Colin really goes off on one! Here he writes a kind of poem, a dystopian allegory for students of post-modernism and neo-marxism. Written to Executive Coaching Supervisors, it’s a warning about how our minds can get warped and seduced by ego and narcissistic open-mindedness. But it can mean many different things (that’s what post-modernism does!), and what it means to you, it means to you!

“The Supervisor as Lamb”

(8 minute read)

And the Wolf said to the Supervisor, “Some people are poorer than others”.

Yes, said the Lamb. 

And the Wolf said to the Supervisor, “That’s not fair”.

Yes, said the Lamb.

And the Wolf said to the Supervisor, “We have to do something about this, or we are not ethical and loving Supervisors, and that’s our role”.

“Yes!”, said the Lamb. “We must. What shall we do?”

“We must rise up and be powerful in our belief in equality”, said the Wolf.

“Yes!”, said the Lamb. “We must”.

“Poverty is caused by wealth”, said the Wolf.

And billions of people went to work that day in hundreds of countries, and engaged as freely as they were allowed, creating private and sometimes public win-wins. And they used up resources and created resources, and created more renewable resources than yesterday. Then they went home and loved their families, and polluted the skies as they heated their homes, and did voluntary work, and paid their taxes, and planted trees, and visited the graves of their grandparents who had come out of the dirt, and gave thanks to them, and put flowers on their headstones. And voted. And won the right to vote. And committed crimes. And fed and kissed their children on the lips, and imagined and worked for a better future for them. And they did not do some things for others that they could have. And offended each other. And some were weathered badly by ongoing offence from others. And not all had loving families to work with. And some were unlucky. And some were lazy. And that day, from people in relatively free economies, another 200,000 came out of absolute poverty from using the ‘system’, like every day in the 21st Century. And it all worked in part but not in whole. And the planet heaved again and promised to try its best for us tomorrow. Maybe it will.

“OK”, said the Lamb, repeating. “Poverty is caused by wealth”.

“Poverty is also caused by hierarchy”, said the Wolf.

OK, said the Lamb, turning off their free social media platform used for business networking and turning off their No. 1 pop artist, and putting down their phone to listen more intently.

“Poverty is caused by the rich, the old Lords”, said the Wolf.

OK, said the Lamb, who had been educated free as a result of donations and legacies from alumni at a nice University, founded by a slave owner.

“The old Lords are supported in their positions and in their systemic terror by the many blind or wilful people who serve them. Some are easily seen, but they are hiding everywhere”.

“Yes, sir”, said the Lamb. “Many are dead, but alive”.

“There are many kinds of poverty”, said the Wolf. “Not just material poverty, but also through social prejudice, forcing the innocent down forever. Even the rich oppressed are oppressed”.

“I see”, said the Lamb. “I SEE. I mean I really see! Now you mention it I see it everywhere! I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. This is transformational, revolutionary. Will you be my Supervisor?”.

“Well, then”, said the Wolf. “An open, non-directive question for you…What must you do?”

“We must rise up and be powerful in our belief in equality”, said the Lamb-Wolf.

So the new Wolf saw nothing except what she had been taught anew, and forgot all else, and saw nothing else, and she felt so open, and engaged, and caring, and informed. She threw off her skin of old and condemned it three times. She even saw fleece where hair now was.

“How do we do this great transformational work?”, asked the new Wolf.

“I have other Lambs, dear Lamb. Come and meet them”, said the old Wolf.

The new Wolves met, in their Sheep’s clothing. “How wonderful to be with other like-minded Lambs”, they all said to each other. “We are so diverse!”, they cried in unison. 

They felt powerful together. “We feel empowered!”, They said.

They felt clever together. “We feel humble and grateful!”, they said.

“You are so clever”, they said to each other, and each felt really clever from each others’ flattery. In their hearts they said, “It must be true that I am clever and humble, as all the decent, intelligent people say so. I must come again to participate and resonate”.

“It’s wonderful to be in a place free of the oppressors”, they said. “Surely everyone will be joining our group, as nearly all are decent people, and Wolf oppressors are few”.

But not all joined. In fact many did not.

The old Mentor Wolf stepped forwards. “Those who do not come to us are clearly those who hate humanity. For we know we are right and just”.

Yes, said the new Wolves.

“What should you do?”, said the Mentor. The wolf pack did not see it was a leading question. Their perception narrowed yet once more. They did not consider they may have missed something. It all felt so obvious and right.

“We must become the Leaders”, said the Supervisors. “And the old leaders are getting old”.

“Well, you must do as you think fit, in your own way”, said the old Wolf, proving she had a non-directive and trusting style, while opening the door for the Supervisors to walk out into the Coaching territory. “You know I always say you must think for yourselves. Here is Engels and Gramsci and Derrida and Foucault and Marcuse for you. But you will never know it’s them – I’ve taken the names off. Take Chomski and Scharmer too. Politics always well-researched. Well done and good luck.”

And the Mentor Wolf went off to see her Supervisor-of-Supervision for Supervision. And She was very old. And She welcomed the old Wolf, and appeared non-directive and encouraged self-reflection, but nevertheless raised the justice issues of the day, “…as part of the Normative part of my Supervision role. And it’s in my Code of Conduct”, said She. 

OK, said the Supervisor Wolf.

And the Supervisor Wolf thought she was thinking freely for herself. And her perception had become fixed, including the part where they knew their perception was exactly open, flexible, warm-hearted, equal and just. But it was in a hair’s breadth, while feeling exactly the opposite. And she did the exact bidding of She. How could she not? All was set.

And the Supervisor Wolf looked out over the territory, and saw her Lambs recruiting the oppressed, inventing more oppressed, challenging oppressors, helping the oppressed, oppressing oppressors, and inventing oppressors to oppress. 

And doing good works. 

“Good”, she said. “This is justice at work”.

She stepped on an old copy of the Drama Triangle as she strode on to the next campaign.

And the Lambs fought for justice, slaying the oppressors – visible and invisible, demolishing language, reason, logic where it didn’t fit, and trampling all the good underfoot out of the old. And did good works.

“We have new ways of knowing”, they said. 

“We are not anti-capitalist”, they said. “But the new Farm is going to be so much better”. George winced. He had seen it before. 

Some oppressed people got justice. They all celebrated.

They felt they were succeeding.

And the old was destroyed, both the bad and the good. And the good had been equal to the bad, but was invisible and overlooked, and now forgotten. Friedrich observed that they had killed the old system, but did not have enough cloth to soak up the blood.  

Then they stood atop their new hierarchy and said, “Look, from here we can see the equality we have created!” 

“No”, said the other Lambs. “We can still see the old oppression. Though it looks like the oppressors are washed away and under our feet, they are still over us. Inter-generational systemic, symbolic oppression means it can never be won. The invisible enemy must be destroyed. We must fight on”. 

And so the Lambs continued to form nice hierarchies and beat down oppression, and invent oppressors, and oppress without knowing, and the leaders divided between them spoils, in the name of equality. 

Then started the arguments about who was the most fair, and who not. 

And She whispered, “All of you who are fair, purge those who are not. And those who are fair of hair, are not fair. It’s only fair”. 

And the Lambs said, “It’s only fair”.

And they looked at their locks and found the most fair, and dragged them by their fair hair as unfair, and banished them from the Queendom.

“Who has the next fairest hair?”, squealed the Lamb with the ambition and the cognitive (but not emotional) empathy and the well-hidden disagreeable personality and love of power. “It’s not fair”.

And so all were oppressed and banished or killed, because they had believed in oppressing the oppressor, until only one – of Power – was left. Because only Power was right. Or Left. 

But she just looked average. And was now alone in her solidarity.

“Individuality could have been so much better with others around”, Ayn commented from the next Universe.

So she thought she should get some Supervision. After all, it had been a difficult time in the field, and she was parched, and she felt she needed Restorative support for her unaddressed emotions, and, even though she knew she was wonderful, to check on her Ethical Maturity. Just in case.

And She looked down at the bedraggled oppressor-victim, as she looked innocently up for this sustenance. She, She saw they had no money and no clients. And so She turned around the ‘We are Open’ sign on the door. 

‘We are Open, became ‘We are Closed’.

And I saw that I was She – and her.

Colin Wilson, November 2022

Available for Supervision and other services, or to answer questions, at colin.wilson@businessathlete.co.uk