Wheatley Dialogue LO10727

Michael McMaster (Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 27 Oct 1996 08:27:05 +0000

Replying to LO10701 --

Here's something from an interview I have recently read and carry around
with me. The interview is with Arnold Mindell titled "In the Fire of
Worldwork" from a magazine called Caduceus. They call his work conflict
resolution.

He says that we "marginalize" others - reduce them to less than full
validity, we "disavow" them - and then we fear them and they fear us.

He describes being the facilitator between some rival gang members who
were killing each other:

"You want to kill the other person?"
"You bet I do."
"Well, I think I can understand that. It must be a great pleasure to
be able to gain revenge. Revenge is such a wonderful thing. It is
so full of sweetness."
"How do YOU understand it so well?"
"I haven't had your life but I do know what it's like to gain
revenge. The trouble is, it's never sweet enough."

etc

and before they knew it, they had a common ground.

The common ground was provided by someone who could be present to both
sides and include them both and not marginalize or "make wrong" either
side. My own interpretation is that this is extremely powerful because it
is manifest in one person and therefore seen as possible for any person.

--
Michael McMaster :   Michael@kbdworld.com
book cafe site   :   http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe
"I don't give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity 
but I'd die for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." 
            attributed to Chief Justice Brandeis
 

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>