Dear Organlearners,
This is a reply to several contributions.
Greetings Dan, Andrew, Harriet, Harold and all other fellow learners.
The title of the contribution, namely "Farewell Remarks", was created by
somebody else who has chosen to leave the list. I merely replied to that
contribution, but have not implied that I will also leave the list. But I
will cut back on my responses, less in number and where possible less in
volume. But as always I will let quality be the judge.
Dan Chay <chay@alaska.net> writes in LO22115:
>In the last three and a half years except for two three month
>intervals where I was gone commercial salmon fishing I have
>read almost every post to this list. At's posts I have studied.
>Even those posted during the intervals I was gone. Almost every
>day I look forward to this list -- and At's posts in particular. Why
>At's?
>
>Because for me they have been so fruitful. I have found them
>absolutely delightful. Often difficult. Always delightful. Often
>wise. Did anyone not laugh at his recent post, "Ahh....hmmm?"
>I laughed with delight at At's posts so many times in so many
>ways....Thank you, At, for such a wonderful gift as your
>regularly high quality posts have been.
Thank you Dan for the kind words.
I strongly suspect that you had not been learning so much new from me as
finding in my articulations a coherent picture of your own rich
experiences. It makes me happy to know that you could follow the picture
even for some bumbs ("break your suspension") here and there like entropy
production and free energy.
I wonder how many people have noticed that you are writing from Alaska --
far away from the food bowls of Egypt. How many have wondered "What is Dan
doing in Alaska?", "Where else on the globe has Dan's commitment lead him
and his family?", "What experiences cause Dan to have an open eye for At's
writings?"
>It has not been difficult for me to understand why people might
>decide not to read At's posts. Shucks, in communities around
>here far too often even the "professionals" don't read. These
>are people generally not oriented to learning as a significant or
>positive value. Nor creativity. Often, however, they (professionals
>and non-professionals alike) will comment about the value of
>education -- shifting the burden from themselves.
Dan, I wish I had the time and the money to travel the globe in person.
This is one way of doing it. Another way is to read books, thousands of
them on every conceivable topic. (Internet is now opening up a second
channel of exploring life.) We have five universities in and around
Pretoria (far too much in such a small city), each with its own library.
We have a number of other important libraries also since Pretoria was the
administrative capitol of South Africa. Sadly, even our best cannot
compare with some mere bookshops in your country.
Visiting a library is a exciting and sad event. Sad because I find far too
few people doing what I do -- browsing among the books and journals. To
make sure that I am not fooling myself because people may study literature
in a more private place, I often inspected at random the loan record on a
form attached to one of the inside covers of the book. They tell the same
story. People seldom loan a book or journal, especially a couple of
decades after it has been published.
>On this list with learning as its theme, I have felt those hurtful
>posts personally, although as one of those rarely actively
>participating (yet uncomplaining) participants, none have been
>directed to me. In a way they have astonished me, usually
>because of what I interpret as their anti-learning, unforgiving,
>or simply careless, negatively judgmental tone.
Dan, it is minor to living in Africa. Africa is the ambivalent continent
-- emergences and immergences galore. Why? Because Africa is often deluged
by chaos. Why? Because entropic forces and fluxes in the nature and
culture of Africa are the most intense and diverse in the world. An old
man of close to ninety years opened my eyes to the basic problem of Africa
-- people have little respect for anything because they created so little
themselves. I now also understand why -- the complexity of Africa
diminishes the creativity of its peoples because of its intimidation
effect. Yes, the very complexity of Africa which gave rise to the great
civilisations of many millenia ago.
The first order emergent of creativity, namely learning, is a fine meter
to indicate the degree of creativity of persons and communities. The only
trouble with learning as a meter for creativity is that we still cannot
measure learning conclusively. Thus it is often helpful to evaluate
creativity in terms of two extremes, learning and anti-learning.
Dan, as you have indicated, once we opened our eyes to anti-learning, it
is horrible to observe it happening.
>At's message that he intends to reduce his participation leaves
>me deeply saddened. Of course he will live a wonderfully creative
>life without participating here. As much as, indeed, he does leave
>us, it will be our loss.
Dan, I will not leave the list. I will simply let the wheel turn and turn
as it has done in the past. Sometime in future somebody else will be doing
what I did, as it also has happened in the past. Somebody will again head
the list with volume and numbers until somebody else will object because
the opportunities for others to participate will diminish. Hopefully more
and more people will discover that It is a square wheel, affording a very
uneven ride (thanks Scot).
This sort of reasoning is one of the outcomes of an education which
overstress digestive learning and neglects emergent learning. A few appear
to be the winners so that the rest must be the losers. Digestive learning
works fine during an era, but it is ineffective during the emergence of a
new era from one which has become traditional.
I tried to convey the message that we are in the middle of a grand
paradigm shift from the adoloscent era of human creativity to its adult
era. The adoloscent era lasted two and a half millenia. But I realise that
if the histories of the ancient civilisations are not actual to people,
there is nothing which I can do to make the future actual to them. It is
impossible to understand the creative course of time if we want to take a
peep into merely a tiny interval of it.
>I apologize for their hurtful posts.
Nothing to apologise for. I was hurt many times for living my kind of life
here in Africa. Hurt is part of learning. But so is joy! When our learning
has been hurting all the way with little joy to ease the hurt, then
something is clearly wrong with our learning. There is no greater joy for
me as to see how people like you mature in their own authentic learning,
helping others to do the same.
It is a pity that the joy as well as the other adjoints of emergent
learning are not discussed more on this list. An organisation cannot ever
qualify as a learning organisation if joy is not plentiful in such an
organisation. The greatest fallacy for an organisation dealing in
knowledge is to confuse itself as a learning organisation. Universities
are a fine example of such "knowledge organisations".
Dan, do take care because the immediate future may become highly unstable
while trusted structures give way, releasing free energy for entropy
production.
Precious metals and stones should give you an indication of what is
happening. South Africa's diamond industry has been decimated in less than
a decade. Its gold industry are now experiencing its worst shocks with the
sale of vast reserves of gold bullion (England, Switxerland, etc.). Mines
are closing down at an unprecedented pace, throwing hundreds of thousands
of people overnight into a state of poverty. Why?
Precious metals and stones are not so precious any more. Something else
has become more precious. Knowledge? No. Creativity? Yes. The danger of
creativity is that its path can have two opposite directions --
constructive and destructive. The seven essentialities of creativity helps
us to follow the constructive direction and to avoid tragic incidents like
in Jugoslavia. (I am sorry Alexander that I could not write more on the
phlight of your people.)
Andrew Campbell < ACampnona@aol.com > writes in LO22151:
>Dear Learners and At de Lange.
>
>It is customary for an artist occasionally to pay homage to another
>more admirable artist. Hence the following.
Thank you Andrew for your kind words.
>Careful reading picks up the message 'reduced contributions'.
>Imminent emergence!!!
Andrew, do I not know how the Digestor works? When another system in the
surroundings rather than the object system itself grows as predator
because it is quantitatively larger or qualitatively of a higher order,
the object system becomes the prey. Humans perceive this Digestor action
as intimidation -- a win/lose rather than a win/win situation.
We have a number of ways to handle it. The first way is to counteract
intimidation with intimidation -- the prey charging the predator. It works
once or twice superbly because of the surprise element. I have seen it
happening, for example, a wild hog chasing a leopard. But otherwise it is
a mechanism for selecting the fittest -- a long, gory contest for
superiority.
The second way is to let some repulsive or poisonous defence mechanism
emerge. It works much better than the surprise element above. However,
eventually some predator will counteract it by emerging with an effective
antidote. The thick skin of a badger protects it against the sting of the
honey bee.
The third way is to avoid the digestive self-organisation by moving to a
place where emergent self-organisation can rather be practised. But it
requires sufficient maturity to be effective. A young chick which still
has to grow feathers cannot fly to places out of the cat's reach.
A fourth way is to reduce the quantity m(SU) and quality M(SU) of the
other system in the surrounding, making it less offensive and seemingly
even less desireable. A powerful mechanism in nature is camouflaging like
in succulent plants. A more effective mechanism is metamorphosis like in
insects -- the worm becoming a pupa or the flyer laying eggs. Perhaps the
most effective mechanism of them all is death -- actual or virtual.
There are a number of other ways, but I think that enough has been
written.
What I like about artists is that they care much more for
self-organisation by way of emergences at the edge of chaos than for
self-organisation by way of digestions close to equilibrium. They realise
more than other mortals that emergences depend on bringing things together
rather than shifting them from one sphere of influence to another. For
many it is still the epitome of creativity -- the artist's way of doing
things. And as I have written before, this kind of creativity make us
other mortals very uneasy when they are not self acquainted with it.
>To my mind, severely limited and limiting, as it no doubt is; you
>have done more than paint or draw some mere 'picture'. You have
>done more than create a picture of all reality. You have, so far as
>I can see given a way to create a new working and living reality.
>It remains to be seen what is borne upon that gentle wind that you
>are. (Confucius)
We are all painting together a grand picture with all our articulations,
whether it be words on a computer screen or paper, paint on a canvas or
constructing a tool. Jan Smuts, the father of holism, was deep under the
impression how, as he himself, humankind would become at large conscious
some time in future of the whole and its influence on evolution. Since
then others have shared his experience.
My contribution to this grand picture is to paint in seven colours with
wholeness as one of the seven. Once we accept, for example, wholeness as
essential to our creativity, we will experience unprecedented rejuvenation
in our lives. Because of wholeness, every thing is related to all other
things. Sometimes this relationship is extremely complex so that we fail
to understand it, but it is active despite our ignorance.
Andrew, you were very honest about how numbers and formulas intimidated
you out of your wits. Others are frank when saying that philosophy leaves
them cold. We all live in the era of the "instant solution" (soup, cofee)
and the "pill" (concentrated, directed remedy). How are (1) fear of
numbers, (2) apathy to philosophy and (3) the desire for the instant
solution related to each other because of wholeness? In other words, can
you draw a picture using these three elements?
I can. The philosopher study reality for the love (philos) of truth
(sophos). By running away from the rest of reality, following a narcistic
dream, fragmenting all the way and thus impairing wholeness, the outcome
is diminished free energy (which have to expressed in numbers to observe
how it decreases). But free energy is needed to produce entropy which
takes time. The less the free energy, the less the entropy production and
the less the time available. Even worse are the outcomes of entropy
production -- less creativity, learning, believing and loving.
If I do not help drawing the grand picture with the color of wholeness
(among the other colors), somebody else will eventually draw very much the
same forms, just as Leibniz and Spinoza of old or Jan Smuts or David Bohm
have done it. Resisting or dampening the path of life (evolution,
self-organisation, complexification, extended learning, deep creativity or
whatever we may call it) to keep pace with it all the way is a futile
attempt.
Here in Africa you will seldom hear the expression "I was too late to
catch the bus". The reason offered is "The bus left me behind".
The final outcome of such a PRACTICE OF RETARDATION, whatever the
immediate and often urgent reasons we may offer, is the grand immergence
-- death of that which we have taken for granted. Anybody who hopes that
for once he or she or the community or organisation to which they belong
will become the exception, is acting foolish, ignorant of the true nature
of hope. Hope, like happiness and curiosity, is an adjoint (byproduct) of
emergences in life.
Please take care that you do not become ensnared in this practice of
retardation. It is easy to conceal this practice with pretty words or
jargon alike, depending on what the person would like to hear, but it is
impossible to avoid its outcome -- extinction. The bus will not wait for
us.
>Here is a farewell gift then via Basho, that 'gentleman' of few
>words who, like most pilgrims, wandered within two qualities,
>lightness of touch and oneness with nature.
>
>"Come, see real
>flowers
>of this painful world."
Thanks -- and take care because a flower is a delicate thing.
Harriett Robles <HJRobles@aol.com> writes in LO22189
>Dear At,
>
>I hope you don't shorten your contributions because you think
>they are a burden to the members of the listserv. I confess that
>I can't always follow the thread of your conversations and the mere
>presence of a formula reminds me why I became a literature major.
>But on the other hand, literature is the study of patterns and
>metaphor and imagery -- like systems, I think -- and therefore, I
>often find something in your writing that resonates with me.
Harriett, thank you for your kind words. Like Dan said, also you often
gives me laughs of joy. The most recent one was "literature is the study
of patterns..." But this is exactly the job af a hard core scientist! Is
it not sad -- two kinds of people doing the same thing, but being
strangers to each other.
Let me tell you in a nut shell what the two greatest laws of the physical
sciences do. The are the Law of Energy Conservation (LEC) and the Law of
Entropy Production (LEP). The LEC measures the CONTENT of Creation and
finds that it remains constant. The LEP measures the FORM of Creation and
finds that it increases. For new form to emerge, we cannot seek for new
content. It has to come from existing content with existing form. Thus,
for new patterns to emerge so that scientists and literators can have a
job, traditional patterns have to give birth to new ones. There is no
other way.
>Over the years, I have become more pragmatic about knowledge
>-- more interested in using it than possessing it -- so I tend to
>take the theoretical and try and boil it down to something I can
>apply in my own world, limited as it is. I hope you don't think I
>am seeking the lowest common denominator in doing so, but
>merely trying to see how your ideas might change my world,
>maybe make things clearer or work better.
I am doing the same as you, but my explanation is a little bit different.
Applying knowledge is increasing the wholeness (and the other six
essentialities) of creativity. It is true that the far majority of
theories lack this wholeness. One noteable exception is Einstein's Theory
of Relativity, combining space and time into a whole. This very theory
also give us an indication of what to expect when learning it -- the more
mature a theory is in the seven essentialities, the longer it takes to
master it because the less we can escape its complexity.
In my own theory of deep creativity I have taken special pains
to make it consistent with the seven essentialities. It seems
to you people as if it is very easy for me to speak on entropy
production on the one side of creativity and learning on its other
side, i.e
entropy production == creativity == learning
This is but a false perception brought about by my own
excercises.
Have I to tell you how many sleepless nights I have spend, trying to find
the connection between entropy production, creativity and learning? What
mysterious links were missing? I browsed book after book, journal after
journal, trying to find the clues or some hints to them. I questioned my
own sanity because I was very well aware that these three things on their
own were very much a part of my life. Were I not trying to link where no
links exist, to force my own mental models in a kind of system thinking?
One day, after the scientist in me and the artist in me made peace, I
decided to put all which I know down on paper, not in thousands of pages,
but a couple of hundred. I had to select a title. I wrote down the words
"entropy, creativity and learning" and while I was doing it, my inner
voice spoke to me. "You fool" it said "you are searching for absent links,
but the three links to one another just as they stand there. Creativity is
the manifestation of entropy production and learning is the first order
emergent of creativity."
Usually I have to prod my tacit knowledge with questions because it is
very secretive. That day it opened up and together with it a flood of
insights.
>It must be the cause (or the effect) of being a college
>administrator whose job it is to "make things work" -- from the
>sublime (a new curriculum or a learning community) to the
>ridiculous (assigning faculty office space). Anyway, although I
>am too intimidated to actually engage in your conversations,
>you should know that I am listening.
That I do know. Anyone who use the word "intimidation" in this sense have
been following my path through the creative course of time. Let me give
you a trick which will help you very much. It is a trick learnt in Africa
with all its dangerous animals.
The trick is the second best way to control a terrifying beast of prey --
intimidate it with a whip. If complexity itself or any of its complicated
offsprings want to devour you, use the whip of your mind to get yourself
into control. I am my worst predator and so are you your worst predator.
Whip yourself into control.
The best of all ways to control the minotaurus waiting in the labyrinth,
is to follow the path of love, using the tools of Theseus like the Ariadne
thread == wholeness, sword == sureness, etc. This best way has already
been pointed out thousands of years ago by one of the greatest writers
ever -- Homerus. Jesus of Nazareth gave testimony to this way.
Harriet, I wish you were my university administrator (registrator). But
then, I should not wish it because organising an organisation not
functioning as a learning organisation must be close to hell. That is
perhaps why CEOs of LOless organisations behave like the devil, trying to
lead occupants living so close to hell. To behave like the devil must be a
hellish kind of job.
Take care to encourage and participate in all possible emergences. To ask
beforehand what any emergence is good for, is to ask what is the good of
good and the true of true. It is "turtles al the way down" -- "the dog
biting its own tail" ;-)
Harold Brewer <hmbrewer@ac.net> writes in LO22142
>I am replying for the record as requested by Stan Berberich
>wishing to know about the 90% of those on the list who have not
>contributed. I, like many others, came here to learn and learn
>I have. I am a superintendent of schools and have 60+ hours
>a week as a rule. Like Stan, in order for me to contribute in a
>meaningful way would require time I just do not have. Therefore,
>I have done the next best thing, I have committed to read and
>learn as I can.
Harold, speaking up shows that you participate more than enough. Being a
superintendent of schools is one of the toughest jobs possible if one
tries to live up to its responsibilities. If you count all the minutes
your mind crawls back to this job, including your dreams and nightmares,
it becomes closer to 100+ hours.
Too little time is the main problem of most of us. When I realised this
many years ago, I began to give time to the things which matters most. I
still do not have enough time, but I have enough time to do the important
things.
>For me the list has been a valuable resource. I appreciate all
>of those who are willing to give of their time and expertise on the
>list. What I read and the time I give are voluntary. I have no
>grounds for dissatisfaction. Thanks again for allowing me to
>participate as I can.
You are a far better person than me. Although I try not to voice my
dissatisfaction, but to employ it as soon as possible to produce entropy
and thus fire my creativity and do something about it, I have to admit it
that dissatisfaction is another of many entropic forces in my life. The
reason why I do not speak about it is that other people have more than
enough entropic forces in their lives to cope with. It is really not
necessary for me to add those resulting from destructive creativity taking
place in my own life.
I agree with you that this list is a most valuable resource. I have
learned much from it. It captures the immense difference of communication
by snail mail and internet.
My youngest son Johannes is working in the UK (that "two year working
holiday"). Two weeks ago he began at a new firm and got internet access as
a benefit. He immediately wrote to me. But I had to postpone my reply to
the next day. Then a most interesting synchronicity of events happened.
The moment when I clicked the "send button" for my reply to him, the phone
rang. It was Johannes, asking dissappointedly why I did not answer him
the previous day. I said to him that we have a fine case of testing the
speed of internet -- I clicked the reply button as he was phoning.
About a minute later I could hear his computer beeping -- the message has
arrived. It went through quite a number of computers, some local, others
in the USA, and others in the UK each which directed the message to the
next one. We were both overcome by joy. Imagine, three hundred years ago
we (he in England and I in South Africa) would have to wait six months to
make an enquiry and get an answer.
Time for the message to travel is not the problem anymore.
To all the others fellow learners who wrote to me in private, thank you
very much for your kind words. I will answer each of you as soon as
possible. Yes, I plan to complete my series on the seven essentialities of
creativity -- otherness and openness still to come.
But somehow I think it is not really necessary. Your tacit
knowledge of them is vast enough. You only have to articulate
it. I find it extraordinary that these two remaining essentialities
are also the two things which Rick had to comment on in
"Content and Practices for this list LO22133".
Request #1 == otherness
Request #2 == openness
Thanks Rick for hosting such a fine list. In all these years you had to
sent only three contributions back to me, wise decisions indeed. Two of
them were responses to complaints about my contributions to the list.
Perhaps the following will not appeal to your logic, but I will give
it a shot anyway. The lack of personal mastery (learning
individual) is the falsification (acid test) of a Learning
Organisation.
That is why personal mastery is one of the five disciplines needed
for the emergence of an LO or the emergence of understanding
a LO.
This is why I admire your hosting -- you give all of us the opportunity to
learn first hand -- you avoid anti-learning, but do not take sides.
Your list is doing something to all of us. Let me illustrate it with some
history form my own country and people. A couple of centruries ago, a
certain Adam Tas, standing up against the tyranny of the colonial rule of
the Dutch East Company, uttered the following (in)famous words: " I am a
free citizin" ("Ik ben en vrijburgher" in Dutch.) These words echoed in my
mind uncountably many times.
Some months ago I asked another book worm at my local parish to assimilate
me all the information he could get on Adam Tas. A month or so later he
cornered me and gave me three guesses on something he found out about Adam
Tas. I guessed as wildly as possible. He laughed and laughed because he
knew how surprised I would be.
Adam Tas, even for a private person, had the largest library in the whole
of the Cape Colony.
Rick, you are setting up a library like that of Adam Tas. The only
difference is that it is a virtual library. But working through it while
learning makes us free, especially to heal the wounds of the past. Is it
not wonderful?
Why would anyone want to give up membership of such a
virtual library?
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>