“A practice can be made better by its passing into common wisdom. So what's keeping you from shaping your practice? Keep practicing is basically a way of saying, “we protect ourselves and others from harm due to disorder. Moreover, we are all born practitioners. Our practice mattered to us. It is something that occupies our time and lead us to seek for direction, change, growth, and development.”
In the context of the absence of order behavior (“the disorder“), I offer you this excerpt below from Four Principles of Quotation to think about.
“The bad-men-combine quote is interesting because here we can see a genuine quote of Burke’s, and monitor the extent of its misuse. By an odd coincidence it comes from same work of Burke quoted at the end of the first essay, the ‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’. Let us look at it exactly in context. Here is Burke in full flood, employing his usual never-use-one-word-when-three-will-do style.
Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where men are not acquainted with each other’s principles, nor experienced in each other’s talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common interest, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In a connection, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the public. No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.“
Needlessly, we are trapped by disorder, on which we put ourselves into the same danger (may even be making the effect worse and sinking us) over and over. Further, there is a gap (“our shortcomings“) from what we can observe today and from our past like the time and place of Burke that could lead us to assumed danger (“the organization of disorder patterns“) of:
- Vampire – People who sacrifice their personal well being in order to get ahead at the expense of others. They objectively deceive others and take advantage on their weaknesses; they lack a sense of shared fate; and they are opportunistic.
- inferiority – People who are arrogant and/or accept work far beyond their practice and expertise, either because of a circumstantial upper hand, or culture, they cover their shortcomings and follow through by manipulating, dominating, oppressing, bombarding, promoting fear, syndicating accountability and authority, blaming, and/or avoiding others who may be competent than them. Usually they justify their behaviors and/or actions, outweigh the rewards for collaboration, stifle creativity, and bring up not abstract social values.
- complacency – People who fail to come out of the woodwork. They are losers, misfits, lazy (no natural threats to their existence), “no-go” power, looney, retired (had their day of geriatric leadership), fat, dumb, depress, and happy lodged in the “cities of the plain” lacking of sense of concern. Usually they are unwilling to turn their condition to their advantage, originate and champion initiatives, and make a difference for change.
- Caste system – People who dominate collective behavior, set up de facto boundaries, promote factionalism, and serve their own skin color, religion, economic, management, group, team, social, and political status and needs.
- Defective work operation – People who fail to align themselves with the natural processes of the work flow to achieve a mission. Observations like competitive goals and conflicting responsibilities are fostering internal competition and holding back collaboration. Usually they create fracture lines down through the organization.
- War – People who disintegrate into camps. The situation with little incentive to cooperate, collaborate, share information, or team up to pursue mission-critical outcomes cripples their thoughts and actions to generate results that satisfy the true requirements and conditions placed upon them by themselves and others. The split can originate from their differences, each defined by the desire to achieve position, serve their own agendas, evolve patterns of work operation, and promote a particular proposition, culture, system, or ideology.
These organization of disorder patterns were identified and presented to describe their short details. Some of their effects could be:
- impediment to prosperity
- diminished educational system
While the item below were some of our shortcomings (“the disorder“).
lack of knowledge – People who fail to foster deeper understanding on problems, situations, matters, or things around them. Usaully they are ridden with ignorance and get away not from it. Far worse they forget who they are.
lack of media – People who fail to transfer their knowledge about solution (ways, means, or approaches) to a problem, situation, matters, or things around them.
lack of character – People who fail to develop their positive behavior towards others
lack of focus – People who fail to gain momentum and/or attention enough to accomplish work tasks and/or activities in solving a problem, situation, matters, or things around them.
lack of priority – People who fail to develop a sense of direction, purpose, and goal needed to lead their effort into activities of their own choosing.
lack of ethics – People who set not of beliefs/guidelines that could help them make the right decisions easily under trying times question their sense of morality. Usually they have an error in judgement and have no regard for rules. Meaning, they understand not the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong etc.
lack of leadership – People who fail to keep others from feeling abandoned and vulnerable; and sinking into a state of discouragement, low morale, and diminished commitment.
lack of sense of concern – People who refuse to bring change.
lack of belief – People who fail to believe in. They feel to create and maintain any kind of empathic contact with others.
lack of an integrated personality – People who fail to make right decisions and actions. Usually they meet not the demands of others, such as coping with problems and relationships due to emotional instability.
lack of responsibility – People who feel no need to direct their knowledge (“and new found knowledge”) to make positive change as their own responsibility. Usually they are reactive rather than potentially proactive for direction, change, growth, and development. Far worse they forget what they can do, instead they cause great damage to the world today.
lack of understanding – People who fail to learn how to put pieces of data together to form a logical outcome.
lack of communication
lack of perception
lack Of coherence
lack of quality
lack of courage
lack Of tools
How can we combat disorder?
Being responsible is where we can begin to combat disorder. That is, we must feel the need to acknowledge and direct our knowledge (“and new found knowledge“) to make positive change as our own responsibility. With responsibility, engaging our shortcomings would be a great experience for us. And it would help us to prepare ourselves, keep our personal values and morals high, combat the disorder patterns, and weave the path to our direction, change, growth, and development.
As we cross the path of combating disorder, fear not. Have faith. iQuoth.org, Quoth, Connecting Practice, Practitioner Group, I Quoth Shop, Quoth Community, Quoth Jobs, and their related programs were made available by these thoughts to make and/or awake awareness.
Helpful Topic Links
More about the topic…
- Is Flow Relationship Between Quoth Variables a Natural Way of Your Mind?
- From knowledge, what wisdom comes to you?
- Some Thoughts About Practice Generalization
- Can Your Practice Help Us to Work Together?
- How Can You Participate in Increasing Quoth Awareness and Understanding?
- Can You Cope With The Demands of Your Practice?
- Understanding the concept of teamwork