Your Systemic World

To understand your world you first need to understand systems. You are a system and you live within other systems. Understanding our systems is akin to a fish comprehending the water in which it lives. It surrounds us; it is constant; it is the background in the face of daily events.  However, your systems are often changing and evolving, giving it dynamics.  That is only the beginning.

Human systems evolve through all of at least nine essential features.

a.      Rules – logics, quasi logic, intuitions, induction, limits, laws

b.      Premises – beliefs, axioms, superstitions, absolutes

c.      Leaders – interpreters, guides, directors, dictators

d.      Dynamics – changes, cycles, chaos, repair

e.      Taboos – impossibles, improbables

f.       Hierarchies – ranks, orders, arrangements

g.      Infinities – extremes, beyond extremes, imponderables

h.      Conformities – rigidity, flexibility, freedoms

i.       Human – behavioral, social, moral, ethical, religious, love, hate

Secondary factors mix features. These include the political, infinitesimal, educational, systemic invasion, and Black swans.

Personal systems have similar features. Sytems operate according to their rules and self-organize by its dominating rules. Once a population adheres to a set of rules, it is unlikely to change.  However, changes in any of the rules can impact others. In fact, even small changes can render large systemic changes, thus invoking instability or chaos.  On the other hand, a revolution may leave its rules mostly unchanged. For example, the American Revolution changed the leader (no more King), but almost everything else remained intact.  Leaders, as interpreters, can manipulate the rules, but as dictators can change the rules. As orators, they can maneuver the system toward changes. Leaders and natural disasters can change system dynamics. Personal systems can change radically by life’s many unexpected events.

Think in terms of life systems.  Understanding their components, and understanding how small changes in any component can result in large systemic changes, are keys to comprehending your systemic world. Understand what changes you can make but also for those unexpected or undesirable consequences.