[OSList] Emergent Governance

[David Osborne]

i love it Harrison...and my hunch is with the Arab Spring and other forms
of emergence that is exactly what's happening.

David

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:

> Several days ago I had the unique pleasure of joining our friends and
> colleagues (by Skype) in the Ukraine for their OSONOS. Given the state of
> the Ukraine, to say nothing of the state of the world, the conversation
> eventually got around to the subject of Leadership and Governance – and how
> could all that work. That conversation seemed to meld seamlessly with one I
> had had with a new friend here in the USA… Leadership and Governance. And
> mixed in was a new thought (for me) all about Emergent Governance. As I
> said to my US friend…****
>
> ** **
>
> You started me thinking – which ordinarily is a dangerous thing. I can’t
> quite pin down the logical trail, but that is not surprising because I
> usually find myself thinking in circles. But one point along the way was a
> conversation I was engaged in yesterday. There is an interest group which
> has monthly luncheons at my club with the vaporous name of “The Human
> Values Group.” In truth we talk about whatever pleases and may or may not
> have value. Anyhow the conversation yesterday drifted to a consideration of
> various political forms. It seems that some of our members had just
> returned from Cuba, so that was the start. Then we got on to dictatorships
> of various sorts ranging from China to Singapore… and shortly we were
> arguing about the “goods and the bads” – which quickly morphed into
> ideologies/political systems, and you know where that one could go.****
>
> ** **
>
> As the folks headed into the stratosphere of abstraction – I found myself
> thinking, wondering might be better – Has anybody ever done a natural
> history of governance? Rousseau pops to mind, but he always seemed to me
> pretty idealistic, and just as doctrinaire as anybody. For sure we have
> certainly done histories of governance, tracing our way back from the
> present to whenever. But how about the reverse? Two folks get together,
> Adam and Eve for example. Relationships form and certain modes of behavior
> seem to work, others don’t. It is not a function of laws, and certainly not
> legislation or “idealized models.” Just very practical – and more to the
> point a natural expression of that fundamental relationship which to the
> extent that it is ever verbalized might be something like --- the way we do
> things around here. Well that might be the beginning of a story, but before
> I got too far with that one, my mind jumped.****
>
> ** **
>
> To Open Space. Funny thing. We have opened space 100,000’s of times in
> multiple cultures, and the behaviors are almost identical (except for
> superficials like language, dress, etc). And nobody ever specified the
> rules. The Principles don’t count, and yes we do announce the Law of Two
> Feet – but all of that is simply to acknowledge what will happen anyhow. So
> could we be looking at emergent governance? We are definitely looking at
> the process of self organization (I think). Could that be the root of
> governance?****
>
> ** **
>
> Big jump – here’s a thought. Rather than thinking about (working on,
> creating) models of governance (autocratic, democratic, plutocratic,
> sociocratic…whatever) which are then promulgated (you wrote a book, so did
> Karl M.), and if implemented are almost inevitably laid on from the top
> (wherever the top isJ)… how about starting at the bottom/beginning and
> see what grows naturally? Emergent Governance!****
>
> ** **
>
> It would perhaps become necessary to clean things up a bit, regularize it,
> so to speak – but that should be done, I suggest, all under the rubric of
> finding the minimal level of structure necessary to sustain life. But all
> that could only be done after the fact…of emergence.****
>
> ** **
>
> Just Thinking… ****
>
> ** **
>
> Harrison****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Harrison Owen****
>
> 7808 River Falls Dr.****
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> ** **
>
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>
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>
> Phone 301-365-2093****
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> ** **
>
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