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K-12 SD education in time?
Posted by Jack Harich on 3/11/2008
In Reply To:K-12 SD education in time? Posted by Bill Rathborne on 3/6/2008
I've submitted a paper to the SD Review that may shed some light on these propositions. The draft is available at:
http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/005/DuelingLoops_Paper.htm
Basically the paper proposes that the Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace is a fundamental structure, one that explains the behavior of all political systems, especially those that have gone through a long period of evolution. To me "inauthentic" means a social agent, a person or institution, is not their normal honest self. Instead, they are projecting a false image so as to better achieve their goals. In other words, inauthentic is a euphemism for deceptive.
Let's use this proposed theory to explain the points you quoted:
"(a) that post-modern society is inauthentic to a significant degree" - The Dueling Loops consist of a race to the bottom battling against the race to the top. Due to the inherent structural advantage of the race to the bottom, it is the dominant loop most of the time. It employs falsehood and favoritism to win supporters, while the race to the top employs only the truth and no favoritism. This explains why inauthenticity is the normal mode of society.
"(b) that this condition of post-modern society seems to be more the result of the inauthenticity of political processes" - This hits the nail on the head. This condition IS the result of of the enormous amounts of clever and (to the average agent) undetectable deception that emanates from the political processes present in all countries.
"(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." - Once one agent gains an advantage from race to the bottom
(RTB) strategies, it's competitors must match or exceed its use of RTB strategies or, on the average, they will lose. Studying one sector at a time does not yield the deepest analysis, because the Dueling Loops structure is so pervasive. It can only be understood via a macroscopic analysis of society, at the level of a social structure that is employed by all political institutions.
"Inauthentic institutions seem to have (a) comparatively high investment in manipulative activities" - Well of course. If the Dueling Loops do indeed exist (I think they are as real and pervasive as gravity) then manipulative activities are the best strategy for politicians of any type to win supporters. Politicians can be managers, advertisers, and so on. In the context of the Dueling Loops, a politician is defined as any social agent who depends on the conversion of supporters to achieve his goals.
"Inauthentic institutions seem to have (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)" - Here the inauthentic institution can be society as a whole. Social strains are the inevitable result of one portion of a society doing better (accumulating more competitive
advantage) than another over the long term. In the Dueling Loops this portion is those special interests who use corrupt politicians to change the rules of the game to favor themselves. In modern societies the portion is mostly for-profit corporations and the rich.
"Inauthentic institutions seem to have (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." - Either I don't understand this correctly or I disagree. As far as I can tell, inauthentic institutions employing RTB strategies DO have the capacity to mobilize the energy of their members. They do it by directing more false memes (deception) and favoritism to them.
"A tightly integrated, high-technology world run by "inauthentic institutions" is in deep, deep trouble." - Agreed. We have been seeing the symptoms for a long time: war, unnecessary systemic poverty, large disparities in distribution of wealth, unsustainability, etc. But with the hypothesis of the Dueling Loops, we can now see the root cause of why we have been unable to solve these mega problems, and where the high leverage points are for applying solutions.
"Any signs that "inauthentic institutions" are listening?" - I'm in the early stages of working with some big ones, including Wal-Mart and Goldman Sachs. See:
http://www.thwink.org/sustain/work/projects/collaboration/index.htm
We have received commitments from about 8 big players to pursue this novel line of attack, which is process and SD based. Current status is we are planning what to do next. This will take awhile. Although this group is focusing on the climate change problem, there is awareness that this problem is itself a symptom of a deeper problem, and that our work will have to address that to succeed.
So yes, some are listening. But so far, that's all that's happening, except for one that's actually going beyond listening. This is the Hatch Group, a global engineering consultancy. I just returned from several days at their headquarters in Toronto. We have launched a system dynamics centric test project that, if it goes well, and there's a 90% chance if will, will lead to a serious, well funded project to do a little something about "inauthentic institutions".
Bill, I hope this is the good news you have been looking for.
Jack Harich
Atlanta
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