Mnr AM de Lange wrote:
> Please try to see that the car's fuel tank is almost empty, that its
> battery is almost flat and that ist air filter is clogged up. To keep on
> pushing that car forward once it has run out of life, is utter madness.
Richard C. "Doc" Holloway wrote:
"Drucker's 1989 book "The New Realities" spoke at length about the demise
of capitalism. His point was that it's already becoming obsolete and a
new age opening upon us. An historian and philosopher by the name of John
Tarnas, writing in "The Passion of the Western Mind" said that western and
eastern minds are synthesizing to develop a new outlook. And, my favorite
thinker, Ortega y Gasset, wrote and lectured volumes about the crisis that
western man experienced through the transition out of the middle ages. My
point is that we're entering the threshold of a similar crisis now, and
not one of us knows for sure what lies on the other side of the threshold.
That's why creativity, innovation, new mental models and collaborative
efforts are so integral to our success in the new world which we are
creating, even through this dialog."
Some thoughts and information in response:
Perhaps the car's fuel tank is almost empty, the battery almost flat and
the "demise" of capitalism upon us, but I would argue that you're talking
about the capitalism and car of the industrial era we are rapidly leaving
behind. We are still building the car and capitalism of the new
age/economy/era we are entering. There are those who will see the glass
as half empty and those as half full. Capitalism has not lost its
efficacy as an economic form, it is simply being transformed for a new
type of economy. We may rename it something else in the future as
language evolves, but the basics will likely still be she same.
In "Bionomics" Michael Rothschild says, "Capitalism, or the market
economy, or the free-enterprise system - whatever you choose to label it -
was not planned. Like life on earth, it did not need to be. Capitalism
just happened and will keep on happening. Quite spontaneously.
Capitalism fourishes whenever it is not suppressed, because it is a
naturally occurring phenomenon. It is the way human society oganizes
itself for survival in a world of limited resources. A capitalist economy
can best be comprehended as a living ecosystem....."
I've shared the Living Organizations model and some off-line discussions
with some of you. Having "discovered", "recognized", "synthesized" - or
whatever - the model, I'm perfectly comfortable with recognizing that
things are changing since I personally have a pretty strong sense of where
they are generally headed - and I have personally adopted the model's
principles for day to day living. Those who structure their lives and
organizations for flexibility and accept continuous adaptation, for
example, spend their time more productively than disparing over the
evolution going on about us.
For me, it makes sense because I believe that Rothschild (and others) are
correct - that the economy is an ecosystem - a complex adaptive system -
and so is human society. If that is true, it follows (to me at least)
that to survive and thrive in an ecosystem (which is a "living" system)
the members of the system will have to be structured and behave like
living organisms themselves. Don't forget that natural living systems are
the longest-surviving systems on the planet. There's a reason. If we are
to organize and act like living organisms, we'll have to get comfortable
with and embrace the principles by which living systems operate. And none
of us are likely to significantly sway the course of this evolving
circumstance.
Richard wisely observes that we are entering the threshold of a crisis and
encourages us to apply creativity, new models and continued dialogue as a
a way of working through it. Author Larry Wilson, provides us with an
interesting metaphore in the title of his article "Between Trapezes."
Wilson talks about the fact that we have or are in the process of letting
go of one set of rules and ways of knowing and have not yet got a grip on
the new ones. We must learn to hang in mid air "between trapezes"
gracefully for a while until we get a better handle on what's coming.
William Bridges, in "Job Shift" does a nice job of discussing the turmoil
and upheaval of the transition from the agrarian era to the industrial
one. Perhaps we forget the social unrest, displacements, riots, etc.
spanning some 50 years or more in the late 1700's and early 1800's - which
was the last time we made a major "era" shift like we are headed into now.
If history is any indicator, we can expect this dialogue to go on
throughout the lifetimes of most of us on this list. Given all of this, I
accept that upheaval, uncertainty, ambiguity, paradox and general termoil
will be around in our lives for a long time. But, I hope we are all
seeking to get aboard and help steer this locomotive than trying to stand
in front of or dispare about its course.
Several years ago, I wrote an article called "Bionic Business" (I recently
dis covered it again on a disk) recognizing that we were between the
machine models and the living ones in business organizations - we were
bionic - with characteristics of both. Bionic proves to be a state of
confusion and change, not a state of power and capability (Despite the 6
million dollar man) The "frail" living system proves to be inherently
stronger than the "powerful" mechanical one. But the transition process
is the issue and the difficulty. (Many of you have probably read William
Bridges' "Managing Transitions").
I've many more threads of dialogue to comment on such as our notions of
"stability," "competition," (and how living systems resolve it) how
evolution works in ecosystems, common lessons from DNA and the
microprocessor, etc. but this has gotten too long now. I'll be quiet and
listen a while.
Thanks, Rick, for making this dialogue one of the best "graduate seminars"
I've had the pleasure to sit in on. [Host's Note: You're welcome, Cliff!]
Cliff Hamilton <cliffrh@aol.com>
Progressive Visions
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>