Dear Organlearners,
Winfried Dressler <winfried.dressler@voith.de> responded
to my question:
> >Would you say that, in a restricted sense, German people are also
> >experiencing since the fall of the wall a phase of plasmodial
> >organisation by trying to let one Germany emerge from the former
> >West and East divisions of Germany?
with:
> May be for a few month, such a plasmodial phase existed, but it couldn't
> evolve to new emergences. It was too clear, that the western system was
> the "good" one and the easteners were too weak and not enough time was
> given to express their unease with the western system, they didn't
> understand. The majority in eastern germans just hoped to participate in
> the wealth of the west: We (west) wanted to keep our structure and they
> (east) also wanted our structure! This is a major difference to South
> Africa I guess.
Winfried, thank you very much for this comment. It affords a nice
example of how "becoming-being" (liveness) is impaired. In West
Germany "being" was overstressed to the detriment of "becoming" and
in East Germany "becoming" was overstressed to the detriment of
"being". Obviously, the netto result is that the "becoming-being" of
East Germany was incorporated into the "becoming-being" of West
Germany.
What could have become a revolutionary bifurcation (far from
equilbrium) with the emergence of a new order, became an evolutionary
bifurcation (close to equilbrium) with the East Germany digested into
West Germany. This digestion will help make those Germans who wish to
live like the former West Germens stronger. But it will not afford
them a rejuvenation because it is one of the adjoints of an emergence
- not a digestion!
> It was the intuition of Helmut Kohl, that the process of unification must
> be forced as fast as possible. With this, his regime could easily be
> transferred to the east without change that could question his power. You
> can also say, that entropy production has been cooled down as fast as
> possible. Kohl is a conservative and as such a master in avoiding entropy
> production - giving the people of a wealthy nation the feeling of safety
> (timeless wealth for all). Thus only very little has been learnt. There
> was a chance, but also a risk. No risk for western Germany was one rule of
> the unification.
This paragraph has amny jewels on which I would have liked to
comment. For example, conservartists work close at equibrium where
the entropy prodution is low. Thus they frequently experience
digestive events, but seldom emergent events. Since liberals often
work at the edge of chaos where entropy production is high and things
happen much differently, it is diffcult for conservatists and
liberals to understand one another. That is why the Tories in England
never could have entured what is happening in Northern Ireland now.
Winfried, you say "Thus only very little has been learnt." I would
have said "Thus only very little has been learnt emergently". I do
not think we can say "Thus only very little has been learnt
digestively". To learn digestively means that we continue to learn in
terms of our past emergences, thus becoming more knowledgeable on the
various facets of those emergences. It is like the babies of one
generation becoming mature without the emergence of a new generation
of babies. But you will be the better judge of how much digestive
learning happened in Germany.
Your comments on the unification of West and East Germany affords us
a nice metaphor to describe the dilemma of Africa. The rich
capatalistic countries, heralding a free market economy, want Africa
to rise from its misery, but in the way East Germany has been
incorporated into West Germany. They, for example, use the IMF and
trade treaties to force such an incorporation. (This is the essence
of what Mandela had to say to Clinton on his recent visit to Africa.)
What is more, they force this incorporation so as to stay well away
from from the edge of chaos where things happen differently.
Furthermore, like East Germany, most people of most African countries
want to be digested in this fashion. It is a sign of how successful
the advertising campaign is.
But in South Africa something different is happening. Here the term
"Rennaissance of Africa" is frequently used. Although the term is
often used wrongly for the digestive incorporation of Africa in the
world economy, there are people who think of something which has to
emerge according to what Africa has to offer and not according to a
Western or Asian model. The plasmodial state of organisation, even
three years after the New South Africa has emerged, has much to do
with it.
Whether the "Rennaissance of Africa" will happen, depends on two very
important issues.
1 It cannot happen by forcing Africa to avoid the edge of chaos.
Enough entropy has to be prodused fast enough. Africa is quite
capable of doing it. You have been informed more than enough of it
the past couple of decades because of the associated immergences.
(I have to smile - my own people, the Afrikaners, set an
example of how to produce immense entropy through the policy
of Apartheid .)
2 It cannot happen if the seven essentialities of creativity are
seriously impaired. In fact, the horrendous immergences which hit
your news bulletins are evidence of just how much these
essentialities are impaired.
The most important question is:- What future for Africa would you
people (all who do not live in Africa) prefer: the emergence
("Rennaissance of Africa") or the digestive incorporation of Africa
into your world (economic, political, ...)? Please let us have your
viewpoints.
The risks for both becomings are very important. On the one hand we
may not have the emergence, but an immergence which we may call the
coming "Cataclysm of Africa". It will send shock waves through the
rest of the world. But on the other hand, a digestive incorporation
exclude any revolutionary bifucration and thus the rejuvenation which
comes with an emergence- a rejuvenation which the world desperately
needs.
In my opinion our civilisations have grown old without any new
generation to follow them up. Africa and the rest of world need the
"Rennaissance of Africa" - a new African civilisation, the first baby
of a new generation of civilisations. We need midwifes, not
abortionists. Africa is the continent of diversity. For example, the
"fynbos" biome (in which Cape Town is situated) is as rich in plant
species as the whole of Europe, but it covers an area about 1/50th of
that of Europe. Africa has its own identity. Think of the
essentiality "identity-categoricity" (sureness). To deny this
identity or to handle with it in an uncategorcal manner is to abort
the "Rennaissance of Africa".
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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