This is http://www.essayz.com/a8809032.htm         
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words.
{Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.}
==========================================================
     %SIGNS OF INTEGRITY INTEGRATION DISINTEGRATION 880903

     To  avoid disintegration the members of  a  community
need  to  be  familiar  with the  signs  of  personal  and
communal  integrity,  integration and disintegration.   In
the  absence  of  such  familiarity,   natural  tendencies
towards disintegration are often ignored,  and investments
in integrity are not made.  Integration and disintegration
are  processes.    Integrity is not a  static  reality  or
condition.   Integrity  grows or decays.   Integrity grows
when   communities   recognize  and   respect   integrity.
Disintegration   progresses   when  communities  fail   to
recognize and respect integrity.

     Open and honest dialogue are essential and central to
personal   and   communal   integrity   and   integration.
Authentic  intimacy  is a sign of integrity.    People  of
integrity  are authentically responsive  and  responsible.
Through  open  and honest dialogue the parts of a  diverse
whole   are   integrated  into  a  coherent  organism   of
cooperating  parts.    In the absence of open  and  honest
dialogue, the parts fall apart and disintegrate.

     Personal  integrity is a sign of communal  integrity.
Communal integrity is a sign of personal integrity.   Each
kind  of integrity depends critically upon the other  kind
of  integrity.    Individuals cannot be fully  persons  of
integrity  in  a  community  which  lacks  integrity.    A
community  can  not have genuine communal integrity  if  a
significant   minority   of  its  members  lack   personal
integrity.    Genuine integrity entails both personal  and
communal integrity.

     Genuine    integrity   involves   transcendence    of
dichotomies  and  paradoxes.   People and  communities  of
integrity  are  not  preoccupied  with  any  pole  of  any
dichotomy   or   paradox.    Compulsive  and/or  exclusive
preoccupation with any pole of any dichotomy or paradox is
a sign of some form of disintegration.  Balanced attention
to  the  poles of dichotomies and paradoxes is a  sign  of
integrity.

     Personal   and   communal  security  are   signs   of
integrity.     Personal   and  communal   insecurity   and
defensiveness are signs of disintegration.   Integrity and
security  are  not  achieved through  defensiveness,   but
through  prudent risks taken in open and honest  dialogue.
Security  is  the freedom to be  vulnerable.    Vulnerable
people  who are secure are signs of personal and  communal
integrity.    Invulnerable  people who  are  insecure  and
defensive are signs of disintegration.

     Secure   people  of  integrity  are  not   fanatical.
Fanatics  are  insecure  people  who are not  free  to  be
vulnerable.      Intolerance,    fanaticism,    compulsive
convictions and the like lead to rejections,  exclusivity,
excommunications, alienation, ignorance and confusion; all
of  which  have to do with the  break-down  of  coherence,
communication,   cooperation,   dialogue,   and  so   with
disintegration.   Such characteristics are thus  signs  of
disintegration and should be considered with tender loving
care in open and honest dialogue.

     Technical    specialists   and   experts   who    are
compulsively   narrow   in  their  focus  are   signs   of
disintegration.  Such people are not secure enough to deal
with  the  challenges of being aware of the full range  of
experiences and realities.   They seek a false security in
ignorance  of  the  full range of  human  experiences  and
realities.   They should be considered with tender  loving
care in open and honest dialogue.

     Technologies  have to do with achieving pre-conceived
results,   not  with challenging preconceptions  regarding
what  ideals and values should guide human  attention  and
efforts.    Technocrats  are compulsively  concerned  with
technologies,   to  the exclusion of giving  attention  to
coherent  responses of love to the  disintegrations  which
are occasioned by insensitive uses of technologies.   Thus
technocrats  are signs  of disintegration,   and should be
considered   with  tender loving care in open  and  honest
dialogue.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================