Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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continual negotiation between the holons so that all can win and each can retain
its own integrity. Since each holon is both a whole and a part, it can be called a
‘whole­part’.
Returning to the human body analogy, when a cell is sick other cells become
aware of its distress and send the appropriate oxygen, hormones, chemicals or
antibodies in its direction. A body that is always seeking balance needs an
intricate and active network of communication. News of an imbalance soon
spreads through the network, and when the message returns to the source along
feedback loops, adjustments can be made. It is information that allows the whole
to retain its integrity, and there are many decision­making centres providing
network governance.
In his book The Web of Life, physicist Fritjof Capra explains that integrated
wholes can never be understood by analysis, as the nature of the whole is always
different from the sum of its parts. 6 Unlike what happens in the mechanical
model, the whole determines the parts, not vice versa. Capra says that to
understand self­organisation we first need to understand the importance of
pattern. When a living organism is dissected, its patterns are destroyed; by
disrupting the patterns of relationships within the whole, you destroy its
wholeness.
With corporate globalisation or economic imperialism, the delicate web of
social relations becomes severely damaged. As Coca­Cola and McDonald’s arrive
in the remote villages of Africa or Bhutan, a monoculture is developed that
disrupts social and cultural patterns. Much the same happens during
colonisation – when the coloniser’s monetocracy is imposed on a small economy