Elegance in complexity is a concept that emphasizes the need to look for “access points” in order to help seed and evolve new capacities for a changing and dynamic society. If we are to become prepared for an increasingly complex and interdependent society; we need to upgrade our culture. In a search for access points of interest and learning potential, an upgrade of mental capacity is necessary to see emerging patterns in apparently chaotic situations requiring expanding knowledge. Developing transformational capacities will be required whether it is to use the internet, the capacity to identify weak signals and know future trends, the capacity to think connectively or the capacity to become involved with electronic entrepreneurs throughout the world.
Elegance in complexity is quite different than what we find in egalitarian society that prefers dumbing down to complexity. On the one hand, the political sphere emphasizes a language that speaks so all people can understand. On the other, the hypercompetitive nature of our worldwide economy is based on being different and distinctive on purpose. Add this to the increasingly complex nature of our international clash of civilizations, and it becomes obvious that dumbing down to be understood no longer works for us. When people are ridiculed for being nerds, they wonder why, because intellectuals will be in demand in a creative knowledge economy. And yet, at the same time, we find entertainment filled with violence and crudeness that has been dumbed down for cultural consumption. We make money into a god by marketing to sell to the desire of the less educated or wise population. It is the dumbing down of culture that fails to prepare us for the future whether it be dumbing down of our culture or of our morality. Our future vitality will require the need to upgrade the knowledge base and moral and ethical fiber of the population to think and act maturely at a higher level in order to be able to innovate and collaborate in sustainable ways.
In a time of chaos, interdependence and interconnectedness and complexity – now, as much as any time in history we need to embrace the elegance of complexity in every way our imagination allows.