Tina tagged me so that is how this post came to be. I always feel strange tagging others but going to page 123 of the book that is sitting in front of me and skipping the first 5 sentences and putting up the next three just worked really well with the things I have been talking about here on my blog. So I will at least share that.
"In your world the value of the individual is constantly weighed against the survival of the system, whether political, economic, social, or religious---any system actually. First one person, and then a few, and finally even many are easily sacrificed for the good and ongoing existence of that system. In one form or another this lies behind every struggle for power, every prejudice, every war, and every abuse of relationship."
9 comments:
How very Girardian ... Ellullian ... Jesusian :)
You're a good sport, Kent. I was going to use The Shack myself but realized that all of our copies are given out. This did fit very well with your other posts - which have had me thinking a lot lately.
hopefully some thinking outside-the-box Tina.
I had just picked up The Shack to quote from it in the previous post and when I linked over to your blog and saw you had tagged me I just picked up The Shack out of curiousity to see what I would find on page 123. It was the hard cover copy so I don't know if 123 is the same in the soft cover?
It was a great three sentences to quote.
I'm thinking a lot about systems vs. individuals, as I develop my final project for a MA in Organizational Leadership...
How is it that we so easily jettison an individual or perhaps a number of individuals so that some system that we're vested in can survive? What is it about systems that so captures us that we lose perspective on the worth of the individual?
In leadership theory and dialogue, relationship is often juxtaposed again the task, with relationship-oriented behavior graphed along one coordinate while task-oriented behavior is graphed along the other.
I'm thinking that when we are not finding our own value in who we are in relationship to a personal Father who loves us deeply, then we will necessarily find it either in what we do which serves a system (our task), or in identifying with that system as a member of it. Thus, our identity is at stake along with the survival of the system whenever it seems to be threatened. And identity-based conflict (in contrast to resourced-based conflict) is consistently the most intractable, violent, and inhuman. Witness the interethnic and internecine conflicts which flare in various points around the globe, including the current tragedies in Kenya, Darfur, etc.
Bones
Kent, definitely outside-the-box thinking. Can't articulate it well yet since I feel like God has used your posts lately to pull some rugs out from under me. It's all good!
Bones said:
"What is it about systems that so captures us that we lose perspective on the worth of the individual?"
Bones I don't know if it really has to do with people "choosing" to place the worth of the system "above" that of the individual. Humankind trusts in sytematic approaches to help people. This is what makes it so difficult to see beyond what is actually happening. Most people invested in and trusting in systems see them as being more helpful to a larger number of people than they are harmful to others. So they are willing to sacrifice some people in order to help the masses. They can't fathom the possiblility that the systems are perpetuating the dilemma we find ourselves in.
I'm not surprised at all that the world operates like this. It is amazing though how many of us spent so much time caught up in a religious system that says it represents Jesus but operates in the same way the world systems operate. If serving and loving an individual is too costly to the system we know who wins.
Bones said:
"I'm thinking that when we are not finding our own value in who we are in relationship to a personal Father who loves us deeply, then we will necessarily find it either in what we do which serves a system (our task), or in identifying with that system as a member of it."
Kent said:
"Most people invested in and trusting in systems see them as being more helpful to a larger number of people than they are harmful to others. So they are willing to sacrifice some people in order to help the masses."
Aren't people who don't find their value in Father the ones who trust in systems because they see them as offering help to the largest number of people. Without finding their own value in Father they can't even imagine that as the way to help all people. Systems give the illusion of being the best that can be done.
I agree Diane. For those that can't see the One who transcends it all, systems offer something to hold onto regardless as to whether they ever have the ability to diliver what we are looking to them to deliver.
I really enjoyed Bones' comment.....good stuff.
Todd
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