Greetings to you all.
I do not hook this topic to a particular message of some fellow learner.
In my usual responses I try to connect with some specific written by a
fellow learner. I wonder how many fellow learners have noticed this
practice and wondered whether I have any reason for it.
In a certain manner it is my attempt to show that the essentiality of
"making effective connections" (fruitfulness) is important to me. But it
is also my attempt to show that whatever I do, it is part of a greater
whole. What whole? Reality? But what is reality? When is something real?
How important is this question (as our topic) to learning organisations?
In which of the five disiplines of LOs does this question figure? Is it a
key question to understand what we want to accomplish with Systems
Thinking?
An interesting process has been happening here in South Africa the past
ten years (1990-1990). Please note that I include the last years of
apartheid (1990-1992-1994) also. Even before 1994 white people began to
learn that they were completely ignorant to things which are real to black
people. And especially black people began to learn that they were
completely ignorant to things which are real to white people. Soon a
plethora of concepts emerged locally to describe this kind of learning
like "multicultural communication", "multicultural management",
"multicultural communities" and "multicultural nation". The word
"multicultural" seems to pop up everywhere. Mandella usually simplifies
"multicultural" into the the metaphor "rainbow". What does "multicultural"
tell us?
Does it mean that something is real as a result of culture? In other
words, outside a culture something is not real? Does it mean that South
Africans are now experimenting with creating a "multiculture"? What sort
of thing is a "multiculture"? Is it the same as a "heterogenous culture"?
Will a "multiculture" ensure a more encompassing recognition that
something is indeed real than a "monoculture"? Are South Africans (white
and black) not on the track of another red herring just like the majority
of white and a minority of black South Africans were with apartheid?
I think that answer to the first question in the previous paragraph will
determine the answers of all the other questions. In other words, how will
you fellow learners answer this question:
Is something real as a result of culture?
I am very interested in your answers. Should you answer YES, is there a
"but" in it? What is this "but"? Should you answer NO, it means that
something is real as a result of "something else". Please try to tell us
what is this "something else", even when it is difficult to articulate it.
It may be vital to our understanding of "When is something real".
At this stage most of you fellow learners ought to have followed my
thoughts. Perhaps I should stop here so that you feel free to participate
in the dialogue on this topic of "When is something real". Perhaps the
next part of my contribution will destroy all your creative energy. To
prevent that, I will now write it, but only mail it a couple of weeks from
now.
END OF PART I
BEGINNING OF PART II
..........????
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>