LONDON — As a troubled world seeks solutions to seemingly intractable problems, the theory of holism is enjoying a surge in popularity. Almost a century after it was devised by South African polymath Jan Smuts, Holism’s focus on interconnectivity of the Whole is suddenly making a lot more sense to more people. It offers solutions to the toughest political and social challenges bedevilling mankind. In the first of a regular series on how Smuts’s theories can be applied to address contemporary problems one of the world’s foremost Holism fundis, London-based Dr Claudius van Wyk, tackles some in the headlines this week – fake news, corruption and trust. – Alec Hogg
Well, it’s nice to talk to Dr Claudius van Wyk. You’ve been focusing on holism, Jan Smuts’ gift to the world, if you like. Could you give us, in a nutshell, what it means?
Essentially, what that means is that we need to look at the world in terms of the relationships that constitute the inter-dynamic living essence. In the old model of reality, we looked at the parts as hard, fixed elements. We thought we could understand the dynamic by understanding the nature of the parts but in holism, it is the relationship between the parts that generate the real dynamic. That new perspective enables us to look at society, at economics, at the business world, and at the nature of ecology etcetera.
Everything is interlinked. Everything is intertwined.
Everything is interlinked and everything is interacting and generating new dynamics. The word that is used there, is emergence.
Okay, it sounds complicated. Is there any easy way to understand this?
Well, if you take for example, an element like the wristwatch that I’m wearing; we could dismantle that wristwatch and by dismantling it, we’d be able to know all of the parts that constitute it. By understanding the interaction of all of those parts, we would know how it works. If you take for example, a feature from nature like water: if you take a highly corrosive element like oxygen and you take a highly inflammable element like hydrogen and you put them together in the right formula, you get water. Now, suddenly, you’ve taken two highly corrosive and inflammable elements but in their relationship, they’ve created an entirely new phenomenon. That is the ground of all life. Both parts have been completely transformed in the whole and that will give you a very important distinction between reductionism (focusing on the parts) and holism (focusing on the new phenomenon) that is an expression of the interaction of all those parts as they are transformed into this living dynamic.
I’m going to play you a little clip from Paul O’Sullivan. I asked him why Jacob Zuma is being attacked by so many people. Yet, there is no charge being laid at him or no evidence apparently. This is what Paul had to say this week.
“Alec, one of the things that we were asked is, “Why haven’t you opened a docket against Zuma?” I’ve repeatedly said, “Well, we’ve looked for evidence and we haven’t found anything that we would class as tangible prima facie evidence, that implicates Jacob Zuma in wrongdoing.” I’m not talking about the 783 charges because I’ve never been there anyway. I’ve never looked at that anyway. I’m talking about in the last few years, I’ve not found anything that shows (to me) that he’s been engaged in criminal conduct. Now, some of the criminals that I’ve investigated and are behind bars today, are really smart criminals but they’ve left audit trails and they’re in prison. I’m not suggesting for one moment that Jacob Zuma is an angel but if he’s the criminal and has the criminal intention that everyone says he has, he’s not leaving much evidence of it lying around.”
I love that clip because it goes against so much of what we think is happening and of course, everything is interconnected as well. Is there a way of applying holism to what’s going on there and what Paul O’Sullivan had to say?
I think we want to look at this from the perspective of governance and governance within the law, and what Paul would then be talking about (about criminality) is actually, “Has the law been broken by Jacob Zuma or the others around him?” What he is saying is that he doesn’t have direct evidence of that. We need to look at that from a perception of the law and governance, and whether the law has been broken. That’s one issue and it would be a reductive approach. That would be trying to say, “Which law/subsection has been broken and by which specific behaviour?” If we look at the whole issue of corruption from a holistic perspective, then it is a network of relationships that enables the whole to be vital and healthy. Let’s take for example in this case, the South African economy. Then we’ll be able to see that there are elements that form outside of the law and now it relates to ethics.
It relates to a morality, which is defined by whether it’s good for the whole system. Is it good for the whole nation? Is it good for the people involved? Is it good for maintaining the natural systems that enable people to exist in the first place? Corruption undermines the integrity of the whole system and it is not always possible for the law to be able to define all of those elements. Holism would say, “We’ve got to look at the overall impact on the wellbeing of the people, on the wellbeing of people according to what’s happening in the economy, and on the people, that are managing it” Then we can redefine corruption as a real factor. This would be what holism is able to help us to understand.
Claudius, I’m going to play you a clip now from Johann Rupert, the Chairman of Richemont and particularly important for us here, is what he says towards the end about fake news given that on Friday Bell Pottinger, the London agency accused of creating lots of fake news and attacking people like Rupert in South Africa, is going to face a disciplinary hearing.
“A very close friend of ours who isn’t here tonight (G.T. Ferreira); his mom said to us, “You’re not only known by your friends. You’re also known by your enemies” and I’m very proud to share the same enemies with the Public Prosecutor (who’s just left). I’ve only met her once and that was when we conferred [inaudible 0:05:35]. That was the only time we’d spoken to her. Before tonight, I’d only met with Minister Gordhan twice. It’s the same with the President – only twice. I thought about saying that the only difference is that Minister Gordhan didn’t ask for money but then I decided that I was not going to say that. You have to ask yourself, “Why are they doing this? Why are they creating these false stories?”
A little slip there. Johann Rupert was referring to the former Public Protector and not Prosecutor, Thuli Madonsela. Looking at all of that Claudius, what do you make of what he had to say and particularly, the whole story of fake news? Are these people evil?
I would be very loath to describe people as evil. Let’s just take a look at the issue of Johann Rupert and what he’s saying as head of Richemont, and remembering that he was one of the people that was targeted by Bell Pottinger. Let’s just take a look at that issue where he had to fire them because in fact, not only were they functioning against the integrity of the South African economic driver/captains but he (himself) included in that, as head of Richemont. We take a look at that and then we take a look at the whole current age of the information age and what is post-truth – where information itself becomes a fallible commodity, and where the conversion and peddling of information becomes a fallible commodity. Quite interestingly, I was at a science conference in Norway in the middle of June and one of the major issues that were discussed by scientist, including many Nobel Prize winners, was ‘how does science tell us what truth is when it relates to how a nation should function’.
They were struggling with that. On the one hand, science should tell us what truth is. On the other hand, can science tell us what morality is? Again, what holism would say would be, “If other relationships are the actions that people are taking (particularly in the business world and in the way that value is exchanged in communities between people): is it functioning for the betterment of the whole and is it functioning for the enabling or for the maintenance of the health of the ecology that supports that? The Bell Pottinger attack/the angle about white monopoly capital comes in the face of the counter-argument of the need for radical economic transformation. Both sides actually have a case. There is still this huge inequity in the South African society, which is still hugely racially defined and Thabo Mbeki warned about that many years ago.
On the other hand, the way of trying to radically change the economy that has led to cronyism and what we see as corruption in the South African situation isn’t an answer either. We’ve got to try and look at what the objectives are that these people are trying to achieve and find a common ground where we can meet and explore new ways to conduct our affairs. Holism provides a perspective in which we can begin to explore that.
Just to close off with then, this deficit of trust, which you’ve touched on and is now a serious issue in the South African scenario.
Lorenzo Fioramonti, in his most recent book ‘The Wellbeing Economy’ (and I love that notion of the wellbeing economy: he says that any economy that works well focuses primarily on its human capital and ensures that it is developing, maintaining, and protecting its human capital. He says, “Secondly, it focuses on the quality of nature that enables us to have clean air, clean water for the soil to produce what we eat.” He says, “Those two factors – human capital and natural capital – become the core components of a healthy and functional economy. However, he says, “The moral ground that enables an economy to flourish in which those two focuses can take place, is trust.” The whole issue of transparency, the issue of the law being able to take its course, and the issue of accountability on the part of politicians, business leadership, and labour movements…
That issue of accountability and transparency leads to an environment of trust and trust itself, is probably the most vital element of human capital. If we’re developing trust in a community, we’re actually empowering society because relationships, contracts, agreement, and collaboration is enabled in that environment, which is why corruption is so undermining of economic wellbeing and why this issue is such a core issue in South Africa. There’s a statement ‘killing the goose that lays the golden egg’. The way we conducted business in South African from the apartheid legacy was of course, completely inequitable but by acting against the very agents that generate economic activities in the name of transformation is to be killing the goose that lays the golden egg. We’re looking for a new debate.
We’re looking for a new dialogue and as I said earlier on, “What we need to look at is what the common outcome is that the economic activity and the business activity within that wants to achieve’. What are the government systems that will enable that? That’s demanding of a new debate and it’s got to transcend the old divide – the old capitalist/socialist divide and the old white/black divide. It’s got to transcend that settle vs indigenous people divide. We’re looking for a new debate and I’m looking forward to participating in that.
Well, we’re going to be talking every week with Dr Claudius van Wyk on this new issue. Perhaps, a new way to have a look at the problems that not only South Africa faces, but the world as a whole.
