Society

How the narcissism of small differences is holding back community transformation work

and what we can do about it

As any group grows past “Dunbar’s Number,” conflicts will arise. Every species has a built in “flocking instinct,” a maximum group size before the group splits.  For humans, it’s somewhere around 300. We’re just hardwired that way. This probably evolved so a single species population wouldn’t over-burden its local ecosystem.

And it’s often small differences between us that we hang those conflicts on. These small differences probably help us differentiate our village and tribe and build ingroup identity when a group grows past Dunbar’s Number and the flock divides.

Sigmund Freud called this “the narcissism of small differences.” He noted that the fiercest fighting doesn’t happen between people with big differences, but between those with relatively insignificant differences. The Romans used this bit of human nature in their “divide and conquer” strategy, turning locals against themselves and their neighbours for easy plunder, and colonialists and corporations have been doing the same ever since, wherever opposition springs up.

We may discover Permaculture and think “finally! This is my tribe!” But soon we learn more, and with millions of Permaculturists world wide, there are bound to be differences among us.

What’s more disappointing is that we say “cooperation over competition,” but sometimes we seem to spend more time attacking imperfect allies over insignificant differences than we do attacking global corporations, consumer culture, and industrial agriculture that are actually destroying the planet.

Beyer-Monsanto over there wrecking EVERYTHING like Godzilla and we’re eviscerating each other over exactly how relatively beneficial an herb spiral is. Just the way Monsanto wants it.

And of course this gets in the way of any kind of real cooperative environment.

 

So, what can we do about this? Here are some of my thoughts.

1. It’s natural and okay to be part of a subgroup (like Transformative Adventures on Facebook) but can we also see ourselves as part of a broader “alternative global nation?” Believe me, there are people in the movement I disagree with (Hah!) but I have to admit, their imperfect Permaculture is still better than the poisons and petrol way.

2. Can we build our identity off of what’s POSITIVE, what we are FOR, instead of a harsh critique of small differences? I’ve been trying to focus my differences on what I am FOR, like “relocalising the movement for relocalisation, decentralising the movement for decentralisation, and bringing solidarity economics back to the movement of solidarity economics” rather than attacking other people I think are “doing it wrong.”

3. Can we focus on ourselves instead of controlling others? So, there are folks doing permaculture in ways I disagree with. I can recognise that what they are doing is still spreading Permaculture and building a market for it rapidly. Now, my most empowered role is to find what I want to contribute.

4. Can we actually think cooperatively? Focusing on “correcting” the people “doing it wrong” gets in the way of any opportunity for cooperation. Thinking of my own role puts me in the power seat, and positions me as a potential cooperator to those people, instead of an enemy.

5. Can we recognise and transcend internalised capitalism and the “scarcity mindset” that drives it? A lot of my own anxiety over small differences comes from just plain old capitalist competition thinking. “If one of those competitors pull someone in, then they won’t be a market for what I’m trying to support.” Scarcity mindset. If someone is doing “permaculture” they won’t be interested in “indigenous food systems,”or “regenerative Agriculture.” If we transcend that, we can move towards a position of cooperation. In reality, someone who takes a PDC is probably more likely to then become interested in local knowledge, Regenerative Ag, or indigenous systems.

6. Can we try to transcend differences? As John Michael Grear used to say, the opposite of a bad idea isn’t a good idea. It’s another bad idea. Usually we get to the good idea by transcending the false choice. For example, we’ve talked about how a lot of conflicts arise between positions of “reason” vs “intuition.” The best answer isn’t either one. It’s not good to abandon science, or the things that give life its richness and meaning. The best answer is to use reason where it works best, and intuition where it works best.

7. Can we focus more on the SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCES rather than insignificant small ones? Think of generations of American poor whites in poverty living in similar conditions to African Americans, but focused on skin colour, a biologically insignificant issue, instead of cooperating against the systems of oppression and poverty they have in common. I’ve been trying to ask myself “is this a bigger issue than climate change, global wealth inequality, and mass extinctions? If not, I’ll try to word my critique in terms of what I am FOR, rather than a harsh attack on what I’m against.

8. And finally, I try to remember to catch and store energy, including social capital. That means both for myself, and for the Permaculture movement as a whole. Even if not everyone is doing it perfectly, the Permaculture movement and its related allies are all moving us in a positive direction. Rather than bombing the movement because I think a few are doing it imperfectly, can we cooperate in moving it in a better direction?

Which will it be
Image provided by author

Michael Hoag

Michael Hoag has had an adventurous 20+ year career in the army of community-scale change-makers who are transforming the world. He manages Lillie House Permaculture, an urban homestead and community Transformation business, and directs TransformativeAdventures.org, a coop for supporting others building careers in community-level change. He has forged a rewarding professional path on his own terms as a teacher, Permaculture designer, homesteader, gardener, farmer, plantsman, herbalist, forager, artist, organiser, farmers’ market manager, workforce trainer, and collegiate curriculum designer. He’s an avid natural gardener, plant and ecology geek, food-lover, musician, and bum-philosopher in love with all the exciting opportunities this beautiful world offers.

9 Comments

  1. Well done Michael, and the timing is appropriate for permaculturists to take on your messages. For example, let’s encourage Geoff Lawton and David Holmgren, to share a stage in sentient discussion together. Perhaps the subject could be ‘the genius of Bill Mollison’, so that Bill’s vision, literature, humour and disruption can be recognised, understood and promoted to sustain the movement into eternity.

  2. And breathe! x I appreciate your opinion and this logical, and very heartfelt plea to adopting a mindset of plenty, of abundance, to increase the number of hands on deck charting their courses to a better, more sustainable planet. Our individual contributions may be quite small or legacy level, if they are made with positivity and respect, they’ll be steps in the best direction. Well witten and I’m totally on team Guardians of the Galaxy.

  3. I love your thoughts on being fair, accepting of others different from you. It isntruenwe look at petty things and enormanise it to such an extent that business partners spilt worse, kinships are broken even. So we need to identify the ‘enemy’ in whatever form it may be. How can we achieve greatness when we are distracted to fight and divide.

  4. I liked your post, here are a couple of thoughts on it.

    “4. Can we actually think cooperatively”

    For successful co-operation to happen its critical to first be realistic and recognise that others have aims, needs and values that will often conflict with your own. If they are different to yours’s are you willing to let them say what they think and respect their opinions, and of vis-versa?

    If there is no real environmental pressure forcing groups to co-operate and/or no shared values etc between the groups (or they just hate each other) then they won’t co-operate. It isn’t possible. It will fail.

    Conversely a shared goal, world view or at least the basic respect of allowing others their own opinions and a shared practical need to co-operate are much more likely to succeed.

    So it completely depends on who you wish to co-operate with. Farming communities are expert in this. Permiculturalists who are primarily if not solely interested in food security, creating a better more horticultural life, homesteading etc have the potential to be good to great at this. People who are more attracted to the aesthetic of permaculture or are more inclined to divisive woke politics for example have little to no chance at all and may well drag others down with them.

    It’s like asking will a marriage work. Obviously it depends on the type of person you marry.

    “5. Can we recognise and transcend internalised capitalism and the “scarcity mindset” that drives it?”

    Unless communism or some other totalising ideology absorbs the world then there will be more or less free markets to buy and sell your things as you wish and that means competition. You may consider it internalised or not but it will still be there. That’s just life, not a political ideology. Of course you may feel stressed when you lose business to someone else and you’re not sure that you will be able to feed your family, that’s completely normal and reasonable. In this case it’s an expression of a responsible father wanting to protect his family. Not internalised political indoctrination manifesting as “scarcity mindset”.

    You cannot “transend internalised capitalism and the scarcity mindset” because what you have written conflates the normal trading or bartering of life with to some imagined demonic political force that is controlling your very being. And it’s not, buying and selling and all that comes with it is just normal and has been since forever.

    We can transcend division by not demonising people and respecting their point of view even if we don’t agree with them. By dealing equally and fairly with people who wish to do the same by us, and rejecting the idea of attacking people on the basis of skin tone (be it white, black or anything else) or religion or political affiliation.

    Then you have a chance at not just co-operation but community.

    1. Hmmm. I think this comment is a really good example of what I’m talking about, Patrick. Let’s break it down.

      In several places, it seems you are jumping to conclusions about myself, my politics and my ideology, conclusions that really aren’t true at all. In fact, I think they’re probably not true of many people at all, but more a straw-man that the US political system has invented to divide and conquer us:

      “Unless communism or some other totalising ideology absorbs the world then there will be more or less free markets to buy and sell your things as you wish and that means competition. You may consider it internalised or not but it will still be there.” I am quite a fan of actual free markets, enterprise and trade. I make a lot of money teaching people to be more effective in agribusinesses. So you’re making an assumption that’s not accurate. Why would you jump to this conclusion that divides us and keeps us from potential collaboration before even investigating?

      “So it completely depends on who you wish to co-operate with. Farming communities are expert in this. Permiculturalists who are primarily if not solely interested in food security, creating a better more horticultural life, homesteading etc have the potential to be good to great at this. People who are more attracted to the aesthetic of permaculture or are more inclined to divisive woke politics for example have little to no chance at all and may well drag others down with them.”

      Again, you’re making a bunch of completely out of the blue and incorrect assumptions that seem designed to peg me off as some “other” you can’t cooperate with. First, as you’ll see from my bio, I grew up in a farming community, and grew up farming. My first jobs out of college were in farming in farming communities. I worked with a farm credit operation and even worked a commodities exchange floor! Imagine that, Mike Che Guevara Hoag himself working as a capitalist trader! I worked with a Mennonite farming coop and did an ethnography with an Amish community. So I’m familiar. However, I disagree that these communities are good at collaborating and cooperation. In fact, I saw just as much division, conflict and social nastiness as in any other community. Such communities have a definite streak against individualism and tend to have violent forms of collectivism I think could use some better design. Meanwhile, I have worked with and observed black community organizers, probably the folks you’re referring to with your “woke politics” statement. I learned a great deal about cooperation and collaboration from them. They are amazing at it! I now teach much of what I learned from these “woke” organizers to farmers to help them cooperate better.

      So, I’d see your statement there as another “Us vs them” stereotype that’s not really based in reality. Why must we divide ourselves up this way?

      Now, my friend who’s on the faculty of Harvard Business has done much of his research on this “scarcity mindset” we’re talking about. He’s an expert on business. If you Google it you’ll find quite a lot of articles in business outlets like Forbes and the Wall Street Journal on the topic. Sorry, it’s not some pinko commie propaganda but a real thing which effects our business decisions, and causes behaviors like jumping to divisive conclusions. It is indeed something we can transcend.

      “Skin tone…” I have no idea why you’re bringing skin tone and race into this. I assume you have some sensitivity around the topic?

      Finally: “what you’ve written conflates normal trading or bartering of life with to some imagined demonic political force that is controlling your very being. And it’s not, buying and selling and all that comes with it is just normal and has been since forever.”

      No, again, I am actually quite in favor of buying and selling and trade. I make my living primarily teaching people how to be better at it. But you’ve jumped to some conclusion based on some imaginary demonic force of your own, I suppose. It certainly wasn’t anything I said.

      You know, a lot of what keeps us from cooperating with each other more effectively is our own sensitivities, our own defensiveness. I wonder what in my article made you feel I was critiquing you personally on issues of race such that you’d bring that up?

      All I can say is that if you actually talked to me, you’d find we probably have more in common that you’re apparently concluding based on some imagined political or cultural war. Instead, you’ve fashioned me into a strawman enemy without even giving me a chance.

      So again, I think this sort of thing is a real barrier to Permaculture. I can only hope next time you’ll approach others without such a fear of rejection or defensiveness. You’ll find you have a lot more potential collaborators in life, and probably a lot fewer imagined enemies lurking in the shadows, too.

      Best of luck on your journey.

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