THE DYNAMICAL RELATIONS OF THE SOCIAL PROCESS












corporately written

by the participants

in the SUMMER '71

RESEARCH ASSEMBLY

The Ecumenical Institute

3444 Congress Parkway

Chicago, Illinois 60624

DOCUMENT INTRODUCTION

1. ­ Man today is immersed in the chaos of the most radical moment of his history; he stands at a point as agonizing and as expectant as that moment when consciousness was born: when man became man. In the deeps of every man's soul burns the all­consuming fire of this moment as he grasps after some vision that could contain the awesome power of his new self­consciousness. His cry of pain contains within it the whole of the human journey and of every man who for his time responded to the call to forge the new out of the old. It is the responsibility of the People of God to hear that cry and create the response adequate to the new epoch which is at hand.

2. The despair in the spirit dimension of man today manifests itself in every facet of the social process. The structures that sustain human life and freight the relationships between men are no longer adequate to meet the crises of our time. The visions that have always given man permission to create the future have disintegrated into meaningless and sterile daydreams. Twentieth century man stands paralyzed before the chaos of the future with the imperative to create the new images, forms, and structures that will forge the next one thousand years of civilization.

3. The paralysis that everyman experiences today necessitates the creation of an objective construct that allows him to grasp the ongoing sociological realities of life. This document is an attempt to articulate the dynamical processes that constitute human society. The social processes model upon which this document is based is designed as an analytical filter which illuminates the social dynamics at any level of complexity. The descriptive paragraphs in the document locate the particular processes, while the dynamical paragraphs delineate the relationships which actually constitute the process itself. Only the man who has a rational grasp of the social dynamics of all human sociality can begin to discern the current contradictions, formulate the proposals, and call forth the vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth.

BOOK I

THE SOCIAL DYNAMIC OF HUMANNESS

INTRODUCTION

4. When the social dynamic of humanness fails to function humanness itself ceases to exist. When the economic commonality of a mining town fails to function after exhaustion of its ore supply the social process ends in the desertion or destitution of that town. When the political commonality of a country fails to function with the collapse of executive leadership and military protection the entire social process disintegrates into formless anarchy. When the cultural commonality of a modern suburban family fails to function with the absence of' any significance­giving rationale for the accumulation of wealth and status the collapse of the social process often results in divorce suicide or psychosis. The crucial question facing man is: shall humanness continue?

5. The social dynamic of humanness is a process which describes the relationships between human beings and their environment. Economic commonality is dealing with sustaining the life of the total community without which there is no political and no cultural development. Political Commonality is that which organizes power and defends the economic and cultural dimensions of life. Cultural commonality injects rationality and intentionality into economic and political commonality. The social dynamic is the process of constantly forging commonness whereby man shapes the social forms and structures to care for human life.

  1. Civilization is the setting through which we can see social ongoingness as a process of economic commonality political commonality and cultural commonality. We can discern, for example, solar energy as providing an unlimited energy resource for economic commonality. By converting this energy into electricity it becomes a useful product. The electricity transmitted lo the consumer illustrates the common distribution pole of economic commonality. In terms of political commonality a constitution creates a new social order­ which provides for corporate order. Corporate justice is realized by the interaction of the legislative judicial and executive branches of government. The Bill of Rights illustrates corporate welfare as the statement of minimal guarantees of the right to participate fully in society's benefits. Looking at cultural commonality we see communal wisdom exemplified by a young Sioux Indian learning to hunt. Communal style is embodied in the rite of passage of a new brave. When a brave puts on his war paint he appropriates communal symbol.


Chapter 1

THE ECONOMIC COMMONALITY

7. The social dynamic of humanness is a process one aspect of which is creating economic commonality. Economic commonality is organizing material means in order to sustain human life. Through such means a society taps resources of wealth systematizes creation of goods and services and regulates mechanisms for dispensing these usable commodities. These three dynamics are named common resources, common production, and common distribution. Without this process of creating economic commonality a society can neither support itself nor guarantee its future existence.

  1. Common resources indicate the process of appropriating the available material and energy for utilization by society for the sake of sustaining life. Common resources refer to the decisional provision of the earth's reserves in conjunction with human capacities and developmental techniques. Natural resources involve the claiming, harnessing, and developing of the earth's environmental products. Human resources are the sum total of human energy and ability which can be employed in the corporate task of sustaining life. Technological resources organize the accumulated scientific and industrial methods and allow for the invention of new methods. An illustration of this process is the development of an oil field which involves locating the reserves, manning the rigs with trained personnel, and designing the drilling systems.
  1. Common resources denote the raw materials of elements, energy, and knowledge used to sustain human life. The process of common resources provides the basic materials for economic commonality. They confine the availability of elements necessary for economic commonality. They uphold economic commonality by asserting the existing flow. Common resources potentialize common production. They define the arena of engagement. They continually replenish the reserves of common production. In relation to common distribution, common resources generate the system of distribution. This dynamic sets the levels of common distribution. The final relation between common resources and common distribution is that of nurturing the distribution mechanism. An illustration of this dynamic is: in order for every person in Borneo to receive a quarter of a pound of rice daily, the use of land, seed, fertilizer, labor, and methods of harvesting, as well as storage and marketing, are required.

10. Common production indicates the process of transforming the earth's resources into usable form for the sake of sustaining and improving the quality of life. Common production is the mobilization of tools, personnel, and processes necessary to generate goods and services. Production instruments are equipment and methods which allow for the preparation of usable material. Production forces engage the human resources and expertise to produce finished goods or services. Production systems employ operational rationales to effectively coordinate manpower with production equipment. The utilization of iron in the manufacturing of automobiles for human use requires the locating and staffing of plant sites, the acquisition of component pieces, and development of a systematic design for product synthesis.

11. Common production is the transformation of the earth's gifts into exchangeable goods. In relation to economic commonality, common production actually develops exchangeable goods. It delineates the nature of the economy. It continues to provide form to the economic system. In relation to common distribution, common production promotes the flow cf goods and services by making them available. It conditions the flow by dictating

the [ever of supply. Common production supports the level of distribution as it appears within the economic sector. Common production designs the utilization of common resources. It selects and expends the stock of available common resources. It perpetuates common resources by demanding their availability. Cutting trees into two­by­fours demonstrates the activity of shaping available resources into useful exchangeable products.

12. Common distribution indicates the process of designing the allocation of the goods and services for the sake of meeting the demands for the physical well­being of all mankind. Common distribution includes managing the use of property; establishing the methods of transferring goods, services, and instruments; and researching the production demands. Property claims release and channel materials, protect personal possession, and allocate

excess production. Exchange mechanisms entail organizing the marketing of goods, ordering the employment process, and designing financial investment. Consumption plans are the process of evaluating and equalizing the demands and needs of society. A fisherman acquires equipment to catch fish, determines his family needs, exchanges his surplus catch for money to buy other necessities in order to sustain his family's life in its particular style.

  1. Common distribution is the allocation of a society's goods and services. In relation to economic commonality, distribution designs the system of dispersion. At the same time it regulates economic commonality. By its action and reaction, it maintains the market dynamic. Common distribution expands common resources as it makes resources available on a wider scale. It reflects the values of common resources and then regulates their output. It also nourishes their development. In relation to common production, common distribution places a demand for goods and services. It regulates the output of common production. It also promotes innovation in common production. The demand for natural gas has encouraged the installation of transcontinental pipelines, and this in turn has stimulated the production of gas stoves.
  1. Creating economic commonality is seen in the dynamic of how the United States has taken oil to undergird its economic development. Years of training people and developing specialized techniques were required before the North Slope oil deposits could be tapped. Thousands of people were employed to refine the oil into usable by­products, such as fuels and synthetics, like fibers and plastics. These products have been instrumental in meeting today's complex material needs and have become a major source for investment in the United States and abroad. Development of consumable oil­based protein has suggested a new possibility to meet the global demand for food.

Chapter 2

THE POLITICAL COMMONALITY

15. The social dynamic of humanness is a process one aspect of which is creating political commonality. Political commonality is the process of individual and corporate human relationships within the community that enables it to function as a social unit. This requires that the process of political commonality structures the social forms, implements the will of the people, and serves the community's well­being. These three dynamics are corporate order, corporate justice and corporate welfare. Without the function of political commonality, the society's social structures, which relate person to person and group to group, would collapse, causing social chaos.

16. Corporate order indicates the process of assuring social stability for the sake of enabling equitable decision­making and promoting the common good. It is the enforced, basic pattern of the internal and external relationships which define the social existence of a given community. Common defense is a given community's set of relationships to other communities. Domestic tranquillity forcefully maintains the internal stability of a given

society. Legal base is the written and unwritten rationale of a given society which informs, protects,­ and defines the established social existence. The Amish community embodies corporate order as it defines its social existence through enforced basic patterns of internal and external relationships.

17. Corporate order enforces social stability. In relation to political commonality, corporate order provides the security which is essential for a functional society. Further, it harnesses social power. Finally, it sustains the equilibrium of social power. In relation to corporate justice, corporate order originates systematic use of social power. It determines the extent of the power required. It protects and nurtures the social system. In relation to

corporate welfare, corporate order provides the necessary stable environment. It also tempers the excesses of individual and corporate demands. Finally, it enables creative engagement in society. In the United States, corporate order questions the prerogative of political demonstrations to interrupt traffic flow.

18. Corporate justice indicates the process of determining and administering equitable control for the sake of protecting social well­being. Corporate justice spells out the consent to be governed, ensures equitable structures, and provides the link between bureaucratic structures and the grassroots. Legislative consensus preserves the people's voice, reconciles conflicting interests in the society, and considers the relevant facts in societal decision­making. Judicial procedure is the interpretive and mediative aspect of decision­making. Executive authority coordinates decision­making structures, as well as formal and informal expertise around the social symbolic power of social expression. The corporate justice process can be seen in a civil rights issue in which the Supreme Court ruled a state governor's retention of a segregated university to be in violation of the United States

Constitution, and the President of the United States sent federal troops to forcibly remove the governor from the university's doorway.

19. Corporate justice mediates the tension between what is necessary to sustain an ordered community and the demand for the well­being of the community. In relationship to political commonality, corporate justice enables the decision­making process of the people to guide the body politic. It exposes reductions in political commonality by forcing articulation of the social conflict before the total community. It upholds the inalienable rights of the citizens by administering the rational, deliberative process of societal consensus. In relationship to corporate welfare, corporate justice defends the basic rights of all people. It limits corporate welfare by subsuming standards of fairness under the value of the community's survival in history. It enables corporate well­being by supporting the

necessary structures that guarantee equity. In relationship to corporate order, corporate justice executes controlling laws that provide the order needed to protect internal and external intrusions of society. It limits true corporate order by holding all men in the community accountable to the popular will. Finally, it administers the ordering process of society to prevent social collapse. This process of corporate justice can be seen in recent decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in the area of draft exemption.

20. Corporate welfare indicates the process of directing the benefits to serve the people for the sake of maintaining stability and determining the use of power towards organization of the fabric of human life. Corporate welfare is the assuring of the basic necessities, rights, and authentic participation within society. Secure existence is assuring the provision of life's necessities. Political freedoms are the means of providing individual and corporate rights and privileges within society. Significant engagement is the creation of avenues for authentic

participation in society. A labor union illustrates the corporate welfare process in its collective bargaining for wages, working conditions, and contract renewal.

  1. The activity of corporate welfare assures that the rights, privileges, and obligations of society are available to serve all. In relationship to political commonality, corporate welfare provides motivation for cooperation in society. It demands specialized care structures. It provides a cohesive social base. In relationship to corporate order, corporate welfare calls forth internal and external stability through creating a common voice. It curbs the raw power of society. Corporate welfare allows every human being to attain dignity. In relation to the dynamic of corporate justice, corporate welfare enables responsible participation. It demands comprehensive grassroots structures. It provides a basis for continued social affirmation. The children of a college president and a wheat farmer can become friends in a public school .

22. The activity of the political arena is exemplified in the newly­enacted pollution laws in technologically advanced nations. Order is seen in the law's effects in limiting uncontrolled pollution of land, air, and water. Justice is shown in governmental response to the people's concern to preserve their environment. Welfare is seen in the development of private and public agencies to control present and prevent future pollution. Enforced control of London's laws forbidding the use of coal as a fuel in heating homes is a way to protect the health of its citizenry.

Chapter 3

THE CULTURAL COMMONALITY

  1. The social dynamic of humanness is a process, one aspect of which is creating cultural commonality. Cultural commonality is the means of giving an external rationalization to internal consciousness Each society continually interprets the collective knowledge, organizes the contemporary mores, and symbolizes the corporate life struggle of its members. These processes of communal wisdom, communal styles, and communal symbols shape cultural commonality. Without cultural commonality, human society acquires no significance in sustaining and ordering itself, and the social process is denied the vision necessary for its continued creative response
  1. Communal wisdom indicates the process of transmitting methodologies that society has developed for the sake of providing a common base from which each man can understand himself as significant and participate meaningfully in society. Communal wisdom includes the processes of developing the practical techniques, utilizing human methodologies, and disclosing the ultimate self­understanding of each man as he relates to all that is. Useful skills, foundational to the continuance of knowledgeable generations, are the cultivation of manual and technical expertise and humanitarian services. Accumulated knowledge, the appropriation of accrued insights, releases practical capabilities and contributes to the ultimate values of society. The process of final meanings is realized through the lifting up of social values which provide a rational consciousness for everyday life experience. For example, a community council engages an experienced city planner who utilizes architects and contractors with supporting staffs, for the purpose of building a community to furnish the most worthwhile life for its inhabitants.

25 Communal wisdom is the total body of knowledge which lays the foundation that allows all men to participate effectively in society. This wisdom generates the common memory of the community. Yet, by upholding past values, communal wisdom circumscribes the cultural expression. An ongoing society is ensured by the building of necessary methodologies from communal wisdom. the common store of knowledge provides for new social relationships. It calls into question unconventional style. However, it sustains communal styles by affirming the consistent. Communal wisdom creates symbol by naming and identifying the common experience. Because of its insistence on authenticity it restrains symbol. Wisdom formalizes common existential experience. The cruciality of these dynamics is illustrated in the urban ghetto where those who possess a limited exposure to the needed skills and methodologies, together with a depreciated sense of self­worth, have limited meaningful roles in the urban social order.

26. Communal styles indicate the process of actualizing the life stance of a society as it communicates its collective knowledge for the sake of embodying the significance of its world view. Communal styles include preserving the various roles, maintaining covenantal and sexual mores, and shaping organizational forms. Cyclical roles are the dramatization of the varying life­stances of a community's members. Procreative scheme embodies the male and female roles, covenantal relationship, and societal forms enabling the continuation of the human race. .Social structures are the illustrative processes which make a society aware of itself, both as a whole and at every level. For example, in traditional China, a communal style enduring for over two thousand years was built on a clearly defined veneration of the elder generation, with specified fan i'ial and communal responsibilities.

27. Communal styles are the social enactment of a community's worldview. Communal styles provide the ordering of relationships essential to cultural commonality Those relationships require re­evaluation of the basic cultural dynamic. Communal styles provide continuity to the social functions which establish the cultural patterns. Communal styles provide the ground of common life experiences from which communal symbols are generated But communal styles also demand authenticity of these symbols. Through insisting on the continual grounding of communal symbols in real life situations, communal styles intensify the illumination of the community's symbol system. Communal styles provide the concrete experiences on which the community reflects to formulate its

communal wisdom. Communal wisdom is tested by the expression of community style in the various social functions and structures. Communal styles sustain communal wisdom as they embody the societal expertise. This dynamic is illustrated by the emerging life style of the youth culture which has its way of acting out its internal and external relationships based on the common life experiences and worldview.

28. Communal symbols indicate the process of setting the context for the sake of collective knowledge and life modes. Communal symbols are given form through developing self­conscious verbalization, releasing creativity, and grounding the eternal mystery. Corporate language articulates and interprets human experience. S social art reflects the depths of human experience, enabling man to grasp himself afresh, thereby releasing raw

creativity. Common religior7 communicates man's relationship to the ultimate mystery through his graphic images, universal ceremonies, and collective stories. The peace symbol to many people signifies the enth­e youth culture, embodying a new dialect, new social art forms and consciousness, and an entirely new perspective on life.

29. The use of communal symbols is the means by which a group of people is continually reminded of the values and beliefs that bind them together. Communal symbols reveal new possibilities and motivate a people to common action. They call into question the operating images of society and demand a new response within culture. They embody the common vision, thereby spurring and enriching culture The incentive for communal wisdom is provided by symbols. They demand relevance and authenticity of communal wisdom. Communal symbols uphold valid ideologies of communal wisdom They give birth to new dimensions of social modes in communal styles. The functions of the social roles in communal styles are determined and circumscribed by communal symbols. They provide the context for the goals and actions of a people in their communal styles. For two thousand years the Christian community has used the cross as a reminder of the vision before which they live.

30. One example of cultural commonality is the Aztec Indian's perception of time. The Aztecs were deeply aware of kairotic time in the midst of chronological time; that is, aware of superb meshing of various modes of marking time into one unified whole. While their life had many rigid social structures, their life style reflected an acute awareness of the ongoingness of life: they worked until a job was finished, rather than trying to pattern their

day. Their extremely complicated and precise calendar symbolizes this perspective. Their festivals were situations for complete lack of inhibition, and at this time many normal taboos and customs were set aside to celebrate the breaking in of the mystery and the chaos of day­to­day life.

CONCLUSION

31. The current edge of the social process in the latter half of the twentieth century is in the area of cultural commonality. The parochial and superficial nature of the present cultural symbols and life understandings has brought about a use of economic resources that has not been life­sustaining. The manifestation of civil disobedience in our time is not a political problem of inadequate forces of law and order, but the cultural problem of inadequate symbols that yield meaningful life purpose and direction. Without effective symbols and language to reveal the final reality for a society, a situation which has occurred in today's world, the whole society runs the danger of collapsing from loss of purposeful grounding and direction of its life process. The unclarity of campus and urban revolutionaries as to their final goal, together with divided and even competitive concepts of methodology, arises from the fact that they have no common understanding of their role in history.

32. Man in the twentieth century has not yet created the mythology necessary for him to grasp life in the post­modern world as a significant journey. The foundational problem is manifest in the economic dimension of life by post­modern man's inability to reflect within his economic structures his own relationship to his contingency. It is manifest in the political dimension as the post­modern man lacks an adequate image of himself as being significantly engaged in the creation of civilization. It is manifest in post­modern man's not having a creative stance toward the psychotic edge of his own existence. An edge experiment pointing to unlimited possibilities for man's future is that of beginning a child's formal education at six weeks and, through the rise of imaginal methodologies, creating a life context that will allow every human being to participate in the economic, political, and cultural arenas of society as radically creative, totally self­conscious, corporate beings.

33. The imperative laid upon man in the twentieth century is to equip himself to face more humanly a future of change. Within that confrontation, he must formulate how to re-instill final meanings into a comprehensive educational structure that would then enable him to affirm his contingency and death. Furthermore, the imperative arises of how to bring into being the style of significant participation for man in his relations to generational, familial, and community roles. In addition, man must forge out the symbol system necessary to sustain himself as he stands over against the accelerated flux of the twentieth century, and develop the ability to re-appropriate his given life and time as possibility to create a future. Unless man decides to take a more fully human relationship to the furies and frustrations of his time and decides on creative alternatives, the civilizing process itself will end, and the adventure of human consciousness will have foiled.