Why Common Unity — Why CommUnity?
“The next Buddha will be a Sangha.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
The term community is widely used to represent a collection of individuals that share something in common. They may share a passion for music — like the rock and roll deadheads that followed Jerry Garcia or the classical music community. They may share a geographic locality — the South Boston community or the Berkeley community. They may share political ideas — the liberal progressives or the right-wing conservatives. They may share commitment to a brand of products — the Mac community.
However, while the members of these communities may share something in common, they usually have many things in their lives that they do not share. The members of the South Boston community have greatly differing preferences in music, political ideas, and in consumer products.
Often the only thing the members of geographic “communities” have in common is their proximity. They are more appropriately called human collectives — collections of humans living separate lives without much thought or concern for each other.
Within the science of ecology, the term community is defined quite differently — ecologists define community as a group of INTERdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other.
INTERdependence means sometimes I depend on you, and sometimes you depend on me. Interdependence means we don’t just have something in common, but rather that we have many things in common.
It would seem useful to have a different term to differentiate the “loosely connected collective communities” from the “tightly connected INTERdependent communities.”
I propose that we use the term commUnity to represent these more “tightly connected INTERdependent communities.” CommUnity is a coined word that is spelled with a capital ‘U’ in the middle of the word. This misplaced capitalization serves as a visual distinction and encourages us to notice the word Unity.
The term commUnity also reminds us that the spelling of the word community could have resulted from the contraction of the phrase “common unity.” The common term community is built from the syllables (com·mu·ni·ty) and pronounced [kuh-myoo-ni-tee] with the emphasis on ·mu·. To make an aural distinction, I build the new term “commUnity” from the syllables (comm·u·ni·ty) and pronounce it [kahm-yoo-ni-tee] with the emphasis on the letter “u.” So the term commUnity sounds exactly like the phrase “calm Unity.”
The social scientist Duane Elgin recently introduced the term communion to represent these more “tightly connected INTERdependent communities.” Communion is derived from the Latin communio — literally “sharing in common.” However, because the term communion is so strongly associated with the Christian sacrament of Eucharist or Holy Communion, I believe the coined term commUnity might serve us better. So a commUnity is a truly unified community where members work together.
CommUnity Not Singularity
Consider yourself or a family member, or your dog or cat. You may see them as a single separate entity — a separate singularity. You may assume that they represent some sort of biological machine directed by a biological computer. Biologists have considered them as such for decades. We address ourselves as ONE — I, me, and we address others as ONE — he, she, you.
However, today we know that you, your family member, and your dog or cat are really commUnities of cells. We know that each cell, within your body, within your family member’s body, and within your pets’ bodies are in fact connected members of the cellular commUnities living as a unity that forms those bodies.
Each cell is aware, intelligent and capable of autonomous behavior. The cells work together meeting their needs through collective action. They utilize co-operation to organize as a cellular commUnity. This strategy secures good space for the majority of cells living safely on the inside. It also gains them the advantage of collective awareness, collective intelligence, and collective knowing.
The innovation of commUnity is enormously efficient. Within the cocoon of good space in healthy organisms, shelter, air, water, and food are always present. The cells no longer spend the majority of their time seeking good space and avoiding bad space like the individual single celled organisms that emerged 3.7 billion years ago did and still do today.
Inside the cellular commUnity of a multicelled animal or human body, good space is omnipresent. No effort is needed to acquire good space. It is delivered instantly to each cells’ front door by the river of blood — the river of good space.
Inside the organism bad space is not allowed. No effort by the individual cells is needed to avoid bad space. The cells are now free to specialize and make their individual contributions to the benefit of the ‘whole’ dog or cat commUnity. The cell’s individual needs are met by the collective efforts of all the cells in the co-operative cellular commUnity.
Each individual cell is free to live its call. Within cellular commUnity, the individual cells are freed from the yoke of seeking good space and avoiding bad space. Each cell is free to specialize in the function that best serves the whole — thereby creating massive diversity and division of labor. This is why living together in co-operation is millions of times more efficient than living separately in conflict. Since all living systems adapt to their environments, living in co-operation changes the cells from conflict generalists to co-operative specialists.
Seeking GOOD SPACE — Avoiding BAD SPACE
Although the immune system works as an organ to keep the inside of the cellular commUnity safe, the body still needs another organ to deal with the outside world. The outside world is sometimes safe and sometimes not. There is both good space and bad space outside. Good space is where you thrive and survive. Bad Space is where you hurt and die.
Bad space must be avoided. It must be recognized, located and kept outside and away from the body, and good space must be recognized, located and brought inside the body to best meet the needs of the entire cellular commUnity. Good space in the form of fresh air, clean water and healthy nutrition must be brought inside on a regular and continuous basis.
The creation of cellular commUnity with its cocoon of good space required the development of an organ of consciousness for dealing with the outside world. That need resulted in the evolution of even greater spacial intelligence in the form of an externally focused brain and the emergence of a powerful space-mind to move the animal body toward good space and away from bad space. But the cells living within the cocoon of good space were not on holiday. In order for the commUnity as a whole to survive every cell had its own unique role to play. By working together, the cells created tissues; the tissues were organized into organs; and the organs were networked into systems. The organ systems within the human body include the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, nervous, respiratory, digestive, excretory, endocrine, reproductive, and the immune systems.
These organ systems and their subsystems grant the physically centralized cellular commUnity the functions of respiration, oxygenation, circulation, digestion, metabolism, excretion, security, locomotion, communication, coordination, cognition and more. Every cell has a full time job not just for its own benefit, but also for the benefit of the entire commUnity. Each cell has metaphorically heard its call, chose a role for which its unique skills and talents allow it to best serve the whole.
The cells forming the animal brain are charged with successfully adapting to the outside world. Think for a moment of how the neurons in an animal brain function — the neurons of the brain focus entirely on meeting the needs of the ‘whole’ body, and in turn discover the ‘whole’ body takes care of them. The neurons give no attention to maintaining their own temperature, to acquiring their own nutrition, to oxygenating themselves, or even in protecting themselves from bacteria or virus. Thus the neurons are free to focus all of their attention outside to meet the needs of the ‘whole’ body. The cocoon of good space makes this division of labor possible.
The neuronal ‘parts’ of the body serve the needs of the ‘whole’ body and trust their individual survival to the actions of that ‘whole’ body. By making decisions that keep the body healthy and safe, they insure that the body as a whole is capable of meeting all the needs of the individual neurons as well as all the needs of other cells of the body. This is the secret of making ‘wholes’ — the secret of oneness.
After a billion years of living synergically in good space, many of these cells have lost their ability to live autonomously and independently. The neuron cells of both animal brains and our own human brain are so specialized that they have become entirely dependent on the collective to maintain their temperature, provide their nutrition, water, and oxygen, carry away their wastes, repair their ills and injuries, and protect them from invading bacteria or viruses.
Synergy
The word synergy is also relevant here. It derives from two Greek roots: erg meaning “to work,” and syn meaning “together;” hence, the term synergy simply means working together.
So then we can expand our definition of commUnity, and say it is a “tightly connected INTERdependent community” committed to synergy or working together. The adjective synergic simply means: pertaining to synergy. When individuals form a synergic union, they discover that they can accomplish much more by working together than the same individuals could accomplish by working separately.
Examples of synergic union include operating together as in co-operation, laboring together as in co-laboration, acting together as in co-action, creating together as in co-creation, and thinking together as in co-intelligence.
These examples of synergic union require shared motivations, shared emotions, shared intelligence and shared knowing. CommUnity must be structured so that the process of working together fosters shared values, shared goals, shared dreams, shared hopes, shared responsibility, shared commitment, and of most importance is shared authority.
Synergic Equality
The basic unit of synergic organization is a synergic group organized as heterarchy. All members of a synergic heterarchy are equal. They sit at the same level. No one is higher or lower in importance or authority. There is no imposed hierarchy. They share equal responsibility for the actions chosen by the group. They share equal authority in the process of choosing those actions. When individuals work together in synergic relationship to a accomplish a common goal. They are considered as a single system.
When individuals work together in synergic relationship, new abilities, skills, talents, etc., emerge as a part of that relationship, that are not there when the individuals work separately. The individuals working in synergic group are more efficient, more productive, more creative, and more intelligent, than they are when working separately. The result of their synergy is that they create “more” together than they could create apart. This “more” is Edward Haskell’s “Co-Operators’ surplus”.
When individuals work together in synergic relationship, they equally contribute to the synergic emergents, and will share equally in the Co-Operators’ surplus. Haskell’s “Co-Operators surplus” is property and it is owned equally by all who synergized within the synergic group to create it. Within a synergic group all members commit to the Six Tenets of Synergic Equality.
1) In synergy, I am ONE with my associates.
2) In synergy, I am MORE with my asscociates than by myself.
3) In synergy, I am EQUAL to all my associates.
4) In synergy when we WIN, I will win MORE with my associates than by myself and I will share equally in the GAINS.
5) In synergy, when we LOSE, I will lose LESS with my associates than by myself and I will share equally in the LOSSES.
6) In synergy, we will win together or lose together, but we are TOGETHER.
Working Together
In synergic relationship individuals continue negotiating to insure the win, In synergic relationship, all players are focused on winning. Everyone is seeking help. The game calls for only winners, there is no need for loss. Each player is expected and encouraged to veto any suggested plan wherein they would lose. It is of primary importance in synergic relationship to veto all loss positions. Failure to do so instantly shifts the relationship back to adversary, with the immediate return of conflict. In contrast, since there are no losers in synergic relationships, there is also no conflict. And because obtaining help by helping others attracts the highest quality help, real winners seeks synergic help. Seek always synergic help by making sure that those who help you also win. Be sure they understand how their helping you will also help them.
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Read more on Enlightened CommUnity, ORTEGRITY, or visit my website at SynEarth.net. …
