Replying to LO30128 --
Dear LO and John,
John you ask in part,
> Why does there seem to be a presumption that people participating in a
> group dialogue on LO's, leadership, teamwork, organizational change,
> sustainability, Open Space, AI, etc., are strongly opposed to the war in
> Iraq? Why does there seem to be a presumption that ones who may be moved
> by poetry or appreciate art and other forms of beauty are strongly opposed
> to said war?
I have three books beside me on the workings of Leonardo da Vinci. It is
evident to even the most cursory student of his life and work that he spent a
great deal of his creative time designing engines for war. He designed a
cannon for shooting shrapnel that looks identical to the ones used in the
American Civil War ;-) and he also designed prototypical chemical weapons, "
all those who, as they breathe, inhale the said powder with their breath and
will become asphyxiated."
It seems from this quote he was ambivalent about the business of war and war
machinery. "- beastly madness".
A chapter heading from 'The Middle Parts of Fortune' by Frederic Manning. (An
Australian unfit enought to attend 'proper school' was mainly a self educated
poet who was sent from his native home to live in England with a family
friend, a quiet clergyman friend of Ezra Pound and Max Beerbohm. He joined
the army in 1914 and experienced the traumas of the Somme. He published his
experiences anonymously under a different title in the thirties, and it was
considered too 'crude' for general reading, so it was re-written, nicer
;-)...he was republished, proper, later ;-)
The chapter heading reads,
"Yes, in this present quality of war
Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds which to prove fruit
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
That frosts will bite them."
Shakespeare
Methinks it's deep set all too deep set into our collective unconscious
nature.
Your questions though led me alone, to Aristotle and thence to Mr Machiavelli
- "A tyrant desires riches, whereas a King desires honour.The tyrant has
guards who are mercenaries and the king has guards who are citizens...to
remain in power the tyrant must prevent the rise of persons through merit, by
execution or assassination if necessary. He must prohibit common meals, clubs
and any education likely to produce hostile sentiment. No literary assemblies
or discussions and dialogues, he must prevent people from knowing each other
well, employ spies, sow quarrels and impoverish the majority of his subjects,
make way so that they will always feel in need of his leadership..."
Aristotle. Depressingly familiar isn't it?
Mr Machiavelli, if I were to found a republic in my own back yard should i
choose men from the city or men from the mountains to found it? Men from the
mountains Mr Campbell, or desert dwellers...;-) the men from the city would
already be too corrupted.
As an attempt at a typically shallow synthesis by Andrew Campbell, Mr.
Bertrand Russell plays with this offence to good historical prejudice, " It
is curious to find in this an anticipation of Rousseau. It would be amusing
and not wholly false to interpret Machiavelli as a disappointed romantic."
(Footnote, 1, pp. 531 Western Philosophical Thought, History of Western
Philosophy, George Allen and Unwin. Inscribed 'Simon Hallett Balliol College,
Oxford')
John, a pure milky white moth is battering herself against the outside glass
of my window...time to close down the light ;-) unless she gains entry and
flies into the flame...;-)
Love,
Andrew
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