This post is so eloquent! This post describes a lot of ideas that I have been thinking about, and Tao has created a framework that lets me describe many of these thoughts.
I think people have been really underestimating the power of small organized groups, and I have been putting significant effort into invigorating the small groups around me.
Tao hints at some of the values of small groups, but I think he misses the irreplaceable value that small groups have. We as a society have conceptualized value itself into certain quantities, mostly in dollar amounts (time, money, income, wealth, assets, services, etc) that we have lost our humanity. I find it amusing that Tao describes "a sense of purpose" as a "softer" benefit, and I agree that this is the lens by which society implicitly sees "a sense of purpose" - a sense of purpose does not have a monetary value that can be assigned to it. Even so, what is all the money in the world worth without a sense of purpose?
Tao correctly points out that "large organizations" "offer substantially more economies of scale" and "provide significant material comforts", I wonder if humanity is ready to wonder if it really needs more material comforts at a global scale. Perhaps we can start paring down some of our global organizations into their core functions of providing material comforts and we can start invigorating small organizations to nourish our souls.
We spend so much time, energy, and mental anguish over challenges like war and political gridlock. Our natural inclination to consolidate power into large organizations to overcome these challenges may be counterproductive because these large organizations naturally dehumanize us. And when this dehumanized organization inevitably fail to achieve the original noble goals of e.g. strongarming Russia into peace with Ukraine, we naturally try to push for more power and use different forms of aggression or increase the magnitude of our aggression, not only to try to "conquer" the "problem" but also feel safe in our membership into a big and powerful organization capable of such aggression. This might also drive us to abandon "small organizations" for some "great cause". For example, look at all the time and energy we put into global political coalitions on social media rather than local causes.
Tao may be right that we need to fundamentally rethink how these different levels and sizes of organizations need to engage with one another. When we encounter a problem, even a big problem, a big organization sometimes is not only ineffective but they can be actively harmful.
I think people have been really underestimating the power of small organized groups, and I have been putting significant effort into invigorating the small groups around me.
Tao hints at some of the values of small groups, but I think he misses the irreplaceable value that small groups have. We as a society have conceptualized value itself into certain quantities, mostly in dollar amounts (time, money, income, wealth, assets, services, etc) that we have lost our humanity. I find it amusing that Tao describes "a sense of purpose" as a "softer" benefit, and I agree that this is the lens by which society implicitly sees "a sense of purpose" - a sense of purpose does not have a monetary value that can be assigned to it. Even so, what is all the money in the world worth without a sense of purpose?
Tao correctly points out that "large organizations" "offer substantially more economies of scale" and "provide significant material comforts", I wonder if humanity is ready to wonder if it really needs more material comforts at a global scale. Perhaps we can start paring down some of our global organizations into their core functions of providing material comforts and we can start invigorating small organizations to nourish our souls.
We spend so much time, energy, and mental anguish over challenges like war and political gridlock. Our natural inclination to consolidate power into large organizations to overcome these challenges may be counterproductive because these large organizations naturally dehumanize us. And when this dehumanized organization inevitably fail to achieve the original noble goals of e.g. strongarming Russia into peace with Ukraine, we naturally try to push for more power and use different forms of aggression or increase the magnitude of our aggression, not only to try to "conquer" the "problem" but also feel safe in our membership into a big and powerful organization capable of such aggression. This might also drive us to abandon "small organizations" for some "great cause". For example, look at all the time and energy we put into global political coalitions on social media rather than local causes.
Tao may be right that we need to fundamentally rethink how these different levels and sizes of organizations need to engage with one another. When we encounter a problem, even a big problem, a big organization sometimes is not only ineffective but they can be actively harmful.