http://www.wiredbrain.net/ From: William Bode FROM: Peter Pflaum Subject: Understanding Peter, thanks for your reply to my email message of 8 August. Although the header of your reply carried the date of 9 August, my mailserver did not receive it until 16 August. (I wonder what that train of bytes was doing during that week in the Internet!) I had not seen any posts from you in ECOTHEOL and was afraid that my message had the effect of discouraging you. PETER: The End of Liberal Education; (Sorry this is long - but then so is the issue complex -) Santana (sp) wrote about the "Last Puritan." I feel like the last Liberal Arts graduate. I graduated from the University of Chicago in the last class to have the core curriculum. (My mother was in the First) We had no electives - there were three year long sequences in the Social Science I,II.II; Humanities, I,II, II, and Natural Science I,II, III, plus Foreign Language, History, Math (Logic), English (compositions) and the Nature and Structure of Knowledge (A cap stone class). ( Went at 16 a very tender age and was duely impressed) Three years based on Aristotle, first year content analysis, second comparison, third year judgment. We could not have opinions until we knew something and could understand the content and compare it with other ideas. I also went to Columbia (General Studies) and LSE (U. of London) with the tutorial system. (St. Johns (Maryland and NM), Reed in OR, Carlton in Minn, Bennington VT, Sara Lawrence, BrynMar, Beloit, Antioch, New College Sarasota, may have some remains of this program). Robert Hutchins knew that the specialist were taking over undergraduate education - a shopping list was replacing a core curriculum - At one Community College I just visited the English requirement could be offered by the field - ie. Nursing English and math - In Cultural Literary ( a very Silly BOOK) the point is made we don't share a culture. I really think this is important and has serious consquences. If I refer to the "Grand Inquisitor" scene in The Brothers Karamozov ' who knows what I talking about". My students don't know where Mexico is, or Brazil, or the structure of congress and a conference committee, or the bill of rights, or anything! Specialist are a necessary evil. They talk funny. I learned boat talk, I learned a little computer talk, but the special languages are meaningless to outsiders. What have specialist contributed to human understanding of the "Big Problems?" In economics it's the generalist who communicate to the world (Keynes being in both camps) Adam Smith, Mills, Marx, Marshall, Waldras, Shumpenter, (sp), Samuelson, Freedman, Reich, our old friend Peter Durcker, in Social Science Marx, Durkheim, Lipsets, Coleman, Redfield, Wallace, Boulding, Commoner, Erlich, Maslow, Mead, Scott Nearing (Living the Good Life), Warren Bennis, Chester Bernard, John Dewey, Rensis Likert, Carl Rogers, Erickson, Schein - Freud, Yung, big writers with something to say to almost everyone. Experience on the net is the same divisions and limitations that specialization on the society as a whole. Schools of Education (Fiske says) are a black hole, Bennett say "Learning is to American Public Schools what communism was to Russian economics." Most social scientist are academics of all trees and no forest types. The map is not the territory. Here is were the rubber hits the sky. Rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, or are working on the communications system. Many are even anti-intellectual ( a strong and common American Tradition) You are the best I have found. I love you - thoughtful - open - creative - well trying? My family came back last thursday. I have written several good bits among the shaft. My goal was to do that and I lack motivation in talking to myself or an purely illusionary reader. I also needed to find just what I can handle in the time I will have when school begins and the family is its busy self. (Two hours of driving so the Kids can go to a non-public school of 25 students or so, SDA) So as a lost (endangered) species - the generalist - interested in Literature, Religion, Philosophy, Economics, Politics, truth, justice and the good, and beautiful I have no home. We need a Chatacqua (sp) - they still exist in Up- state NY. The death of the Saturday Review - in England they had the Spectator, general interest journal for the people like me. Atlantic is OK, but is really for the NLA types and politics is too PC for me. There is no market for a common culture. We have nothing to say to each other except personal chit chat, sex drugs and rock and roll. PETER: Personal responsibility: (and character) In the Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevski has the Grand Inquisitor interview Christ, who has returned. He tell Jesus that ordinary people just aren't up to the challenge of making up their own minds and finding their own way to salvation. Therefore the Church, at the sure loss of their own souls - is giving them the way. The Inquisitor knows he can't save souls by formulas and ritual. But this is all people understand and it would be cruel and dangerous to take it away from them. Jesus is just going to have to die again - maybe next time. Ideologies say the same thing - we know better - do this or that and all will be well. People like that. Freedom is not much fun it carries responsibilities. BODE: Thanks for the background information; it helps to have some information about the person with whom one is communicating. I am new to ECOTHEOL. I am just getting into reconnecting with Creation, deep ecology, sustainable development, regenerative agriculture, resource conservation, human population regulation, religion and environment, world systems, etc. in a serious way. I am a biologist (PhD in entomology) and up to recently was predominantly involved in agricultural insect pest management. I am 51 years old, and have been single for the past 8 years, but I have two children, Andy, 24, and Lisa, 22 (who was married 30 July). I think a sabbatic in Kenya (1990-91) changed my life. I am no longer interested in "the American way of life" (capitalism, industrialism, economic growth, materialism, consumerism, competition, plundering the resources [natural and human] of the earth). It is very apparent that this way has led to greed, overconsumption, the devaluation of life, the rape of the earth, and the economic, moral and spiritual poverty of the majority. PETER: Traditional Functions of Religion: Almost all societies (cultures) have religions. ( Age Groups, Athletics, Adornments, Calendar, Cleanliness, cooking styles, cosmology, courtship, Dancing, Division of Labor, Education, Ethics, Etiquette, Family, Feasting, Folklore, Funerals, Games, Gestures, Gifts, Government, Hospitality, Incest Taboo, Inheritance, Jokes, Kinship groups, Language, Laws, Magic, Marriage, Medicine, Sanctions, Names, Property rights, Puberty customs, Ritual, sexual rules, status, tools, trade, Visiting, protection, aggression - etc. - yet people think there is not a Human Nature - If cats have a nature so do people) Religion ties it all together. The "people" are created with certain laws - the covenant. The covenant is the ecological relationship between the people and the land. The people are their religion=culture. They can no more change religions than stop being as a people. Western types change religions for political and social reasons. Religion is a small part of our ~reason d'etat" or Being. Maybe we don't have any reason to be? Maybe we have broken the Covenant and no longer have a guiding paradigm as a "people" with the clan territory. "Mankinds' moral sense is not a strong beacon light, radiating outward to illuminate in sharp outline all that it touches. It is, rather, a small candle flame, casting vague and multiple shadows, flickering and sputtering in the strong winds of power and passion, greed and ideology. But brought close to the heart and cupped it one's hands, it dispels the darkness and warms the soul." James Q. Wilson ************************************************************ BODE: I doubt whether the Christian religion can save the world (Many terrible things have been done in the name of this religion.), but practicing such values (many of which which are shared by other religions) could enable our human population to coexist in a more equitable and just manner. I have been associated with the Mennonite denomination for 22 years. This denomination believes in following Jesus in the way of love, peace, justice, community and service. Many Mennonites have put their faith into service in developing countries around the world. BTW, the phrase "In the world, but not of the world" *belongs* to the Mennonites. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THIS? All things to all people - what is you idea of relity and illusion? PFLAUMP The Covenant: For those with problems with religion, with spirits or mysticism let me be as straight as possible. For those that don't, don't get carried way but keep your feet on the ground. 1.) There is a connection between life and the environment. This is the Covenant: The purpose of life is to exist within a niche and expand as possible. If life doesn't keep in balance there is a collapse. Too much algae, not enough oxygen, life itself is balance of resources and the demands on resources. There is a little misunderstanding about dominion and be fruitful and multiply. We are different from other life in that we are aware. The forbidden fruit is self-conscience. The covenant is sub-conscience - it's in the dream time. We are beasts and as living creature have in our very existence a sense of where we belong. 2.) When the Covenant (Life and its enviroment) is broken all hell breaks loose (Isaiah 34 ) Ruwana - it is a moral or value problem because we have lost touch with the earth that sustains us. (Earth Summit Agenda 21) The problem is emotional, passions, needs, desires, greed, self-centered - et al. Surely we all know that man must have a purpose beyond himself. Maybe some don't know that - Those that know will have no trouble in understanding - those that don't know or don't care will wonder what they lived for, and get into trouble, in the long run. (In the long run we are all dead - Lord MK) 3.) The answer (maybe) in the Sufi way - believe it or not the Sufi's created civilization about 6,000 years ago. The "teacher of the Age" taught people to be human. It was a trick - an illusion. Human passion were too strong, the animal character too important, so there had to be leaders - a responsible elite. The leaders would have training (step by step practice) and education (discussion and meditation) in the way of wisdom. Leaders could be "in this world but not of this world" while the masses were just in the world and believed in illusions. Leaders could see and feel beyond themselves, their passions, and needs and desires. It happens slowly but each one could teach one and Civilization could continue. It was a secret, in that the leaders knew the illusion they created for the masses were just that an illusion. They were the Wizard of OZ (another Sufi tale) and the little boy in the Emperors New Cloths who shouts out - but it's just a illusion - get into a lot of trouble - as does Socrates, Jesus, and other who challenge the old or create a new illusion. - If I am wrong forgive me - it is just the sounds of birds - no one will listen - it has not been done without twenty years of thought - I am ready for - I have had the dream of death of white nothing, beyond self, it's the children - and their children, God give them a chance - some chance - any chance - I don't have to justify myself Now we are in the age of mass publics - of TV - and of many leaders - many voices - and the elite is in disarray. The obligations of leadership, George Bush learned at Phillips, or I learned at the University of Chicago, a British Public Schools, have been overwhelmed by commercial, entertainment values of no substance or worth. Does William Jefferson Clinton know who he is? What is behind the image - more images? Surely you need character as described in the James O. Wilson article. (Aristole's virtue) The world is in deep trouble. The secrets needs to be advertised, let go. Our only hope is a larger group of people that have access to the wisdom. In tradition such knowledge would be dangerous. People would misunderstand and create another dogma. Yes, that true and they may or will. But, think of the alternatives. The overwhelming power of the western values (commercial, temporal, materialist, short-tern, selfish, vulgar, have overwhelm the society of taste - manners - style - quality - class - yes class - the tradition is that the poor don't have time or interests in the "higher things" let them have their desires and their unquestioned faith - The Grand inquisitor was right) In the face of this ecological crisis we have to expand the base of people with wisdom and judgement beyond the 1% or 2%, that have maintained civilization for six milium Now maybe 2% even know the vaguest idea of what I am talking about. In most peoples experience, their paradigm doesn't include the concept that civilization is not a natural process but created and maintained by a tiny group. They can see it can fall apart. They may understand it is a process not just there! (Survival is not a given) A spirit has suggested to me that a broader education while not likely is possible. If not now, sometime in the next generation. We need to prepare Western Teachers. We sort of gave up on the West but that as you see it was a mistake. The environmental movement has hope. There are economist who are thinking about value, there are new religious feelings, a few leaders are thinking about sustainable - earth values - the dream time. It is so sad - so little so late - too late for me - but the grandchildren of my children - The grand cycle is coming to a close. I would like the new one to begin peacefully. Most uncommon - but if there is only one chance - what else can I do? Can we just watch as Isaiah 34 takes place. Am I Jacob of Isaiah 44 - no I think not - don't get me wrong - but we sure need one - If not me - WHO? If not now when? (45) Don't mind the reference to Bible - it is the text for the Christians and Jews - and has some wisdom it. (also almost everyone has one - so they can go look it up) God knows- I have prayed - I have visions - little of it good, should I pretend it is - we all need hope. Yes, why not, another illusion? Ye call me master, obey me not. You seek the light, follow me not. This is the way, do not walk with me. I am the life, do not desire me, since I am wise, do not listen to me. Be gracious and trust not in me or yourselves, be noble and serve the blind spirits - be mighty and do not serve your master, be noble and give honer where honer is not due, be just and without fear, for if I condemn you, do not blame me or yourselves, the times are out of joint because the covenent is broken. PETER: I also get this from the Bahai ( do you have the material from Internet Gopher Information Client gogher.together.UVM.edu Organizations --> 1. Africa_News_On-line/ * go to 2. Bahai International Community/ 3. CCN - The Center for Civic Networking/ 4. E_Magazine/ 5. Earth_Times/ 6. Earthwatch_Catalog/ 7. Environmental Organizations By Country/ 8. Greenpeace/ 9. World Citizen Foundation/ 10. World Watch/ Then Organizations 1. Africa_News_On-line/ * go to 2. Bahai International Community/ 3. CCN - The Center for Civic Networking/ 4. E_Magazine/ 5. Earth_Times/ 6. Earthwatch_Catalog/ 7. Environmental Organizations By Country/ 8. Greenpeace/ 9. World Citizen Foundation/ --> 10. World Watch/ Directory.../Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 10Bahai International Community * go to --> 1. BIC Statements/ 2. One Country Newsletter/ 10BIC Statements --> 1. French Documents/ 2. Human Rights/ 3. Portuguese Documents/ 4. Spanish Documents/ * go to 5. Sustainable & Social Development/ 6. Women/Press Sustainable & Social Development --> 1. A Global Strategy and Action-Plan for Social Development. 2. Earth Charter. 3. International Legislation for Environment and Development. 4. Literacy and Non-Governmental Organizations. 5. New Delivery Systems for Basic Education. * go to 6. Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit. 7. The Education of Girls. 8. The Teacher's Situation. * go to 9. Values, Institutions and Leadership for a Sustainable Future. 10. Women and Men: Partnership for a Healthy Planet. 11. World Citizenship. Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit (4k) Title: Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit Source: Baha'i International Community Adapted from the Statement delivered to the Plenary of THE EARTH SUMMIT (the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Each of the capabilities listed below is composed of certain concepts, virtues, attitudes and skills. To gain a clearer understanding of each capability, one must ask the following questions: What are the essential virtues for developing a certain capability? What are the concepts that must be grasped to cultivate a capability? What are the attitudes that one must possess to develop a capability? What are the skills necessary for a particular capability. The capability to: - encourage others and to bring joy to their hearts;- infuse one's thoughts and actions with love;- be visionary and to encourage others to be visionary; - manage one's affairs and responsibilities with arectitude of conduct; - assess one's strengths and weaknesses without involving the ego - oppose one's self-centered tendencies by turning towards one's higher purpose for existence; Exercise initiative in a creative and disciplined way;sustain effort and persevere in overcoming obstacles; understand relationships of dominance and be able to facilitate their transformation into relationships of inter-dependence, reciprocity and service; - serve as a catalyst for the establishment of justice; - engage in empowering educational activities, both as a student and as a teacher; - learn from systematic reflection on action and to doso within an evolving and consistent framework;- think systemically in the search for solutions;- participate effectively in consultation; build unity while cultivating diversity; serve on the institutions of society in such a mannerthat these institutions are actively encouraged to empower the individuals whom they serve, to express 100% their talents in service to humanity. BODE: I have recently been inspired by the writings of Doctress Neutopia (aka Libby Hubbard) who recently completed a PhD at U Mass. You probably have come across her on the Internet. She has posted to Usenet newsgroups including talk.environment, alt.save.the.earth, alt.feminism, talk.religion.newage, talk.philosophy.misc, and talk.politics.theory. Her thesis is titled: "GAIA, the Planetary Religion: The Sacred Marriage of Art and Science." You probably know of other Futurists on the Internet: Henry Aroeste, a.k.a. Xanim, and the Longevity Foundation; Chris Bongert and the Leonardo Project; Geoffrey Hebert (Save The Earth project); and Thomas Ellis and the GAIA International organization. (I have not been in communication with these people.) PETER : I will try - Is there some node on the Net where you people of like mind interact? I have written enough for now. PETER: Certainty for our Time: LAWS OF PHYSICS: Imagine the atom; the core of particles held together by great force, the fields of electrons vibrating in their courses. The electrons can only operate in certain fixed Quantum, they can be in only certain ways in relationship to each other and the nucleus. These fixed ways allow for chemistry. The elements can combine with Certainty depending on the fixed nature of physics. God can not do things against his nature. The laws of nature are not imposed from outside but reside within the nature of things. SCIENCE: The ways the elements combine, the order of the Cosmos itself become the possible. Science and technology is doing the possible. The difference between alchemy and chemistry, astronomy and astrology, is the knowledge of the possible. Knowing something of the ways of nature is knowledge. IDEOLOGY: The evil and false pride that people have when they think their ideas are equal to the ways of nature. The ways of the universes exist in the grain of sand, the natural process in drop of water are infinitely more powerful than any human belief. The endeavor of science is to put our beliefs in tune with reality. The electrons change their quanta in fixed patterns. They do not move through the intermediate space. We can not go from here to there without passing through the intermediate space. Particles do not conform to our concepts but we try to understand the reality as best we can. FALSE PRIDE: The evil and false pride that our ideas created the laws of nature let to belief in all possibilities. The covenant is the fixed laws of nature where possible becomes real. Reality is the wisdom of god's creation, his own presence. Human wisdom shrink before the infinite. The unity of all things appears in the billions of stars and atoms, the Eternal essence. I am god, you are god also. We are perfect in harmony with the universe and nothing, a small spark outside the rules of nature. Is there a contradiction here - our ideas are not reality - but we are god? REMEMBER - The particles of corporal existence is not personality and confined to man. If we are transformed into vanquished space and are no longer self but being we are close to the face of god. If this is not clear it is because it is very difficult to express. The truth has been said at many times and many ways but while many hear only a few listen. It is difficult to explain to the Bat who lives only at night and avoids the bright sun what shadows are like. Maybe sometime in your life you knew you were in tune - had certain knowledge of being - Being just what you are, MASLOW in the Further Reaches of Human Behavior explored this aptitude. He called it transcendence, beyond self to being or B values. He said it gave life meaning and purpose. He said effective people knew B-values and thereby had focus and energy in life. Beyond self. So simple and so hard. Can you explain to the blind about the colors of life. The drunken, desire their drunkennes and do not desire the truth. If is not this or that: then what is it? The Perfect Truth: To go from the possible (the ways of nature ) to the essential is the spring of reason. First true perception and then being and passing through our personality. We are worse than beasts, fiends, stones or storms - we have the avarice, envy, pride oppose knowledge. We do not overcome these by an act of will but by rites of passage. (In this way the Christian message is a short cut - believe in ME and I will bring you salvation, faith alone will save you - It can't be done - no one can take responsibility for your soul - it takes work. Christ believed that people were not up to this difficult passage and needed help -The Grand inquisition scene) In Joseph Campbell's hero with 1000 Faces, these "all too human" passions and monsters are passed in mythical journeys in the underworld (clearly our reptile un-conscious minds) and the Hero emerges from thinking and feeling to being and knowing. BEING READY: There are few shortcuts. If you love god, god will love you. You are beloved, the union with all exists in you and all around you. In pure obedience, there is true freedom. When you are master then you are slave. You are the sweet fruit in the shell, ready to ripen, the suns warm beams has put us into the right stage of life. Our estate is prepared and we are ready. If this is obscure to you, it is meant to be clear. The vail of metempsychosis passes and you see clearly the obvious - AH HA! The circle is complete, I am what I am, and feel good about it. (Union) The seal is broken and the secret reveled - it was here all the time but you weren't looking, you did not listen, I guess you were too busy with more important business. Faith and peace, and eternal wisdom are not so important? They require truth and justice and can not be used for personal gain. They have no market value. The dream that becomes reality is in the union of mystic lore and the way. The door is open, are you ready for no- existence. If you give up existence you will find it. If you cling to the things of life, you can not pass this way. That is the myth of the "grateful dead." To win you must surrender, to triumph, give up. You all know that. The phantoms pass away, nothing but the truth remains. The union comes when the possible has passed its ordered limits and become the essential - science has become knowledge and certainty. (This is beyond me at the moment). Who firmly grasps the mystic meaning of the union of possible and the promise of the essential has a higher wisdom than plain mortals. More is less, far is near, we are no longer afraid of our own shadows, the fire has no terror and the book of changes. (To be continued - Mahmud Shabistri "The Secret Garden", only 57 pages - A Dutton Paperback) ************************************************************ Best regards, Bill William Bode (wmb5@psu.edu) Entomology Dept., Penn State University 501 ASI Bldg., University Park, PA 16802 voice: 814-863-1854 fax: 814-865-3048