Human Self-Organization

Self harm on Youtube: Why censorship might be self-harming.

2010-03-12T00:23:00.000-08:00

Today, BBC reported that self-harm by young people in England had risen 50% (link) . On this page they say, 'Fact 5: Most young people who self-harm say they do it to cope with their emotions, not as a plea for help or a failed suicide attempt.' When they interviewed one self-harmer she said that seeing disturbing self-harm videos caused her emotional distressed which she then expressed as ... more self-harm.

There are now people pointing their finger at Youtube. Apparently, it's Youtube's fault for not censoring.

Right. Point number 1. Young people feel horrible. Self-harmers are saying that the best coping mechanism they know to deal with these feelings is to self-harm. If self-harm is the best, then what is second best? If we attempt to remove self-harming as an option for expression without providing a better option, we are likely to find out.

Point number 2: Uncensored Youtube shows anyone who wants to look what is really out there. Censoring it will drive the symptoms underground so we don't have to look at it anymore. What is the chance of seeing the cause when we can't even see the symptom?

Point number 3: If uncensored Youtube videos are disturbing, there will be a cause in society that is creating this. If it was simply human free will, the rate of self-harm would chaotically fluctuate with no pattern as people individually make decisions. But the report starts with 'THE RATE'. That means there is a force stabilising the number of self-harmers. That force is growing. Not addressing it and driving the symptom of it underground will be disastrous.

In other words: what are people thinking!?!

The answer is they are not thinking in terms of human self-organisation. Trying to deal with it in a linear way will not work.

In the specific matter of self-harm, the clue is in the radio interview with a self-harmer. She claimed that the pain of seeing others self-harm triggered the ONLY way she new to deal with it. She then said that these videos should be removed and replaced by supportive video.

Now, what I'm about to say is not a criticism of her, but a criticism of society.

Why did it not occur to her that if she didn't watch self-harm videos and only watched supportive videos, then everything would be okay? (which I seriously doubt, but just following her logic) The point is, at no point did she seem to realise she had any power to make a choice. She simply pointed her finger at Youtube and blamed them for not censoring.

This abdication of personal responsibility that society incubates is becoming a serious problem.

Censoring is not the answer. I would suggest the answer would lies in reconnecting people in community. The only way to do this is to tackle the shape of human self-organisation.

Bristol refuses biofuel plant

2010-02-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

On Feb 24, the city of Bristol refused planning permission to build a biofuel plant on the grounds that biofuel is damaging rain forests. This went against the advice of city planners.

Click here for the news story.

This is exactly the sort of thing that the human self-organisational theory suggests can not take root. The theory suggests that the city will come under a great deal of pressure to overturn this decision and that the majority of other cities will not follow.

So, all we have to do is wait and see. The article is already talking about the possibility of an appeal against the city.

This is interesting because it is a counter-example to what we suggest is happening. So we'll be keeping an eye on this to see what happens.

Why is it so hard to change?

2010-02-19T04:19:00.000-08:00

There are few people who don't know that what we do directly impacts the environment. What we consume causes rainforests to burn and animals to die. The point is again made here.

The questions is if we all know it why can't we seem to do anything about it? Is it because we can't or because we don't care or is something forcing us to do so against our will?

The last suggestion doesn't make sense in a world of free-will. However, I would suggest that something is causing people to act and think according to its wishes. This is not a supernatural conspiracy theory or spiritually, but straight science.

First, let's look at the work of Derren Brown. In his magic shows, one of the things he does is to implant images into peoples' minds so they then seemingly of their own free-will choose exactly what he wants them to. You can see him at work here (part 1) and here (part 2). The person he is using was the star of Doctor Who (the 10th Doctor).

While creating thoughts and beliefs is not the only factor explaining why it is so difficult for us to change harmful patterns, it is might be the one that is least recognised.

Your thoughts are completely your own, aren't they? Well, let's test it. Here are some figures to contemplate. What are we actually doing that will change this situation? What is our free will actually accomplishing?

If you believe that growth and efficiency is good for the human race, I would suggest that you have not really examined why this is true and are following ideas planted straight into your mind by the human self-organisational system.

The reason why is explained more fully here.

The first step in breaking this cycle is to recognise it exists. The second step is to begin to ask questions of things that seem to be 'givens'. Some of the examples looked at on the website are whether more choices is something that really makes us happier. Is growth really good? Is finding a clean energy source really our priority for our best future?

If it isn't, then what are all our policies and efforts really aiding?

Hydrogen Power

2010-02-12T02:34:00.000-08:00

In the news today:

Of a scheme to get more hydrogen cars on the road, Friends of the Earth said: 'It shows that Wales is prepared to take the lead in this area, which is something we can proud of' (source)

Just before the gasoline car became prominent in London, conditions surrounding the city were horrific. All around were enormous piles of stagnant horse manure. These piles took up acres of land and frequently caught fire. In the year 1900 in New York city, 2.5 million pounds of horse manure had to be cleaned up every day. (source)

When the gasoline car took hold, the burning piles of horse excrement disappeared. The car became the celebrated proof of how technology was going to create a cleaner environment and make life wonderful for all.

Now we have the hydrogen car. It is being celebrated as the new technology that will clean up the environment and make life wonderful for all. Something to be proud of.

As excited as I am, I do have a few niggling questions:

1) What energy source is envisioned being used to separate the hydrogen from the water?

2) What will the atmosphere look like if there a millions and millions of cars spewing hot water vapour into the air?

3) How will all that water vapour affect the atmosphere? (Hint: Do clouds have anything to do with the weather?)

4) Will the hydrogen car change any of the enormous car infrastructure that has covered the landscape and divided communities? (source)

Just asking. That's all.

I would like to suggest that the environment of modern society could be restricting our vision so that we can only see solutions that recreate modern society in a slightly different flavour. I would go on to suggest that if we do this, we will simply rediscover the same old modern problems.

We need something new. Our best ideas can be found here and we'd love to hear yours.

Greece: how human self-organisation dictates to countries

2010-02-11T00:55:00.000-08:00

All companies and all countries ... everyone really ... are constantly being pressured to become ever more monetarily efficient. As such, no matter what anyone wants to do, people and organisations must adopt ever more monetarily efficient characteristics or risk becoming marginalised, re-organised or disappear altogether.

Today it was reported that Greece is in financial crisis (link). What that means is its way of life was too expensive to sustain. Now it must change its ways. While this might seem blindingly obvious to many, the implications seem less well understood.

Because public services, such as welfare, health care and education, are expenses to a country, they too become subject to exactly the same monetarily competitive forces as countries are. In the long run, good education, for example, will take a back seat to the cost-effectiveness of that education.

Over time monetary efficiency will become ever more important to everything we do. In the case of health care the cost of a new drug or practice will become increasingly more important than its effectiveness. (See NICE in the UK) In education, degrees will have to increasingly tied to improving economic competitiveness of students.

While some my not understand why this is a problem, others will recognise the enormous damage that this is causing. Economic efficiency does not care if animals go extinct, or whether we pollute the earth, or whether people are poor or rich -- or live or die, for that matter. Most importantly, it does not care for our future or for the future of any living thing on earth.

That is why the current human self-organisational system ensures a cold and barren future. The first step to changing that future is to become aware of how the present is shaped by human self-organisation. To learn more, go to our website.

One last point: there will always be exceptions to what I just said. All systems have 'noise'. Unless the human self-organisation system is changed, they will always remain exceptions.

Having said that, we are very interested in learning about counter examples. Please contact us on (here) if you know of any.