Our relationships exist in multidimensional spheres. To get there from here and further, we should probably get rid of some misconceptions.

Getting Grounded In The Sphere

A belief in institutions did not bring mankind committees, churches, governments, unions and other things. A belief in institutions did not bring mankind health-care, spaceflight, commercial flight and the Internet. This belief in institutions did not bring us an economy based on markets. This belief in institutions did not make democracy the least wrong system of government on Spaceship Earth. This belief in institutions did not give us the modern multinational corporation.

This belief also didn't give us the Public Domain, Copyright, Patents and prosecuting children for sharing. This belief didn't make invading countries by getting 'public opinion' swayed a good thing.

There is no belief in institutions. The belief that makes us do these things is a belief that if we work together we can do things greater than if we had acted individually. The belief in institutions is that for a relationship to be worthwhile it must be permanent and must never change. 'Bureaucracy protects', says the old wisdom.

Change is uncomfortable, unsettling and unavoidable. It haunts us every morning in the mirror more and more as we become older. Where once a young man might celebrate a single hair on the chin, he might later reflect on that and remember the happiness while staring at a sea of grey swimming around the islands of black - maybe that makes change more painful as we grow older. No one really knows.

The uncomfortable reality is that, despite our best efforts, things change and it seems that they are constantly changing faster than our institutions can accommodate.