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There is a culture 'war' of sorts underway, has been for ~10,000 years or probably even longer. Okay, reality is much more complex and multi-layered than that, but let's start with this simple cardboard characterization...
(For starters, from the power-over perspective it is much more seen as a war than it is from the power-with perspective.)
Assumptions of power-over (Follett), aka domination culture (Eisler, Wink), Taker culture (Quinn), aka Breaker culture (Abdullah), aka PermaCulture??:
- humans (and all that is art or artificial) are separate from the rest of nature/life/planet/universe
- for good decisions to be made, some people must have decision-making power over the rest (could be a dictator, could be elected reps + courts + etc., ...)
- we are inherently flawed, likely to mess things up - for example we're greedy, and help each other only under promise of reward or threat of punishment (see BookShelved:PunishedByRewards
)
- things have always been this way, and always will be (static thinking)
- there isn't enough, and for one to gain, another must lose (zero-sum and scarcity thinking)
- when there's a problem, the first thing to do is to identify the "bad guy" and punish them (Wink's MythOfRedemptiveViolence??)
- most learning happens through being told things or reading them
- there is one right way to live (it is possible to correctly and completely determine what is, and what should be good or right)
- there are some things you just have to do
- some people/things deserve more (power, resources, etc.) than others. E.g.: decision-makers (vs. workers), people/art (vs. the rest of nature), men (vs. women), adults (vs. children), living (vs. inorganic), race/gender/beauty/nationality/whim/etc.
Assumptions of power-with (Follett), aka partnership culture (Eisler, Wink), Leaver culture (Quinn), aka Keeper/Mender cultures (Abdullah):
- humans (and all that is art or artificial) are part of [and in partnership with] the rest of nature/life/planet/universe (TheArtisphereIsNatural)
- for good decisions to be made, include everyone as much as possible; we may sometimes choose to give more resources or decision-making power to a few, but it's not because they 'deserve' it
- we are natural, and when we trust our deepest motivations and values things go well - for example we help each other naturally, because we enjoy doing so
- things are always changing (dynamic thinking)
- there is almost always enough, and we can all gain at once (abundance thinking)
- when there's a problem, the thing to do is to identify the damaged connections and heal them
- most learning happens through experience
- there's more than one way to do it (what is good or right is not completely knowable, and is itself evolving)
- you always have choice
- some may have, or be given, more (resources, power, etc.) than others, but it is not because they deserve it [is there a more positive way to say this?]
To be clear, i don't think that domination is wrong or bad. It's helpful to think of it as a brittle adaptation - see DominationIsaSabertooth. Also, the image that we are in domination cultures that need to shift to partnership is overly simplistic - both pattern sets are in operation all of the time, and a big part of the shift is how we as individuals look at things. The ProcessArts are the most hopeful movement i know of in both this personal shift and in the shift of collective stories & systems that we live in.
Started from my own thoughts, BookShelved:Ishmael
, NonviolentCommunication and other books, theories, practices and people. Particularly helpful was finding WalterWink??'s list, p95 of EngagingThePowers, itself based on Richard B. Gregg's in The Power of Nonviolence, pp138-9 in the 2d ed., published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation 1962. Online bookstores seem to only have the 1960 1st ed. (ISBN 0227675673) and 1984 3rd ed. (ISBN 0934676704). This is not the more recent Zinn book.
Other lists to look at:
Also see NonViolence, ConsciousnessIsOurOxygenChallenge
Created 2007 Apr 12 Thu PM