Must-read from Heather Marsh

[Fabio Cecin]

The Revolutionaries

http://georgiebc.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/the-revolutionaries/

...

(Read the article above, not this following rant:)

She's talking about our real societies (nations, etc.), but it applies
to virtual societies such as "companies" as well.

A hierarchical system will strenghten both from reactionaries and
revolutionaries, and in fact it needs people that get pissed off and
start a "revolution" to keep going. People pushing for "change" inside
a hierarchical corporation -- the "revolutionaries", the people who
get fed up -- are evolving the capacity of social (virtual) organism
at the cost of their own capacity, but they are not, and cannot,
change what isn't discussed: that the social fabric is arranged in a
"ponzi scheme of power" (Heather's words).

A hierarchical structure at whatever context will simply place the
"revolutionaries" in power ("Leadership" positions), and if they are
really invested in their little "revolutionary" concept, their
"Thing," they will simply label the old methods "Bad Methods"
(wasteful, bureaucratic, etc.) and start persecuting the people who
would rather employ them, the same way these people persecuted _them_
when they were in power.

As long as people are comfortable with the story, the setting, the
mythology that is given to them, they will play within its bounds.
Only when things start to break down they will bother to look "outside
the box."

A "social hierarchy" is only secondarily related with communication
and operation problems. It is a domain-independent mechanism for
creating a competitive environment where the people "in" it lash out
at each other in a "productive" manner, so that they become attached
to the social organism and feel compelled to "work" to evolve it.

Life will always suck under such hierarchies. Everything is
competition, there is no dialogue -- language is used as a power tool,
not as a tool of relating and of constructing shared understanding.

Unless the "lowest" positions are as desirable as the "highest"
positions, your hierarchy is not an innocent "natural way to
communicate" or some "natural way to tap into the fact that just a
small set of people should decide these things and most people should
just be an army of ants running around"; It is a classist Ponzi scheme
that objectifies and manipulates people.

Most people who see this pattern are very cautious about their
efforts. They will prefer discussion, spreading awareness, learning,
etc. instead of "action," and they will refuse positions of power by
default.

Fabio