Thursday, January 12, 2006   Strength of Unity  I was discussing
the other day how unhealthy social movements can become when
deprived of resources. Under the threat of perceived competition
or inadequacy, many people fall back on the competitive model
that characterizes all that is wrong with our society, and, in
the process, often neglect healthy values of social organization
like cooperation and reciprocity.  In a related essay by Vi
Hilbert, she observes that, "The first psychiatrist of this
land, our medicine men, used the simplest things. They realized
how important acknowledgment was. If a person was to rise to the
highest goal that their families expected them to practice and
if their deeds and accomplishments went unnoticed, why should
they try? Why should they do anything? Nobody paid any attention
to that anyway.  Our medicine men knew that this was very
important. If you could see somebody doing a great piece of work
at great hardship to him or her, then you pointed that out. You
paid attention in