The end of system autonomy, or why independence is really the problem

I think there's a strong argument to be made that the structure of our social systems has changed so dramatically over the last 50 years that our old ways of doing things are now increasingly ineffective. From this perspective community building is nothing more than a contemporary 'social architecture' that recognizes these structural changes and responds accordingly. Community building, one can argue, is well-adapted to a world in which power is distributed, in which everyone can make their voice heard, in which Truth has given way to transparency, and in which social systems are deeply interconnected.

But is the last of these is truly a shift at all? Is it the case that our social systems were once significantly more independent than they are today? Were they capable of affecting changes within their ecosystem regardless of effects of other system members? Or did it just seem that way? While there may be no definitive way to answer this question, it does seem clear that most social systems were able to act with greater autonomy during the 20th century because they still had effective hierarchies and ample resources. The result was that, although the deep interconnections within systems existed, system leaders were able to act as if they didn't. Decisions could be made without consulting system members and stopgap solutions could be maintained with excess resources without a thought for the short or medium term.

“We had the room and power in the 20th century to act like children unaware of the costs our actions had. Now we are being forced to grow up and take stock of reality.”

For instance, commercial agriculture long relied on organic fertilizers and crop rotation in order to maintain soil health. But when growing demand for commercial crops came along with limited land resources and the discovery of inorganic fertilizers the decision could be made to simply shift to the latter. Of course this was wildly successful for many decades, but only because the components of those inorganic fertilizers such as potassium and phosphorus were still plentiful. Today, however, commercial agriculture faces serious pressures from several sides. The resources they've relied upon are disappearing and getting more expensive, the soil they've mistreated is begin to rebel, and consumers are increasingly demanding products that are produced in more sustainable ways – all for the same price! The autonomy that the social system displayed in the past was just a temporary mirage.

So if interconnection is the fundamental state of all social systems, what can community building do to help us get things done? Two key aspects of community building seem particularly helpful in tackling these kinds of issues. First, community building insists that we operate from a mindset of abundance. This states that any given system has a wealth of resources, both known and unknown, that together are more than sufficient for the health and vibrancy of all members. Second, community building insists that we always take the big-picture view (aka systems theory). By refusing to see system components as isolated agents instead the big-picture view allows community builders to see how the entirety of the systems works together. Very often this means that individual 'excesses' or 'deficiencies' can be transformed into collective advantages through simple (or complex) complementarity.

I'm wordy today, I realize, but the basic point is simple. We had the room and power in the 20th century to act like children unaware of the costs our actions had. Now we are being forced to grow up and take stock of reality. That needn't mean hardship or drudgery. Instead it means that we as individuals and as social systems need to gently loosen our ego fixation and widen our understanding of the deep interconnectedness that is our fundamental way of being. When we're successful at this, new opportunities will reveal themselves that although hidden are right beneath our feet.