Organic is your word for today

In the olden days, like only twenty years ago, there was organic chemistry - the study of the chemistry of living organisms.  Biology was the quintessential organic science. 

These days, the term “organic” is applied to almost everything.  We have

• ·       Organic crops – promised vegetables grown with only approved pesticides and fertilizers, and “certified.”
• ·       Organic growth in business – meaning a business is grown from within as a dynamical organizational process; mergers and acquisitions are considered inorganic.
• ·       Organic organization – referring to a flexible management style readily adaptable to changes, as opposed to the mechanistic , or top-down management system.
• ·       Organic military – often meaning an organic (military) unit that is a permanent part of a larger unit with a specialized capability to that parent unit.
• ·       Organic education – basically meaning that children are born to learn and they want to learn, and educators must facilitate this
• ·       Organic meat – meat produced as grass-fed, without use of growth hormones or antibiotics.
• ·       Organic groceries – in general crops produced without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation.
• ·       Organic energy - originates in the core focal points of the body and radiates outward, lengthening the limbs and expanding the muscles through expressive ranges of motion.

As well, there is organic medicine, architecture, beer, clothing, butter, deodorant, coffee, fertilizer, farming, toothpaste, and countless others.  In general, if you want to sell something, call it organic.  If you want to promote an idea, call it organic.

Is organic a buzz-word?  Possibly, but it seems to be a word implying a more natural approach in a highly technical, deterministic, and mechanistic world.  It is a rejection of the "anything goes" brave new worlds that have become our lingua franca.