Replying to LO26483
Hello At,
I see many parallells with my thinking in your reply to Alfred. Firstly I
agree that there is no such thing as absolute freedom. The "state of
mind" analogy sits easy with me yet one cannot exist in a vacuum, and the
pressing things necessary to live out ones life limit ones freedom.
There will most likely always be some constraints to undo - undo one and
others appear. And freedom is surely an individual experience.
On brother/sisterhood. Thirty years ago I was a young tradesman working
on a mining project on the Pacific Island of Bougainville in the Solomon
group. Many of the local people and people from neighbouring Islands were
employed as labourers. In the eyes of many of the expatriate workers they
were an inconvenience. They were just a little removed from the stone age
and many wore their boots tied together over their shoulders rather than
on their feet because boots hurt their feet.
Living and working in close proximity to these people it was not hard to
deduce that it was the way they were treated rather than the the
difference in knowledge and materiality that fuelled cries of loss of
freedom and inequality. I suppose I can draw a parallel here - If Tiger
Woods were to arrive at a Golf Club at the back of beyond (where they had
not heard of him) and flaunt his talents his equipment and the trappings
of his success "back there" in front of the locals then abuse them for not
coming up to his standard, their primitive clubs and lack of organisation?
No guessing where some of the locals would like to aim their next golf
swing!
As for learning capacity/ability, in Bougainville I witnessed a local get
behind the wheel of a vehicle for the first time, start it and drive away
(albeit roughly) having only observed what we did over a period of weeks.
That is not to say that all the golfers from the club at the back of
beyond will eventually equal the golfing prowess of Tiger Woods but they
may consider themselves "free" when they reach their own limits,
especially if the master is one who encourages and nurtures.
And if freedom is a personal experience, so to is equality. On a level
playing field it maybe the shorter ones who have the advantage, it all
depends on the game, the rules and how each individual is assisted/
handicapped by them (subjectivity accepted). Then should the gap between
the poles of equality become too great, the result is conflict. Witness
Bougainville, mining ceased some years ago after civil war began. It is
now yet another world trouble spot where a peace keeping force walks a
tightrope.
I see like you At, the amalgamations/takeovers of smaller companies as
corporate leaders swallow other corporate leaders to get enough size to
fight off the competition, like athletes on steroids like the move from
apartheid to panafracanism etc etc.
In the history of mankind, how many times has the cycle repeated itself?
Verse 184a of Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching) (about the third century BC) as
translated by D. C. Lau: It is the way of heaven to take from what has
excess in order to make good what is deficient. The way of man is
otherwise. It takes from those who are in want in order to offer this to
those who already have more than enough. Who is there that can take what
he himself has in excess and offer this to the empire? Only he who has
the way.
Meantime At, so too do I look for constraints on mine and others freedom
and work hard within the spirit of verse 184a to limit their influence.
Regards
Dennis.
--"Dennis Rolleston" <dennisr@ps.gen.nz>
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