Replying to LO27487 --
Thank you Jan and At for your comments.
Thank you too to keep the dialogue in general terms. I think we all could
find examples of impaired democratic principles and impaired use of
settled rules and laws. We don't have to go that far away to find these
examples.
The main point in respect to LO's is how to compose organisational
conditions for a healthy community.
It is interesting what Jan said about the evolution of communities. And
secondly, that large communities with their own organisational conditions
could be composed of smaller units with different conditions. These
conditions have partly to do with resposibility, 'who is making the
decisions', and who is allowed to make decisions. Are the effects of these
decisions and responsibilities before hand settled in a framework of
democratic/social structures and/or a framework of rules and laws; or is
the control of deeds and effects checked/filtered/judged afterwards?
A next point is the learning path in a community. How are deeds and
effects evaluated and judged, and how do the resulting conclusions have
their effects to new rules and laws?
My personal objections against most rules and laws is that they are
generally formulated in a negative form - 'thou shall NOT....', instead of
a positive formulation (BTW here the push/pull mechanism of the
behavioural sciences come in the picture again, vz punishing or praising).
I think we all know examples from nearby how great the impact on persons
could be if they have suffered from injustice (either with an objective or
subjective perception). If somebody is treated in the same situation
differently from another, the effects could be so serious that a mental
life could be destroyed. People who fight their whole life against a
injudgemental decision are numerous. This fight is usually within the
framework of laws and rules. But the feelings of injustice could be so big
that revenge and the battle for justice is fought with means outside that
framework. The law is taken in their own hands. Injustice (or the feeling
of injustice) is in my view one of the most serious reasons for most of
the small scale AND large scale troubles that happen in our world. As soon
as injudgemental means are used to fight against injustice, the fundaments
of that framework of laws and rules are lost. And that is probably the
greatest danger for a community - from family scale to global scales.
dr. Leo D. Minnigh
l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl
Library Technical University Delft
PO BOX 98, 2600 MG Delft, The Netherlands
Tel.: 31 15 2782226
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Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas.
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--Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>
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