Replying to LO28025 --
Dear Organlearners /^^\,
Daan Joubert <daanj@kingsley.co.za> writes in the
Subject: The sound of one hand clapping LO28025
>Trying to increase worth to the environment by
>finding the best compromise between conflicting
>needs and requirements of people in the environment
>is not a one way street. The people of the system can
>communicate and set example and otherwise influence
>the way people in the environment think of and
>perceive their relationship with the organisation. And
>in this manner introduce change and lead change in a
>direction that would benefit both the environment and
>the organisation over the longer term
Greetings dear Daan,
Thank you very much for a thoughtful and beautiful contribution.
I do hope that others would continue the dialogue under your topic "The
sound of one hand clapping". I do hope they get the deep message of your
metaphoric title. Hands which grasp too tightly cannot also clap to
signify the joy of metanoia. to use a saying somewhat modified:
. One cannot eat the cake (digestion with the order of some
. past emergence) and have the cake (the next emergence
. and its adjoints for humans like happiness and curiosity).
If I understand you correctly, the purpose of a LO for you is to increase
the worth of that LO. For another fellow learner it may be something else.
After some time in the LO-dialogue we will have ended up with several
purposes. This means that we have advanced in otherness
("quality-variety") on the purpose rather than on sureness
("identity-categoricity"). Both are two of the 7Es (seven essentialities
of creativity).
How will we also advance on sureness? Perhaps you think that you are sure
of what the purpose of a LO should be. Perhaps every other fellow learner
(including me) thinks the same of his/her idea of the purpose. However, in
each of these cases we have expressed merely some of the identity of the
purpose. Out of this we will have to compose an identity which will be
sure to every fellow learner. This is a formidable task. As I understand
sureness, it will only be possible by looking at the context in which the
identity resides.
You have changed your topic "The purpose of a LO" into "The sound of one
hand clapping". Thereby you signified your awareness to how crucial both
the organisation and its environment are to finding out exactly what the
purpose of the organisation should be. I want to go back to your original
"The purpose of a LO", but by extending it into the topic "The Purpose of
the Universe". Why? It is to incorporate all the 7Es into your passionate
plead.
I can incorporate the 7Es one by one explicitly. For example, with regard
to liveness ("becoming-being") I might write:- Any LO has to be fully
aware of the interaction with its environment. Changes in the environment
may influence the LO and changes in the LO may influence the environment.
In the environment there are innumerous other human organisations which
become endlessly. For example, what the mighty US nation as organisation
does, will influence in some or other manner a LO in a minor nation like
South Africa.
As with respect to wholeness ("unity-associativity") in might
write:-
In the environment we may also think of geological systems.
The mining industry is based on them. We may also think of
the meterological system. The design of our homes has to take
it into account. What about the biological system and how our
agriculture depends on it?
But to today I will let these 7Es merely play their role tacitly.
In short, the environment of any LO is at least the globe.
But it is even more! Mother earth and all its living creatures depend on
father sun for heat and light. The sun also gives off ultra-violet (UV)
rays to which many complex chemical compounds are unstable. Our bodies
have many kinds of such complex molecules. We are protected from UV rays
by the ozone layer in the stratosphere. Our solar system (sun, planets and
moons) is also continuously bombarded with cosmic particles generated by
the Big Bang (BB). Since the BB these particles have been accelerated to
such high energies that our nuclear accelerators are like toys to the real
McCoy. Yet the earth's magnetic field shield us from them as a lethally
dangerous source of radioactivity causing cancer.
In short, the environment of any LO is the universe itself.
There are so many kinds of systems in the universe interacting with each
other as well as the LO that we can do mentally only one thing. Take them
all together as the complex system called the surroundings SU. Then think
of the LO as the system SY. Both SY and SU form the universe UN. In this
universe UN the LO acting as the system SY is but a tiny speck. A fly
sitting somewhere in Africa is a much bigger speck!
Does a fly sitting somewhere in Africa have a purpose? Walk in some desert
and feel how such a fly can pester you endlessly. It has a purpose which
puts humans in shame. What is the purpose of that fly? Pestering? No, it
will never pester a stick in your hands because the stick has no food for
it. Feeding? No, sooner or later it will leave you to go and lay an egg.
Breeding? No, a swift gecko (lizard) may make it a tasty meal. Predating?
A swift falcon may make the gecko a tasty meal too. Chaining of foods? No,
the falcon leaves succulent plants alone. Some succulent plants are so
poisonous that many a desert farmer have asked me what purpose they have
because nothing eats them. Protection? Some species of flies lay their
eggs in such poisonous succulent plants which provide the maggots with
much needed moisture.
Each system (like the fly, gecko, falcon and succulent) in the universe
seems to have its own purpose. Likewise the LO seems to have its own
purpose too. But is there a common purpose to all these systems, including
the LO? In other words, is there such a thing as the "Purpose of the
Universe"? What is my purpose in asking these questions? Is it to sell
the 7Es? Is it to become famous? No. I think that the universe does have a
purpose and I want us to discover it. Knowing the "Purpose of the
Universe" may help us to find out where we come from and where we are
going to. Knowing the "Purpose of the Universe" may help us to become more
sure of the "Purpose of the LO". Knowing the "Purpose of the Universe" may
help us to free our hands to clap with joy because of experiencing
metanoia.
We may search for past articulations of humankind on the "Purpose of the
Universe". First religious people, then writers of epic stories and
subsequently philosophers tried to formulate this purpose. In modern times
even some scientists have tried to do so. But even though they did this
and I have to take notice of their articulations, the question is for me:-
What do you think is the "Purpose of the Universe"?
I think that the "Purpose of the Universe" have very much to do with how
each of us experience the universe. This determines our tacit knowledge of
the universe. For example, I have so many experiences that one thing
causes or influences another thing that I have to admit to what
philosophers have called the principle of causality. Thus I think
causality is involved in the universe and its becoming. But I also have to
admit that in most religions this causality principle had been identified
the God Creator, each with its own unique articulations.
But is the "Cause of the Universe" and the "Purpose of the Universe" the
same thing? I do not think so. I myself can always create with a purpose,
but seldom with a cause. I can always tell why I wanted to create
something, but can far less tell what caused me to create that something.
Thus for me there is an important difference between cause and purpose. It
is as if the cause refers to the past whereas the purpose refers to the
future. I am fully aware how difficult it is to keep the past and the
future intact as one whole. Thus my distinction between cause and purpose
may be the result that I cannot keep the past and future together.
It seems as if I digress, but please have patience.
I can now do one of four things which I am aware of. Firstly, I can deny
my experiences of causality. This I cannot do because my knowing depends
on it. Secondly, I can deny religions which claim that God Creator is the
pivot of it all. When I do that I have to propose something superior to
their God Creator. That I cannot do because I have nothing else superior
to purpose. Thirdly, I can propose some laws of the universe are
responsible for its purpose. When I do that I admit that the universe is
responsible for itself, even for creating those very laws. That I cannot
do because responsibility is never a closed issue. Fourthly, I can try to
increase my consciousness so that I become aware of something else
encompassing causality and thus may think completely anew on the "Purpose
of the Universe". After more than fifty years and several paradigms shifts
in my own thinking, I have not the slightest tacit knowledge what this new
awareness would be, even though I can think of it as a possibility.
I thus have to conclude that the "Purpose of the Universe" has very much
to do with God Creator. But I am also a Christian and Christianity has its
own view on God Creator. I have studied many other religions to know their
viewpoints on God Creator. All of them admit that God Creator is
omnipotent. This means that should I want to understand God Creator and
God's purpose with the universe UN, I have to search for information
coming from God Creator self, namely the very universe itself. I cannot
rely mrely on what sacred scriptures tell me because they have been
compiled by humans. I may easily intepret them wrongly. I also have to
rely on what no other human has articulated before -- my experiences of
the universe as a pristine wilderness.
I have never felt closer to God Creator than in a pristine wilderness.
There only one message entered my mind -- see how the wilderness tell of
God Creator. Often when in such a wilderness and becoming aware of this
message, I would ask myself "Why does the universe tell of God?"
Invariably the answer would be "God Creator outside the universe tells of
the divine -- God also inside the universe." It is as if the universe is
the system SY and God Creator is its surroundings SU of one gigantic
"super universe". It is as if God Creator wants me to think of God Creator
and Creation as the whole.
But I have to keep in mind that it is me who wants to think so! While
writing these very words it is the latter case -- I want to think so. But
when in the wilderness itself, it is the former case -- I cannot but think
anything else than God Creator and Creation as one whole.
What worries and saddens me immensely, is that I can have such crystal
clear thoughts in the wilderness. But when I am back in civilisation,
everything becomes confused. Either I am confused by civilisation or I am
lured into day dreaming by the wilderness. I have only one answer to say
which is the case -- in the wilderness I have far more metanoia than in
civilisation. I took several other people to expeditions in the
wilderness. They admitted the same, even though I have to admit that my
own thinking had a radical influence on what they experienced. As their
guide I wanted them to experience it as I had experienced it rather than
merely providing them with a safe journey. Sometimes they relaise with a
shock that we have done something potentially very dangerous.
What did the wilderness taught me about the universe and its purpose? See
the Divine in the universe and the divine in fellow humans. See how the
universe tells about God Creator. See how the constructive creativity of
fellow humans tells about the divine in them. See that our highest worth
is in our creativity reflecting the creativity of the Creator.
I know enough of pantheism and humanism and how the Christian religion
struggled against both. Those against pantheism or humanism base their
arguments on some specific sacred scripture. But is the pristine
wilderness not sacred in itself? Is my experiences in the pristine
wilderness sacrilege to it because I have entered it? Is my experiences in
the wilderness sacrilege to sacred scripture because I have learned how to
interpret its information differently? Most strikingly to me in every
wilderness is that I become acutely aware of the difference between
authentic and rote learning. Rote learning in a wilderness would end up in
sure death for me.
I personally think that science began to take great strides forward since
Copernicus when thinkers began to consider the universe outside the
control of humans as just an important source of information as human
sources of information, including sacred texts. But with that an
ambivalence developed. Non-human information sources were considered
increasingly as more reliable than human articulated information sources.
In the post-modern society of today we have reached the situation in which
human articulated information sources are considered as most unreliable.
This is tragic because we become as humans and not as any other living
species. I am influenced by the experiences of other humans (the
"mitsein") just as much as by my own experiences (the "dassein"). I am
influenced by the information they have articulated. I cannot ever become
like the "Tarzan of the apes" I cannot ever escape the fact that I am a
human among billions of other communicating humans. Thus I have to search
for my awareness to the "Purpose of the Universe" also in the awareness of
my fellow humans to it. Language and not what it tells is the very
expression of this awareness.
Humans cannot undo the purpose of the universe UN because should they do
so, I firmly belive they will become extinct. It means that as humans we
have some special tacit knowledge of the purpose of the universe. I invite
each of you fellow learners to tell us what you think is the "Purpose of
the Universe". For me it is not only to reveal the Divine, but actually to
prepare humans to meet God Creator as friends.
If this is the context of a LO, then what is the identity of a LO? I think
it is to create constructively in full harmony with the rest of the
universe. So what is the purpose of a LO? I think it is to make ever
lasting friendship with the universe so as to come at home in the
universe. I realise that friendship as the worth of an LO may sounds
crazy. But this is how the "Purpose of the Universe" tells me what the
purpose of the LO should be. How is it for you dear fellow learners?
Allow me to tell about a strange custom among many of the Bantu and Xhoi
people. This custom have almost become extinct, except in remote rural
areas as well as in the desert regions. When I arrive at a remote, tiny
village I have to stand still as soon as one of its people see me. Then I
have to wait until one of its people greet me, often in a language unknown
to me. It is usually the leader or the deputy leader. Although I do not
know what the words mean, I have learned what they ought to had mean for
me. They say:- "I see you." It means that this person is ready to interact
with me. Since I cannot speak that language, I have to respond with sign
language.
The sign language of a Westerner would be to put out the right hand to
offer a hand shake. It shows that I do not have a weapon in it with which
I may commit an offence. But this is not the custom in these remote
places. I have to clap both my hands silently to indicate that I desire
the joy of friendship with no strings attached. I also have to bow
slightly with the knees slightly bent to signify my humility and readiness
to dignify the oter person. But using only the right hand outstretched or
by clapping it against the leg would signify the opposite -- I want to
deal with that leader as a dog attached to an invisible string in my left
hand!
Are these people in remote regions so backwards that they do not know the
purpose of their village by following the custom described above?
Perhaps some fellow learner could invent a screen sign like the "smiley
;-) " to indicate this clapping of both hands for friendhip and the body
slightly bent for dignity. Perhaps /^^\ might give an indication for what
I mean by the former.
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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