{"id":2692,"date":"2010-03-12T08:53:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T16:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=2692"},"modified":"2010-07-02T09:46:32","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T17:46:32","slug":"learning-from-the-metaphors-of-living-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/learning-from-the-metaphors-of-living-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning from the metaphors of living systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phil Cubeta poses a set of very good questions about the language we use to think about organizational worlds.  \u00a0He challenges us to see the living systems view with these questions:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When we adopt the language of social enterprise, or social investing, or a social capital markets do we embrace \u00a0metaphors more sterile than those of the fox, loam, carrion, the crop, and the harvest?<\/li>\n<li>What is lost when our master metaphors are commercial?<\/li>\n<li>Can we engineer solutions to our ills, or can we only be cured?<\/li>\n<li>Might the cure be organic, from within, from sources that lie deep in literary and philosophical traditions, rather than those, or along with those, from business? For, of course, farming too is a challenging business.<\/li>\n<li>Is it the MBA, the prophet, the poet, or the farmer from whom you draw most hope?<\/li>\n<li>The MBA, the prophet, poet, or farmer &#8211; who best feeds your moral imagination?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gifthub.org\/2010\/03\/manifesto-the-mad-farmer-liberation-front.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GiftHub+%28Gift+Hub%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">Gift Hub: Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And for inspiration he uses Wendel Berry&#8217;s beautiful poem The Mad Farmer Liberation Front:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So, friends, every day do something<br \/>\nthat won&#8217;t compute. Love the Lord.<br \/>\nLove the world. Work for nothing.<br \/>\nTake all that you have and be poor.<br \/>\nLove someone who does not deserve it.<br \/>\nDenounce the government and embrace<br \/>\nthe flag. Hope to live in that free<br \/>\nrepublic for which it stands.<br \/>\nGive your approval to all you cannot<br \/>\nunderstand. Praise ignorance, for what man<br \/>\nhas not encountered he has not destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>Ask the questions that have no answers.<br \/>\nInvest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.<br \/>\nSay that your main crop is the forest<br \/>\nthat you did not plant,<br \/>\nthat you will not live to harvest.<br \/>\nSay that the leaves are harvested<br \/>\nwhen they have rotted into the mold.<br \/>\nCall that profit. Prophesy such returns.<\/p>\n<p>Put your faith in the two inches of humus<br \/>\nthat will build under the trees<br \/>\nevery thousand years.<br \/>\nListen to carrion &#8211; put your ear<br \/>\nclose, and hear the faint chattering<br \/>\nof the songs that are to come.<br \/>\nExpect the end of the world. Laugh.<br \/>\nLaughter is immeasurable. Be joyful<br \/>\nthough you have considered all the facts.<br \/>\nSo long as women do not go cheap<br \/>\nfor power, please women more than men.<br \/>\nAsk yourself: Will this satisfy<br \/>\na woman satisfied to bear a child?<br \/>\nWill this disturb the sleep<br \/>\nof a woman near to giving birth?<\/p>\n<p>Go with your love to the fields.<br \/>\nLie down in the shade. Rest your head<br \/>\nin her lap. Swear allegiance<br \/>\nto what is nighest your thoughts.<br \/>\nAs soon as the generals and the politicos<br \/>\ncan predict the motions of your mind,<br \/>\nlose it. Leave it as a sign<br \/>\nto mark the false trail, the way<br \/>\nyou didn&#8217;t go. Be like the fox<br \/>\nwho makes more tracks than necessary,<br \/>\nsome in the wrong direction.<br \/>\nPractice resurrection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phil Cubeta poses a set of very good questions about the language we use to think about organizational worlds. \u00a0He challenges us to see the living systems view with these questions: Questions When we adopt the language of social enterprise, or social investing, or a social capital markets do we embrace \u00a0metaphors more sterile than those of the fox, loam, carrion, the crop, and the harvest? What is lost when our master metaphors are commercial? Can we engineer solutions to our ills, or can we only be cured? Might the cure be organic, from within, from sources that lie deep &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[49,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc","category-organization"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-Hq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2696,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}