III. Systems…
& the many within.
"Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world."
< Alexander Pope
"The SYSTEM," as defined by this book, is everything existing within the known universe, from atoms and galaxies to this book and you, the reader. This is the overall System, and it is comprised of an infinite number of smaller ones.
Now, the word "system" has become quite popular. It seems as if everyone is always talking about this or that system, whether it be systems dedicated to weight loss or ones used to manage companies. The word has been used so much that its power and original meaning seem to be in danger of becoming diluted.
A definition for "systems", as defined by Michael Gerber, author of the E-myth series of books, is:
A system is a set of things, actions, ideas, and information that interact with each other, and in so doing, alter other systems.
Using this definition, anything could be called a system. This is actually true, for a system exists between any two entities, independent of their size or essence. It therefore may seem simplistic or even redundant to delve into systems any further, but that would be ignoring the huge power that this simplicity holds in dealing with something as complex as the world existing around us. It is crucial to understand systems- for each system, as shown in the succeeding chapters, has certain characteristics that, if known, yield information previously unknown about our world.
Additionally, knowledge of one system provides knowledge of another. Since everything exists within the overall System, everything is hierarchically bound to its rules and tendencies. Ever