[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] New Century, Different Crisis Need new eyes to see . . .
James Wiegel
jfwiegel at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 3 20:24:40 EDT 2007
Jean wrote an article for "Government Works" -- the compilation of cases that Jim Troxel published. There would also be notes in the ICA client files -- Many colleagues in New Orleans also assisted -- Julia Padgett, the Zervigon's, Carol Fleishmann . . .
Carolyn Antenen <cantenen at mac.com> wrote: Hi Jim,
This is a fascinating story. I am really intrigued with the natural factor and management factor triangles. Is the report still available?
This would be amazing to mesh with the Stovers and others work.
Thanks.
Carolyn Antenen
On Nov 3, 2007, at 1:46 PM, James Wiegel wrote:
I was pretty well convinced in the early part of the last decade, that, to understand what is going on in our world, you need a screen that covers more of what is going on than the social process triangles. This, even before talking with Stovers about Human Ecology and the Ecozooic era. Here is how it happened.
About 10 years ago, or so, Jean Watts involved me and several others* in the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Project. This was sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and a host of other agencies -- they were concerned to develop management plans around all the major estuaries in the country. Barataria and Terrebonne are the 2 watersheds on the left hand side of the Mississippi river (looking north) as it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, so it was all that swamp and marsh and barrier islands and communities and recreation and oil exploration and on and on, right up to the edge of New Orleans as well. They had a policy committee, a scientific and technical committee, a local governments committee, a public participation committee. All this held together by a management committee (sort of a core group). Our job was to facilitate a series of "management conferences" to produce a management plan.
At that time, my daughter was in high school, and I told her about it. Her response was, "Well, Dad, finally you are working on something really IMPORTANT."
Well, the scientific and technical people had developed a set of 6 or 9 "priority problems" in the estuary, like algal blooms, eutriphication, non point source pollution, subsidence, etc. so we had those going in. We did a practical vision (for an estuary, we needed to look 40 years . . ), contradictions, and strategic directions. In the end, when we looked at everything that was come up with, we created a "conceptual framework" (read, set of triangles) --
On the lower left was what we called "the natural factor" the land, the water and the biota (stuff living there) and all the interactions involved. On the lower right was "the human factor" (which was basically the social process) -- the economic pole had to do with being able to make a living there, themselves and their children, the right hand (more political) pole had to do with people's welfare and community, and the top (cultural ) pole had to do with the significance or meaning of the place which for them had to do with national recognition -- they knew it was special, but saw no signs that others saw, or treated it that way.
Now, this was interesting: on the top was what was called "The Management Factor" this was the dynamics of planning for that place, regulating what was going on, researching and getting data on which to base decisions.
Back to my daughter: (I went home and she showed me her ecology book, and in the back was a triangle, representing how they characterized the perceptions of early humans -- there was a natural world, a human world and a SPIRIT world -- I thought, great. 10,000 years and we have replaced spirit with management. hmmmm)
More to the story: They / we came up with a 4th set of triangles -- we called them the linking factor and put them into and intersecting the empty space in the center of the other 3. These had to do with developing common ground solutions, creating new indicators to accurately track what was happening, and environmentally friendly infrastructures.
It turned out that most all the PRIORITY PROBLEMS were emerging in the Natural Factor, populations declining, destruction of productive marsh, sedimentation, etc. The bulk of their VISIONS fell in the human factor -- place to live, good jobs, sense of community, etc. Most of the CONTRADICTIONS were in the Management Factor -- the way regulation and enforcement was being done, permitting procedures, lots of research and data gathering but not knowing what was significant -- and the STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS mostly fell in that linking factor triangle in the middle.
Another thing that stuck with me from that experience: Remember Shakespeare?? "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely player. . ." I grew up (and I don't know how much this relates to growing up male and white) as many did with this notion that the earth was just there and it was our role to sort of strut around and do great things upon it. As I watched myself and the participants come to terms with the reality, there in Southern Louisiana, that the NATURAL FACTOR was changing and responding, we were all of a sudden being the ones who said, "Oh, no we can't change. Humans can't adapt" It was very interesting and a memorable experience.
John Cock <jpc2025 at triad.rr.com> wrote:
Sorry, Doris. Saw Charles' name at first glance on the "On Behalf of Charles
. . ."
John
-----Original Message-----
From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Charles or Doris Hahn
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 11:34 AM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] New Century, Different Crisis
Did I forget to sign my response?
Doris Hahn
--- John Cock wrote:
> Charles, to put it in HRN-like format, maybe it's "human-centeredness,
> racialism, nationalism, and economic imperialism" .
> . . and maybe "religious
> intolerance" or "fundamentalism." HRN would probably mention 5-7
> today. You could use "tribalism" to hold "racialism,"
> "nationalism," and "religious
> intolerance," but that gets too general to be helpful, seems to me.
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net
> [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Charles or Doris Hahn
> Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 10:23 AM
> To: Order Ecumenical Community
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] New Century, Different Crisis
>
> Thanks for getting us on a roll here, Randy. I certainly agree with
> John C.
> that all of creation has to be our context, though it is surely more
> demanding than just "all of God's people." Our reductionism of the
> past puts the pressure on today.
>
> What is the category, John? I am sure you and Thomas Berry (and
> others)must use it all the time. It has to communicate to the general
> populous, yet at the same time catch their attention. Clarity on this
> issue will, of course, inform the strategies.
>
> Doris Hahn
>
>
> --- John Cock wrote:
>
> > I hear you, Randy, and know that is what you
> believe, but we need to
> > say it so we cannot be misunderstood.
> "Social/society"
> > doesn't mean all creation or
> > the earth community to most people, I judge.
> >
> > John
> >
> > _____
> >
> > From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net
> > [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of R
> Williams
> > Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 8:50 AM
> > To: Order Ecumenical Community
> > Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] New Century, Different
> Crisis
> >
> >
> > John,
> >
> > I believe the word "social" is inclusive of all
> creation (key--earth
> > "community") and that Niebuhr's three evils can be
> restated to be
> > inclusive as well. Nationalism and economic
> imperialism are at least
> > two of the contradictions underlying the
> degradation of the earth.
> > (Example: Bush's rationale for pulling out of
> Kyoto--"not good for
> > business.") By the way,
> > some of the materials at www.rauschenbusch.org
> quote and/or refer to
> > Thomas Berry and The Great Work, so they too
> understand the importance
> > of what you are saying..
> >
> > Randy
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > From: John Cock
> > To: Order Ecumenical Community
> > Sent: Saturday, November 3, 2007 7:33:17 AM
> > Subject: [Oe List ...] New Century, Different
> Crisis
> >
> >
> > What about care for the total earth community? As
> Thomas Berry says
> > many ways, we can spend all our energy on
> social/human problems and go
> > out of being as a species. This statement trumps
> HRN's three or
> > Rauchenbusch's one or two. How do we honor and yet
> radically recontext
> > our existing human-centered paradigm within our
> thinking,
> > organization, and action?
> >
> > John
> > _____
> >
> > From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
> > [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
> Of R Williams
> > Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 7:50 AM
> > To: Colleague Dialogue
> > Subject: Re: [Dialogue] New Century,Same
> Crisis--The Social Gospel 100
> > Years Later
> >
> >
> > Len,
> >
> > HRN put wheels under Rauschenbusch's social gospel and the key
> > insight that it's not just individual conversion but social (meaning
> > instituitional) change as well. We translated what it means to be
> > social pioneers into the three master strategies of (1) contextual
> > reeducation, (2) structural reformulation and (3) spiritual
> > remotivation..
> Even
> > though all three of
> > these address social as well as individual contradictions, the
> > transformation of society's structures is, I believe, the one most
> > directed at socia change and the one that most often is neglected.
> > We said 30 years ago that Niebuhr's social evils of "racialism,
> > nationalism and economic imperialism" were as predominant then as
> > they were in Niebuhr's time. I think that is still true for today.
> > To the point, today as ever in order to care for those who care one
> > must address the structures of society which continue to
> > institutionalize racialism,
> nationalism
> > and economic
> > imperialism, and not focus just on the first and last strategies.
> > No single one of them is effective unless all three are spinning.
> >
> > Maybe Springboard should dust off those old strategies and decide
> > what the contemporary form of them must be. What do you think?
> >
> > Randy
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > From: Len Hockley
> > To: Colleague Dialogue ; Order Ecumenical
> > Community ; Colleague Dialogue
> >
> > Sent: Friday, November 2, 2007 4:36:16 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Dialogue] New Century, Same Crisis--The Social Gospel
> > 100 Years Later
> >
> > A good read Randy.
> >
> > I always thought there was a basic difference between Reinhold and
> > H .Richard. Hooray for H. Richard
> >
> > Any way you can see this wisdom to be of use to
> our
> > meeting of
> > "Springboard"?
> >
> > Len
> >
> >
> > At 01:43 PM 11/2/2007 +0000, R Williams wrote:
> >
> >
> > Colleagues,
> >
> > In the introduction to the G-O-D Lecture in RS-1
> we
> > marked the year 1907 as
> > the beginning of the 20th century, and we grounded this with events
> > such as Einstein's theory of relativity, the Bolshevik Revolution,
> > World War I, etc.
> > One of the events we did not mention was the publication in that
> > year of the book by Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the
>
=== message truncated ===
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