are we there yet? (long)

john engle englejohn at hotmail.com
Sun Feb 16 08:02:37 PST 2003


dear colleagues,

this might be some rambling but perhaps the process of articulating my
reflections and receiving any comments from you will help me. i very much
appreciate this thread about decolonization and also about 'are we there
yet?'.

as i reflect on these issues, particularly the question 'are we there yet?',
i recall what one of my colleagues said to me at the end of our first
haitian regional osonos last june. steven werlin, dean of students at shimer
college in waukegan illinois, a college that uses open space in classrooms,
staff meetings, meetings with people in community etc., "so, do you think
that there will come a time when you convene a group of open space
practitioners like this and simply open the meeting saying, 'welcome,' and
then simply say, 'have fun' and walk away from the group?" he was suggesting
that there might not be any need to talk about principles, to give people a
structure to organize themselves, etc. just simply let it happen, allowing
self-organizing principles full liberty to be lived out.

while i believe that day is years away, if ever, i believe it was an
important question. we already observe that with port au prince-based limye
lavi (light of life) foundation, their is no talk of principles or any
propts during the quarterly open space meetings. the 8 or 9 people present
just get to the office or wherever the meeting is being held and start
posting subjects. the foundation has been using open space for 8 years. not
all staff members have been there for 8 years but it doesn't take more than
one meeting (three consequetive days from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm) to see how it
works and integrate oneself.

the power of cultural norms is that they are not spoken. they are assumed. i
hope that the day will come, even if its not in my lifetime, that when one
goes to a meeting, it will be assumed that people will sit in a circle and
that everyone present will have the opportunity to create the agenda. unlike
today, when people often come to meetings/conferences expecting chairs to be
in rows facing the speaker/presentors, i dream there will be a day when
people will be surprised and bewildered if they show up at a meeting or
conference site and chairs are facing the front.

when this happens, no mention of words like open space will be necessary. it
will be the new norm, that which is assumed. again, maybe this will never
happen. maybe human kind will not evolve to this point because our
obsessions with domination will lead to self-destruction of our species.

this leads me to another subject. i am eager to hear perspectives from you
on this list about this one. assuming that open space principles would
become norm in how people function and that we don't self-destruct as a
species, is the natural social order one of anarchism? a state where local
structures and orders emerge and evolve based on the wishes-passion bound by
responsibility-of members? i have learned in recent months that there is a
big difference between anarchy and anarchism. anarchism has order, as i
understand it. but an order that emerges organically because of the
responsibility that members have taken to determine their unique order. the
uniqueness being is that the structure/order fully respects the individual.
the individual has great liberty and great responsibility.

i will end with sharing the fact that i have found myself saying, when in
political discussions these days, "i believe i am an anarchists." i watch as
one regime or party takes control and becomes guilty of the same things that
they accused their predecessors of. tendencies to seek to dominate over
others seem to be the spoken or unspoken norm in most cultures. except from
being liberated from this (obsession with dominating over others and
concentration of power), is there any hope that we will be able to evolve in
healthy, life-giving ways for the majority of human kind? and, is liberation
from desires and tendencies to dominate over others-be it individually, in
groups, in nations-is this liberation the path to political structures of
anarchism?

i look forward to hearing reflections from others interested in this
subject.

john

http://www.beyondborders.net/experiment.htm

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