I can't resist...Eric Opp started the engine in LO 11572, Hager
Ben-Mahmoud warmed it up, and William Hobler kicked it into gear.
There are many technologies, very few of which are decreasing in cost
(real costs, not just to the end user); among them are medical
instrumentation, pharmaceuticals, power generation, heavy equipment,
transportation, housing. Remembering the days of "energy to cheap to
meter", there ARE, as Amory Lovins pointed out in the mid-seventies,
Limits to Growth which we can't ignore.
Perhaps we are blinded by our riches; believing that ours is best, we do
badly by imposing our will via our culture on the rest of the world.
Whether we do this knowingly or not is not the point. That we do it at
all is what makes this country ill. Those who find W. Edwards Deming a
positive influence often see his admonitions as too close to calling for
socialism; others may see them as a reflection on the present and future
survival of not only ours but other cultures as well. If world dominance
is what we want, given our power and wealth, we will get it. But it will
be at a tremendous price...can we afford not to think carefully not only
how but WHY we as contributors to the culture do the things we do?
The present technology (Internet and web-related) allows us to further
promulgate what we think others will want; whether they will is another
story. Hence, the overriding need, IMO, is to stress consideration and
respect for OTHER's values, and then promote our own if that is what we
indeed want to do. Not everyone needs or wants to live as we americans
do, regardless of what we think. Let others think for themselves. Ours is
only one part of a larger Learning Organization; we can choose to have
values which add to its potential, or we can choose not to. In any event,
it will have a life of its own. Better it should have a positive outcome,
not dictated by our self-conscious leanings as a nation, as a culture, as
a dominating force in this world.
What good is education? What price sanity? Learn, learn, learn from
others. Such a medium as this should not be wasted, should it?
--Regards, John Constantine rainbird@trail.com Rainbird Management Consulting PO Box 23554 Santa Fe, NM 87502 http://www.trail.com/~rainbird "Dealing in Essentials"
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>