Still Running Off at the Keyboard

BUILDING CONSENSUS - DESTROYING INDIVIDUAL THINKING

Several years ago my husband and I were board members of a state-wide crafts organization. The board president rejected majority rule, opting instead to use consensus-building techniques to run the show. It was an interesting experiment in futility. We and he saw the dynamics of the field from opposing viewpoints, and he was determined that his viewpoint would hold sway.

Much of the board work was done via computer on a daily basis, with only sporadic meetings in person. The president was not well-skilled in transformational techniques, and so there were serious ongoing disagreements within the board which finally resulted in a successful political maneuver to oust the dissenters. Since we were edged out, it has been interesting to watch the organization shrink. Naturally this political move was not the only factor causing the membership decline, nor even the main factor in the shrinkage; but it nevertheless remains a satisfying phenomenon considering the way we were treated.

Consensus-building does not make for a smooth-running organization, but it does permit those in power to stay there.

Catherine at Threshing Grain links an article by Lynn Stuter titled "The Unseen Enemy that's Stealing America," which discusses the negatives of using "consensus" as a transformational methodology, and outlines its ties to communism via Antonio Gramsci.

She writes:

Antonio Gramsci was a transformational Marxist. ...what Gramsci advocated was the transformation of society to the communist state via gradulaism--the gradual erosion of old ideas, replacing them with the new. As opposed to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and Mussolini, Gramsci advocated the quiet revolution.

The Hegelian Dialectic of thesis (an idea), antithesis (the opposite), and synthesis (the bringing together of opposites) to form a new thesis, ever evolving, plays a heavy role in the gradualism Gramsci proposed. Today, in America, the Hegelian Dialectic is played out in meetings at every level, all across America, under the name of consensus building using facilitators heavily trained in group dynamics.

She places the American advent of this methodology in 1939 when "several individuals from Austria arrived" on our shores, among them Peter Drucker who became friends with humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow. Drucker's work concerned "systems philosophy," or the idea that all systems in the universe are interrelated to the point that something which impacts one system impacts them all.

I've covered the Human Potential Movement as it has entered Catholic spirituality in previous blogs and will not repeat that material; however, Stuter also indicates that Carl Rogers played a part. Another player was Kurt Lewin, who, according to Stuter, like Gramsci was a transformational Marxist. The environmental movement that numerous orders of Catholic sisters have latched onto is one result of this activity. Suter writes:

The Gaia Hypothesis is the outreach of the environmental movement and reads as follows: the earth is a living, breathing organism (a living entity), irreducible to its parts (one system); what affects one part affects all parts (interconnected and interdependent); if we are to save spaceship earth, we must change our ways. ...

It is easy to see, although worded differently, that the Gaia Hypothesis and system theory defined are the same, excepting the existentialist transcendentalism apparent in the Gaia Hypothesis but not apparent in, but present in the semantics of, systems theory.

One promoter of this theory is Ervin Laszlo. Stuter continues:

Systems theory is the foundation of the works of the likes of Drucker and Deming and those who follow them. Ervin Laszlo, born in Communist Hungary...is an avid writer and supporter of systems theory. His more recent book, HOW YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD, is yet another enlightening expose on how systems theory is to play out.

Ervin Laszlo, you may recall, is the Chair (or Co-Chair) of the World Commission on Global Consciousness & Spirituality. Bro. Wayne Teasdale was a member, and The Global Dialogue Institute, co-founded by Prof. Leonard Swidler, is closely associated with The World Commission--so closely associated that Ingrid Shafer who writes the newsletter for the Global Dialogue Institute is the webmaster for the World Commission on Global Consciousness & Spirituality.

The Gaia Hypothesis has resulted from the work of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, two members of Lindisfarna Associates. Other members of both Lindisfarna and The World Commission include James Parks Morton, Robert Thurman, Hazel Henderson, and Robert Muller, who is Co-Chair of The World Commission.

Stuter writes:

Peter Senge, author of THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: THE ART AND PRACTICE OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION,...is referenced heavily in books advocating education transformation in schools. Senge does not come right out and say it, but insinuates, in the above noted book, that Christians who refuse to become part of the learning organization, i.e., part of the collective mind, willing to engage in existentialist transcen-dentalism, deny truth and are a liability to the business employing them.

Stuter ties outcome-based education to the work of system theory Marxists. She says:

...systems education changes the focus of education from educating the child for intelligence to producing a worker; the school becomes a workforce development center, producing workers according to regional economic development strategies and regional labor market needs as determined by the regional Workforce Development Boards (established under the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998) under the auspicies of the federal government.

It would seem that a small example of this turned up recently in Amy Welborn's blog. Her son's preschool teacher wanted Amy to teach him how to skip. It raised quite a number of comments, mostly in agreement with Amy's determination that she would not be doing that. What would skipping have to do with the workplace? Perhaps the development of the concept that everyone must "step in time" with the majority, which of course is the requirement of the corporation.

Stuter notes that "Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. were both built on a system finding basis in systems theory." Not very encouraging! She indicates that while Goals 2000 and the School to Work Opportunities Act have both seen their sunset,"the system both these [programs] put in place is very much alive and well and providing the structure needed to implement systems education by whatever name its called: outcome-based, performance-based, outcomes-driven..."

One thing that system theory requires is databases. System theorists like to gather up statistics. Computers make this possible, and thus she writes:

In the United States, data from education (and other sources) is being gathered at the federal level by the National Center on Educational Statistics (NCES) under the auspicies of the U.S. Department of Education. That data gathering is inclusive of health records, court records, religious affiliations, grades and courses, assessments of every possible imaginable kind...and much, much, more. The SPEEDE/ExPRESS book, put out by NCES, delineating codes for all the various inputs sought, is over 1-1/4 inches thick! Computers will, before long, be able to interface (talk to one another) such that an individual's dossier, birth to death or birth to present, will be available for the viewing at the push of a button. Along with being used at the individual level, individual information will also be compiled at various levels (local, state, regional), to leverage systems.

It seems to me that already computers talk to each other. Consider how updates to the anti-virus programs are downloaded into your computer via the anti-virus provider. Dito Microsoft updates.

Now consider for a moment the extensive database of dedicated Catholics who volunteer to be fingerprinted and fed into a computer in exchange for the privilege of serving in a volunteer capacity at their local parish! What happens when the Catholics "refuse to become part of the collective mind, willing to engage in transcendentalism" ala Gaia theory and environmentalism?

One of the problems here, as Stuter states:

...is that the information used will only be as accurate as the one giving it and the one inputting it. For example, assessments are a subjective measure of performance. They are not accurate nor an accurate predictor of ability. Not by a long shot.

Again refer to that blog of Amy Welborn's wherein the commenters indicate that the ability to skip has not been predictive of academic ability. In fact it could almost be said that the lack has been predictive of superior ability since there is some anecdotal evidence there that those who didn't conform went on to advanced academic achievements. According to Stuter:

Because of this, the analyzing of data, coming from state assessments, to leverage the education system to reach its goal in achieving the sustainable global environment, will be decidedly inaccurate, and the education system will continue to fail.

The gathering and analysis of data is a necessity to the leveraging of systems to sustain balance. This is why it is so very important that people not give information or allow their information to be computerized...

Obviously that's a lot easier to say than to accomplish. Her concluding comments are not easy to read:

...tyranny will accompany transformational Marxism in its final implementation, the populace will be faced with the reality that those behind the implementation of Marxism in the United States will not give up their conquest without a fight. And the populace will have nothing left with which to fight, including their right to keep and bear arms and their right to free speech.

If we want to keep our freedom, the time to defeat transformation Marxism is now.

Meanwhile, transformation is the new spiritual mantra in Monastic Interreligious Dialogue; and Ewert Cousins, Co-Convenor of the Executive Committee of The World Commission on Global Consciousness & Spirituality, speaks to the monks about the transformation of Christ on the cross; and Ervin Laszlo appears on a program entitled "Science, Religion and Caring for the Environment: A Personal and Global Responsibility," sponsored by The Club of Budapest USA, with the collaboration of United Religions Initiative, among others.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!