can use to assess the level of caring and awareness in ourselves and in others.

Don’t be afraid to assess other people. I will have another post about judging others soon. We have to judge others to make decisions about how to interact with them. But to do it fairly, you need accurate information. We all depend on each other for information about what we think and want of others. Ask questions. Pay attention. Soon, you’ll be more aware.  Don’t feel guilty about this if you are willing to be honestly assessed yourself. If you’re willing to judge but not be judged, then there is a problem, and that also, is a subject of a future post. But for those with one sided self interest as their primary goal, properly understanding interdependence should illuminate how caring about others may lead to more sustained reward. How a person goes about assessing others will signal how much they care. If they don’t care much, their reward from a society that is increasingly aware of its interdependence will shrink accordingly.

Unless we kind of like dealing with the same problems because they are exciting and make for good reality tv, we ought to try to resolve some of them. Those of you who fear boredom in a harmonious society should find comfort in the fact that we will probably just encounter a brand new and exciting set of problems. I am optimistic but I hope not naïve. Figuring out how to disagree without starving, stabbing, or smearing each other should not be that difficult, but it will open up a new set of problems. I am developing the Care/Aware Index as both an assessment and survey tool for us to get to know each other better. And since I lack professional credentials in psychology, sociologies or any other ‘ologies, I am also introducing this in a series of fictional stories beginning with Forgive and Take. If it doesn’t help anyone in the real world, maybe it will in a speculative one.

4 Replies to “Intro to the Care/Aware Index”

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