RE: Faulkner and Organizations
I think we need to be somewhat circumspect in applying the words of
Faulkner in the context of postmodern organizational life. Faulkner's
Nobel Speech can be found at
www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/faulkner/faulkner.html. Through one of his
characters, Gavin Stevens, the lawyer, he said, "The past isn't dead. It
ain't even past." Faulkner's world was that of Southern rural life. And
while humanity may prevail, it prevails against itself, not primarily the
outside world. The lessons of Faulkner from his work is that our cultures
live within us, not out there. That we are a conflicted mixture of
unrighteousness and honor and sacrifice. If we prevail, we do so because
we have learned to counter our worst tendencies toward social destruction
in pursuit of personal attainment.
And as you say, that you can't speak at a distance about a country, until
you have lived there, I think that is also true for the South. It is
unique in the United States because of the institution of slavery's impact
upon Southern culture. Faulkner's work seems overly pessimistic because
he wrote about a culture where status was achieved through owning other
human beings. Ironically, Faulkner can write about the prevailling of
humanity because of the paradoxical nature of Southern culture. In a land
where people owned people, people also valued chivalry, perseverance,
honor, thriftiness and other classical virtues. Those virtures are the
ones which enable individuals and cultures to prevail over their worse
tendencies. And they were evident, not just in the landed noble class of
slave owners, but in the slaves themselves. Their nobility, sacrifice for
others and perseverance in the midst of extreme hardship are the virtues
which enable individuals prevail. And this is what Faulkner saw in his
Southern rural culture in Mississippi.
What does this mean for modern, late 20th century global citizens striving
to prevail in the fast changing world of organizations? It means that the
virtures of community and citizenship are the ones which can insure the
survivability of a culture, whether civic or organizational. It means
that the challenge begins within, not without. Southern culture is a
microcosm of the continuing tension between the best and the worst in each
of us. And Faulkner, I believe, still captures better than anyone that
paradox between virtue and evil.
You can visit the Faulkner on the Web site at
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/faulkner.html .
Ed Brenegar
Leadership Resources
edb3@msn.com
--"Ed Brenegar" <edb3@email.msn.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>