Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to you all.
In Part 1 I have described a psychological problem which I eventually have
given the symbolical name "6WXYZ".
Let us now explore how the "6WXYZ" problem can be solved.
To say YES rather than NO is not enough. We need to learn what the YES
involves. It involves an INCREASE in EACH of the 7Es, i.e. liveness,
sureness, wholeness, fruitfulness, spareness, otherness and openness. We
will have to learn what the 6 in the "6WXYZ" problem stands for. It stands
for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 or even 0. For example, when we care for merely one
of the 7Es, say liveness ("becoming-being"), we reduce the "6" to a "1".
This will happen, for example, when we become aware that change="becoming"
is essential to all life, but remain ignorant to the other six 7Es.
Liveness without, for example, wholeness becomes devastating. It even
breaks self up into a "becoming" and "being" of which the one is made
inferior to the other. There is only possibility open for us -- we will
have to increase the "6" to "7" !
The "W"="inferior-superior polarization" as a Mental Model has served its
time. It is an entropic force which in a complex world cannot lead to
anything else than destructive immergences. What is perceived as a
polarisation is actually a stepwise increase in complexity. The "inferior"
is nothing else than less complexity with even lesser complexity preceding
it. Between the "inferior" and "superior" are many levels of complexity.
The "superior" is nothing else than more complexity with even greater
levels of complexity beyond it. Furthermore, the path from simplicity to
complexity is not linear, but staggered (fractal). It is not in three
dimensions, but in seven dimensions so as to connect with each of the 7Es.
The "X"="xenos"=stranger is the signal that more learning is required. Not
any kind of learning, but a learning which specifically involves the
stranger. Only when the stranger has become a beloved friend that learning
has reached its end. But since we meet many strangers on our path, that
learning never reaches its end. In other words, we should always be
willing to replace an end with a new beginning. Or to articulate it even
closer, while not yet having reached the end, we should be willing to
initiate new beginnings. This means that we should alow the
"one-to-one-mapping" in our lives to develop into a "one-to-many-mapping".
Parents who are graced with a second child immediately experience this
difference between the two kinds of mapping. It affords them profound
tacit knowledge on the two kinds of mapping, the "one-to-one" (which in
mathematics is symbolised by "=") and the "one-to-many"(which in maths is
symbolised by the "<").
The "Y"="incapacity to learn" is not solely the person's own fault. The
spontaneous evolution of any system depends on both the system SY and the
surrounding systems SU. Thus the learner cannot be held solely responsible
for his/her incapacity to learn. Neither can the surrounding systems SU be
held solely responsible for the learner's incapacity to learn. Learning is
something which involves both the learner as system SY and the learning
environment (teachers, learning resources, institutions, etc.) as the
surroundings SU. To seek blame for a lack of learning is nothing else as
than not understanding what learning involves. Hence let us not seek blame
by making judgements, but seek further learning on what incapacitated
learning in the first place. In other words, let us proceed with our own
learning before trying to extend the learning of others. We are their
surroundings and we must take responsibility for it.
The "Z"="negative and destructive feelings" is perhaps the most difficult
to deal with. For some or other reason we have the Mental Model that the
"negative and destructive feelings" are as powerful, if not more, as
"positive and constructive feelings". They are not as Jesus demonstrated.
The only factual "inferior-superior polarity" is that between these two
kinds of feelings. The "positive and constructive feelings" are orders
more superior than "negative and destructive feelings". The former leads
to a path of emergences ending in unconditional love. The latter can at
most stick to the level of spirituality in which it is operating. But it
usually breaks down to lower levels of spirituality. Hate breaks apart,
but love brings together. Misoxeny (hate of strangers) is the signal of
moving into the wrong direction of the path which the universe has been
following for some dozen billions of years.
Dear fellow learners, are you part of the "6WXYZ" problem or are you part
of its solution? The solution is not simple, but complex. The solution is
also not a one, but a connected string of many solutions along the
staggered path towards more complexity. Goethe articulated such a kind of
path with his concept of "Steigerung"=staggering. It is like climbing up a
mountain. The path is staggered. The accomplishment of each step allows
the next step to be taken. Nobody can jump in a kangaroo manner up the
mountain, skipping steps. But anybody can fall in a kangaroo manner
falling down the mountain. How I wish I could convince you of this
profound truth.
By thinking that we have to eradicate racism without transforming all our
organisations, we will fall down the mountain which we have to climb. When
a hippopotamus floats in the water, we see only its nose, eyes and ears.
Just before it submerges, only the ears can be seen. Racism is like one of
these three sense organs. Let us rather try to see the whole animal.
It is the "6WXYZ" problem. People in Africa under estimate the hippo.
They think that it is a lazy animal which wants to spend its time floating
in water. But on land it has been responsible for more deaths than the
elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, buffalo and crocodile. When you see
again only the ears of a hippo submerged in water, think of what this
dangerous animal can do with its whole body on land. Racism is but the
ears of the hippo.
Once I was catching tiger fish at a river. It is the fresh water
equivalent of the blue marlin of the sea. So ferocious is the fighting of
the tiger fish that after a couple of minutes it cannot fight anymore. It
makes me think of solving ordinary problems. Then a hippo came floating
down the river. I thought it would drift over the line, but somehow the
line got tangled in its feet. Its hide is so thick that it felt nothing.
It just drifted along, pulling the line from the reel. I tried to break
the line, but could not. I knew that I had to grip the fishing rod so that
when all the line was gone, it would break at the reel. The feeling when
that happened was astounding. The tension was building up until the line
snapped at the reel -- and the hippo just drifted along, unaware of what
happened. Remembering it now makes me think of solving the "6WXYZ"
problem. To catch that "hippo" requires far different equipment.
I believe that we will get that equipment in our Learning Organisations.
The equipment is not merely the insights of an Arie de Geus, Peter Senge
or Art Kleiner. It is not merely the knowledge of a Maturana, Kaufmann,
Prigogine, Bohm, Rosen, Bateson, Prigogine or Alexander. It is something
of which especially the tacit knowing of each of you fellow learners is
crucial. This tacit knowing will develop by creating constructively. Your
input is needed to make the difference, or, as we say in our mother tongue
"pull the wagon out if the ditch". It is not the claims of the experts
which will make the difference. It is you with what little you understand
authentically who will "pull the wagon out if the ditch". Let nobody
convince you to shut up.
Please let you questions roam your imaginations. Please let our "wildest
thoughts" as Einstein put it, guide us through the incredible dilemma
facing us. Please let us love each other without conditions. Let us become
aware of the "breath of the Creator" as Elyhu in Job once depicted it, or
of the "implicate order" as David Boehm articulated it three millennia
afterwards. We have an important task in front of us -- convincing others
that everybody can excel in constructive creativity despite all the past
losses counting against us. The world is once again at a bifurcation and
we need to deal wisely with it.
The fact that the poorer nations now demand from the richer nations an
apology and compensation in money for wrongs (especially slavery) done to
their forebears, is most disconcerting. It shows how little are they aware
of the "6WXYZ" problem and how much learning they lack. They need
knowledge, not money. They need caring, not an apology.
Slavery was already practised in ancient Egypt, Mesopotania, Persia,
Greece and Rome. They cannot apologise and compensate in money for the
wrong example which they set. The system of slavery in Rome began to
decline in the 3rd century with the very invasion of the Barbarians, the
forebears of northern European nations. Gradually slavery became displaced
by free labour. But it took several centuries before it was clearly
manifested in the decrees of Gregory the Great. Adam Smith himself noticed
that the abolishment of slavery in Europe is obscure, even though most
revolutionary in the history of humankind. I myself think that it can be
linked to the emergence of faith driven guilds, the ancient version of the
modern LO.
Colonial slavery began most interesting with faring the high seas. The
Portuguese began exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa under Prince Henry
the Navigator. One of his officers, Antam Gonsalves, captured in 1442 ten
Moors (Berber Arabs). When arriving in Portugal, he was immediately
directed by the prince to take them back and set them free. When he rrived
at their native place, he was immediately given by these Moors ten of
their own black Negro slaves as well as a handful of gold dust. He could
not refuse their gifts, especially the gold. When arriving in Portugal,
the gold dust created immense excitement so that the import of slaves this
time became unnoticed. In 1502, Ovando, governor of Hispaniola, tried to
put an end to Negro slavery. But the lust for wealth was too strong to end
this insanity. Other European nations followed suite. Arab traders bought
slaves from Negro nations (captured from other Negro nations) just to take
them along their caravan routes so as to sell them to these seafaring
European nations.
The first Europeans taking practical action against slavery were the
Quakers of England as early as 1671. The Quakers in Pennsylvania followed
suite in 1696. The Quaker trickle became a general stream involving all
religions with famous names such as Baxter, Steele, Pope, Thomson,
Shenstone, Dyer, Savage, Cowper, Day, Sterne, Warburton, Hutchison,
Beettle, Wesley, Smith, Whitfield, Millar, Robertson, Johnson, Paley,
Gregory, Wakefield, Portues and Tucker. Shall their descendants also
apologise and compensate in money for slavery? On the 22nd June 1772 Lord
Mansfield, in the name of the whole bench, decided that as soon as a slave
set foot on British soil, that slave becomes a free person. Denmark soon
followed suite with a royal order issued 16th May 1792. But on the other
side of the Atlantic it costed a Civil War to end slavery on 9th April
1865.
The slavery insanity in Europe took 330 years to become ended by the
decision of Lord Mansfield. Was this the only slavery insanity in the
world? Think twice and read some history books on all the continents
before you answer. If only delegates to the International Congress on
Racism (ICR) would also do that.
It is interesting to observe that wherever the three internationalistic
spiritual religions (Buddhism, Islam and Christianity -- See topic
"Religion, Faith and the 7Es") flourished in communities of practice,
slavery became abolished in these communities. It is the faith of the
Quakers which enabled them to work self with the hand and think with the
mind so as to have and share with others. But the ICR once again made me
aware of the billions who want to have, but cannot have because of a very
important reason. They do not have sufficient free energy any more to work
with the hand and think with the mind. Their free energy and entropy
landscapes have become flattened at sea level. (See the topic "Fitness
Landscapes and other landscapes.)
With care and best wishes.
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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