John,
My fantastic tale of dots struck a raw nerve in you. And with your
background-of-obviousness, being different, naturally, from mine or anyone
else's, you took the little story in the sense of blind following, among
other things. And I couldn't agree with you more about how following
blindly, without thought, is a scourge among "civilized" humans.
Buffoonery, charlatanism and the like abound. And as human population
grows, as we, among most all creatures, face "moral" dilemmas about our
existence in relation to the rest of the bios, it may be that more and
more humans will follow the next -ism toward perceived salvation.
And I'm not even talking about empirical proofs made manifest in order for
you and me to be believers in something.
My tale was at a very high level of abstraction. It can and should fall
prey to analyses such as yours at a lower level, where experience begins
to mitigate against whatever positive teaching. By that, I refer, I think,
to LO postings from years ago about the theme of myth and story, and how
they carry the learning of a human organization from one learning
generation to the next. Universal tales in cultures hold grains of truth,
and--for you--stones of warning. I concur. When someone says that there's
an alien ship waiting behind a comet to pick up me and my co-travelers for
transport to another body, space and time, I'm a tad skeptical.
Last night, NOVA on PBS aired a provocative program about the Book of
Revelation. In a TV nutshell it presented much that supports your cynicism
and mine about following dots off the cliff.
Thank you for your reactions.
Barry
--Barry Mallis, Manager - Training and Development MARKEM Corporation www.markem.com | email: bmallis@markem.com voice: 603 357-4255 ext. 2578 | FAX: 603 352-0525
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