Replying to LO29965 --
Dear Organlearners,
Alan Cotterell <acotrel@cnl.com.au> writes:
>One thing we have both commented on is the apparent 'gap'
>between the knowledge an engineer has and the knowledge
>of a tradesman.
Greetings dear Alan,
The difference is that the knowledge of the tradesman has much more
wholeness.
(By the way, an email friend wrote in private to me the following:
"Too much focus on wholeness for one. Too much rhetoric. Don't
you get bored? I guess it is the teacher in you that keeps you going."
I think it goes deeper than that. It is the spirit of Jan Smuts who knew
that increasing wholeness is crucial to all kinds of evolution, even that
of the personality.)
>The point of what I am saying is - if you want to really know
>any subject, go there and get your hands dirty, then write the
>book.
In our mother toungue we have a saying:- "So 'n bek moet jam kry."
(Such a mouth must get jam.)
I learned the wisdom of your saying during 1968-71 in my research
on soils. Only by dirtying my hands with them was their complexity
revealed to me.
>In Australia, I perceive a growing problem - the whole system
>runs on 'bullshit'. While parents push their kids away from
>technical training, seeing it as 'inferior', we will continue to lose
>those extremely valuable people - the tradesmen who become
>engineers. I suggest the next generation might consist of total
>incompetents.
I will soften it slightly -- the system runs increasingly on the "treasure
map market". Yes, it is a growing problem here in South Africa too.
The risk of this is a complete collapse of the real market in which
actual practices count. A German friend of mine came to visit me
early in January. He had much to say on this decrease of quality in
German products year after year. It has now become the second
largest risk factor in his business. It seems to be a growing problem
there too. I wonder what would fellow learners in other countries
have to say on this problem?
When we consider quality as belonging to one of the 7Es (seven
essentialities of creativity), namely otherness ("quality-variety"), the
problem becomes omnious. This decreasing quality entails more
destructive behaviour and less constructive behaviour. Is this outcome
not what we perceive daily in far too many news bulletins?
Think of the quality of a soil. What would you fellow learners think it
will involve? Nevertheless, when the quality of a soil deteriorates, it
becomes a wateland. Is our civilisation not becoming a wasteland
too?
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.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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