It was April Fool’s Day yesterday and managed to steer around all of the spoofs and practical jokes unscathed. Well I think I did anyways.
In a fit of madness though I agreed with myself that I would post one note here every week at least.
So this is the first of what should become a more regular series.
Today’s foul weather here has set me in an inquisitive mood and as I explore the workings of clubs and organisations it strikes me that we humans are quite vindictive rather than helpful and supporting. Yes I know some will say that this is Maslow and Darwin playing out with a dash of Taylor but this is pleasure time not business or some life and death situation.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Why is it, that organisationally we adopt the politics of might, in what should be a community of kindred spirits? There is a preponderance of ego over rational co-operative support for our leisure pursuits. It becomes a competition of idea survival and my friends do more than yours rather than mutual support. The result is faction and fractioning of an organisation; they spin in internal turmoil and waste effort on internal dis-functional activity rather than promoting their inspirational and aspirational objectives.
It seems at times that we can destroy what is good regardless of the cost to those around us and to ourselves.
Perhaps it is time to redress some of this as it is the few that cause the upset and not the mass membership. The Activist are able to disrupt the organisation that is quietly developing and improving by virtue of the majority who are passively led into believing that Activist A will be better than Activist Z. Generally the belief is manufactured out of smoke and mirrors and the reality is that both A’s and Z’s programmes are limited by the financial resources of the group and the willingness of the mass membership to participate actively.
It is a well documented phenomenon that groups are made active by the handful of Activist and that at best the masses attend in support. Engagement and involvement are very distinct and the mass Membership engage by turning up for meetings and some events and that is as far as the matter goes for them. Actual involvement i.e. doing something that adds value is indeed a rare step and moving out of the mass membership into the Activist camp is one fraught with difficulty and challenge. The clique of the Old Guard, guardians of the past and key holders into the inner sanctum, the caution of the New Management watching with a nervous twitch what the Old Guard may or may not approve of and knowing thta yesterdays answers will not respond to today’s needs and the Cynics who hover around the boundary waiting to pick up the scraps and use those to whip up a frenzy that is usually froth.
Is it a wonder that the mass Membership keep their head down.
I have in mind examples from several different activities that we call pleasure time or hobbies and all can be seen to operate in the same fashion. It seems that an individuals passion for an art, craft or sport drains common sense and normal social interaction out of their being and creates a monstor that is absolutely certain that everyone else is wrong. Ask them what is right though and the silence is deafening...
No comments:
Post a Comment