Replying to LO27368 --
Dear Organlearners,
Sarah Erck <erckyou@hotmail.com> writes:
>Also, I have heard rumors that the US Army is
>attempting to convert into a Learning Organization.
>Does anyone know if this is true? How the hell are
>they planning on doing this?! Do you know where
>I could find specific information?
Greetings Sarah,
What a profound and strong question. As my late father would have said;
"They ought to have more hope for finding a snow ball in hell."
If your Army have such plans, then one of the things which they will have
to give up is the rote training forced by the seargent-major on the troops
in peace time to preserve the unity of the forces during the chaos of
battle. Should you study books on the history and philosophy of warfare,
you will find that this rote training was a key element in the operation
of armies.
However, should you study books on history and philosophy which also
includes war (but not warfare itself) as the better ones do, you will find
more than enough information that most wars started because of "spreading
fixed ideas" (rote training) among each of the waring parties in their
major walks of life. Hence these parties drifted so far away from each
other that war was the only option to settle their differences.
Lastly, should you seek for information in historic documents for wars
which were actually prevented, you will have a major task on your hands
because many history and philosophy books are surprisingly quiet on this
most important issue. However, as you get information bit by bit, you will
find that it always involved a leader who escaped rote training. The best
sources for information on this issue are biographies on those leaders.
But then you will first have to know which leaders you will have to focus
on. Happy hunting.
Did you know that Jan Smuts ("Holism and Evolution" 1926), the father of
holism, general in the Birtish-Boer War (1899-1902) and in WWI (1914-1918)
as early as in the twenties began to foresee a coming WWII? He tried to
convince other "statesmen" that the Treaty of Versailles was actually
instrumental in creating the conditions for WWII. Nothing came from it
because they were politicians who have not experienced the horrors of
battles, nor healing afterwards the wounds in a society caused by war.
They were merely those who progressed to the top level of their party
machines. They are the ones who easily get into war and then find it most
difficult to get out of it.
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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