Michael, Harrison, Joelle, Andrew, Pat, Raffi, and all-- (Sorry for the previous posting--somehow hit the send key before I was done.)
Would you be interested in entertaining a couple of musing questions? If (some people in command and control mode might still use the word "if") there is such a thing as self organizing, what would be its conditions? This seems to be to be a fruitful inquiry, and it goes beyond our usual important, complex, diverse, conflict, immediacy list. For me it perhaps overlaps but is not precisely the same as Harrison's list of 8 essentials. For instance, is invitation necessary for self organizing? What level of freedom? What order of equality of the participants? Are there physical conditions? Or is it just two or more gathering? Closely related: What is the difference between trying to control what a group does and inviting? (Harrison, you hinted at this in a post today when you say "I believe that there is an infinitely better possibility through which we may discover deep ways to realize our full potential as human beings, as well as doing something very useful and good in the world.") Is it simply a matter of degree, or is the difference qualitative? For instance, when Birgitt writes of “givens,” or I help someone write the theme for their invitation, we are consciously directing the attention of the participants to something we want to examine or change. So for instance, we are inviting people to make positive change in the area of X, or to explore the issues and opportunities of X, and this necessarily takes their attention off Y, Z, Q and J. :- Doug. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist