A Time to Laugh

Given the Great Recession of 2009, Michael, I’d hang on to my tuppence too!

In the 1960s, Douglas MacGregor codified his Theory X (and Theory Y) management style. Theory X had already dominated for sometime. It doesn’t take too many trips to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village to figure that out. Industrialization demanded a uniform product and turned people into machines in order to create that product. In Theory X:

Management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can. They inherently dislike work. Because of this, workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each level. According to this theory, employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can. The Theory X manager tends to believe that everything must end in blaming someone. He or she thinks all prospective employees are only out for themselves. Usually these managers feel the sole purpose of the employee’s interest in the job is money. They will blame the person first in most situations, without questioning whether it may be the system, policy, or lack of training that deserves the blame. A Theory X manager believes that his or her employees do not really want to work, that they would rather avoid responsibility and that it is the manager’s job to structure the work and energize the employee. One major flaw of this management style is it is much more likely to cause Diseconomies of Scale in large businesses.

There it is. Pick up nearly any book on the family that’s widely popular in conservative Evangelicalism, and you’ll get the same exact theory translated into “biblical” language. It’s so predominant that people can’t see any other way. Children don’t want to work/obey and so they must be “enticed” with pain and structure to do so. Order is the savior. Consistency is the highest virtue.

I’m enough of a Burkean to know that “consistency” is the rhetorical trope of tragedy.

Somewhere-er-other we got the idea that our vision of order, tradition, discipline was God’s. This is our generation’s blindspot, our idol. We whack our infants for not bending to our will when we diaper them. We even manufacture tools to do so (or just buy long glue sticks by the dozen like Ezzo recommends)! We refuse to feed our kids except when a book tells us they need it. And we hose down our toddlers when they mess their pants.

We call it “parent-centered” or “functional hierarchy” or “biblical.” Theory X has been codified for the family. And it’ll work as well as running a home like a bank.

But God’s order is not ours. While we do simple addition, He imagines fractals. While we thump our running-behind watch, He sees all of time as one. While we plunk out a tune on the piano, He creates the music of the spheres. Calvin described the Bible even as God talking baby talk to us — like He was lisping for our benefit.

Sometimes God’s order looks like disorder to us. But it’s not. It’s just not-us.

This will be our downfall. There’s going to be a “run on the bank” in 10-20 years as these children become heads of their own homes.

God help us all.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.