Replying to LO28012 --
Dear Organlearners,
Daan Joubert <daanj@kingsley.co.za> writes
>
>When you wrote:
(snip)
>my first impression was of empathy, for which I
>thank you. But as I am learning (!) with respect
>to your posts, I also have to ponder second and
>third meanings. Which do not always come easy.
Greetings dear Daan,
That is why Andrew is an artist. Artists create a "one-to-many-mapping" of
meaning into their works of art.
>It has often puzzled me, "Why me?". What are
>the reasons why I stumbled across a formal
>definition of management, one that is so easy
>to find and so concise to frame and so much a
>matter of "Do unto others . . ."?
Daan, see my reply to Andrew's answer "Dz-gung LO28020".
In it I mention Job. Job lived in the days of Abraham, several centuries
before Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Job tried to live according to the
Golden Rule. I was his reason for questioning and accusing God for all his
afflictions. Until the young Elihu began to speak.
Perhaps Elihu was younger than twelve years because in those times from
the age of twelve years a teenager could question openly in public. But
perhaps the reason was also somehing different. We get the idea that Job
must have been a timid man. He was not. The book Job is a great work of
art. Like any work of art it has several levels of meaning. Job must have
been a big man and as strong as an ox to break the jaw with one blow of
anyone whom he judged to be wicked! That was why his physical afflictions
were so bad to him.
The Golden Rule ("Do unto others ...") has a hidden back lash. "Those who
live by the sword ..."
>This brings me to consider that those "wasted
>years" might have served a purpose, in some
>manner not immediately clear. Perhaps a cleansing
>of the mind, dissolving all preconceptions
>- probably over a much wider front than mere
>business, or management - leaving a stillness ...
See my contribution "The silent back lash of war" in which I point to the
similarities between Mandela and Sadat. Both had been in prison for almost
thirty years. Perhaps working with computers have had a similar effect on
you.
Many people in South Africa still believe that Mandela is a communist and
athiest. (Many still believe that Smuts was an imperialist and athiest).
Mandela avoids telling in public that he is a Christian and to which
denomination he belongs.
After having studied Sadat's autobiography the first time more than a
dozen years ago, I wanted to write to him "Although you are a Muslim, you
live like a Christian." I could not because he was assasined. Many years
later I learned that he was an active member of the Coptic church in
Egypt, a very small religious minority. Anyone could push me over with a
feather.
Sadat's contribution to Egypt can be felt up to today -- that nation wants
to live in peace under the ROL (Rule Of Law).
You are now slightly older than Sadat when he became president of Egypt.
So there is still much hope for you ;-)
>Can it be that principled and very religious
>businessmen, probably of all persuasions, have
>never really tried to formulate their business
>practices and philosophy in terms of their own
>version of the Golden Rule? Again hard to accept.
I think that we do not understand the nature of the Golden Rule (GR). It
has a hidden back lash which even old Job did not understand, but which
Jesus told his disciples to be on the look out for. In our Bible study
group we are studying the first epistle of Peter. It is incredible how
much he warns his readers against this silent back lash and the advice he
give them to overcome it. In his second epistle he clearly tells them that
this is possible through learning and knowledge.
Sadat knew about the GR and its hidden backlash. He used this very hidden
back lash to teach Israel the lesson that the GR is far more important
than its back lash. Moembarak is still adhering to this lesson after so
many years. Is that not great!
>Daan Joubert
>This time with humility and gratitude
Both Mandella and Sadat had another thing in common -- their astounding
humility. So, once again, So there is still much hope for you ;-)
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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