Hi. In response to John Engle's posting . . . Perhaps we are not so much "wired" as "conditioned" to seek and/or establish centralized power in organizations. And perhaps we have such a paucity of current "collective" experience with self-organizing systems within our daily lives, that we don't know what to choose otherwise. Stella Humphries directed my attention to an exploration that I believe has profound practicality. Bernard Lietaer has been promoting a key concept of self-organization -- Sustainability. He has written a book on the concept. I offer Stella's gift to this community: _____
The book can only be ordered from Europe -- Amazon.com.uk has copies. The ordering information for the book is: TITLE: "The Future of Money -- Creating New Wealth, Work, and a Wiser World" AUTHOR: Bernard Lietaer DATE: 2001 PUBLISHER: Century London, Random House Group Ltd. ISBN: 0712683992 _____ Mark R. Jones Chief Technical Officer -- SPAWAR INFOTECHCTR (SITC) Chief Architect -- Science & Engineering Associates (SEA) Corporate Vice President -- Science & Engineering Associates (SEA) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- New Orleans: 504-304-2460 Seattle: 425-413-6000 Message: 702-341-7700 e-Mail: <mailto:mark.r.jo...@seabase.com> mark.r.jo...@seabase.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _____ -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of John Engle Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 8:48 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Open Space ,Self-Organizing Systems, and The Plexus Institute harrison, thank you for the invitation to share our questions. the ongoing question for me is this: why is it that in quite a few cultures, at least those that i am familiar with, human beings are "wired" or "programmed" in a way which leads us to gravitate toward centralizing power in organizations, and for trying to take responsibility for things totally divorced from our own behavior? perhaps i am overlooking the many examples where these tendencies don't occur. just seems that so often that this is the case. for example, i could be working with groups of street boys and older boys insisting that younger ones work with me while they themselves don't, or literacy teachers who will invest a full day discussing what the government should do about literacy, when there is no evidence to suggest that their suggestions will even be considered...or, a group of leaders in an NGO (nongovernmental organization) who are trying to dictate the services that unpaid volunteers give to the organization...the list could go on and on. my question is, where does this come from and why is it so difficult for us to see the folly in it? ...at least folly for the well intentioned people. its totally understandable that people who want to dominate and exploit would behave in this manner. but we all watch, wonderful people with good intentions (including ourselves) frequently gravitate toward centralizing power in organizations and trying to take responsibility for things divorced from our own behavior. seems that these things clog up a fluid and life-giving self-organizing process. john ===== Website: http://theexperiment.info Sitentenet : http://eksperyansla.info Site : http://Lexperience.info Patisipe nan konvèsasyon sou entènet la sou Espas Ouvri ak Wonn Refleksyon - voye yon mesaj a : reseauforumouvert-subscr...@yahoogroups.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
