Quote:
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Originally Posted by bartholomew
You have been using the term "hierarchy". Usually that word refers to some organized (group) authority but What, exactly do you mean?
James
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Hello there James - so sorry I missed this earlier as it was very short and I didn't see my name called out.
1)
Here's something straight off google and all these meaning apply, but they also lack something of common usage.
Quote:
hi·er·ar·chy
/ˈhī(ə)ˌrärkē/
noun: hierarchy; plural noun: hierarchies
a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority.
(7L: meaning, status and authority at any human level...i.e. group, societal, global, and by human perspectives also any graded, tiered, &/or progressive view of the "heavenly or spiritual", etc.
Status and authority may be considered in any of a number of ways, such that the spiritual experience of others may be viewed by humanity as superior to or above their own and therefore appear to position others in different places in a different sort of hierarchy...see the theology example for a historic parallel)
•the upper echelons of a hierarchical system; those in authority.
noun: the hierarchy
"the magazine was read quite widely even by some of the hierarchy"
•an arrangement or classification of things according to relative importance or inclusiveness.
"a taxonomic hierarchy of phyla, classes, orders, families, genera, and species"
•the clergy of the Catholic or Episcopal Church; the religious authorities.
noun: the hierarchy
•Theology
the traditional system of orders of angels and other heavenly beings.
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Here are some common usage examples cited at the Cambridge Dictionary page on "hierarchy" from round the web...all these meanings/uses also apply:
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I particularly wish to emphasise the inclusion of the divergent waste hierarchy.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
We are thus led to construct a hierarchy.
From Wikipedia
The belief in the importance of details also suggests the new hierarchy.
From Wikipedia
A hierarchy consists of a preorder defined on a set.
From Wikipedia
To further reduce the network size, we can exploit the hierarchy in the power distribution models.
From Wikipedia
We cannot create a hierarchy of suffering, hunger or oppression.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Thirdly, we must defend the principle of a hierarchy of norms.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Thinking in terms of a hierarchy of fundamental rights is a trap which we should avoid.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
According to mythology, the country was going through a social restructuring and adopting the strict social hierarchy system of castes.
From Wikipedia
Only the latter hypothesis is coherent with the hierarchy of the institutions.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Indeed, there can be no hierarchy among discriminations.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Finally, this text is also important because it provides a sketch of the emerging church hierarchy.
From Wikipedia
The conflict could be resolved by collapsing the hierarchy of spiritual government and material government in favour of matter.
From Wikipedia
Liberals were often labeled anarchists by monarchists, even though they did not call for the abolition of hierarchy.
From Wikipedia
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The first several examples provide a good sense of part of what I intended, which is that our conceptualisation of a process often seems to us to suggest not just an unfolding or a natural progression....
...but ALSO a hierarchy of development...in which there is a conferred or implicit superiority of later "stages" or of end state(s), to the point of being broadly assumed (by those who espouse the perspective) as a foundational aspect or fact of the topic at hand. Perhaps this makes sense simply for working purposes if we're talking about certain very limited, material processes involving inanimate states and so forth...
But in terms of humanity, society and spirituality it tends to be heavily overlaid with social bias and ideology going back to the dawn of history.
This broad assumption of the preferential stages or states of hierarchy are assumptions we have made, and about hierarchies we have conceived and overlaid onto our social reality. So, very often our thinking reflects an assumption of separation, hierarchy, and a judgment of preference and superiority belonging to "higher" or "more advanced" states or stages or rungs.
Very often, this causes us to likewise confer some level of authority upon them (.e.g., "I look to God and/or my guides to intervene & give me clear signs to guide my decisions"...&/or somehow provide certainty, abrogate my free will, and otherwise absolve me of ownership for my decisions -- by virtue of their greater wisdom and authority). IMO this greater wisdom & power is exactly why Source/messengers/guides won't make your decisions for you nor tell you what to do/relieve you of ownership...but this is the level of feedback that many seek when they are dealing with Spirit in terms of human hierarchy and its implicit and explicit conferred states of authority and superiority.
This mode or ingrained tendency of conflating development with hierarchy is almost entirely due to our level of human development (and similar others) -- because it is literally all we've known for millennia and we have likewise overlaid our hierarchical thinking with a millennia of various supportive ideologies.
I hope I've been a bit more clear now & if not, please do let me know.
Peace & blessings
7L
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