>From Jeffrey Courion <Courion@aol.com>
and AM de Lange <AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za>
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From: Jeffrey Courion <Courion@aol.com>
Hey everybody!
I am a community builder, mediator, and storyteller who has recently joined
(with great enthusiasm) NCN. In my work and presentations, I often begin and
deeply move and inspire audiences with this definition of "community."
The word "COMMUNITY" has three essential elements. The suffix is "ity"
meaning an entity in which or through which energies manifest or develop.
The prefix is "com" which refers to the commonality or common interest which
attracts those who feel a deep sense toward its fulfillment through their
service. Ah! Now for that wondrous infix... the word in the middle...
"mun"... from which we also derive the word municipality. "Mun" is a
contraction of the word "munificience" which means the spirit of giving.
Language is no mistake. It is only taken for granted. And what we have yet
to "discover"... (dis-cover) is what we have long forgotten!
Hence a definition of "community" is... the entity through which we give of
ourselves to serve and fulfill what we hold in common.
The opposite of crisis is community. And it is crisis that calls us into
community. In human history, as in all relationships of meaning... the only
time we truly practice munificence is when we feel truly and authentically
safe! Safe to be ourselves... safe to sustain our true selves. We yearn to
build what is safe. And that which is truly safe is that which recognizes
and serves the interconnection residing between us having emerged from within
us. This is why the greater human story... at times when it is truly
lived... speaks to a level and demonstration of compassion. The impending
transformation before us is a calling into that dimension of collaboration...
and compassion within ourselves and throughout ourselves... our lives... our
planet... and the universal dimensions throughout.
It is no coincidence that the word "communication" reveals the process
through which authentic community is built and sustained. Please realize
that the prefix and infix is the same as "community"... however, in
communication... it is the suffix that differs. "Tion" refers to process.
Hence "communication" is the process by which we give of ourselves (our
truths) to discover and serve what we hold in common.
My love to you all! In community,
Jeffrey Courion
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From: "Mnr AM de Lange" <AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za>
Dear Flemming and all other newcivics,
It is wonderful to know that this list needs not to be measured
in hundreds any more - the first thousand has been reached.
Congratulations.
I notice that most of the newciv members lead an active life
towards a new civilisation as the attractor - a civilisation in
which the higher values of our present civilisation becomes the
common norm. It is wonderful to be conscious of this fact since
we observe the contrary also: the high values of our present
civilisation play a lesser role in a growing majority of people.
It is almost as if I am describing what appears to be a
contradiction (dilemma) - more people living uncivilised when
more people wish to live civilised. However, I am not describing
a contradiction, but a bifurcation, a forking event.
A bifurcation will happen in any creative system (chemical,
biological, spiritual) when the rate of entropy production is
stepped up in the system. Entropy is always produced when one
form of energy is transformed into another form. In fact, this
creation of entropy is the 'force' which 'drives' the very
transformation. Any irreversible transformation will not happen
if no entropy is produced (created).
The produced entropy will firstly be manifested as chaos. We
have to view this chaos as 'chaos of becoming'. It happens
automatically, it points to variety in becoming and it has to
be communicated to all parts of the universe. This chaos
is exactly what we are now experiencing in our civilisation:
contradictions, dilemmas, incoherencies, etc.
If the rate of entropy production is high enough, the avenues
for conducting this chaos of becoming to the rest of the
universe. (Think of over crowded highways.) It is then when the
bifurcation happens, i.e. when the entropy also have to be
secondly manifested as order. We have to view this order as
'order of being'. Rather than communicating the entropy produced
to the rest of the universe, this extra entropy is now handled by
additional structures.
The bifurcation can led to either an emergence (a new order with
more complexity and higher level) or an immergence (an implicate
order with less complexity and lower level). An emergence is
like the germination of seed while an immergence is like the
explosion of a bomb. The emergence will not happen
automatically, but happens contingently. Seven essentialities
have to be satisfied sufficiently before it can happen. If an
emergence cannot happen, then an immergence (collapse, downfall)
will happen automatically.
The seven essentialities are, using non-technical terms:
1 being-becoming
2 sureness
3 wholeness
4 connection
5 limitedness
6 variety
7 openness.
These seven essentialities will have to receive all our
attention. We cannot afford to have any one of them to be
immature, impaired or deficient if we wish a new civilisation to
emerge. (I will discuss them in my forthcoming book as well as
the extraordinary manner in which I discovered them. The book is
now in its final manuscript stage.)
What I would now wish to see is your own reflection on the seven
topics listed above. Let us reflect on them on this forum, rather
than sending me private email. Let us respect each other's
thoughts. Let your thoughts roam by relating them to your
present activities, your pains experienced in the present
civilisation and what you long for in the future dispensation.
Let we learn form each other in the wonderful way which Socrates
has described to Theatetus:
Well, my art of midwifery is in most respects like theirs;
but differs, in that I attend men and not woman, and I look
after their souls when they are in labour and not their
bodies. The triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining
whether the thought which the young man brings forth is a
false idol or a noble and true birth.
Those of you who know more about Socrates, will realise that he
was not a male chauvinist. He was speaking in metaphoric terms
and not advocating the teaching of only males. (Sorry for my
English, it is not my mother tongue.)
Best wishes
- --
At de Lange
Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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Please direct comments and discussion to ncndiscuss-l@newciv.org
o o
/ \------------------ Flemming A. Funch ------------------/ \
/ * \ World Transformation/New Civilization/Whole Systems / * \
/ * * \ ffunch@newciv.org / * * \
o-------o----------- http://www.worldtrans.org/ ----------o-------o
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