Dear Organlearners,
John Gunkler <jgunkler@sprintmail.com> writes:
>If we look at the situation in which hurt can occur as being
>a situation where, instead, mutual benefit can occur -- then
>we can begin formulating a "sequence of achievable steps"
>that leads toward mutual benefit and, even, love.
Greetings John,
Thank you very much for your inspiring contribution.
We must break the SPELL of the "culture of hurt". Hurt will always be with
us. But to reduce it, we have to break its spell. We can break its its
spell by doing two things. Firstly, we have to take positive steps to
create a "culture of mutual benefit (ubuntu)". This is what you have
suggested above. This will be possible when we know what steps to take. To
know what steps to take, we will have to learn them. Since there is no
better teacher than experience, we have to act as benefactors at every
possible opportunity.
The second thing we will have to do, is to comprehend exactly how
contra-productive a "culture of hurt" is BY COMPARING IT with the "culture
of ubuntu (mutual benefit)". Here I will not suggest additional hurtful
experiences because we already experience far too much. But I want to
suggest that we learn form each other's experiences through dialogue. I
think this follows from your suggestion:
>Sometimes the most important thing we can do to break out
>of hurtful patterns is not to try to change our reactions directly
>but to recontextualize the situation.
It is very important not to dwell on only hurt and its negative outcomes.
We have to contrast it with "ubuntu" and its positive outcomes. Thus we
set up an entropic force which will guide the flow of our actions. Then
these negative things will not push our actions into chaos, but the
positive things will pull them into order.
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
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>