Michael Pollan 'And The Animals: Practicing Complexity'

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Michael Pollan and Thomas Friedman both use harmonious relationships to satisfy the needs of different people or ideas. Pollan shows harmonious relationships through holon's, stacking, and other techniques in “The Animals: Practicing Complexity.” Additionally, Friedman shows how countries work together in a global supply chain to form and sustain harmonious relationships in “The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention.” Maximizing the relationships between people or objects was their main goals and their theories showed that that’s what they wanted to accomplish. A harmonious relationship was the main goal that they were trying to achieve and create an environment where everything could rely on each other and succeed. Michael Pollan’s goal was to…show more content…
He believed this after spending time in Joel Salatin’s farm. A Holon is an example of this idea. A Holon “is an entity that from one perspective appears a self-contained whole, and from another dependent part”(Pollan 378). An example of a Holon is a body organ, such as the liver. The body entirely cannot function if the liver is not working. It is one of the most vital organs our body has and must be functioning properly at all times. If it is not, it is possible for our body to shut down. This is where Pollan’s harmonious relationships come into place. The liver stores all of the healthy nutrients and vitamins that we intake. So if the liver shuts down, our brain will not receive any of these healthy nutrients that it needs to function. Without a properly functioning brain, you cannot live at all. A harmonious relationship is important in this case because a healthy liver will lead to a healthy brain. When a bunch of small ideas rely on one each other to work, the big picture will succeed and the harmonious relationship will thrive. To go along with Holon’s, another one of Pollan’s techniques to create harmonious relationships was stacking.

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