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Regressive Forces

.. . I have no doubt that the conformist standard of practice which has worked in large organizations absolutely needs modification and revision. We’ll have to find a way of permitting people to be individualistic in an organization . We’ve got to face it.

Since enlightened management depends on all sorts of preconditions in order to make itself possible, we must be very careful about these conditions, not only the ones which make progression possible but also the ones that make regression more likely. The forces which tend to make for regression are, for instance: scarcity of goods (not enough to go around); cessation of prepotent basic need gratifications (or threat to these gratifications); antisynergic organization or laws; anything that increases fear or anxiety; loss or separation of any kind for the person leading to grief or bereavement; change of any kind for those people who are prone to anxiety or to fear; bad communications of various kinds; suspicion; denial in the sense of denial of truth; dishonesty, untruth, lying, vulgarization of the truth, confusion of the lines between truth and falsehood; loss of any of the basic need gratifications in the world, e.g., freedom, self-esteem, status, respect, love objects, being loved, belonging, safety, physiological needs, value systems, truth, beauty, etc.

This all relates to the problem of hitting a suitable ...

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