"THE INEFFABLE EXPRIENCE"

http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/articles/dienske.html

In the context of OUR (the Ethiopian Elite) self-assessment, I think it is not far-fetched to look into the depth of such essays to understand the "ontological" roots of our intolerance...and violence at large......

....I think in the final instance our political problems too....

......Problems of the elite as a consequence of ill-directed "ontological" experiences, which terminate in irrational notions ..........AND due to a lack or a misconception of the latter, an objective expression of spiritual solitude, which is not openly admitted but unconsciously expressed in a manifestation of intolerance and violence through the outlet of a common political activity, accessible without any intellectual legitimacy to all elements of a society like ours....with any demagogue playing the role of a "good leader" due to the low intellectual level of the community.............An activity which, under these premises of its leadership ultimately develops into a de facto dogma or religion, only good for corruption and self-consumption...hampering any positive social development..

AND

IF this " Subject" happens to come to a level of state power, by way of some historical circumstance or struggle; you can imagine ...and ...we have witnessed where the fate of that community ended up.......see from Stalin....through Mao.....up to Mugabe ......and our Melesses...; I name here only those from the left spectrum since they are the ones who are presumably sworn in for the welfare and freedom of their societies....I am not surprised by those from the right spectrum since it lies in the nature of their declared ideology not to be otherwise...

A political leader doesn't have to be a philosopher but the minimum one could expect is that he understands the scope of philosophy.....Otherwise he is for his community a programmed disaster in person ..

I liked both essays( i.e. see Angelo Campodonico too) but I have only to add what occurred to me at the last words of the first author...(Ineffable Experience/Dienske)...which goes like the following:

>>>>>>>

"The unnameable reminds us of a rich, uncontrollable dimension of our existence and of the importance of the non-linguistic. "In the beginning was not the Word---earlier reigned the grand silence" is the first line of a poem, written by a Dutch poet, J. C. Schagen, who will have the final say in this article:

in the beginning was not the Word---earlier Reigned the grand silence before the first word is the sigh of the sea and after the last it lies in the dust you can pick it up like that the first word---nothing it lies in the dust you can pick it up like this the last word---nothing"....

AND

Here follows the notion which won't leave me......

So...."after the last it lies in the dust you can pick it up like that the first word---nothing- it lies in the dust you can pick it up like this the last word---nothing".

..."nothing"....Pick it up.....NO A THING......Pick it up ....Not a thing is.....THE SPIRIT.......

"..nothing"......nothing meaning NOT A THING......NOT A Thing is SOMETHING other than a THING....and Not a thing is for sure A SPIRIT......The SPIRIT ......................and of course for those who doubt, always with the HOPE under the cover of the positive rational search, which is human and legitimate...

In this sense I wouldn't be bored to re-read and contemplate again and again along :

The Origin of Philosophy

A Parable I like!

More: See
Angelo Campodonico on ontological exprience

SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION

Ervin Laszlo ...A "Beautiful MIND".

SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION An Interview with Ervin Laszlo

Please download his extensive interview to get introduced to his thoughts.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yne5zyrlzto

Or available on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYq7LdHSeNY&feature=player_embedded

More from the site:

http://worldshift2012.org/content/about

Grain for Cars !!?

"Shall we use grain to fuel cars or to feed people?"

Fritjof Capra on

http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/new-facts-life

A Rationale and Guide for Nonviolence

".... life, from its beginning more than three billion years ago, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking."....Fritjof Capra /

http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/new-facts-life

Revolutions and wars are exceptions to the rule, coup d'etats are perversions of the rule....And the rule seems to be evolution embedded in creativity/emergence, whose existence becomes apparent in due time and space to initiate a fundamental change..... That is, I presume, the Kernel of human experience in history .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_evolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocultural_evolution

What is the inter-relation between social structure and collective consciousness ?

What is the role of structure and collective consciousness in our future human development...?

*

Following is an aspect which I think is very relevant in our context and helpful for our community's political dead-lock:

***

Chapter Twenty-Two

A rationale and guide for nonviolence
as a basis for conscious evolutionary activism.

Hier reproduced in summary in accordance with the permission of the author:

http://evolutionaryactivism.com/wagn/Copying

In any situation or system, seek ways

to replace force with consciousness.

...

Force, in this context, refers to the use of coercion or

overwhelming strength or power to dominate, control, or otherwise

get one's way, often against resistance. The power used

can be physical, economic, social, intellectual, emotional, military,

psychological, technological, etc. The more force used,

the less we take into account the nature or needs of the Other.

The more we take the Other into account, the less force and

resources we need to accomplish mutual ends.

Consciousness, the capacity to be aware, in this context,

includes all the interior dimensions and capacities of life that

can—among other things—help us deal successfully with

our changing world by sensing, understanding and creatively,

collaboratively relating to the conditions in us and the entities,

interactions, and contexts around us.

This evolutionary moment challenges us to bring the power

of consciousness to bear on the process of self-reflective evolution

itself to replace the creative violence of supernovas, lifeand-

death struggles, and wars with highly aware intelligence,

wisdom, and care.

So as evolutionary activists, we seek to replace force everywhere,

• in every entity (every individual, group and

system);

• in every interaction (every conversation, exchange,

conflict, and engagement with nature);

• in every context (every situation, culture, gathering,

community and urban design); and

• in every form of consciousness (in all sensing,

learning, visioning, morality, and all other forms

of thinking, feeling and experience).

.....

...

Our consciousness then evolves

towards true collaboration, where we—

you and I, us and our adversaries,

humankind and nature—help each

other get what we each need and want—in cooperatives,

family conversations, in deliberative democracy, in Nonviolent

Communication, in permaculture.

...

This shift from force to consciousness is the fulcrum of

human evolution at this critical time—at individual, collective,

and systemic scales.

As we reach our planetary limits, the downsides of force,

violence, and control become increasingly obvious. Our

technological and social capacities to generate harm through

our efforts to force, impact, and control people and life—no

matter how well intended—threaten our extinction.

...

The more fully we understand, the less force or energy

we need or want to use. The less energy we use to serve any

given need, the more efficient and elegant our systems and

behaviors become, making them favored by natural selection

and the general directionality of evolution.

..

Guidance concerning evolutionary means:

..

• A addresses the role of conversation.

• B talks about creative use of diversity.

• C explores how to handle dissonance.

• D discusses deep, inclusive simplicity.

...

..

Guidance concerning realms of evolutionary action:

...

..

• 1 deals with the health of the systems themselves.

• 2 deals with contexts and systemic awareness of them.

• 3 deals with the systemic capacity to effectively respond

to complex, changing circumstances.

...

1. Cultivate healthy self-organization.

..

• Cultivate healthy behavior

• Cultivate healthy power

• Cultivate healthy flow

2. Cultivate healthy systemic contexts.

..

• Healthy social context.

• Healthy contexts that govern meaning

• Healthy physical contexts

• Healthy natural contexts

3. Cultivate healthy systemic responsiveness and collective

evolvability.

..

• Cultivate collective intelligence, learning, and

memory -

• Cultivate collective self-awareness, integrity,

and humility -

• Cultivate the collective capacity to generate and

pursue shared intentions -

• Cultivate systems that embody collective compassion

and mutuality -

• Cultivate the collective ability to make wise,

creative decisions -

• Cultivate collective co-creativity and evolutionary

sensibilities -

****

This is a section/chapter from Tom Atlee's " book :

"Reflections on Evolutionary Activism"....

(Tom Atlee & friends : ....These are....interesting intellectual and activist circles of our generation...with a lot of new insights and ideas)

http://evolutionaryactivism.com/wagn/Get_involved

More: See if you like:

http://nonzero.org/reviews.htm
http://nonzero.org/index.htm

http://socio.ch/evo/index_evo.htm

Nonzero Sum

"Nonzero will change the way people think about the human prospect."

http://www.nonzero.org/reviews.htm
http://www.nonzero.org/toc.htm
http://www.nonzero.org/intro.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonzero:_The_Logic_of_Human_Destiny

A Brief Summary of Nonzero (as it appears on the book jacket)
At the beginning of this book, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial ooze to the World Wide Web." Twenty two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded--and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless. Ingeniously employing game theory—the logic of "zero-sum" and "non-zero-sum" games—Wright isolates the impetus behind life’s basic direction: the impetus that, via biological evolution, created complex, intelligent animals; and then, via cultural evolution, pushed the human species toward deeper and vaster social complexity. In this view, the coming of today’s interdependent global society was "in the cards"—not quite inevitable, perhaps, but, as Wright puts it, "so probable as to inspire wonder." So probable, indeed, as to invite speculation about higher purpose—especially in light of "the phase of history that seems to lie immediately ahead: a social, political, and even moral culmination of sorts." In a work of vast erudition and pungent wit, Wright takes on some of the past century’s most prominent thinkers, including Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins. He finds evidence for his position in unexpected corners, from native American hunter-gatherer societies and Polynesian chiefdoms to Medieval Islamic commerce and precocious Chinese technology; from conflicts of interest among a cell’s genes to discord at the World Trade Organization. Wright argues that a coolly scientific appraisal of humanity’s three-billion-year past can give new spiritual meaning to the present and even offer political guidance for the future. Nonzero will change the way people think about the human prospect.

"I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine" .....to .....Cyberspace....

Interesting...

On ....Way back from "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine" .....to .....Cyberspace....
Scott Atran has something to say....
***
SCOTT ATRAN
Anthropologist, National Center for Scientific Research, Paris; Author, In Gods We Trust

THE FOURTH PHASE OF HOMO SAPIENS

I received this year's Edge Question while in Damascus, shuttling messages from Jerusalem aimed at probing possibilities for peace. And I got to thinking about how my thinking on world peace and transnational violence has been shaped by the Internet, and how the advent of the Internet has framed my view of human history and destiny.

http://www.edge.org/q2010/q10_3.html#atran

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/at-the-edge-of-thought.php