Subject: K-12 SD education in time?

Posted by Bill Rathborne on 3/6/2008

Message:

As we all observe the U.S. Primaries and the quality of the debates, and the world staggers from the fallout of the Sub-prime mortgage debacle, and I, in Canada, watch a federal parliament that looks no better than a group of howler monkeys overdosed on fermented bananas, I turn to "my book" - "Living Systems" by James Grier Miller. (1978)

On page 873, at the end of section 5.5 (pathology - The Society) it
reads:

"Our central propositions are: (a) that post-modern society is inauthentic to a significant degree, though the scope and depth of its inauthenticity have not yet been established; (b) that this condition of post-modern society seems to be more the result of the inauthenticity of political processes than of the disintegration of cohesive units or technological-economic factors; and (c) that inauthenticity in one institution nourishes it in others, and, hence while research may have to study one sector at a time, analysis - if it is not to be inauthentic itself - must explore the macroscopic context.

Inauthentic institutions seem to have (a) comparatively high investment in manipulative activities (e.g., post-modern societies seem to spend more on public relations than did the modern ones); (b) inter-rank (or status) strains resulting from the split between the appearance of community and the underlying bureaucratic reality (above and beyond the strains resulting from alienation itself); and (c) the incapacity to mobilize adequately the energy of their members. Energy is either "bottled-up," generating various personal distortions, or it leads to uninstitutionalized ("mass") societal expressions."

The explosive escalation in complexity and the increasing interdependence of systems on a global level since 1978 would lead one to expect that SD would be high-art and ubiquitous by now! A tightly integrated, high-technology world run by "inauthentic institutions" is in deep, deep trouble. The urgency of systems thinking, and SD education K-12, cannot be overstated. Any signs that "inauthentic institutions" are listening?

Bill Rathborne
London Ontario Canada

Follow Ups:

K-12 SD education in time? - Jack Harich 3/11/2008 
K-12 SD education in time? - Bill Rathborne 3/11/2008
K-12 SD education in time? - Alice Squires 3/6/2008 
K-12 SD education in time? - Bill Rathborne 3/7/2008
K-12 SD education in time? - Janis Dutton 3/7/2008