You are here

Conclusion


Enabling a 12-fold Pattern of Dialogue for Governance (Part #9)


[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]


The focus here, following from the main paper, is on the probable necessity for a 12-fold pattern of dialogue to encompass the complexity of the turbulent challenges of the times.

It is however useful to reflect on patterns of dialogue which do not embody the checks and balances of a 12-fold pattern. As suggested by Anthony Blake, most N-logues tend to operate within the comfort zones of N less than 5 (at most) -- consistent with the constraints of human working memory capacity, as originally highlighted by George Miller (The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two, Psychological Review, 1956).

Further clues are offered by the articulation by Paul Moxnes (Deep Roles: Twelve Primordial Roles of Mind and Organization, Human Relations, 1999), which can be understood as noting  six covert "shadowy" roles -- complementing the six more appreciated as the overt "positive" roles associated with "family values". This suggests that failure to integrate such additional roles -- as a further six dialogue modalities -- results in their expression in dysfunctional dynamics (well-recognized in "dysfunctional families"). According to one framework, these may be understood as emerging from the "collective unconscious" -- through "portals" offered by the modalities missing from the overt dialogue.

The emergent modalities can also be understood as "schisms" breaking away from an inadequately understood sense of unity -- the "hymn sheet" from which it is assumed that all should want to sing. Two-part singing can be understood as embodying a degree of schismatic formation, three-part a lesser degree, and so on. Schisms clearly mark the failure of conventional dialogue aspiring to oversimplistic harmony, as separately explored (Distinguishing Levels of Declarations of Principles, 1980; Coherent Patterns of Schism Formation, Bifurcation and Disagreement, 2001; Sustainable Dialogue as a Necessary Template for Sustainable Global Community, 1995)

This conclusion is even more clearly evident in the clues offered by multipart singing and polyphony. Limiting such song to only a few "voices" effectively results in the other "voices" being expressed in other songs -- or in this case in other patterns of dialogue elsewhere. The possibility of integrating these separate patterns is seldom even envisaged. In current society this is exemplified by the "voices" gathered within the Anthem of Europe, Beethoven's Ode to Joy (1823), in contrast with those expressed in the Eurovision Song Contest. The contrast is even further emphasized by the winner in 2006, elected overwhelmingly through a record Europe-wide popular "democratic process" (Lordi's song Hard Rock Hallelujah). That contrast is highlighted by the following images.

At the time of writing, it might be said that civil unrest, exemplified worldwide by the Occupy Wall Street movement, is a consequence of a failure to integrate the "songs" and their "lyrics" in a richer pattern of dialogue. "Sub-dialogues" effectively "design each other out". as exemplified by the relationship between the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum (All Blacks of Davos vs All Greens of Porto Alegre: reframing global strategic discord through polyphony? 2007) .

A richer pattern of multipart dialogue is required -- capable of engendering a A Singable Earth Charter, EU Constitution or Global Ethic (2006).

Contrasting caricatures of "harmonization" in governance?
Caricatures of harmonization in governance? Caricatures of harmonization in governance?
EU Anthem
(Beethoven's Ode to Joy)
Eurovision Song Contest Winner (Athens, 2006)
(Lordi's song Hard Rock Hallelujah)
Does global governance need a "hymn sheet" of larger scope?
David Graeber "What Did We Actually Do Right?"
On the Unexpected Success and Spread of Occupy Wall Street
(Naked Capitalism, 19 October 2011):

At the time I was inspired mainly by what Marisa Holmes, another brilliant organizer of the original occupation, had discovered in her work as a video documentarian, doing one-on-one interviews of fellow campers during the first two nights at Zucotti Square. Over and over she heard the same story: "I did everything I was supposed to! I worked hard, studied hard, got into college. Now I'm unemployed, with no prospects, and $50 to $80,000.00 in debt."

These were kids who played by the rules, and were rewarded by a future of constant harassment, of being told they were worthless deadbeats by agents of those very financial institutions who -- after having spectacularly failed to play by the rules, and crashing the world economy as a result, were saved and coddled by the government in all the ways that ordinary Americans such as themselves, equally spectacularly, were not.

[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]