[Neurons] 2013 "Neurons" ---- Meta Reflections #49

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall


Meta Reflections 2013  #49

Nov. 18, 2013


The Neuro-Semantics of Government #4

 

 

 

GOVERNMENT AND SELF-GOVERNMENT

 

 

If "government" is what we create so that we can manage our relationships
with each other whether it is the relations we establish in a family, a
community, a business, a corporation, or an association, then we are the
government.  We are the government and do the governing in the social group.
And where there is a group, there is "politics" and therefore some form of
governance.  This is primarily true for democracies and, of course, there
are many kinds of democracies.

 

It is not true of other forms of government.  In those forms, those with
"power" (military, financial, intellectual, etc.) decide about how things
will be governed.  They may do that unilaterally, or through conquest, or
bargaining, or negotiating.  However they come to the place that they are in
a position to decide on the structure of the governing, they then govern.
The forms and processes they set up thereafter become that kind of
government.  And in these cases, the government is not democratic, that is,
of or by the people.

 

When democracies began appearing in the modern world after centuries and
centuries of kingdoms, tyrants, dictators, aristocracies, etc., the new idea
was pretty radical.  It is the idea that the source of power, legitimacy,
and government lies in the people.  The source does not lie in "the divine
right of kings," or some royal blood (family), or in "might makes right"
(military power), or in conquest.  The idea that the source of government is
the people was a radical idea when it appeared in the 17th and 18th
centuries.  Today most of us take it for granted.

 

When we set up a government, what is the government for?  In every case, it
is to structure the relationships of the people.  This is true with a
couple, a family, a business, a nation.  Given that, we can now explore: How
do we want to structure our relationships?  How formal or informal?  How
much based status or competence?  How much based on seniority (tenure) or
skill?

 

When it comes to a nation or state, the purpose of structuring government
similarly depends the goals that we set for the structuring.  The U.S.
experiment in democracy set it up so that government primarily was
structured for protection from enemies, domestic and foreign, and so it was
design for as little government as possible.  That's no longer true.  Over
the years and centuries, "government" has grown to take on more and more
control over our lives.  Suppose that we now ask the question afresh: How
much government do we need?  How much is best?  What kind of government is
optimal for a people?  Controversial questions, right?

 

If we start from the position that we want a democracy that is of the
people, and for the people, and by the people, then what's required of
people so that they can do a good job in the governance (or politics) that
they set up?  Now we get to some psychological questions and issues, do we
not?  The founding fathers of the new democracy of the United States
believed that it would only work long-term if there was an informed and
educated population.  That's premise was based upon another premise-
democracy isn't as simple as in a Kingdom or a Dictatorship.  In organizing
a group in those ways, all people have to do is obey.  "Comply with the
rules and do what you are told to do and all will be well." (!)  I think it
was Aristotle who said that the most efficient form of government is a
dictatorship- a benevolent king.

 

When we organize ourselves (at any level, family, corporation, country) for
a democracy, things get messy.  In a democracy, people have to exercise
their personal powers of speech, debate, tolerance, acceptance of
difference, work through conflict in a civil and honorable way, seek to
understand opposing views and positions, and make their voice heard in order
to affect the ongoing development of "the government."

 

Wow!  To do all of that requires a lot of personal responsibility,
accountability, and effort.  The heart of a healthy democracy is that we
make a social contract with each other-one where we say to each other that
we will tolerate and accept each other and each other's differences.  We
accept differences rather than demonizing them or punishing them.  We create
a system where change is not only endured, but actually cultivated and
promoted because we anticipate growth and development.  The social contract
is that if I don't get my way on a position, I will accept that and work
within the legitimate structures to bring about the change that I prefer.

 

What all of this requires is that within a good healthy political government
of any and every group is a lot of simultaneous self-government.  In fact,
one of the goals of healthy government is to facilitate self-government in
people.  We do that in families as we work to enable and empower our
children to become independent, knowing that by moving to a state of
independence they will be able to create health inter-dependent
relationships.  We do that in our schools by teaching our children to become
self-reliant as they discover their strengths and find their best gifts and
develop them so that they develop skills for making a living and creating
good relationships.  Such "government" is for the purpose of actualizing the
highest and the best in everyone who participates.

 

How then do we do that in our societies?  What would be our objectives and
processes for creating good citizens?  How would we enable people to become
productive as members of the body politic?  Would it not also be to
understand how the government is not to become a mommy-or-daddy to grown up
people, but release them to increasing responsibilities and freedoms?  In
fact, unleashing self-actualizing governments would involve developing the
leadership ability of politicians at all levels (from city counsels to
national offices) so that as a whole we need the least amount of government
intervention and regulation, not more.

 

In therapy and in coaching and in education and in most of these
developmental disciplines, we say that our goals is to teach or coach
ourselves out of a job.  That is, we want to enable people to stand on their
own feet, take ownership of their own powers, to run their own brains, make
up their own minds, make their own decisions and as they do so do it in a
way that creates rich and robust relationships and that is a win/win
relationship in every domain.  What if politicians thought that way?  Their
job is to facilitate the overall development of people individually and
collectively so that we work so well together that we need them less and
less.  Hmmmm.  That would be an interesting world, would it not?

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

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