Love what you have shared so far! You're rocking the sound effects. Makes everything you say extra captivating.
You often emphasize collaboration, a value I embrace. Recently, peers have presented their perspective that hierarchy has its place.
Despite its historical drawbacks, I've considered hierarchy's positive impacts like structure, responsibility, and accountability.
Here are some questions that have come up for me:
Is responsiblity and accountability dependent upon the structure of hierarchy?
Can diversity, inclusion, and equality live within hierarchy?
Can all voices be heard within a hierarchical structure?
Is hierarchy the most effective way for communal growth? Or is just one unique pathway among others?
Is heirachy a reflection of humanities power struggle: the lust or fear of power?
Or a reflection of humanities desire to give away responsibility or accountability to a higher power for an illusive freedom?
I would love to hear your perspective on this topic! Or even some books or research recommendations on this topic 😊
Thank you Jackie for taking the time to write this all out. I appreciate and love hearing your perspective.
Also, thank you for the note, I thought I might have missed something on a previous podcast.
Looking forward to the next one 😊
Note : So I just realized that the hierarchy quote I referenced is actually going to be in the upcoming Episode 4... I guess you're two steps ahead of me!
Hi Melissa!
Great question. It all depends, of course, on the nature of the heirarchy. The hierarchy of a small village juxtaposed to the hierarchy of a 300 million person democracy is going to have an easier time.
The quote from the podcast briefly shared Stephen Jenkinson's definition based on his study of etymology. But let me put the full quote here:
"The Greek prefix hier means “of things sacred.” It does not automatically mean “above” or “raised up,” nor does it seem to carry any inference of superiority that comes down to us from any ectopic, creation-slandering religion. It imagines sacred as one condition of this earthly life of ours.
And then the root word, arche. You probably know it best from that resonant pronouncement regarding how everything commenced: “In the beginning was the word….” But you would also recognize it in archaic, architecture, archer, archetype, arc, and a score of other words. Here it begins to lose its later associations with “ruler,” with “overlord.” The thrust of the thing is closer to fundament, or foundation. It carries an understanding not of single cause or origin, but of “enduring upholders,” or “nutritive predecessors,” and so in its pre-monotheistic incarnation, it is plural in its nuance and sustaining in its function.
Reassembled, hierarchy gives us something like this: “Those who locate holiness in this world by underlying the world, by coming before.” With this understanding and function you can see that the elder is the hierarch of his or her time, that the spiral of time is the medium and the engine of the wisdom hierarchies which are your proper inheritance."
In my perfect world, hierarchy is as he says, a system of acknowledging and following the wisdom of our elders, who have earned their place by being able to discern what is sacred and valuable to a culture and preserving those values across generations. There is no top or bottom, just an acknowledgement of roles and responsibilities of equal importance. Leaders and Elders are given the responsibility of choice making on behalf of the village, but are no less important that other members. All voices are heard, but the elders are trusted to discern what is best for everyone. (The effective choice.)
In reading your questions, I find a deeper question of individuality versus community, and how lots of humans form consensus. Though the advent of the internet is creating potential for millions of humans to participate in consensus, it seems that modern hierarchy exists primarily for the purpose of decision making. We've seen how hard it is for a hundred elected senators to agree on something, now let's consider a billion humans or more. Quite the conundrum!
So to answer the questions you're asking, first we have to consider what the hierarchy is for. Governance? Leadership? Financial gain? Hierarchies in corporations are generally praised because they lead to effective and profitable growth, whereas hierarchies in governance are often critisized for falling victim to corruption.
Ultimately they function when there is integrity and accountability in both directions, when those who guide us have earned our trust through their merit, not through privlege or manipulation.
I do think Hierarchies can be effective and not just lead to the multi-polar traps you mentioned above, but they require integrity, which when intermixed with capitalism (as just about every aspect of our life is these days), the tendency for corruption or disilluison is high.
In that sense, responsibility and accountability cannot be dependent on a hierarchy. Responsibility and accountability must be an intrinsic element of every individual within the hierarchy.
Love hearing your thoughts! Thanks for letting me share mine!