Listeners LO12334

Mnr AM de Lange (AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za)
Mon, 3 Feb 1997 10:35:59 GMT+2

Harrold Crossman wrote in LO12303

> Regarding the suggested change of the term "lurker" to "listener," I
> prefer the latter. While lurker has certain negative connotations
> according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, (to lie in wait in a place
> of concealment esp. for an evil purpose), the word also suggests action
> and preparation to respond to an opportunity. Listening, on the other
> hand, does not have an external action component outside of the dialog
> where one is a participant. There is no suggestion of applying what one
> has understood as a result of listening, merely idea formulation,
> acknowledgment, and similar internal processes.

Dear organlearners,

After reading Harold's contribution, I immediately asked myself what
Afrikaans word I would have used. We have many nouns, just like in
English. Each may be translated into a corresponding English word. They
can also be grouped into a classes, one for a positive intent and one for
a negative intent. I will denote these two classes by two Afrikaans words:

"kyker"={looker, observer, pupil (of the eye), seer, scanner,
spectator, squinter, viewer, watcher}
"loerder"={lurker, peeker, peeper, pryer, spy}

What interests me most, is that in both languages we have a positive class
(a YES class) and a negative class (a NO class). My friend Ben G tells me
that it is the same for all the black languages which he has mastered. I
wonder if there is any language in which it is not the case.

The reason why I mention these two classes is that on this forum (list)
people belong to the YES ("kyker") class whereas on some other internet
groups and lists they may digress considerably to the NO ("loerder")
class. Why? It is because of the learning happening on this list!

>From this we can draw an extremely important lesson. We have to belong to
the YES class to to be able to learn. If we belong to the NO class,
learning becomes very difficult, if not impossible. This might be the very
reason why it is so difficult to get a particular organisation operating
as a LO. Check on the YES/NO status. If the status is NO, then one of your
highest priorities should be to change the status into YES as soon as
possible.

It is much easier to change into NO state than to change into a YES state.
Here again is some insight on South Africa's problems. Before the era of
apartheid (<1948) and during most of the aparteid era (1948 -1980) we had
a YES culture in the education of all our peoples. But as a result of the
Soweto uprising (1976) the ANC learnt a very valuable lesson: a NO culture
destroys learning and all the infrastructure that goes with it. As a
consequence the apartheid system will be destroyed. Since 1980 they began
with a policy of no education before apartheid has been eradicated. As a
result apartheid has been destroyed, but that is not all. A generation of
illiterate people has grown up and a NO culture has flourished. Apartheid
is now of the past, but the illiterates and the NO culture not. These
illiterates and the NO culture are creating havoc. For example, a
staggering number of serious crimes are commited by people in the age
group 20 - 30.

Why does NO impair learning while YES promotes learning?

Firstly, we have the problem of logical complexity. A double negation (NO
NO) acts like a YES, but it is far more diffcult to keep rationally track
of what you are doing. For example, the sentences 'I am a human' and 'It
is not the case that I am not a human' have the same truth value, but the
last one is obviously more complex. And, as I have so often noted,
complexity intimidates - it makes us nonspontaneous so that we cannot act
on our own accord.

Secondly, our creativity is generally immature. We have to make a positive
(YES) effort to improve on it. Our creativity is a result of the
production of entropy, quantitatively (content) and qualitatively (form).
In a NO climate we tend to impair the production of entropy.
Quantitatively, we negate the entropic forces and fluxes rather than
promoting them. Qualitatively, we deny the seven essentialities of
creativity rather than promoting them. The result of such a NO culture is
most noticeable in South Africa as it is the case for the former communist
countries.

Thank you Rick, and all other contributing organleaners, for mainting the
YES culture on this forum. Maybe we should signify that we have a YES
culture by using another word rather than lurker. By doing so, we will
establish a culture of learning.

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/>