[MD] Drama with Nicholas Maxwell

[Heather Perella]

     I've brought this thread up from time to time,
but now I'm reading Nick Maxwell's "Basic Argument for
the Need of an Intellectual Revolution" and find kin
to his social inquiry.  This quote of his from the
article, "Academic thought would be pursued as a
specialized, subordinate part of what is really
important and fundamental: the thinking that goes on,
individually, socially and institutionally, in the
social world, guiding individual, social and
institutional actions and life."
     This fits with the intellectual level guiding the
social level in the MOQ.
     I've written about where I work, which is in the
heart of facing social problems on an applicatory,
first-hand type experience.  Every single person that
enters this workplace as a new staff is asked to
observe for a week or two.  Just watch what happens,
then begin to step in when one is sure what needs to
happen so the participating of the new staff is
helpful and correct - for the residents will go after
you in every way they know how.  They are not only
sneaky and physically aggressive at times, but they
also KNOW the routine - or will try to change the
routine especially in a manipulative way with new
staff.  In time the new staff enters the social
experience, and after some months, hopefully, a leader
and competent.  In the face of chaos, and the daily
changes that occur where new ideas MUST be generated
in the midst of this dynamism, for even though I'm a
supervisor and have been at the place almost two years
I let the staff know that I'm winging it at times. 
The other day a decision needed to be made, quickly,
and so with my experience of the place and seeing all
the factors involved quickly pass through my
perspective as I stood there quietly for less then 3
seconds - I made a decision and let the staff know
right on the spot that I just made that decision up. 
I remember one staff saying, "Oh, I didn't know if it
was a rule somewhere on paper or what."  Another staff
wasn't sure of the rule either.  There was NO rule,
but with the circumstances of the place and the
residents involved, the law, court systems, other
well-established routines and rules, this decision
need not usurp other existing patterns in a
degenerative way, but a decision needed to be made,
right then, at the moment - right now!

woods,
SA


       
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