Returning, relieved at having survived, to the list I am delighted to see
this thread going on - with something like 50 messages saved for me. If I
have one overriding impression after reading so much it is that the
discussion is more about values than about complexity.
Ben summed it up with his story of an airline trip
======start quote=====
I learned something that day. . .something I'll never forget. Each of
these people had deeply ingrained values and beliefs about each other's
culture and behaviors, and there was very little willingness to reconcile
them or to even look at them from one another's viewpoint. Their values
clashed -- head on -- and the idea of peace between their two people
seemed to be equally repulsive to both.
That brings up a question: Will we ever achieve the idea of a global
community, where values are shared across such diverse cultures? Should
such an idea be a concern? How will we get people from various cultures
that clash so harshly to even agree to a peaceful coexistence?
=========end quote=====
We might, it seems to me, take a step forward by recognising the tendency
of societies to self-organise around, and preserve, systems of values and
beliefs, systems that may indeed be different in practice and theory as
many have pointed out. Perhaps a homogenous set of values is unobtainable.
Perhaps it is not even a goal worth going for but I do believe we might
take a step forward if we recognised the tendency for values to drive
behaviour in ways that have more to do with making people the 'slaves of
their values'. It might help us stop various of the forms of 'cultural
imperialism' that have been alluded to in other posts on the thread. It
might hep us acknowledge diversity and 'maybe' it could even take us a
step down the road to a peaceful, sustainable, future for the human
species and the planet we live on.
If Price
The Harrow Partnership
Pewley Fort Guildford UK
101701.3454@compuserve.com
--Dr Ilfryn Price <101701.3454@compuserve.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>