The Electric Horseman Revisits Las Vegas

Grace Ann Rosile, New Mexico State University

Accepted for publication in Jerry Biberman and Abbass Alkhafaji (Eds.) Business Research Yearbook: Global Business Perspectives, Volume VII, 2000. For presentation in Postmodern Organization Theory Track of IABD, March 30-April 2, 2000.


ABSTRACT

In the movie The Electric Horseman, an over-the-hill rodeo rider (played by Robert Redford) steals the champion racehorse he is supposed to ride on a glittering Las Vegas stage. He releases the horse into the wilderness, to run with the other wild horses. This movie highlights the contrast between the extremes of man-made spectacle for which Las Vegas is famous, juxtaposed with the idea of the wild, natural, and free. This paper considers some aspects of the separation of man from nature, especially as reflected in the capitalist spectacle which Las Vegas epitomizes. How did this separation and spectacularization occur, and what can or should to be done about it?
 

INTRODUCTION

When Robert Redford releases the champion racehorse to run with the herd of wild horses, we all cheer. We applaud for both the horse, returned to his Anatural@ state, and for Redford, who has rejected his role in the Las Vegas spectacle to affirm a different way of life. In the process, Redford also causes Jane Fonda to question her own role, and the role of the media in general, in the exploitation and spectacularization of modern life. This movie script raises some questions about our consumer culture, and about the effects of this culture on our relationship to the human spirit and the natural world.

As an experienced horseperson I see another side to the dominant story of the horse going back to the wild. Domesticated horses may not adapt all that easily or readily to the wild. Deprived of a herd environment, some young stallions do not even know how to approach a mare for breeding. Using a human analogy, we would never dream of dropping an urban African American off in the wilds of Africa. From this perspective, the Electric Horseman film offers an idealized, romanticized view of a natural world which may not even exist. Nevertheless, what is still valid is the movie=s tapping into the longing most people have to recapture some of that sense of the natural, the free, and the wild. And paradoxically, some of the appeal of Las Vegas also lies in those same ideals, packaged as the freedom and wildness of forbidden gambling and sex. It is the spectacular representation of festival.

This paper recommends using the horse as Robert Redford did in The Electric Horseman, that is, as a means of breaking out of "spectacles" of life and exploring more "natural: (festive) ways of living (Boje, 2000). In general, spectacle here refers to a performance staged to accomplish a purpose. In contrast, festival refers to enjoyment of a thing for its own sake, not as an instrumental means to an end. I agree with Boje (2000) that our consumption-production-based society is overbalanced in favor of spectacle. I suggest that work with horses can provide us with a more festival-friendly approach to human organizations. I will suggest three strategies: 1) moving away from knowledge based on the written word and theory, and moving toward more narrative ways of knowing; 2) moving away from theory, which is closely linked to the written word, and moving towards the immediate actionable knowing of direct experience (Foucault, 1977); and 3) learning to read our own physical bodies as an integral part of our knowing and meaning-making processes (Barry and Hazen, 1996). These three strategies will be discussed below.

1. Moving away from written words and towards direct experience.

Writing favors theory over narrative. The study of the written text has led to a development of theory with a corresponding neglect of narrative and direct experience. Michel Foucault, sometimes called a "postmodern: philosopher best known for his studies of the oppressive operation of social institutions, recommended abandoning theory in favor of experience. Regarding utopian development of society, Foucault said :Reject theory and all forms of general discourse. This need for theory is still part of the system we reject....If scientific socialism emerged from the Utopias of the nineteenth century, it is possible that a real socialization will emerge, in the twentieth century, from experiences." (Foucault, 1977, p. 231.)

Manes (1997) takes us back to medieval language to understand the complex issues of language and power, and our modern subservience to the written text:

Even in modern English....Our word 'read' has the same root as raedend, the Anglo-Saxon poetic word for God, glossed as 'Ruler,' but literally meaning 'Reader,' in the sense of one who interprets, understands and hence can counsel. We 'spell' words, but sorcerers and witches can cast a 'spell': the two meanings, which superficially appear worlds apart to us now, derive from the same root, converging sometime in the medieval past when the ability to properly arrange letters suggested mastery over the physical things named, and hence magic. (Manes, 1997: p. 64) Thus physical mastery became transposed and transformed into verbal mastery, and thus the pen became truly mightier than the sword. I do not advocate a return to the sword, but a revival of a way of knowing which has been almost lost, or relegated to the realms of sports, arts, and craftsmanship.

2. Moving away from theory and towards immediate actionable knowing.

Attempts to overcome the limitations of language on our ability to understand our world extend back to the ancient Greeks, who espoused the parallel development of mind and body. This ideal, occasionally mouthed, is little understood and rarely practiced today. The model of mind and body development is most frequently invoked in the issue of collegiate scholar/athletes. The current popularity of jogging and other exercise is primarily that, exercise, not education. From a postmodern perspective, merely the creation of this linguistic dualism perpetuates our entrapment in the mind versus body dichotomy.

The practice of physical sports, especially horseback riding, offers great insights into 'actionable" knowing. When engaged with the horse, I must be constantly attuned to the horse's every movement as well as my own body's reactions, and then without time to consciously think I must process all this information from both bodies, as well as factors in the external environment, and take immediate physical action to participate in our relationship, i.e. to "ride." At times I am a passenger, and times a guide, at times a playmate. The managerialist issue of who is in control is almost irrelevant: what is relevant is the mutual attunement. Did anyone ever think that organizational life could be so complex, so demanding, or so much fun?

3. Learning to read our physical bodies as a way of knowing.

Our bodies are our direct link with the physical world of nature. We commonly think of Thoreau when we think of great philosophers who recommended the benefits of a direct experience of the nature. Warren Grossman (1999) presents a new twist on this old idea. He suggests that the earth's energy field truly operates as a nourishing mother. He presents evidence that direct physical contact with the earth (for example, standing barefoot on the ground) provides great physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Our bodies are our most readily available, and it seems lately our most often overlooked, sources for accessing the power and wisdom of nature.

Steingard and Fitzgibbons (1999) call for organizational studies in the new millennium to integrate both intellectual and experiential approaches, and to incorporate "a greater understanding of our relationship to the natural world..." (p. 537). This relationship would not be based on dominating or transcending the natural world, but rather being an integral part of it, beyond the man/nature false dualism. They call this approach "Integral Organizational Studies."

We have seen above that direct experience offers us something unique and irreplaceable in the learning process. I suggest that working with horses provides an opportunity for learning which is uniquely relevant to our experiences in the workplace. I prefer to use the language of direct experience (that is, narrative), to offer my experiences in this area. The value of the story to you, lies in your ability to make it your own. Here is one story:

I never rode in a horse show until I was in my 30's, years after finishing my Ph.D. in Business Administration. I thought, I am used to presenting, to being in front of an audience. I don't get nervous. But at my first horse show, I was shaking, because I had to think about controlling my physical body, being attentive to the horse, reacting in the moment, and doing all of this, on stage, and on cue. I was not used to that. So I really learned a lot about how to do that.

I used to read in magazines about top riders, and many of them talk about adjusting what their horse did, with something as slight as the tightening of their little finger. It sounded so simple, clear, understandable--less is more. But you try it. I used to think, "Moving a little finger, right! I;ve got to stay on this horse! We're charging around, jumping fences, it is chaos!" Then one day, I can remember it really vividly-- I was at a horse show. We were going around the show ring at a trot, and over in the parking lot there I see some people getting out of their car about to close their car door. As we are coming around the bend, I can see my horse Nahdion=s eye start to turn. He has eyes on the side of his head anyway so he can see those people in the parking lot and that door closing. Without thinking, I tightened my little finger, just the slightest bit. And I tensed my calf muscle, on that other side, just a little bit. And his head went, just like that, about a fraction of an inch down and to the inside, and we kept going around the bend. It was fabulous! I thought, "So that's what it feels like! That's what all those magazine articles were talking about." So I really learned a lot about how to do that. And part of that focus and concentration, part of what you do is you slow down time, so you can act, and act effectively. First, to just stay on the horse, my body has to constantly adjust to the horse's motion. As my coach Jeannie used to say, everything that can bend, should bend. Only then can I begin to influence (not control) the horse's movement. My mind and body must constantly engage the horse's mind and body, listening and responding. So this is what I am talking about, this way of knowing and understanding and acting simultaneously. To me, it is what great teamwork feels like, physically. And whenever it happens, in or out of the showring, it is one of the most joyful experiences I have ever had.

When I offer my interpretations of my story it is only as a starting point, because some of what I learned from my experiences I know I can only convey with you, me, and a horse all present. This I do in my workshops called "Horse Sense" (copyright 1999). These workshops offer experiences with obvious, direct, practical relevance to the workplace. Direct physical experience makes this learning very personal, and very full with meaning. While not religious in nature, this approach to learning reflects some of the same dynamics described by Manes (1999). He explains how religions have traditionally looked to animals as guides to personal growth and spiritual enlightenment:

...non-literate religions tend to be more personal in nature than religions of the book. They often involve private visions, individual spirit guides, self-styled quests for enlightenment. ...the stories I collected from people who have had spiritual experiences involving animals almost always involved personal insights, often occurring in the most private realm of dreams, and often so personal the storyteller could not even say what the experience meant, only that it was meaningful. (Manes, 1999, p. 67) Traditional management education is still dominated by dead texts which capture theories of management in immutable printed words (Rosile and Boje, 1996). Even case examples typically are told from the perspective of omniscient and invisible authors rather than individual visible persons. When knowledge through lived experience is cultivated, it is the best of the "old war stories" style and much much more. The collective knowledge of direct experience, conveyed by narrative traditions, is uniquely suited to the dynamics of contemporary organizational life. There is a flexible adaptive quality to oral traditions. Manes (1999) cites Levi-Strauss to explain this: Levi-Strauss has shown that the myths of non-literate cultures flow and alter course quite easily over time, when migration or other changed circumstances bring new challenges to the forefront. While the jaguar spirit may play a prominent role in the myth and ritual of Bororo that dwell in the interior of Brazil and live predominantly by hunting, coastal Bororo just a few hundred miles away may emphasize mythic cycles involving marine creatures. There is no Bororo bible, no tribal inquisition to validate one sacred narrative over the other, and it would never occur to any Bororo that such authority would be desirable or even possible.(p. 67.) CONCLUSION

In conclusion, direct experience takes us in the direction of narrative knowing. Direct physical experience allows us to break the hierarchical constraints of language and theory. In this way, we can learn from our physical bodies, and we can learn to experience the joy of festival. The movie The Electric Horseman offered a spectacle of festive joy in the form of the horse escaping Las Vegas and returning to the wild. By incorporating non-literate-based ways of knowing, paying attention to what our physical bodies tell us, and getting a little help from our non-human friends, we too can learn to escape Las Vegas and bring more festival to our organizational lives.
 

REFERENCES
Barry, David, and Mary Ann Hazen (1996). Do You Take Your Body to Work? in Boje, D., Gephart, R.P. Jr., and Thatchenkery, T. J. (Eds.) Postmodern Management and Organization Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Boje, David M. (2000). Spectacle and Festival. Manuscript under review.

Boje, D., and Dennehy, R. (1994). Managing in the Postmodern World. Dubuque IA: Kendall Hunt Publishers.

Foucault, Michel (1977). Language, Counter-memory, Practice. Donald F. Bouchard (ed); and Sherry Simon (trans). New York: Cornell University Press.

Grossman, Warren (1998) To Be Healed by the Earth. Cleveland, Ohio: The Institute of Light.

Illich, I. (1993) In the Vineyard of the Text. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Manes, Christopher (1997). Other Creations: Rediscovering the Spirituality of Animals. New York: Doubleday.

Steingard, D., and D. Fitzgibbons (1999). R/E-volution in organizational Theory: Organizational Science, Organizational Studies, and Integral Organizational Studies in Biberman, J., and Alkhafaji, A. (Eds.), Business Research Yearbook, Vol. VI, pp.534-538.

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