Thursday, January 19, 2006
Luddites Revisited
"I doubt the Luddites would have seen the irony in the situation. On Jan. 19, 1812, in a news item titled "Execution of the Luddites at York," the London Times reported: "Precisely at eleven o'clock, on Saturday, the following persons suffered the sentence of the law due to their crimes: John Hill, Joseph Crowther, Nathan Hoyle, Jonathon Dean, John Ogden, Thomas Brook, and John Walker."
The Luddites were a group of 19th-century weavers whose name is now synonymous with opposition to technology, and the irony lies in the precise timing of the execution. A mechanical clock or watch was doubtless used for the occasion. So the Luddites -- who had destroyed the new weaving machinery that threatened their employment and whose protests had led to riots, assault, and murder -- ended their lives following the precise mechanisms of a machine.
At the trial, the judge gave a long speech in which he insisted on the "excellence of our machinery." Yet, in preferring the machines and what they represented, he showed little sensitivity to the human costs of new technology.
It is easy, I believe, to dismiss historical opposition to machines as being mindless or simply irrelevant because the events happened a long time ago. But when we consider the ways in which computer technology is used in education, particularly in developments such as virtual schools, it is useful to consider past examples of how people's lives have been affected by machines."
Virtual Schools: What Role Should Online Learning Play in the Future of Schooling?, Glen Russell (www.electronic-school.com)
The Luddites were a group of 19th-century weavers whose name is now synonymous with opposition to technology, and the irony lies in the precise timing of the execution. A mechanical clock or watch was doubtless used for the occasion. So the Luddites -- who had destroyed the new weaving machinery that threatened their employment and whose protests had led to riots, assault, and murder -- ended their lives following the precise mechanisms of a machine.
At the trial, the judge gave a long speech in which he insisted on the "excellence of our machinery." Yet, in preferring the machines and what they represented, he showed little sensitivity to the human costs of new technology.
It is easy, I believe, to dismiss historical opposition to machines as being mindless or simply irrelevant because the events happened a long time ago. But when we consider the ways in which computer technology is used in education, particularly in developments such as virtual schools, it is useful to consider past examples of how people's lives have been affected by machines."
Virtual Schools: What Role Should Online Learning Play in the Future of Schooling?, Glen Russell (www.electronic-school.com)
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Row Your Boat
Do you remember the children's nursery rhyme and round "Row Your Boat"?
For some reason I thought of that poem a few weeks ago. Perhaps it floated into my mind because of the New Year. Perhaps because I just read the Urban Shaman by Serge Kahili King in which he focus on the premise that life is a dream. (Read the book review at http://illuminatedinnovant.blogspot.com/2005/12/urban-shaman.html.)
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.
What a wonderful piece of wisdom that's been hidden right before our eyes.
I decided to search the Internet to find the source of this wisdom. First, I found that the poem is anonymous. Intuitive Connections Network (www.intuitive-connections.net/2002/opinion.html) states that "this round is from an ancient text of unknown origin. The Great Songs Thesaurus says the earliest found publication of these words was in 1852; the music was added in 1881."
I was amused to find that there are hundreds of essays on and references to this poem with titles like "Forming Your Opinion About Life", "Row Your Boat Mantra: A Buddhist Commentary", "A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow" and many others.
What I saw in the poem is slightly different.
William Crews' book Four Causes of Reality (Philosophical Library, 1969) builds on Aristotle's philosophy of the four causes of reality. Crews develops the four causes:
First Cause - Material Cause
Second Cause - Formal Cause
Third Cause - Efficient Cause
Fourth Cause - Final Cause
The basic idea behind this construct is that all reality has four causes, i.e. necessary elements of its existence.
The material cause can be considered to be what the reality is composed of. In the case of a house, it's all the building materials. The formal cause shapes or gives form to the reality that is becoming. In the case of a house, it's the plans. The efficient cause describes the action. In the case of a house, it's the construction. The final cause is the reality's manifestation. In the case of a house, it is the home.
In "Row Your Boat", the first phrase could be interpreted to say that the building blocks of life are actions. Row is repeated three times, forming a trinity, maybe in this case like past, present and future. The wisdom in this poem suggests that drifting is not an option. You're going to have to work.
The second phrase, and second cause, or formal cause is "gently down the stream." The wisdom doesn't encourage fighting the current, or even attempting to cross the stream. It suggests finding the currents in the stream and rowing to the currents and then in the currents. A whirling stream with eddies and many different currents is probably not a bad metaphor for the future. Out role, and what should shape our lives, according to this wisdom is to search for the shifting currents, find them and exploit them gently.
The third phrase, and efficient cause, is "merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily." To be merry is to be joyous in disposition or spirit. Good advice under any circumstances. "Merrily" is repeated four times. It may have been repeated for emphasis. Or, it may have been to remind us of the fractal nature of the four causes. For each cause there are four causes, and so on, and so on. If this was the case, the poet wanted to make sure that we got it. Joyousness was the key to the efficient cause of the reality you were creating, and the material through final cause of that efficient cause was in itself joyousness.
The fourth and final cause is in the fourth phrase "life is but a dream." We make reality up as we go. Our limited sensory capabilities provide information on our environment that we integrate in our minds with assumptions, prior history and paradigms to construct our reality. As this all occurs in our head, it is no different than a dream.
Happy New Year! May you row your boat gently down the stream joyously for life is but a dream.
For some reason I thought of that poem a few weeks ago. Perhaps it floated into my mind because of the New Year. Perhaps because I just read the Urban Shaman by Serge Kahili King in which he focus on the premise that life is a dream. (Read the book review at http://illuminatedinnovant.blogspot.com/2005/12/urban-shaman.html.)
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.
What a wonderful piece of wisdom that's been hidden right before our eyes.
I decided to search the Internet to find the source of this wisdom. First, I found that the poem is anonymous. Intuitive Connections Network (www.intuitive-connections.net/2002/opinion.html) states that "this round is from an ancient text of unknown origin. The Great Songs Thesaurus says the earliest found publication of these words was in 1852; the music was added in 1881."
I was amused to find that there are hundreds of essays on and references to this poem with titles like "Forming Your Opinion About Life", "Row Your Boat Mantra: A Buddhist Commentary", "A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow" and many others.
What I saw in the poem is slightly different.
William Crews' book Four Causes of Reality (Philosophical Library, 1969) builds on Aristotle's philosophy of the four causes of reality. Crews develops the four causes:
First Cause - Material Cause
Second Cause - Formal Cause
Third Cause - Efficient Cause
Fourth Cause - Final Cause
The basic idea behind this construct is that all reality has four causes, i.e. necessary elements of its existence.
The material cause can be considered to be what the reality is composed of. In the case of a house, it's all the building materials. The formal cause shapes or gives form to the reality that is becoming. In the case of a house, it's the plans. The efficient cause describes the action. In the case of a house, it's the construction. The final cause is the reality's manifestation. In the case of a house, it is the home.
In "Row Your Boat", the first phrase could be interpreted to say that the building blocks of life are actions. Row is repeated three times, forming a trinity, maybe in this case like past, present and future. The wisdom in this poem suggests that drifting is not an option. You're going to have to work.
The second phrase, and second cause, or formal cause is "gently down the stream." The wisdom doesn't encourage fighting the current, or even attempting to cross the stream. It suggests finding the currents in the stream and rowing to the currents and then in the currents. A whirling stream with eddies and many different currents is probably not a bad metaphor for the future. Out role, and what should shape our lives, according to this wisdom is to search for the shifting currents, find them and exploit them gently.
The third phrase, and efficient cause, is "merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily." To be merry is to be joyous in disposition or spirit. Good advice under any circumstances. "Merrily" is repeated four times. It may have been repeated for emphasis. Or, it may have been to remind us of the fractal nature of the four causes. For each cause there are four causes, and so on, and so on. If this was the case, the poet wanted to make sure that we got it. Joyousness was the key to the efficient cause of the reality you were creating, and the material through final cause of that efficient cause was in itself joyousness.
The fourth and final cause is in the fourth phrase "life is but a dream." We make reality up as we go. Our limited sensory capabilities provide information on our environment that we integrate in our minds with assumptions, prior history and paradigms to construct our reality. As this all occurs in our head, it is no different than a dream.
Happy New Year! May you row your boat gently down the stream joyously for life is but a dream.
