Dear Harrison and all ~ By far my favorite teaching on this subject is Not-Two Is Peace: http://www.da-peace.org/.
Love, Julie On May 19, 2012, at 7:46 AM, Harrison Owen wrote: > Several days ago I had the unique pleasure of joining our friends and > colleagues (by Skype) in the Ukraine for their OSONOS. Given the state of the > Ukraine, to say nothing of the state of the world, the conversation > eventually got around to the subject of Leadership and Governance – and how > could all that work. That conversation seemed to meld seamlessly with one I > had had with a new friend here in the USA… Leadership and Governance. And > mixed in was a new thought (for me) all about Emergent Governance. As I said > to my US friend… > > You started me thinking – which ordinarily is a dangerous thing. I can’t > quite pin down the logical trail, but that is not surprising because I > usually find myself thinking in circles. But one point along the way was a > conversation I was engaged in yesterday. There is an interest group which has > monthly luncheons at my club with the vaporous name of “The Human Values > Group.” In truth we talk about whatever pleases and may or may not have > value. Anyhow the conversation yesterday drifted to a consideration of > various political forms. It seems that some of our members had just returned > from Cuba, so that was the start. Then we got on to dictatorships of various > sorts ranging from China to Singapore… and shortly we were arguing about the > “goods and the bads” – which quickly morphed into ideologies/political > systems, and you know where that one could go. > > As the folks headed into the stratosphere of abstraction – I found myself > thinking, wondering might be better – Has anybody ever done a natural history > of governance? Rousseau pops to mind, but he always seemed to me pretty > idealistic, and just as doctrinaire as anybody. For sure we have certainly > done histories of governance, tracing our way back from the present to > whenever. But how about the reverse? Two folks get together, Adam and Eve for > example. Relationships form and certain modes of behavior seem to work, > others don’t. It is not a function of laws, and certainly not legislation or > “idealized models.” Just very practical – and more to the point a natural > expression of that fundamental relationship which to the extent that it is > ever verbalized might be something like --- the way we do things around here. > Well that might be the beginning of a story, but before I got too far with > that one, my mind jumped. > > To Open Space. Funny thing. We have opened space 100,000’s of times in > multiple cultures, and the behaviors are almost identical (except for > superficials like language, dress, etc). And nobody ever specified the rules. > The Principles don’t count, and yes we do announce the Law of Two Feet – but > all of that is simply to acknowledge what will happen anyhow. So could we be > looking at emergent governance? We are definitely looking at the process of > self organization (I think). Could that be the root of governance? > > Big jump – here’s a thought. Rather than thinking about (working on, > creating) models of governance (autocratic, democratic, plutocratic, > sociocratic…whatever) which are then promulgated (you wrote a book, so did > Karl M.), and if implemented are almost inevitably laid on from the top > (wherever the top isJ)… how about starting at the bottom/beginning and see > what grows naturally? Emergent Governance! > > It would perhaps become necessary to clean things up a bit, regularize it, so > to speak – but that should be done, I suggest, all under the rubric of > finding the minimal level of structure necessary to sustain life. But all > that could only be done after the fact…of emergence. > > Just Thinking… > > Harrison > > > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Dr. > Potomac, MD 20854 > USA > > 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) > Camden, Maine 20854 > > Phone 301-365-2093 > (summer) 207-763-3261 > > www.openspaceworld.com > www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST > Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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