Howard Jacobs wrote:
> There was an interesting piece on ABC (TV) news last night in a section
> they call "Solutions." It is about a prison in Texas that is being run by
> a Christian organization. The idea is to change the beliefs of the
> prisoners by inculcating them into religion. The program is new and it is
> too soon to evaluate the results.
>
> On the emotional level I have some difficulty with this type of approach
> but on the intellectual level it hit me as a great example of applying
> systems thinking to solve a problem.
Howard, listen to your emotional level. Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork
Orange" gave us an interesting look at a similar picture--although not
seemingly as benign as inculcating people into a new religion. Although,
the good Catholic fathers from Europe worked hard on American indigeneous
peoples (oh, yes, they were prisoners, too).
We have two great examples of using systems thinking, in economic and
political terms, to solve problems. They all occurred during the first
half of the twentieth century and were called fascism, nazism, stalinism,
and maoism. They were very popular with their adherents for their
intellectual simplicity. We're still living with the consequences of
those ideologies. Inculcating beliefs is a primary principle of social
life. Schools, churches, communities and families all play significant
roles in implementing that principle. One integral part, though, of the
"inalienable" rights of democratic peoples includes the moral rule of
autonomy. While society should permit and encourage its' members to act
rationally, and find socially acceptable means to deal with criminals,
this doesn't give society the right to act irrationally. If I want to
change my belief systems, then I'll choose to see Morty--or go to a
church--and see if I can succeed. If I don't want to change them, that's
my choice. Some folks would rather die than switch (or have their beliefs
"disappear").
-- Richard C. "Doc" Holloway, Thresholds--Human Development and Networking P.O. Box 2361, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 786-0925 Fax: (360) 709-4361 mailto:olypolys@nwrain.com"The familiar life horizon has been outgrown, the old concepts, ideals and emotional patterns no longer fit, the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand."
-Joseph Campbell
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>