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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All of this about long waves and grand sweeps puts
me in mind of a really great book I read recently called "The Passion of the
Western Mind" by Richard Tarnas. I'm not sure who recommended it to me; it
may well have been someone on this list; but no matter: from the
hunter/gatherers to today in philosophy, psychology, science, spirituality, it
is a wonderful and instructive read... ending with the author's version of the
cusp or brink or discontinuity we seem to be approaching. If any of you
knows the book and is aware of an equivalent work covering the Eastern Mind, I
would sure like to know about it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Winston</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=JPESeeker@aol.com href="mailto:JPESeeker@aol.com">J. Paul Everett</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, November 16, 2001 10:39
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re:
Self-Organization...More...</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>In a message dated 11/16/01 11:54:47 AM, <A
href="mailto:corcom@interchange.ubc.ca">corcom@interchange.ubc.ca</A>
writes:<BR><BR><< My preferred metaphor is that of the
hunter/gatherer. For a<BR>hunter/gatherer, the landscape is rich to
begin with and requires no<BR>further intervention to make it that way.
Hunters and wildcrafters<BR>protect systems by using them sparingly, thus
preserving and sustaining<BR>their yield without threatening the context in
which they operate. And<BR>if the system collapses, hunters can move on
to another piece of land.<BR>They are adaptable, resourceful and
flexible. Gardeners (and by<BR>extension, farmers) fence off their land,
battle against the elements<BR>and try to preserve what they have. If
the system collapses they are<BR>hooped. >><BR><BR>Chris,<BR><BR>Well,
this prompted a thought on your thought. When we look at the long
wave<BR>history of humankind, we see only two eras of truly fundamental
change. Not<BR>that change didn't occur in the other epochs, but it
wasn't a truly<BR>paradigmatic shift. The first was when mankind stopped
being<BR>hunter/gatherers and became farmers and herds- keepers. This
was an enormous<BR>change that gave rise to civilization and more importantly,
a small, very<BR>small, slice of the population that could then be supported
by the rest and<BR>who then had time to think---and all elements in this world
of human origin<BR>are first a thought. The invention of mathematics by
an Indian genius, the<BR>invention of cities, record keeping, writing, etc.,
mostly in Sumer, were<BR>monstrous leaps up off the veldt 6000+ years
ago. And, they enabled many<BR>more people to live, and therefore, many
more thoughts to appear/be had, and<BR>therefore, human-created newness to
happen.<BR><BR>To illustrate my thesis that then no further fundamental change
happened for<BR>a very long time, take King Solomon and George Washington,
living about 3,000<BR>years apart. Yet, they had, essentially, the same
heating, the same<BR>lighting, the same transportation (nobody went faster
than a horse on land or<BR>a sail boat would go on water), same mode of
communication (written or<BR>verbal, delivered by a person), slave power and
very similar medicine. In<BR>fact, it was not until 1939-40 that medical
science had something that would<BR>reliably, knowledgeably (on the part of
the prescriber) fight a disease<BR>inside the human body---that was
sulfanilamide, followed in short order by<BR>penicillin, etc. (Saved my
brother's life, btw).<BR><BR>The next big change in human consciousness about
man's relationship to<BR>reality came someplace in 1740-1785/90 when the
Enlightenment fundamentally<BR>altered ideas about the source of change and
what humans might do about it.<BR>From that incredible shift we have the
modern civilization that we exist in,<BR>filled with ever-increasing rates of
change on multiple fronts. Is it any<BR>wonder that the Modernists and
Post-Modernists are much hated by the<BR>Medievalists? We are destroying
what existed for millennia. And, that we<BR>have multiple troubles
adjusting to that pace of change on so many fronts.<BR>But, in the process
mankind is becoming even more free, at least those able<BR>to avail themselves
of technologies and new thoughts that generate newness,<BR>world
wide.<BR><BR>Therefore, I challenge whether the hunter/gatherer is a viable
metaphor for<BR>any organization in this epoch of man. It certainly
can't support the<BR>aggregation of brains necessary to create what we now
have. It would seem<BR>rather that Prigogine's model, or George Land's
model, or some other model<BR>might better describe what works best at this
point in humankind's history.<BR>Perhaps the cybernetic model, or Open Space
as a model, together with it's<BR>self-organizing characteristics is what's
really required in these times.<BR>Chaos, complexity and emergence seem to be
expanding our understanding of the<BR>Universe, at least it appears so to
me.<BR><BR>Just a thought or two.<BR><BR>Paul
Everett<BR><BR>*<BR>*<BR>==========================================================<BR><A
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