Words matter. These are the best Robert Shea Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
But instead I usually say that, though it may surprise them, I too believe in the necessity of organization.
It is instructive, for instance, to trace the computer industry’s decline in vision, idealism, creativity, romance and sheer fun as it becomes more and more important and prosperous.
Indeed, if our ancestors of millions of years ago hadn’t learned how to care for one another and hunt in packs, they’d all have ended up being eaten by leopards.
The ability to get ahead in an organization is simply another talent, like the ability to play chess, paint pictures, do coronary bypass operations or pick pockets.
Indeed, one of the most successful and influential religious organizations in history, the Society of Jesus, was consciously modeled along military lines by its founder, Ignatius Loyola.
Just as predatory animals follow a similar general design and behave in similar ways, so organizations, especially those in competition with one another, must follow certain design principles if they are to succeed and prevail.
As such people achieve influence within the organization, whenever there is a conflict between their own interest and the interest of the organization, their interests will win out.
One simple way to keep organizations from becoming cancerous might be to rotate all jobs on a regular, frequent and mandatory basis, including the leadership positions.
The key element in tragedy is that heroes and heroines are destroyed by that which appears to be their greatest strength.
The Gnostics were rapidly driven out of business by the hierarchical orthodox Christians.
Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.
Individuals, too, who cultivate a variety of skills seem brighter, more energetic and more adaptable than those who know how to do one thing only.
To reject even one major tenet of the religion or to violate one major rule of behavior is enough to get one kicked out – or worse.
You are attached to what you attack.
Ultimately we may still ask, why can’t humans design a perfect society?
But the more an organization succeeds and prospers, the more it is likely to be diverted from its original ideals, principles and purposes.
Organized religion provides a model of the way all organizations, from the state down to the village garden club, end a price in terms of a member’s freedom of thought and action.
That the more authoritarian organizations survive and prevail goes generally unnoticed because people focus on the objectives of organizations, which are many and varied, rather than on their structures, which lend to be similar.
Even while we busily attend meetings, contribute money and perform our assigned tasks, we suspect that we may be helping to create a force that is inimical to many values we hold dear.
Because the better an organization is at fulfilling its purpose, the more it attracts people who see the organization as an opportunity to advance themselves.
