The Baha'i Faith & Religious Freedom of Conscience

From: Steve Marshall <forumbahai@es.co.nz>
Subject: Re: Letter of resignation
Date: Monday, August 02, 1999 6:38 PM
Sorry, I don't listen to individuals when they accuse others of being
"weak in the Covenant". We *could* argue back and forth what the
Covenant is and who is within it or not, but I don't want to. As
Rachel seems to indicate, it just perpetuates "chaos - the second
stage of community functioning where the pretense of unity in
pseudocommunity has been given up for the unproductive clamour and
clash of opinions."
I think that the "program' you refer to is the Internet itself.
Suddenly individual Baha'is aren't reliant on institutional events,
magazines, functions and programs to communicate with each other.
Formerly nearly all communication between individual Baha'is was
through institutional channels. Now, alternate non-institutional
channels are opening up and lateral communication, not just the
hierarchical up-down stuff, is starting to flow.
The network model of communication that favours people in the middle
of the organisation who maintain lots of links, is coming into its
own. The hierarchical model of communication, that gives power to the
body isolated at the top of the pyramid, is no longer the only model
around.
So, welcome to the program!
ka kite,
Steve
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