Holarchy and Hierarchy: A Nation Represents

 “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one).

Barzun, Matthew. The Power of Giving Away Power (p. 4). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 


I share the following synopsis to illustrate the power and reality of what a country held and likely continues to hold to be implicitly beholden, E Pluribus Unum, and to offer commentary that the awakening of our nation was followed by a period of growing up: an awakening that was presented as a holarchy and a growing up reflected in hierarchy. 


---------------------------



I am reading, The Power of Giving Power Away, by Matthew Barzun (2021). The opening speaks to the formation of the United States by speaking not to the challenge of winning the war but to what came afterwards. The Founding Fathers realized that the Declaration of Independence (1777) was necessary but the words had more influence on what was experienced within and less on with-out: a nation needed to project its value internally and externally to be believed. A task at hand was to design a logo, or a Great Seal, that would “serve as a symbol of this new collection of now-independent colonies” (p. 1).


A narrative unfolded that involved many. First among those who are familiar: Franklin, then Jefferson, then Adams; then, less familiar: committees and consults. The only artifact of certainty: E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). The visual logos developed and included what was referred to as a radical constellation: “a collection of stars not only represented the thirteen states but also their simultaneous independence and unity- their interdependence. Deliberately asymmetrical, the layout of darts expressed the essence of a new American way. Big states like Virginia and small ones like Rhode Island were each distinct but connected into a greater whole” (p. 4).


By breaking down traditional power, America was building up tremendous energy. This Constellation pattern of principles, habits, and sentiments achieved something big through many actions that were quite small. Each person gave them life and meaning. And this pattern didn’t just make democracy work. It made business and social and spiritual life flourish too. Barzun, Matthew. The Power of Giving Away Power (p. 13). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 


Tocqueville is known to have chronicled what this text describes as the American soul. It is shared that he witnessed and experienced this interdependence as depicted in this Constellation “at every scale” on his visit in 1825 and remarked on the remarkable distinction between Europe and the United States, that “the magic of the country wasn’t in material things at all but in things of the spirit- things that were hard to quantify but whose practical impact was powerful. The United States had energy” (p. 10).


The story of our Great Seal, however, continued. When the perceived and eventual experienced stability of the country was challenged and waned. Of particular importance was in the times of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was then that the holorarachy that singularly represented the country was questioned and a hierarchy was deliberated: “The Constellation culture continued to permeate American life, a different structure began to take shape alongside it. As mass production turned craftspeople into laborers, a new kind of hierarchy emerged, mirroring the efficiency of the machine” (p. 13). And resulted in the spirit of the country reflecting centralized power. FDR felt so strongly that this was the spirit that needed to be communicated that a new visual was required: a Pyramid. On the signing off on the one dollar bill, the Constellation relinquished its seat of hierarchy to the Pyramid.





This addition and position became more than a symbolic representation, “The differences between the Pyramid and the Constellation mindsets go far beyond organizational structure. They encompass different ways of relating to people and the world around us. And so when we reorganized ourselves, we changed ourselves too” (p. 17-18).


My lingering wondering is this tension between two polarities, holoarchy and hierarchy, and what it would take to break this attraction energized by competition to spin into the potential of our shared humanness.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hobfall's Conservation of Resources (CoR)- SCT and Adaptive Leadership

Image
Conservation of Resources An interesting title for a theory that I've come to learn is associated with crisis management.  Bajaba et al., (2021) interject Hobfoll's (1989) theory as a means to explain how particular managers recognize and are able to adjust resources that create conditions necessary in a time of crisis. These resources are not limited to physical assets. These resources include personality traits and skills of individuals within the organization that advantage opportunity and overcome challenges in times of crisis: traits and skills that become invaluable resources in times of stress. "COR theory, a motivational theory introduced by Hobfoll (1989), defines resources as "those objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued by the individual or that serve as a means for the attainment of these objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies" (Bajaba et al., citing Hobfoll, 1989, 2021, p. 3);  The authors prese...
Read more

Looking past the 'what we do' and focusing on the 'why we do'

Image
I was watching a movie last night with my family- Inception. The storyline is very complex but it goes something like this... invading the dreams of others to learn more about what they know and why they do what they do in order to change or explain what has been and influence the actions of the dreamer (at the subconsciousness level) to change a future outcome.  One scene has the character seeking out the sage advice from another character, attempting to dig deeper into the subconscious dreamworld of another. The advice was simple, one cannot assume that merely entering and influencing sufficiently changes the course of action. One must delve into the idea at a point of inception- the place in which the idea is reduced to its simplest form. If you enter anywhere higher up the perspective-evolutionary ladder, you risk obfuscating the idea and calling it something that it isn't holding the belief that this "is", which means that the change you incite does not change the o...
Read more

Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings: A Commentary

Image
  Conservation of Resources Steven E. Hobfall Individuals hold on to the things that are central to their perceived wellbeing and safety. O bjects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies when “threatened, lost,[or] believed to be unstable" are recognized as having value and are perceived to be of value. W hen "individuals and groups cannot set a path to the fostering and protection of [these] resources through their joint effort” stress is experienced (Hobfoll, 2001, p. 342); w hen such conditions persist, the "stress resistance" within the individual or the group is compromised. Furthermore, a  persistent loss of resources contributes to further loss of resources, enabling a cyclical process referred to as a loss spiral, leaving individuals and groups even more vulnerable (Hobfoll, 1998). In such times of loss, individuals and groups take great effort to adapt in ways to conserve and utilize available resources . If such adaptation is successful, there ...
Read more