"empowerment" is a disempowering concept

[Julie Smith]

Dear Koos,

I loved every word, and especially all of this:

> So what I am saying is that the concept of empowerment has to do with
one
> person or entity giving power to another person or entity. As in: the
> management of this company empowers the employees. This sounds nice,
but
> it
> is awful. And it is not what we do when we Open Space for these
people. At
> least not in my system. Giving power assumes that there is something
to be
> given (which means it can also be withheld) and there is an entity
that
> has
> the ability to do the giving (or the withholding). I question these
> assumptions.
>
> What we do when we Open Space is invite people into a paradigm shift.
This
> paradigm shift also concerns power. Open Space means the end of power
and
> control as we knew it. Open Space invites people to experience the
power
> they already have. There is no such thing as control. There are just
> people
> who think they are in control and others who accept that thinking.
This
> deadly embrace of wrong thinking (which, by the way, can be very
> comfortable) is what we invite people to throw out the window.
>
> Talking of empowerment is staying in the old power paradigm. If we
want to
> honor the paradigm shift we are making, we do not talk about
empowerment.
> We do not give the power to the people, because we know it is already
> there.

Yes, yes, yes.  Thank you for saying it so well.

For me, what you're talking about is getting us closer to the true
nature of reality.  It doesn't have to be couched in terms of paradigm
shifts or OST, but it can be.  The core idea is that "There is no such
thing as control.  There are just people who think they are in control
and others who accept that thinking."  That idea, once embraced, changes
everything.  It doesn't matter what other words or concepts we put
around it.

Smilin' in the bright blue sunshine of a beautiful May day in Fairbanks
~

Julie

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