A Practice of Peace (Tova Averbuch)

[Harrison Owen]

At 11:45 PM 4/14/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Reading your posts the last few weeks and watching the news, I am struck by
>what seems to be going on: leaders looking for ways to keep the fight
>going, while the people want peace.

Unfortunately, I think you are right, although at this point I suspect
Arafat  is getting tired of the whole affair. But in the case of Sharon it
is all he has got -- and historically it seems it is all he has ever had.


>Is it reasonable to think that if enough regular people got together in
>some sort of self-organizing fashion, even the hate of centuries could be
>overcome by love in the latest hour? Could the U.S. be wasting its breath
>on Arafat and Sharon when if they sponsored "peace talks" by ordinary
>citizens, something worthwhile might be born?

I am not sure that US sponsorship would be the best thing, at least
directly, but the idea you are suggesting is essentially the strategy my
Israeli and Palestinian colleagues were working from. A negotiated
settlement, such as Powell is attempting at the moment, is possible only
when the conditions are right -- and the establishment of those conditions
is infinitely more complex than the creation of a cease fire. The mind
boggling complexity of The Middle East at the moment (as indeed any
conflicted "organizational" setting) is such that the rational, linear mind
just cannot compute, and even when we seem to have an accurate picture, all
that changes radically in an instant with some small disturbance in the
system. Which is exactly what you would you would expect in any open,
living system -- or self organizing system. I would go further and say that
the only power that is sufficient to deal with such a monster of fast
changing complexity is the phenomenon of Self-organization itself.

We find a similar scenario when we face our own illness. We will often say
-- I must go to the Doctor and be cured, but the truth of the matter is
that the best (and in the vast majority of cases, the only) thing that the
Doctor can do is give the body a little help so that it can cure itself (or
not). To the extent that our bodies are self-organizing systems (which I
take as a given) what the Doctor does is open a little space so that the
natural powers of self-organization can get back to work.

I think the same logic applies in the body politic. We expect the Powells
and Presidents of this world to "fix" the ills of the world, on the
mistaken assumption that they are the only folks who have the power to do
so. My read is that their power is infinitely more limited, in fact it is
quite marginal. I would not suggest that they can do nothing, even as I
would not suggest that Doctors do nothing... BUT the real power, and
therefore the real hope lies in the Body Politic itself, and in it totality
as a self-organizing system.

After a number of years wandering around in Open Space, wondering why it
works, I have come to the conclusion (as doubtless I have said ad nauseum)
that the magic is self-organization. And from there I would propose that
the real gift of Open Space is that it allows us to intentionally and
consciously "re-start" the process of self-organization. And once started
(if it starts -- and some things are just dead) we witness the natural
fruits of self-organization such as appropriate leadership, self-managed
work groups, -- and most important -- those essential qualities of any
healthy community, Trust, Respect, and Hope.

One of the more interesting things about Open Space (indeed any time you
open space by whatever means) is that the effects mentioned above (Hope,
Trust, etc) seem to happen REGARDLESS of the subject or theme. So if some
group had "passion" for better pencils -- they would probably get better
pencils AND all the additional benefits. And so the essential strategy --
Open Space wherever, however, and whenever -- which is what Tova, Avner,
and co are doing... Who knows, it might just work.

Harrison




>Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm

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