John Abbe (aka Slow)5d ago

Reclaiming hierarchies, in four parts:

Hierarchies, like positive feedback loops. can be found everywhere. And whether strict/clean hierarchies or messy, can be as oppressive as any going down the drain, any downward spiral. Or, as useful and beautiful as any sunflower or virtuous circle, or other upward spiral!

1/4 #power #groups #communities #networks #activism #socialism #anarchism #systems

Show threadJohn Abbe (aka Slow)5d ago
Genetically, family relationships in most species, like us, are hierarchical, and over generations often get messy. (Some bacteria (& archaea?) do so much inter-critter gene transfer that's the more influential scene.) Families of languages, or schools of thought, or institutions, there are many fields where it helps to uderstand it when we use a hierarchical lens. 2/4
Show threadJohn Abbe (aka Slow)5d ago
Computer programming has relatively clean hierarchies of hardware and software dependencies. Physics describes layers of ~messy hierarchy where quarks make up protons and neutrons, which with electrons make up the few kinds of atoms like carbon and hydrogen etc., which in turn make up molecules, etc. 3/4
Show threadJohn Abbe (aka Slow)

We think of autocracy as being intrinsic to hierarchy, because we spend so much time in hierarchies of the sort that people essentialize as command & control systems. So every relationship is conceived of in those terms.

Yet phone trees are a classic hierarchical tool we use for systems of support, and for calls to action!

I see hierarchies everywhere. Most of the ones I like are messy. Do you see any hierarchies you feel good about? Other responses also welcome. 4/4

Apr 9 at 11:01pmWeb
Show threadanderbill4d ago
@slowenough nice thinking here. in the organizational psychodynamics perspective hierarchies can act as social defenses. some are adaptive (as you point out) and others, well, no so much.
Show threadJohn Abbe (aka Slow)4d ago

@band Right? I think it's fair to say that hierarchies — especially clean ones — present vulnerabilities to autocratic activities. Just as networks open up many security holes.

Many hierarchies are naturally a bit messy. We can also mess them on purpose, cross over 'cousin' elements, have some connect to other elements multiple layers away (the front-liner who knows the comms hub geek), or even make loops! Messiness can provide rich redundancies making the system more resilient under attack.