Constant Change. Picked this up from Geoff Cohen’s Coherence Engine. [Quote] From Lewis Hyde’s amazing book, Trickster Makes This World: “There is no way to suppress change … there is only a choice between a way of living that allows constant, if gradual, alterations and a way of living that combines great control and cataclysmic upheavals.” [Unquote]
Reminds me of Charles Handy’s “Change is the only constant”.[My Dissertation]
Actually by counterintuitively citing “control” as the cause of “cataclysm” it also picks up on the Catch22 theme – particularly as stated by Northrop. [Quote] the basic paradox of our time [is that] “sound” theory tends to destroy the state of affairs it aims to achieve [Unquote] (His scare quotes, not mine). In this case control is bound to lead to loss of control; Implicitly laissez faire is bound to lead to gradual evolution.
Coincidentally I was just commenting on a Knowledge Board post by Chris Macrae on the subject of organisational hierarchy which he sees as counter to “self-organisation”. I disagree – the trick is to remember what the organisation is for (hierarchical or otherwise) – control is not even the half of it.
Lewis Hyde’s book looks worth investigating.