BIRTHING PAINS
Hm, there seems to have been a lot of NCN activity recently. Not all of it
very orderly or pleasant.
Those of you who only get the messages here on the main list might not have
noticed. But there are some other very busy mailing lists.
Recently several of them have been embroiled in personal conflicts and
controversy, which doesn't seem to sort itself out easily. Veteran
participants might be quite relaxed about it and just let things work
themselves out. People who recently joined some of these lists might well
be turned off by the commotion and might flee in horror. Here we're working
on something as noble as building a new civilization, and then people can't
even figure out how to respect each other.
Let me address a few issues in that regard.
DISILLUSION
I've heard a number of people express some kind of disillusionment.
Disillusionment with the potentials of a new civilization, with fellow new
civ members, with the leadership or lack of it of NCN, with oneself, etc.
My general response to that is: Don't have any illusions. Don't tie your
vision to the lack you might experience in the current situation or to any
negative responses you might get. The manifestation and unfoldment of your
vision and intention is not dependent on any indications to the contrary
you might get along the way. Set your aims as high as you feel like, pay
close attention to your current starting point, but don't be attached to
the outcomes. Learn from "failures" but don't generalize them into any
negative expectation of the future.
DIVERSITY
NCN is a VERY diverse group of people. It is a group of people with great
skills and positive intentions. However, don't expect it to be a homogenous
group of people who agree with you or who have the same agendas or modus
operandi as yourself. Indeed, it is much easier to create concerted action
in a group that already agrees on the agenda, or that is structured
hierarchically. The challenge in NCN is in how to grow something out of a
group of people that are very different and that aren't compelled to beat
to any one drum. You don't have to agree with everybody, you don't have to
like everybody, you don't have to work with everybody. The idea is that
you'll work with the people you feel like working with.
LIST MANAGEMENT
On most of the NCN mailing list I've tended to take the approach of letting
things work themselves out when there is conflict. That despite the fact
that it has always been a spoken or unspoken rule or expectation that
communication would take place in an atmosphere of mutual respect for each
other's views. On most lists there has usually been as many voices
advocating to let things work themselves out as there has been voices
advocating that somebody should stop people from being mean to each other.
At the risk of becoming a target myself, I'll probably start playing the
bad cop more, and enforce the rule that personal attacks are not OK in the
discussion groups. If most of the members of any given list want to operate
by different rules, that is fine too. But for those that have some kind of
focused purpose and that agree with the general rule, I'll start enforcing
it. I.e. no attacks on the character or intentions or intelligence of the
other members, even when you feel it is justified or they asked for it.
Talk about YOUR experience or intentions or activities, and talk about the
issues at hand. Don't waste your energy putting others down.
SPACE FOR EVERYTHING
My vision for NCN has been all along that there would be room for all sorts
of preferences and sub-cultures and groups. There's no scarcity of space in
the virtual world. Whatever you want to get a group together around,
there's space for it. Nobody but the members of that group need to agree
that it is useful, and you can set your own rules. There are various places
on the net where you can start your own mailing list or forum or chat room.
Or, if you would like me to set up a mailing list on the NCN server for the
group, I'll do it. Generally speaking, somebody has to take the lead and
set some aims for a given group. The more clear and specific, the better.
And you're free to choose who you'd want to participate or who you'd like
to leave out. Anybody who doesn't like it is free to start their own group.
I wouldn't consider any of these groups THE Official NCN group in that
area. It it produces something that is useful to the rest of us, great. If
it doesn't, or if many other NCN members disagree vigorously with its
findings, no problem.
SYNERGY AND EVOLUTION
Certain constellations of diverse elements create synergy. I.e. the whole
develops certain emerging useful properties that are more than just the sum
of the parts. Evolution is based on that too. A great number of diverse
elements allow the natural selection of which ones work and which ones
don't, and somehow the whole is growing and advancing.
Centralized control, hierarchy, attempts of making everybody agree and do
things the same way - all could be said to be counter-evolutionary moves.
Total chaos doesn't really get us anywhere either. The trick is in finding
the right balance between order and freedom of movement. How do we
facilitate that we can both be free and collaborative? How do we establish
a minimum of structure that heightens synergy? That's probably where NCN
has a mission in evolving something new.
TRANSFORMATION AND BIRTH
I sense that we're moving into a new phase. We're changing, individually
and as a group. We're experiencing some pains in doing so. But it might
well be our growing or birthing pains in becoming something that truly
makes a difference in the world. There's probably no way of stopping that.
Flow with it, open up more, get more clear on what you specifically are
here to do, and worry less about whether others are doing it the "right"
way.
I don't know exactly what it is we're birthing, but I suspect that we'll be
pleased once we find out.
- Flemming
o o
/ \------------------ Flemming A. Funch -------------------/ \
/ * \ New Civilization Network / Synchronicity Networks / * \
/ * * \ ffunch@newciv.org / * * \
o-------o----------- http://www.worldtrans.org/ -----------o-------o
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