> I'm feeling kind of stupid because I don't see an inner circle. Who,
> specifically, is part of this circle? I see people who post frequently
> (such as myself), but I can't believe that the frequency of a persons
> posts determines whether their part of an inner circle.
> And, please, someone, help me see the inner circle thing. . .I'm feeling
> kind of blind!
Dear organlearners,
Ben, you are the square peg in the round role. You do not fit
in. Let me then tell you that you are one of the inner circle.
Why?
1 You love the people on this forum.
2 You work very hard, paid by no one, to contribute frequently
to the list. Just think of it - going to a movie with your
wife and labtop.
3 Many of your contributions tells us about your mental
emergences and your digestions of them afterwards. I enjoyed
them very much.
When you mentioned in one of your responses that you are
thirtysomething, I was really surprised. Wisdom usually comes
with age. Now I am surprised again. Why were you blind to this
inner circle thing? I would be very much interested in your
answer.
Now to all those who percieve an inner circle and believe
themselves to be outside it. I wish I could have used the past
tense. Your perceptions are real. But all our perceptions have
to grow into maturity - your perceptions of the inner circle
also.
I have mentioned that the 'intimidation of complexity' plays a
mojor role into letting people feel that they are not welcome.
However, there are some people who knowingly complexify
themselves in terms of their own creativty. When they are also
loving and caring people, they are not intimidated by outward
complexity, but by their inner complexity! These people usually
have an extreme respect for other people and their work, gained
through their own experience. Their intimidation is that they
fear they will interfere with the creative work of other people.
They are actually part of the inner circle, but their extreme
respect pushes them out of the circle. I am not saying that they
should have less respect because respect is one of the things our
violent world is in need of. What I am saying is that they
should observe that their respect is intimidating them into not
becoming part of the inner circle. The respect is not the cause
of their problem.
How does this respect induced fear happen? There are many things
essential to creativity and thus learning (including the seven
essentialilies I mentioned in another contribution). It is a
very difficult task to uncover these essences ('categories').
Chaos, for example, is essential. Phenomenology has its mission
to uncover them. However, I fear that phenomenolgy as it
now functions, is not good enough. I do not know of any trained
phenomenologist who has ever identified the category chaos.
Anyway, many creative persons become extremely sensitive to a
few of these essences. However, they now percieve that it is
only to them personally that these few things are essential AND
that these things are not essential at all in other creative
persons. Thus they try to avoid these things in their contact
with other people, thus also losing contact with the people from
the inner circle to which they actually belong.
Maybe my explanation is too complex to follow. But believe me, I
had to counsel so many creative students to become part of the
inner circle that I want to cry at the great loss of such
students to the inner circle. It also happens in other parts of
my society, but here at the university, its incidence is
extraodinary high. These students, if they manage to make
success of their academical years, often become the reliable
loners of organisations - the managers nightmare.
Best wishes
- --
At de Lange
Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
--"Mnr AM de Lange" <AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>