permaculture

[Cory <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

Reading over the communication on this list over the past weeks I've been 
struck with how insidiously cultural paradigms can be grooved in on even very 
conscious people.
In a competitive paradigm rather than a cooperative one, people communicate 
in order to convince others that they are right, that they have a correct 
viewpoint. Because competition operates on win-lose dichotomies, rather than 
win-win, that means the other person must be wrong in order for you to be 
right. 

This is linked closely with the concept of survival- if you are too wrong, 
you are dead. 

In a cooperative paradigm, people communicate in order to establish 
beneficial connection. In fact, one could say that communication IS the 
establishment of beneficial connection. 

In a cooperative paradigm you become more right (more survival potential) by 
helping others survive and be "right" too. 

I've realized that my own communication style sometimes reflects the 
competitive, win-lose paradigm, and that viewpoint shift on this one aspect 
alone can shift the entire flavor of communication and increase yield 
dramatically. 

There is a place for competition in the system but this realization has just 
helped me be more conscious of how I choose to manifest it, and helped me to 
see some cultural-social patterns I had not viewed with such clarity 
previously. Hmm, having more realizations, i am now going off to explore the 
patterns that arise from this more thoroughly.....

Love, Cory