Self and Meta-Self / Individual and Community

Tue Aug 23 15:05:34 PDT 2005

Dear Bernd,
I feel that one of the consequences for the way we communicate on
this list and elsewhere, and I experience it in this list a lot
already,
is to show myself. 
Seems that the more I am able to do that (and I need a hell of a lot
more practice at this)
the more I feel others do it and vice versa.
Showing myself is stuff like asking questions, sharing my joy and
hope and my fear and doubts,
and also showing up at my local stammtisch, in the learning exchange,
on the world map, at OSonOS, at trainings
and also showing/sharing my learning (it belongs to all of us) and
showing my efforts/talents/work 
in enabling more ost events, developing the peacemaker in me,
creating structures and dismantling them or adapting them....
and then there are hugs and smiles and ...which I show.
In Pakistan at the first open space in the training to which people
from Karachi had been invited to under the heading
"Harmonizing religious and ethical issues through social dialogue for
democratice governance in South Asia"
one participant offered his issue:
"Smile".
It drew a big crowd while the sponsor was wondering what the hell
this had to do with his topic.
It definetely did some magic for what we would call "community".
Its not that easy to feel community in this social agglomerate we
call the "list"
but then the "list" would not really walk or work or live if there
were not all the other ways we see each other.
Just recently in Halifax.
Next year in Moscow, for instance.
Or at perhaps 15 different stammtische around the globe on September
5.
(Got one in Mozambique already?)
(Want to find out where the closest is on September 5? Click the
button on the world map).
Or this coming weekend at the retreat of 11 os-workers from Berlin
that joined in a coop.
Or at the gathering in Florence in November with ho and a bunch of
Italians.
Or at the ost event with 250 students, teachers, policemen...in
September in Berlin...with a team of 7 os workers,
working the night before setting up the event.
Stuff like this is going on all over...I remember the times when
Chris Corrigan reported on every os he facilitated.
He really was showing himself and that was fabulous.
That, I think, is a practice we could all participate in...all your
lurkers out there,
next time you facilitate an ost event, show yourselves.
I will.
Greetings from Berlin reflecting on our community at 0:05 local time
good night
mmp

--Original Message Text---
From: WeBe TrainConsult
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:56:59 +0200

Dear Harrison,

I am very happy to find your posting here, thank you.

I think this is really the key point, we (the western world people)
are so very much used to think in this logical framework, that we do
it "automatically" by reflex, not noticing, that this thinking is
based on the notion of separability. In the case you are promoting
(community><individuum), it is very much clear that there is no
individuum thinkable without its social context ("local community").
The wisdom of language tells us exactly this aspect: in-dividuum. The
other aspect is, that the person, we would call an individuum can not
become a such, without experiencing "individualization", without
getting into conflict with this (inseparable) context, without
passing through phases of clear contradiction with its community.

And if I look back at my in-dividual development, I have to admit,
that it was by far not enough to "understand" this, but it needed and
needs a lot of practice and exercise to be able to not react
according to the logical reflex. Living in Africa helped a lot,
because I notized, that I am not forced to think that way, and that
it is not self-evident, and that others think in other ways.

Our language is not always "wise" and the either-or reflex is very
much hidden in our grammar and syntax. Which means, that talking
about this problem produces lots and lots of complexity and make it
difficult to be understood. If we stay below the level of being
driven by our thinking reflexes (in meditation or contemplation) it
seems to be easier because we do not "think it" but "feel IT" (the
fundamental interconnectedness of the "conflictuous" poles).

This gives me a hint to what many in this list seem to be pointing
at, when they use the word "community". They seem to mean a social
agglomerate, where all the interacting persons do not only
"understand" this aporetic/dialectic situation, but FEEL it. And Open
Space practice seems to be quite good in producing this feeling.

A question to all of you: If what Harrison wrote is true, which are
the consequences for our way of communicating in this list (and
elsewhere)? Or are we not "part of the problem" and driving the ball
on and on?

Any ideas?

Bernd

Am Tue, 23 Aug 2005 08:13:49 -0400, schrieb Harrison Owen:
> It has often occurred to me that the "problem" of individual and
> community is less a function of our experience than our logic. Or
> maybe our logic forces a false distinction so that we expect the
> individual to be in conflict with community? This is the logic of
> "either/or" -- and not both/and. It is a logic dominated by an
> awareness of contradiction as opposed to paradox -- and somehow all
> paradoxes are thought to be contradictory and therefore to be
> resolved and eliminated.

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