v t I by the British Parliament in the nineteenth cenrury reflected the idea of societal evolution; human societies were believed to be improvable. Similarily, the growth of learning cenrers to link institutions and to enable persons to develop individualized learning styles reflects a belief in the relativity of educational philosophies and individual needs. To some exrent, creatioe instability describes the weltanscbaung of our age, one in which values are often irreconcilable, vast information banks are capable of continually changing our perceptions of the world, and the walls of institutions are widening to include the streets and neighborhoods. Because of the tremendous influx of information, post-paradigm periods and pre-paradigm periods seem to be overlapping. New discoveries are made almost before we have a chance to believe in the old ones. Social organizations and units, from the family ro the community, respond by taking on new forms which in many cases seem to be temporary ones, devoted to continuous change. COLLECTMS are a response to the breakdown of the nuclear family structure, where homogeneous values prevail. Collective Iiving offers individuals the opportunity for multiple value perceptions within the common context of everyday life. A friend of mine recently said, when the subject came up, "You know, I've never seen anything good come out of a collective. They just always break up." An important feature of the collective is that it doesn't batte to be permanent..A high value is placed on changing relationships, not just permanent ones. The process of naming illustrates certain aspects of the collective. Briarpatch Trust, a community development collective; Edcentric, a collective publishing group; Another Mother for Peace, an anti-war group; several Food Conspiracies, Tilth, an agriculture information group, and Workforce, an alternative job counseling group, are examples of names which generate group energy and provide individual temporary common identities-even though the group may change its name again within a few years. Naming rituals such as baptism and marriage are traditional cultural evidence of the possibility for creative changes in the personality. PLANNING: The community planning process,.with its citizen participation emphasis, is preoccupied with a central question: how can the potential for radical change be institutionalized? How can we make it possible for a comprehensive plan to say one thing today and another tomorrow, when people change their minds? Shouldn't a plan be firm yet responsive? In Portland, the response is a continuing dialogue, a state of creative tension between neighborhoods and city hall. The neighborhood by{aws provide a basis for political process; the city charter provides the authority which recognized the role of citizens in that process. DE-SCHOOLING: The implication of Ivan lllich's phrase is perhaps, as William lrvin Thompson suggests in a new book (Passages About Eartb), to challenge the chief secular institutions and to "separate the authority of the mind from the power of the educational system." (p. 50) In that way the creative dialogue between schools and community is maintained. Furthermore, community centers within institutions become a third ground on which students are permitted to find their own ways to learn, drawing from resources of self and community. Centers provide a field of interplay out of which new crearive projects and ideas are generated. THE INDIVIDUAL-INSTITUTION RELATIONSHIP: The critical separation of authority from power within the structure of community is illustrated by such figures as Ralph Nader, Buckminster Fuller, Alan Watts and paolo Soleri. The following which rhese men have is not enforced by the power of an institution; rather theirs is aurhoriry based upon self-purpose and, to some extent, self-sacrifice. Thompson suggesrs thar such men are following the tradition of monks in the Dark Ages, by moving to the edge of the society. But Thompson adds that the individual as institution must go even further, by becoming a member of the community of the spirit. "Consciousness is like an FM radio band; as long as one is locked into one station, all be hears is tbe information of one reality; but if tbrougb the transformation . . . he is able to moae bis consciousness to a different station on tbe FM band, tben be discooers a uniaerse beyond matter in tbe cosmic reacbes ol' tbe spirit. (p. 5l ) New communities, exploring spiritual as well as material evolution, no longer merely "offbeat" or "occult" groups, express one of the major directions of creative instability for the futureIII. CREATIVE INSTABILITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE : LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE DON'T MAKE WAVES DON'T ROCK THE BOAT SORRY, I CAN'T HELP YOU , . . THAT ISN'T MY DEPARTMENT DON'T BE A TROUBLEMAKER These common cliches have their potency in their appeal to a closed, safe existence without dissonance. Yet if new ideas are to develop, if organtzations are to evolve, creative instability will be an essential part of the growth. The following is a list of signposts which can serve as checklist to your organization's creative instability, as well as a g._ride to stimulating creativity. I
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