Portrait of a Pioneer a Dialogue Between Warren Brodey and Rita Westvik
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US portrait of a pioneer a dialogue between Warren Brodey and Rita Westvik to all the young ones who believe that the future has a future printed at Allkopi – 1st edition June 19th2004 US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 2 portrait of a pioneer US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 3 “There is an intimate reciprocity to the senses; as we touch the bark of a tree, we feel the tree touching us; as we lend our ears to the local sounds and ally our nose to the seasonal scents, the terrain gradually tunes US in turn. The senses, that is, are the primary way that the earth has of informing our thoughts and of guiding our actions. Huge centralised programs, global initiatives, and other “top-down” solutions will never suffice to restore and protect the health of the animate earth. For it is only at the scale of our direct, sensory interactions with the land around us that we can appropriately notice and respond to the immediate needs of the living world.” David Abram, THE SPELL OF THE SENSOUS p. 268 (my italic) US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 4 WHY DIALOGUE? This book could have been a linear biography, an endless poem, a scientific essay or a business plan. The chosen form is the dialogue, written to honor Warren M. Brodey, M.D., a Norwegian citizen born in Toronto who reached 80 on January 25th 2004. A dialogue is a process of sharing rather than discussing, of searching for new understanding rather than teaching proven answers - and one of mutual listening. Warren’s way of thinking is of a systemic and conceptual character. He addresses what is beneath and beyond the obvious and commonly understood, always eager to find new ways of addressing vital challenges of our times. He explores “praxis” rather than words, trying to reach a deeper knowledge of common, everyday behavioral patterns, looking for ways to help us all at mastering necessary change, often painful... Warren and I have spent years on doing, talking and thinking together in organizations and in private. This constantly on-going conversation is a life-form, a friendship-genre among co-active human beings. This dialogue-book is meant as a talkpiece – an effort to stimulate further reflection and dialogue among several us’es. We live in a time of digital revolution (“from atoms to bits”, as Negroponte puts it), but even more profound is the relational revolution of to-day’s networked society, especially when interpreted as relational interfaces between all living creatures and energies. The essence of relationship is dialogue, with and without words. It is my hope that this little extract of our dialogue – in words - will bring a glimpse of Warren’s concepts, philosophy and life work – enough to stimulate further reflection and dialogue among ourselves – including you, the reader. Warren teaches fish about water. He has given me new perspectives. Deeper understanding of the magic of the human hand. Unconditional love. Tools to think with. A gorgeous red Tibetan Crown and an old, bright mandala, always in my living- room. The book of changes, I CHING, one of the oldest surviving books in the world, US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 5 packed in a wonderful, embroidered piece of silk from China, where he worked for a while to create a biomedical center. Warren has shared laughter and sharp intellectual analyses. He has offered deep presence through urgent moments in life. Together we have created crazy and wonderful projects. We met in an iron factory in the mid-seventies in Oslo, Norway, passionately involved with left-wing political praxis. Warren is an interface rider gap provider continuum surfer biospiritual explorer flow navigator life lover old child info diver label avoider movement hunter osmotic learner touching helper brain expander light knight wise warrior street-smart survivor a body beyond borders a mind belonging to several realms US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 6 Warren never fits into one “PROGRAM”. He explores interfaces between man and machines, between man and other living creatures. He is a medical doctor and member of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. As a psychiatrist he is known as a pioneer in the field of family therapy. He has worked with cybernetics, artificial intelligence and man-machine systems in several laboratories including ones at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and NASA in USA and NTH. (To-day NTNU, a centre for technological education and research in Norway). He says: “Our new tools can help us to solve the problems which they create. But not if they are used the old way. The new tools help us to press us beyond our old conventions. It is the speed of growth outside of us relative to growth within us that determines what change we feel. As we grow faster and in the correct direction, future shock is replaced by the sense of wonderful excitement.” He has been the leader of the Environmental Ecology Laboratory in Boston. He has three patents. One patent describes interactive soft materials, another relates to the transmission of touch and pressure over telecommunication networks and the third relates to a tactile computer mouse. He has published in a wide variety of scientific journals as well as authoring two books. He has been an initiator of companies in America and Norway. He is co-founder of CompuTouch A/S and of Health Vibes Institute. He talks to trees and his higher self and teaches fish about water. He says: “Life-work is the work that life does. All life is the product of life-work. Life surrounds us, it is fluid, it enlivens all creatures, from the smallest to the largest, and also surges within us. From this point of view all creatures, including even our cells, our atoms and molecules, are not separate things. Nor are plants separate from each other, or from the forests and mountains. We are all enlivened by life force – life energy, in all the combinations that exist.” This book is partly based on a recorded bio-dia-logue between US in October 2003. To touch and to be touched in a free dialogue gives energy. Without resonance there is no US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 7 hope. These words that you are about to read don’t tell the truth about Warren. They tell something about US, a true relationship, which in the long run, ecologically understood, is more important. You will soon be introduced to the parties present in this dialogue. But another party unexpectedly turned out to give different descriptions to the recorded “living moments” between Warren and myself, namely Rasa in Vilnius, Estonia, who did the first transcription from mini-discs. Several “now-moments” of ours had changed meaning in the files being zipped to me from Rasa. Some examples: Nerd = Nurde; I Ching =Eaching, Freud =Froid, Oppenheimer = Oprenhim, Nazi =Naccy and tacit= taskive. After worrying what to do with the obvious cultural and language barriers, I decided to have a good, loud LAUGH – and to thank Rasa for the fast and professional work she has done. Even more funny was the spelling of some of the Norwegian names, creative language development that may occur when we try to communicate across national boarders – a good reminder, when working on dialogue: Black Goolf = Blekkulf, Entohow = NTH; Swiskisem= Friskis & Svettis; booda pasts= Budapest and Gomer Ullers Fart = Gamle Oles Far, a Danish cheese – which it took me some time to decode. When I said street skills, she had heard streets killed.. and when I was talking of “anima in men in Jung’s theory”, it was transcribed as anymonamen in youngs theory. The Norwegian Social Democratic Party, Arbeidepariet, came out as arbatorpt. That sure gives hope for the social democrats’ ability to change in the future. But we managed, and I send Rasa my warmest thoughts and thanks for her contributions! Warren does not care much about words and labels, anyway… US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 8 Let me share with you one of Warrens favorite stories: Once there was a group of people who had to cross the desert. They had the supplies they could carry. When they started, they rationed the food carefully, but as the trip grew longer and longer, the older members of the group, the leaders, realized that they were not likely to have the energy to manage. They started to consume the supplies in a careless way, spilled water and even bathed. The young people saw this, and decided that they must go forward alone. And they left enough supplies for the older ones to die slowly. Then they took off to find their own way across the desert. Warren was told this story when he had just resigned from an exclusive group that included a prestigious scientific leader working for the American Government, who among other things had worked on the Manhattan project, developing the first atom bombs. Warren was unhappy about leaving that group, but at the time (early 60ies), he felt that the majority of participants were politically too far to the right. After telling the story, the leader of the group stated that Warren belongs to the young people. He still does. US – a portrait of a pioneer Page- 9 coming up: US energy fields Norway complaining consumerism exploring rebel us uniqueness important persons ecology of life death nameless knowledge perspective biobalance yeah, then… he seems to be working; the machine is picking up what we are going to talk about… ok yeah ok, so we decided that you are here, I am here, and us are here…and… they!? they are here.