Watertight Integrity

Being a former naval officer and open ocean sailor, I am intimately familiar with the concept of buoyancy and the reality of sinking.  Any openings to the sea, whether caused by a torpedo, a rocky shoal or a ruptured hose connected to a thru hull fitting below the waterline is a matter of life and death.  There is no pulling over to the side of the road and waiting for help. So bilge pumps and damage control plugs are essential equipment to go to sea.

Once ships began to be made out of steel, it was possible to compartmentalize the ship’s ability to remain afloat with internal bulkheads (walls) and watertight doors. The Titanic was said to be “unsinkable” because of this innovation in construction.  If the captain would have rammed the iceberg head on instead of raking and ripping a hole all down the side exposing many compartments to the sea, the ship would have remained afloat.

So watertight integrity has two factors to consider.  First, the hull’s lack of penetration by the sea and second the compartmentalization of the internal structure to prevent a single hole from sinking the entire ship.  You may never go to sea and are wondering why I am explaining this concept?  Every human organization is like a ship at sea.  And the biosphere of Earth herself is sailing through an ocean of space that requires both a solid hull and internal compartmentalization.

With human organizations, the concept of watertight integrity applies to both the structure and the soul of the organization.  A man and a woman are married.  A man sees another woman he desires and may blow a hole in the energetic hull of their ship.  A child may become chronically or critically ill and drain all the financial and energetic resources of the family.  A severe storm is always a real possibility that will test the small organization’s ability to work together physically, emotionally and mentally.

If we look closely, we can see the same possibility for hull breaches in every human organization and for open wounds, mental judgments and emotional grievances bleeding into every compartment.  Whether we are dealing with an overwhelming number of possible life choices or the infinite void of space, for life to remain watertight and steerable requires a boundary of self versus non-self and a resilience through compartmentalization.

If we look at whole civilizations, they arise from an organizing principal attractive to more and more humans in a win-win dynamic acting energetically as the boundary layer between self and non-self.  Laws, taxes, policing, national boundaries and military service are instituted to solidify the hull.  Fire departments, unemployment benefits and medical care are instituted to prevent the spread of life threatening contagions.  Wise sailors respect the power of the sea and storms to test their ship’s ability to weather through the inevitable dark night and pay close attention to their ship and crew.  They prepare in calm seas.

This co-equal branch of BCC Institute called citadelizaiton is like the buoyancy of a ship at sea.  It is taken for granted when the weather is fine and the seas are calm.  But, in extremis, nothing matters more than staying afloat by having the maximum number of independent compartments who know themselves as individuals and are not subject to contagions.  At the same time, each human or compartment knows they are living inside an organization requiring everyone to hold themselves together or the entire ship will sink.

If the captain and officers are competent and use the good times and calm seas to improve the buoyancy and watertight integrity the sailors will submit to drills and maintenance because they know how much they depend upon each other and on their leadership when their ship sails through uncharted shoals and hurricane winds.  If the captain and officers are fools, the crew will find a new captain or a new ship.

Every sailor knows the sea is bigger and stronger than any single human.  We gather together by agreement and depend upon each other in extremis because what we all face is an unknown horizon.  Human organization and watertight integrity are hard won human accomplishments life and the sea enforces without mercy.