It’s time to stop pussyfooting about. We need to reclaim the C-word.
To some people, the word is taboo. It never crosses their lips or appears in their writing. Not the sort of thing that a properly educated and well-ordered understanding of the world should concern itself with.
Others reluctantly acknowledge its existence and even use the word now and again as a focus for their angst. But they see it as something that gets in the way of the idealized image of the world that they've been brought up to believe in and revere. A crude expression, suggesting a lack of refinement and confused thinking in those who persist in its use. Something that has no place in 'proper' social intercourse and the accepted way of being. Something, in fact, that needs to be designed-out of everyday life.
Then we have those worldly-wise people whose communication is peppered with the C-word - whether spoken or implicit.
The C-word is, of course, COMPLEXITY.
If we're really serious about understanding how the world 'works', and how we might participate more usefully in it, we need to take complexity seriously. Whether we're concerned with the course of our personal lives, the nature and success of the organizations we co-create daily, or the condition of society more generally, the complex social dynamics of human interaction are always in play.
Complexity just is. We need to get over it. And get into it!
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