Governance begins with co-operation and ends without co-operation.
Co-operation:
We know what co-operation is and we have some idea of how to do it. It takes some attention and practice. It's working together, sometimes with no boss. For a wise man it is working together for our mutual benefits with the clear awareness that it benefits each of us personally as well. With practice we can make it work for us very well.
C0-operation is an art or craft that nearly all of us know something about. It is a bit like "If you'll scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" So, its a reciprocal process. Even so, there is much that we can learn about it. I believe that we can and should learn more of the use and practice of co-operation.
Co-operation can lead us to friendship, trust, brotherhood, and sisterhood to. We learn more about people in co-operation by: working with them, observing them, listening to them, and talking with them.
Co-operation is vital for self-governance. For me self governance is taking care of ourselves. Taking care of one's self is mostly a co-operative affair these days, even though it is still much like being one's own boss. We also do self-governance together with others for our mutual benefit. Governance can be about government and Government with a capital G. Government can be about taking care of our state, city, town, school, or about finding a place to put up a basketball court, planning how to do it, and doing it. Of course doing this kind of governance is best done with co-operation, we work together. In democratic governance the working together can bring especially good effects.
Co-operating may be humanities best activities. It is certainly one of our most useful activities. One of our greatest powers as a society is the power to co-operate for our common good. Co-operation is a powerful good and an important step in organization.
Organization:
Co-operation can usually includes being supported by those you support or being helped by those you help. It can be long term as in a family, a business, or a county, but it can be short term as in a piece of work for a limited purpose. Organization is very similar.
Just knowing something about what co-operation is, gives us a reason to practice it with some gratitude. we know that we can work together for our mutual good. Doing so in a democratic way can be even more satisfying because the individuals so co-operating because of the satisfying feeling of equality. Each co-operator is valued. We know that working together can get us through some tough times. In tough times it can keep us safe. In better times it improves our chances for an abundant life among supportive others. Well organized co-operation can do so even more effectively.
Co-operation can be particularly important in hard times and not just at critical moments or in urgent cases, but in every-day difficult times. Who has live a year with no difficult times. It is sometimes difficult to get through a month in which a little co-operation would have helped. Its a nice feeling that there are people are around to help even when you don't need it. In some tough times some co-operation could have helped me, but I didn't realize what I had to offer. However, over the years men and women have worked out effective and informal ways of getting to better days. We practiced co-operation in clubs, families, unions businesses, towns, cities, counties, and other organizations.
Without co-operation, organization may be impossible:
It is especially useful to co-operate well in times of unusually rapid change. Earth changes such as climate change seems to be getting to be that kind of change. It is possible for us to organize to better adapt to Earth changes such as climate change.
Dialogue is necessary for nearly all good co-operation and organization:
Very often I use the word "dialogue" to refer to a special kind of talk. For us, right now, let it just mean good listening and clear talk. We can come to know one another better and to co-operate better. We can greatly improve our chances for effective co-operation by listening to each other better and talking with one another honestly. Listening and talking for meaning and understanding helps us to more effectively co-operate. Our ongoing dialogue is important.
For a higher level of co-operation, a more effective mode of communication is very useful. Face to face dialogue is an example of a mode of communication. I such dialogue we listen for meaning and understanding. We often benefit greatly from learning to co-operate with persons very different from ourselves. We come to listen more effectively for their meanings and their understandings. Their life experience is likely to have been significantly different from ours so they may have learned a point of view different from ours. Its that better listening leads to better co-operation and more effective organization. We can practice better listening. As we know, we can better co-operate by informing and being informed so as to come to necessary understandings.
Practices which can aid co-operation, governance, dialogue, and effective organization:
Good practices include:
~ sharing leadership.
~ offering suggestions rather than commands.
~ showing gratitude, praise, and respect for co-operation which effectively moves us closer to achieving our common goals.
~ doing useful work.
~ appreciating the import of our common efforts and aims.
~ sharing our understanding of our common benefits.
~ trying to really understand the problem.
~ trying to understand the other guy's ideas.
~ explaining the reasons for requests and rules.
~ taking turns talking, listening, waiting, leading, getting things done.
~ practicing participation.
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Thank you for your visit.
RCS