De banaliteit van het goede

The Banality of Good starts with a question. If something becomes ordinary – an everyday occurrence – within an organisation, is there still scope for focusing on ‘good’ and the context in which it happens? Is there not a risk that doing good will be forgotten amid day-to-day operations? And if that happens, does the organisation then run a greater risk of becoming ‘banal’? In this context, I use the term ‘banal’ to denote an organisation that focuses solely on its own preservation. Can this lead to ‘thoughtlessness’? Thoughtlessness that is not in any sense evil in itself or born of evil intent, but is simply a loss of focus and lack of reflection. It is very difficult to organise ‘thinking’ within an organisation and provide an opportunity for reflection. There is a conflict in non-profit organisations between guaranteeing continuity in order to provide a stable basis for doing good and reflecting on the good that the organisation does. It is the concern with continuity that must be relinquished. In this book I set out to explore this conflict. How do people organise themselves to keep the organsiation intact? And how can the doing of good be organised in such a way that the meaning is not lost, and the purpose of the organisation is not neglected?