In his last newsletter, Oliver Burkeman presents two concepts: toxic preconditions and the tyranny of purpose. Although he presents them in an individual context, I thought that this applies to the sociocratic culture, especially to consent decision-making and objections.
Here is the quote that triggered this link:
Imagine the projects you could launch, … if you needed no reassurance that the new way of doing things was every going to become a permanent feature of your life!
What do you think?
The imperfectionnist
“You are afraid of surrender because you don’t want to lose control. But you never had control; all you had was anxiety.”
This reminds me of the notion from Kierkegaard that we will inevitably end up in despair (or angst) if we believe that we are ourselves responsible for choosing our path. Whenever I choose anything, I turn away from a multitude of alternative paths. So how can I escape the nagging thought that my choice was wrong?
Kirkegaard says then, that only if we can surrender to the will of something greater than ourselves (he says our ‘creator’), then we can escape despair.
Maybe that could mean that my choice of my morning routine should in the end be decided by what I sense that I’m supposed to do, what some greater power wants me to do, rather than what I find sensible to do?
In sociocracy, maybe this could be something like the ‘magical’ aspect of the circle’s collective intelligence - that in exploring an issue in the circle, we can listen and feel in to what wants to come forth, rather than only relying on ‘thinking’.
Does that make sense?
I wrote a philosophical article about this topic with Kierkegaard once, if you’re interested. 
Existential Necessity as the Primary Occasion for the Relation to God.pdf (91.3 KB)
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