SNP’s word of the day: Holarchy

Word: Holarchy

Meaning: A universal structure in which each component, or holon, is both a part and a whole; both separate and part of something bigger.

Usage: “Humanity is amalgamating into a collective intelligence, a global brain, able to react and respond to threats as a holarchy, without centralized control.” — Daniel Pinchbeck in Dazed & Confused

You should know it because: It might be January 20—wait, just checked, definitely is—but I’m nowhere near finished talking about how, oh my god, it’s 2012. Even if you’re no doomsday-ist, you’re unlikely to believe that the world can go on like this. The European Union is in its last days and in America, even the Christian Science Monitor thinks capitalism has failed. Scared yet? But perhaps it’s not capitalism; maybe it’s our hierarchical understanding of civilization and democracy.

Enter the late journalist, intellectual, and friend of Orwell, Arthur Koestler, who proposed that the world is instead a holarchy, in which each of us are whole or a holon (like a cell) but also part of a larger whole or holon (like an organ). Seeing the world in concentric, expanding circles to be explored, instead of a rigid ladder to climb, seems kinda freeing. Try it! Just don’t get dizzy! HA. HA. HA…. Okay sorry, but it’s Friday.

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