[Ailist] Re: Connecting with Others

[Bruce Elkin]

Rob, 
ŒIn your piece you state that hierarchies are linear and limited.  That is
not completely accurate.  The human body, indeed all of nature, is organized
in complex interactive hierarchies.  Wanna test this?  Go outside in the
rockies for a long time in the cold and see what gets chilly first, your
toes, fingers, ears, nose, or your heart, gut and brain.

Naturally, it¹s the little appendages.  In the body¹s hierarchy, they are
expandable.  The gut, heart, and brain are not.  So the body makes
hierarchical decisions to protect those organs, shutting down blood flow to
the fingers and shunting it to the brain.

Even your statements about hierarchy imply a hierarchy.  Non-linear, imposed
hierarchies not good, open flowing conversations good.  We work in
hierarchies of value all the time.

And a heterarchy is a form of hierarchy. A much better form, IMO, than a
dominator hierarchy but nonetheless a hierarchy.

This example you gave is very much like the dilemma the French faced after
the revolution:

> I place a high value on personal freedom, I also
> highly value community.  Can I have one without the other, does having one
> mean I can't have the other. It is not an either or but how these two values,
> and 
> other values as well, interact.

Indeed, and the French resolved the potential conflict between the two by
invoking a higher-order value ­compassion.  So both freedom and equality
(community) were to be guided by the value of compassion (Fraternité).  More
useful hierarchy!

Finally the creative space Fredrickson refers to that includes the past and
the present and the future also has a hidden hierarchy.  In creating, the
creation, the result drives the action, not the past, and not the present.
Always, what we want to create drives the action.  If not, we devolve into
problem solving, dealing with ³issues² of the moment or from the past.

So hierarchies are very useful structures.  Rianne Eisler talks about how if
we could all master our own growth or ³actualisation² hierarchies, there
would be fare less need for dominator hierarchies.  I agree.

Great to have this opportunity to swap ideas and perspectives with you.
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BRUCE ELKIN: Life/Work Renewal Coach & Consultant
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