| > How do so many organisations arrive at a system in which it's almost a badge of honour to not be one of the doers? I believe this is a holdover from Western society's feudal roots*: the people who do things, especially who do things with their hands, are considered to be lesser beings than those who, by divine right, rule over them. The ideas and values of feudalism are deeply embedded in our culture, and it's very hard to escape, for instance, the idea of the Good King, ruling benevolently because he is divinely granted better discernment to know what is good and right. (And also the Iron-Fisted Tyrant, which is a seductive fantasy to a different type of person.) Some of these ideas come to us through the medium of things like just world theory and other Protestant notions, but at their core, they're still basically the same thing: the idea that the people who rule do so because they are Better People, and the people they rule (the ones who have to work for them) are in the position they're in because they are Lesser People. Thus, rising to management becomes a proof that you, too, were a Better Person all along. * Not saying other societies don't have feudal roots, just that I'm familiar with Western society |