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RRR · 03-06-2009, 08:40 PM

A thought I had inspired by a dream this morning. Very rough. Hope you'll enjoy and contribute.

Top-down structures.
Family, School, Work, Church, Organized Sports.

I remember the summer as a child. The neighborhood kids finally had a chance to work as a team, we went on adventures, we had fun, we worked on each others growth. What happened, however, was teamwork was avoided through organized sport. It took away time from the real team at home. I didn't play with my real friends, I was driven miles away to play with people I did not know and this pull of new relationships, new teamwork, does not help and is not practical in a child's life. I had no way of working with these kids outside of that environment. The teamwork was shoddy, communication became robotic, the "Coach" was a top down manager. Same with school. I wasn't in classes with my teammates. I was with kids shipped in fro m miles away. Kids I couldn't go hang out with outside of school. It was a waste of time and the teams were generally arbitrarily forged. Recess had teams..but classwork was usual individual. And when teamwork was made it was generally chosen by teachers. Forming your own group would lead to dissident groups refusing to do the project or doing a very poor job. Teachers disbanded the groups of dissidents, they were slaves powerless to fight back against the system. It was a top-down structure, destroyer of team work.

Church and the Family. The church is a top-down structure that sells children imaginary friends, fear, guilt, and shame. Then it sells excommunication from the tribe as punishment for questioning its judgment. It destroys teams, promotes holier than thou. My church was full of people I did not know well. My friends went to different churches. It seemed as if it was purely a family affair, all individual families indoctrinating their children. I was forced to go as a child, I would generally pretend to be asleep until my parents forcibly awakened me, I was promised donuts if I made it through church. Fatten up the nonbeliever.

My family was not a good team. We had no other adults besides my mom and dad in our house, occasionally a grandmother when the two went on vacation or when both were working. We had a baby sitter when we were out of daycare. We had of course the adult structures of school and organized sport. My parents and my town were not teams. they were a group of individuals, at best a group of families.

What is my point? I am a 22 year old male human. By any logical pre-western standards I should have been part of a tribe and been forging teamwork with a small group of humans all this time. Our ability as a group would be immense.

However as I see it humans no longer have their own teams...especially once they have children.
They are sold top-down structures as teams.
They have virtually no power within their own teams.

The family - In western culture I feel it is all too common for families to be a top-down structure. Whether it is Single parent dominant or dual parent dominant, children are born into a situation where they are not teammates. They are lower-level. Their opinions do not matter. They have no power, influence, or real importance.

Government - At best you can work as a mayor, city council, PTA. etc.
-Government is a top-down violent structure by nature.

Work- Most jobs I know of are top-down structures. Owners/CEOs/Managers make the decisions. Lower level workers have no real influence. Their best bet is to join a union, which usually becomes so massive the individual has no real influence, Unions become top-down structures.

Suburbs - My experience with suburbs was a collection of individual families, who didn't really talk to eachother, most didn't know eachother, all taking care of their individual families. Some are subservient to ridiculous laws about lawnmaintainence, boat ownership, color of house etc.

The individual is sold false teams.
-Governments (Patriotism & Nationalism)
-Religion
-Family
-Economic structures
-Social classes
-Material teams
-Entertainment teams: Favorite bands, tv, movies, sports teams (Idols)

03-06-2009, 08:40 PM	#1 (permalink)
RRR Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: San Rafael, California Posts: 451	Western Culture and Teamwork A thought I had inspired by a dream this morning. Very rough. Hope you'll enjoy and contribute. Top-down structures. Family, School, Work, Church, Organized Sports. I remember the summer as a child. The neighborhood kids finally had a chance to work as a team, we went on adventures, we had fun, we worked on each others growth. What happened, however, was teamwork was avoided through organized sport. It took away time from the real team at home. I didn't play with my real friends, I was driven miles away to play with people I did not know and this pull of new relationships, new teamwork, does not help and is not practical in a child's life. I had no way of working with these kids outside of that environment. The teamwork was shoddy, communication became robotic, the "Coach" was a top down manager. Same with school. I wasn't in classes with my teammates. I was with kids shipped in fro m miles away. Kids I couldn't go hang out with outside of school. It was a waste of time and the teams were generally arbitrarily forged. Recess had teams..but classwork was usual individual. And when teamwork was made it was generally chosen by teachers. Forming your own group would lead to dissident groups refusing to do the project or doing a very poor job. Teachers disbanded the groups of dissidents, they were slaves powerless to fight back against the system. It was a top-down structure, destroyer of team work. Church and the Family. The church is a top-down structure that sells children imaginary friends, fear, guilt, and shame. Then it sells excommunication from the tribe as punishment for questioning its judgment. It destroys teams, promotes holier than thou. My church was full of people I did not know well. My friends went to different churches. It seemed as if it was purely a family affair, all individual families indoctrinating their children. I was forced to go as a child, I would generally pretend to be asleep until my parents forcibly awakened me, I was promised donuts if I made it through church. Fatten up the nonbeliever. My family was not a good team. We had no other adults besides my mom and dad in our house, occasionally a grandmother when the two went on vacation or when both were working. We had a baby sitter when we were out of daycare. We had of course the adult structures of school and organized sport. My parents and my town were not teams. they were a group of individuals, at best a group of families. What is my point? I am a 22 year old male human. By any logical pre-western standards I should have been part of a tribe and been forging teamwork with a small group of humans all this time. Our ability as a group would be immense. However as I see it humans no longer have their own teams...especially once they have children. They are sold top-down structures as teams. They have virtually no power within their own teams. The family - In western culture I feel it is all too common for families to be a top-down structure. Whether it is Single parent dominant or dual parent dominant, children are born into a situation where they are not teammates. They are lower-level. Their opinions do not matter. They have no power, influence, or real importance. Government - At best you can work as a mayor, city council, PTA. etc. -Government is a top-down violent structure by nature. Work- Most jobs I know of are top-down structures. Owners/CEOs/Managers make the decisions. Lower level workers have no real influence. Their best bet is to join a union, which usually becomes so massive the individual has no real influence, Unions become top-down structures. Suburbs - My experience with suburbs was a collection of individual families, who didn't really talk to eachother, most didn't know eachother, all taking care of their individual families. Some are subservient to ridiculous laws about lawnmaintainence, boat ownership, color of house etc. The individual is sold false teams. -Governments (Patriotism & Nationalism) -Religion -Family -Economic structures -Social classes -Material teams -Entertainment teams: Favorite bands, tv, movies, sports teams (Idols) Last edited by RRR; 03-06-2009 at 09:40 PM.