On Building Pyramids
I recently had the pleasure of attending a community meeting. The purpose was to form a group to represent our neighbourhood at the municipal level, as a liaison, and as a check against the ward councillor. I expected, and hoped, there would be some lively discussion about issues at hand, solutions, and ideas.
What I got instead was an hour of bickering between different groups about who should be in charge of whom.
Obviously, one group was indisputably “in charge” since they called the meeting, met with previous organizers, promoted the event, scheduled the venue, procured coffee and snacks, etc. Clearly, that was not the reason they called the meeting - their main objective was to start planning things, not bicker.
But regardless of which side of the fence you may sit, everybody involved had one interest, to establish authority and order.
When you look back at ancient cultures, you can tell a lot about what they believed to be important by what they left behind.
Some built massive earthworks and monuments. Some dug canals deep in the rainforest. Others spent generations domesticating livestock, fruits, and grains.
The most iconic of them all is the pyramid. It’s power isn’t just in its monolithic stature, but what the structure suggests about the culture that built it.The pyramids of Giza or Maya weren’t just built by slaves and pharaohs, but by the entire social structure of managers and delegates from the top down.
What I see around me, more and more, is a culture obsessed with building pyramids. We spend all of our time arguing over who is the chair of a volunteer board and next to none of it actually solving problems. Great effort is put into job titles and org-charts, and at the same time so little thought is put into why we do the things we do.
While self-organizing and decision making are part of our nature, our world nurtures the need for authority and power over others. Regardless of the setting, whether for social, business, or community, the very first thing we seem to do is argue over who sits on the capstone.
I don’t know how to fix this, or if it’s even something that can be fixed. I just want to do things. I want to dig canals and domesticate maize.
Surely, I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to build another stupid pyramid.