In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki makes the following observation: "You do not need a consensus to tap into the wisdom of a crowd... the search for consensus encourages tepid, lowest-common-denominator solutions which offend no one, rather than exciting everyone. Instead of fostering the free exchange of conflicting views, consensus-driven groups - especially when the members are familiar with each other - tend to trade in the familiar and squelch provocative debate. If, as the saying goes, a camel is a horse produced by a committee, it was undoubtedly made by a committee looking for consensus."
It takes no courage to agree with the prevailing view. But progress only happens when people stand up and question the prevailing view, and when they present information that doesn't fit into the accepted models of 'how things work'. We can't put consciousness in a box, because it's always unfolding. And each one of us experiences the unfolding differently. Courage is choosing to be a peace with the tensions that ever-unfolding consciousness generates... tension between individuals and groups, because of their different experiences and perceptions, and tension within ourselves, as we sit with the things that don't yet make sense to us.
And on that note, I'd like to disagree with Mr Surowiecki... the committee that designed the camel did an excellent job... it kept the end clearly in mind and came up with a design that really works...... it may not be pretty and it smells like hell, but it definitely works!
