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In all systems of oppression you will find a broken or suppressed balancing feedback loop. (I think...I am writing out this thread to test an idea in my head.) #SystemsThinking #Patriarchy #WhiteSupremacy #Ecocide
Balancing feedback loops measure the difference between a desired state of a system and the actual state and actuate corrective action.
Without balancing feedback, systems spin out of control. Think a car without brakes (or without a clearheaded driver to press on the brakes). Think a virus in a population without immunity or a cancer cell without immune surveillance or a police department w/o citizen oversight.
A balancing feedback loop requires:
#1 caring that some system variable stays within healthy bounds - making that a 'goal'
#2 measuring the state of some part of system
#3 registering a gap, difference between the current state and the desired state
#4 acting to close the gap
#1 caring that some system variable stays within healthy bounds - making that a 'goal'
#2 measuring the state of some part of system
#3 registering a gap, difference between the current state and the desired state
#4 acting to close the gap
With me so far? Now think about disparities. The racial wealth gap. The gender pay gap. Racial health disparities. The 'emissions gap.' Anytime you have a gap it is a sign that a balancing feedback loop that is too weak.
OK - lets pick a flavor of oppression - how about patriarchy?
#1 Does the system (a college boy on date, a state government, a corporation) actually think the well-being of women (or a woman) matters?
#1 Does the system (a college boy on date, a state government, a corporation) actually think the well-being of women (or a woman) matters?
#2 Does the boy or the institution inquire about the state of the woman/women/? That's what asking consent is, in systems terms, or breaking down data by gender in annual reports.
Knowing the gap, does the boy or the institution act in response to the information? Does no mean no? Does the data showing a disparity change the policy or the budget?
Movements for justice and equity focus on all these parts of balancing feedback loops, I'd say. From insisting that the well-being of that part of the system matters (literally #BlackLivesMatter 
) to highlighting the unclosed gap, to demanding gap closing actions.
) to highlighting the unclosed gap, to demanding gap closing actions.
To stay in place oppressive systems have to fight to shut down these balancing feedback loops. They have to dehumanize people and view nature as inert, to deny that the oppressed group isn't even a part of the system that matters.
They have to deny or distort information about the gap and provide penalties (from ostracism from the 'in' group to loss of economic advantage) for those who detect and act to close a gap.
And finally, every liberation movement is a movement to validate, institute, and strengthen a balancing feedback loop. As such they make the system more complex, healthier, more resilient and more likely to thrive under a range of conditions.
Finally, something I want to think about more - this language of dismantling systems of oppression. It sounds right of course, we must rid of ideas and institutions and habits that are causing so much harm.
But, if this systems view makes sense to others, I might argue that much of this dismantling actually involves adding things. Caring about more. Measuring more. Acting on what we measure. In that sense, along with the dismantling will need to be a lot of adding as well.
