I have been reading the reparte and have found it interesting as well as
intellectually challenging.
It's brought forth potential; the potential to criticize without being
critical, the potential to justify without being justified, the potential
to overstate the obvious, without being obvious.
As was said long ago, there is nothing new under the sun. What we see,
hear and feel today and project into tomorrow, is only a portion of what
has come before. What is being discussed, at least in my view, has been
discussed over prior millenia. As human beings, we haven't come to
"solution" yet. And we won't. As such, democracy is the ultimate form of
learning organization.
Democracy - the rule by the "demos", the people. Not what we have in the
US, but what we exercise each and every day, as individuals. Ours is a
democratic republic, as has been pointed out, but it doesn't mean that it
is, or will ever be, perfect.
To the extent we "know" what we see, and choose to "do" or "not do" based
on that knowledge, we may be justified and criticized at the same time,
and be "right" in both cases. What we know is from so many inputs, mixed
and mashed together, strained out to puree form, and kept fresh daily from
new input.
If what we know now is based on poverty of thought from prior ages, we can
lay blame to bad influence from others. How do we know other than what we
know? We act on what we know, and to a degree on the lack of what we know,
via fear. In the current state of "civilization", we have options that
others did not have, or at least didn't know they had.
"In our own best interests" - how do we know what that might represent?
How do we know what is in our best interest? How then do we judge what we
are to do, and how to do it, or not. The Tragedy of the Commons - all
doing what each of us think is in our best interests, and ultimately
destroying the whole. We can never escape our impact on others, or theirs
on us, no matter how far away we move. Ultimately we must depend on wisdom
as suitable input for the "how to think" as opposed to the "what to think"
if we are to "raise the average higher" even if it there are peaks and
valleys in the graph.
This series of posts has brought up several thoughts on some current
topics:
-justice and the law are not the same; the law is the law, but it
does not always deal justly.
-knowledge and information are not the same thing; the torrent of
information doesn't produce knowledge of any caliber.
-equality and opportunity are non-existent in our society; based
on who you are, your gender, color of skin, race (not always the same as
color), your ethnic origins (not to be confused with race), your religion,
your wealth, your class, your language, your size, your appearance, your
education, your friends, your resume - each and every one (and more) comes
into play daily.
What is democracy - the ultimate learning organization. The hope? - that
we are a better community and better persons for having learned. If not,
we will go the way of all flesh, never having learned a thing that is
lasting. I'm not a judge Sherri, but you are right in what you have
suffered, and wrong. Just like most of us.
--Regards, John Constantine rainbird@trail.com Rainbird Management Consulting PO Box 23554 Santa Fe, NM 87502 http://www.trail.com/~rainbird
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>