Osama Bin Laden is dead and I don’t feel any safer. On the contrary, the TV news kept reminding me that the death of Bin Laden might cause retaliations and therefore more terrorist activities against the U.S. This is because Bin Laden was part of network of which he was at the center and the people in this network listened to his voice and would do anything he said. Bin Laden is gone but his network is still here.
In the book, CONNECTED, Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler wrote:
Social networks have value precisely because they help us to achieve what we could not achieve on our own. . . . . . . networks influence the spread of joy, the search for sexual partners, the maintenance of health, the functioning of markets, and the struggle for democracy. Yet, social-network effects are not always positive. Depression, obesity, sexually transmitted diseases, financial panic, violence, and even suicide also spread. Social networks, it turns out, tend to magnify whatever they are seeded with. (Pages 30-31)
Bin Laden’s network continues to threaten violence because it was seeded with violence.
Jesus also died a violent death 2000 years ago, but his followers did not retaliate precisely because his network was not seeded with violence and revenge but with grace and forgiveness. His followers recalled Jesus’ voice like sheep that recognize their shepherd’s voice. They knew that by following Jesus’s footsteps, they would be guided to green pastures. And their network grew.
But through history, people connected to Jesus’ social network had strayed from their original calling. They spread hate and excluded others. In the name of Jesus, they incited violence on others and started wars.
Christakis and Fowler, through their research on social network describe the “Rules of Life in the Network” (pp.16-36) as follows:
- We shape our network
- Our network shapes us
- Our friends affect us
- Our friends’ friends’ friends’ affect us
- The network has a life of its own.
While I know that my social network shapes me, I also know that I can shape my network by influencing my friends who in turn can influence their friends and so on. I am a Christian because I value my role in this network. I want to do my part in calling the people in my network back to following Jesus, who seeded this network with love, not hate; with inclusion, not exclusion; with forgiveness, not retaliation.
We have a choice in choosing who is in our network or what network we are part of. We also have a choice to decide what to spread through our network. Do we use it to spread lies or truth, bring fear or trust, propagate hate or share love, control or empower, break down or build sustainable communities? Christakis and Fowler wrote the book Connected to remind us that “our interconnection is not only a natural and necessary part of our lives but also a force for good.” (p. XVI)
A sustainist knows the power of networks. A sustainist knows the voices of sustainism and connects with them forming this network/ movement to share knowledge and ideas for a sustainable future. If this movement is to grow, the sustainist network/community must also be diverse. By connecting with those who are not yet believers, we create a trust that through the network, will affect, influence, convert, and transform those with whom we establish new connections, thus sharing the work of building a sustainable future.
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Gather the people in your community and invite them to examine their social network with the following instructions:
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Reflection Questions for Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A): Acts 2:42-47 Psalm 23 1 Peter 2:19-25 John 10:1-10 |
Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org
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