Dear Learners
I began today twice;-) Once at 3.40 am by easing Bucket's anxiety, he does
not like 'howling winds' and then again, by reflecting upon what will be
the legacy left by young May in the minds and bodies of the children of
Banjul when they are speaking to their grandchildren in the year 2078. I
have to tell you it is a 'moving thought'. Though I am easily moved.
"Stand still, let the wind speak, that is Paradise." Ezra Pound
Rather than address directly the possible dialogue between Artur and At I
rather would offer some ramblings, maybe soggy ones;-) that they at least
might be able to appropriate into their own 'ladders of inference'.
What, in this entire very amazing world do we notice? And is the act of
noticing an act of true appreciation without recourse to explications? Is
noticing the same as apprehending?
These are two things I noticed recently from the world I live in.
When a Benedictine* Monk Fr. Dermot (*Devoted to disciplines of continual
learning as a way of life, but not allowed to take outward nor inward
'pleasure' in that process. (|) I wish to change that sentence to read, '
-to a way of life.' I wish to change that change to, ' - a way of
continual life.') spoke of his relationship into this world and Another I
saw that he made a vertical hand gesture for one level of reality and a
horizontal one for the other, so inscribing a cross into the air around
him creating a third. I do not know if anyone else in the room saw it.
The guillemot convenes in great colonies for the purpose of procreation and
nurturing. Each can identify the markings on it's own egg among the hundreds
of thousands strewn, and an artist says to herself,
"- So must I read these marks of charcoal
On my hands."
The same artist reflects upon the meaning ascribed to feathers;-)
-There was a time when a feather was a quill and a bird was thought to be a
messenger from the dead, so collecting feathers one might build an
encyclopaedic symbol to an accumulation of knowledge and its transfer from
one generation to the next.
'The chest that a carpenter makes, is outside of him and so in another place
while it is being made. And although the carpenter is nearby, he occupies
another place and is external to that which he makes." (Augustine)
[[ Information is data with relevance to the receiver's situation - any
difference that makes a difference (Bateson). Humans naturally tend to
convert data to information.
Knowledge is linked to effective actions. " Know" is from the Latin word
noscere meaning 'to know'. The suffix "-ledge" is from derived from the
meanings 'process' and 'action' Knowledge summarized is best understood as,
the capacity for effective action - accomplished by the doing of the knowing.
"All knowing is doing. All doing is knowing" Maturana.]]
Becoming-Being?
Facilitate: Making easy (often promoted as speaking)
Facility: Being easy (often promoted by speaking)
Some easy thinking.
"Telos" means "that aim of life which seeks transcendence into a new form of
life." That which Aristotle called, 'the good life'.
Peter Senge once wrote that when we, together, wish to ask of another in our
company;-), "Who are you?" we are to be found answering by creating a network
of 'social' shared descriptions more connected to what, where, when and why
'among others' than the almost sacred and unanswerable "who". This
distinction Peter Senge shares with the émigré philosopher Hannah Arandt,
student of St Augustine, Heidegger and Jaspers among others;-) (and currently
a teacher of mine;-) and is something I have not yet queried the good Dr
Senge about;-).
'Oikos' <> "Oikia" is in foundational terms in the Greek language and
'system' seen as denoting the 'family center'. Before the 'religion' of the
city, the state and then commerce (sic) there was the most ancient religion,
that of the family and household. So in Greek thought there is a dialectical
opposition between the 'natural association of the home and the family' and
that of any wider political involvement. The rise of city states then gave
man an emergent opportunity (-not so unlike new technology e.g. www. Cellular
phones, etc.) A 'second' life, "-besides his private life a new one they
called bios politikos." [Werner Jaeger 1945] Every citizen then belongs to
two worlds of influence and so now a distinction between what is his own
(idion) and what is shared (koinon).
I wonder who among our peers knows or notices that the foundation of the
shared political life was emergent for the Greek civilisation upon the
destruction of the more sensitive and deeper 'set' called family values. "
Either the city could not last, or it must in the course of time break up the
family." [The Ancient City 1956] Later in Rome Vesta the Goddess of the
family hearth (center) became 'protectress of the city hearth".
What compowered the capacities for change then as now? Action and Speech
(praxis) and (lexis)
Out of these two freely arising acts devolved the realm or space for the
enacting of all human affairs. This was a kind of invisible power since it
excluded from itself that which was designated 'merely necessary or
useful'. Praxis and lexis both considered together as inhering to each
other were already present in the background of life then, but the
actualization of that foundation, of the city-states, gave it the
possibility space in foreground form. The connection between this action
and speech is subtle but enlightening since action (acting) is not about
'making things' per se but rather the 'charging of meaning through words'.
Listen to this;-) " A man once approached Demosthenes relating how
terribly he was beaten. "But you," said Demosthenes " suffered nothing of
what you tell me." Whereupon the other raised his voice and cried out, "I
suffered nothing?" "Now" Demosthenes said, "I hear the voice of somebody
who was injured and who suffered."
Walking, talking the tail;-)
The more I look the less I see.
Americans, you appear to have a new President. Congratulations. Was it
one or two decisions in the end? It was not, alas, St Dave of Canterbury
who was precluded voting for a different reason;-) Well, a leader the
Unites States of America has. I need to re-write that sentence. Well, a
leader the United States of America has. There is something there I just
cannot make fit and explicit.
Given your leader is often called 'the leader of the free world' I offer
this for consideration. Peggy wondered if Confucianism has anything to
teach modern Americans. Mmmmmm;-)
Ji Kangdz asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied, Government
is correcting. If you lead on a correct basis, who will dare not to be
correct? "Correct" and "Government" is understood to be exemplary rather
than coercive. If the person has the right qualities; others will
spontaneously acquire those qualities. This is the assent of the governed;
their capacity to respond to good influence. The effect of an exemplary
leader is later called the transformation of society (hwa), to be
understood in opposition to the compulsion theory, which corrects by force
and fear.
Dz-jang asked, What must an officer do that he may be called successful? The
Master said, What is it you mean by successful? Dz-Jang replied, In the State
sure to be known, in the family sure to be known. The Master said, This is
being known, it is not being successful. Now as for successful: His character
is straight and he loves right; he inquires into words and observes
appearances; he is considerate for those below him- in the state he is sure
to be successful, in the family he is sure to be successful. Whereas, being
known: his appearance adopts rvn but his conduct departs from it, and he can
continue without self doubt- in the state he is sure to be known; in the
family he is sure to be known.
Fan Chr was going along on an excursion below the dance alter, and said, I
venture to ask about exhalting virtue, improving shortcomings and deciding
contradictions. The Master said, Good indeed is this question! To first serve
and later attain, is that not exhalting virtue? To attack one's evils, but
never attack the evils of others, is that not improving shortcomings? "For
anger in the morning, to forget one's self and even one's kin," is that not a
contradiction?
Here exhalting virtue is put in terms of motive: one acts for the result and
not the reward. As to shortcomings, Fan Chr is reminded that his own
shortcoming, not those of others, is his concern.
[A classic idea] In the third element, the Master gives an example of a
contradiction not of deciding but of contradiction itself. Here the
distraction of anger, the passion is seen as the enemy of the faculties of
judgement. The implicit point is that there are no contradictions, when two
desiderata seem to conflict, it is always intuitively obvious which is right.
Fan Chr asked about rvn. The Master said, Loving others. He asked about
knowledge. The Master said, Knowing others.
Fan Chr did not understand. The Master said, "If you raise the straight above
the crooked, you make the crooked straight."
In this Confucianism we find a 'rulership' theory that shows seeming
personal-cultivation advice may have statecraft overtones. The complexities
of the above give us a vision of the dual, Love-Knowledge.
This implies compassionate government. Love (agape) is its ultimate
foundation. Next comes knowledge, not the ruler's administrative skill, but
his capacity to recognise that skill in others. It is at that point that Fan
Chr goes astray, he expects the ruler to act and finds instead that the ruler
must delegate. This ruler's virtue is 'compassion' and it is precisely this
that leads him to seek out, from the multitude, not from the official civil
list those with the skill to implement his compassion and practical
administration. ((What was it dear At wrote about some rare people looking
for others in storms when blinded by the grit?))
My evening prayer in your new morning is that your leaders should ever
have such wisdom and spontaneous courage to see, listen, read and act so
well as to know that which might now be/become spoken upon the building
winds that my little Bucket fears so in the night.
'The virtue of the 'gentlemen' (he who is acting in 'rvn') is in the wind;
the virtue of the little people (not a derogatory term) is the grass. The
wind on the grass will surely bend it.'
Love and God Bless you All;-)
Andrew
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