Dear Rick and LO,
I have been going back to some old LO threads on Maturana - that which
resulted from your attending his seminars some years back and you wrote
three or so very informative summaries or your experiences then. I thought
maybe, for many reasons, posting this (again) would be a very beneficial
thing to do.
I have has an idea you see;-) that we pay far too much attention to people
who call themselves 'gurus' and 'captains of industry' and 'thought
leaders' and 'authors' and 'this' and 'that' and I thought perhaps the
real source of it all-- ;-), the praxis of rvn in those places called
'community', 'societies', 'organizations' is not in fact generated in or
from the domains of the afore mentioned but of those others. I am
seriously concerned not at how little 'good' ;-) comes from there
involvement in cultural life, and organizational life (sic) but how much
positive 'harm' unintended and intended and every shade inbetween ;-) they
do.
I am wondering if, since the Stock Exchange is about to melt down,
management is now a defunct 'contradicto in adjecto' to all but the 'blind
still leading the blind' - even the managers of complexity ;-) we might
not better all be served ;-) if they all just quit the leading, speaking,
writing, consulting, pontificating part and did some more 'doing'.
Let me begin with a suggestion. Let everyone above in his own estimation
the role of a supervisor in a factory whether in status or pay, however
common sense defines it, become for one year a Caretaker. They must not
seek anything other than to become a caretaker.
Fwetynam ;-) had a very serious positive view of the eccentic British-- he
said we had a brilliant way with complexity ;-) it's called, 'make do and
mend'.
You know, reading this below...does anyone here know of any good examples
of people who have actually done what Maturana proposes?
love,
andrew
[Host's Note: Andrew included a long quotation from Maturana's
"Metadesign" paper; unfortunately that piece carrys a copyright which
prevents me from including it all. Instead, I am keeping the first portion
of Andrew's quotation, and I encourage you to read the article.
Andrew's quotation is at
http://www.inteco.cl/articulos/metadesign_parte3.htm
The full article begins at
http://www.inteco.cl/articulos/metadesign.htm
.. Rick]
>METADESIGN, part III, Reflections
>
>Technological transformations do not impress me, biological technology
>does not impress me, Internet does not impress me. I say this not out of
>arrogance. No doubt much of what we do will change if we adopt the
>different technological options at hand, but our actions will not change
>unless our emotioning changes. We live a culture centered in domination
>and submission, mistrust and control, dishonesty, commerce and
>greediness, appropriation and mutual manipulation ... and unless our
>emotioning changes all that will change in our lives will be the way in
>which we continue in wars, greediness, mistrust, dishonesty, and abuse of
>others and of nature. Indeed, we shall remain the same. Technology is
>not the solution for human problems because human problems belong to the
>emotional domain as they are conflicts in our relational living that
>arise when we have desires that lead to contradictory actions. It is the
>kind of human being, Homo sapiens amans, Homo sapiens aggressans, or Homo
>sapiens arrogans , at the moment in which we have access to a new
>technology, either as users or observers, what determines how we use it
>or what we see in it.
- Humberto Maturana, "Metadesign"
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