Hashish, Binge Drinking: No Thanks, I'm Good

What is powerful, illuminating, and most of all aesthetically pleasing about systems concepts - when you've got them right that is - is that they function at all levels of systems from the individual (maybe even below) to the galaxy. Take individuation and integration as cases in point. You can talk about groups or organizations or nations or ideologies in terms of how much they favor individuation or integration. Free Markets and Communism tied us up for quite a while and continues to underlie our economic debates.  These concepts also describe us as  individuals: We are individuators or integrators, separators or connectors. Some of are low grade on these dimensions, others are high test. This is not about good guys versus bad guys; we are both. I am an off the scale Individuator, like Groucho Marx I would never join a group that would have me. I say this as  mere description, not out of pride, for being such a rigid unyielding Individuator has undoubtedly cost me and my organizations much in terms of lost connections,  lost opportunities to collaborate, and having less of an impact than, with a touch more of integration, I might have had. I just do not connect easily. That's the down side. The upside? Years ago, and I mean many years ago, I was at a Cambridge party - at the time heart of the New Age - and a chap offered me some hashish. Really good, he said. No thanks, I said. I'm good. He looked at me astonished. Okay. Your loss.  I'm good. It wasn't out of any moralist position, more knee-jerk Individuator. If hashish is the cool inside thing then I'm out. That phrase sticks with me now. That's the individuator's motto: I'm good. I don't need you or your group or what's cool. I'm good.  As an individuator I can get very judgmental of Integrators. Teenagers can be the worst. What are you wearing today? I don't know, what are you wearing? I say: Who cares? Go into your closet and drag out what you would really really love to wear today, put it on and strut your individuator stuff. Today's article in the Boston Globe is about binge drinking at our state college. It's all about the group. What are you drinking? I don't know, what are you drinking? If you're drinking yourself into oblivion, then please wait for me. Integrators are nice; they get along, they create community, they make things happen collectively. Still, it wouldn't hurt if they learned every once in a while to find the freedom in saying "No thanks, I'm good."