Understanding the Organism

Understanding that each species is an organism is crucial to our ability to correct the developmental problems we all agree exist within the human race.

In terms of their operations there is no difference between organisms and organizations; both are systems. Of course, humans developed organizations on the basis of principles we observed among organisms and other natural systems. But when a problem arises in the way one of these operates it is important to recognize their differences between an organism and an organization.

As I noted earlier, an organization is a synthetic system that is based on the natural systems we find around us. Humans create or manufacture organizations. These are all machines. Humans cannot create organisms. Organisms occur naturally without human creative input. A machine, whether it is a group of humans forming a board of trustees, a sports team, a debate society, or a civic club, or it is a collection of mechanical parts like an automobile, a computer or an electric fan, is created by identifying qualified parts to perform the various functions of a conceptual system. To create this machine we first identify the various roles to be played in this conceptual system then we locate the parts that can most effectively perform those roles. When the machine fails to function as expected these parts can be repaired or replaced individually. The malfunctioning part can be removed from the machine and then replaced.

Living organisms must be taken as they are found because humans lack the ability to infuse life. One cannot create a human being by gathering a collection of "perfect" body parts and putting them together. When the organism fails to function as expected we must take a different approach to restoration. We have to maintain the life of the system while correcting the flaw. Generally, we must work on the part while it is still functioning within the organism. In a few cases medical science is able to transplant organs but this is not the same as changing the fuel pump in an automobile. The immune system instinctively rejects any foreign organism that is introduced.

When an system no longer functions as it should the very first step is to determine whether it is an organism or an organization for this will determine how we should go about restoring it.

At first the human race appears to be the largest human organization. It is not because humans did not create the human race. Like every other species humans occur naturally in the universe. We have generally thought that we can change the human race one individual at a time. As we have seen above, this approach is based on the assumption that the human race is an organization. By the same token, such an approach will never succeed because the procedures that can be used to restore an organization to health usually will not produce sustainable reaults in an organism.