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Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG
http://www.esonet.ORG
The Principle of Holarchy and
the Interplay of Horizontal and Vertical Relationships - 5
The formation of groups: Family and peer groups
The importance of groups in modern society is increasing. But contemporary theories of
group formation and group interactions are dominated by individualistic, egalitarian, and
idealistic attitudes. These attitudes also are reflected in the approach taken by modern
science for several centuries to explain the development of the universe. From the
astrophysical point of view, the universe evolved after an unexplained — and
unexplainable — enormous release of energy that almost at once transformed itself into
some kind of protomatter. The original space then filled with an immense number of
particles which, unorganized and moving at random, yet according to "laws" whose origin
also is unexplained, eventually came together, forming increasingly large units. Evolution
is therefore the result of a constantly more inclusive aggregation or gradual organization
of elements which all operate at the same general level of existence. Evolution is a one-way
process. At the sociocultural level it has been glorified as "progress." But can one explain
this progress simply on the basis of a more or less fortuitous "coming together" of elements
— be they atoms, molecules, or human beings?
In the mid-eighteenth century the French-Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau
took great pains to try to show that primitive societies were formed as the result of a
"social contract" in which all the would-be members agreed to follow at least basic rules.
Perhaps he was influenced by the event that took place about two hundred years earlier
on the Mayflower — the signing of the contract by the Pilgrims who were escaping
religious persecution in their native land. However, in the light of what is known of
primitive societies and of the gradual emergence of human faculties out of the
unconscious depths of animal instincts, Rousseau's concept is senseless. The process of
formation of any society is dominated first by biological facts and needs. Only later do the
results of the participants' conscious and deliberate interactions become dominant. To a
very large extent, the character of the associative relationships that develop through
cooperative activity results from the nature of a particular environment which the original
settlers did not choose, but to which they were compulsively attracted.
Even more incontrovertibly, the same is true of the relationship between newborn
babies and their parents. This is a compulsive as well as vertical relationship, in the sense
that the parents fundamentally act — or at least should act in all societies operating in a
natural manner — not as individuals but as beings charged with the perpetuation of the
human species. Through its parents the newborn is related to homo sapiens, first in a
strictly biological sense, then at the sociocultural level in terms of the religion and culture
to which the parents belong and which it is (or until recently was felt to be) their religious
and social duty to perpetuate through their progeny. Therefore, the parent-child
relationship should not be considered essentially horizontal. Horizontal relationships
begin when siblings are present; but these occur within the theoretically well-defined field
of activity constituted by the family.
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