:SUMMARY
* Dialogue makes people feel good, which is good, but is probably insufficient to meet global challenges if it doesn't lead to action or real transformaton - a fact we may overlook because it feels good. We may need better success criteria for D&D.
* Networks link us, but only become effective when they become systems capable of channeling our collective actions. We resist this constraint on our freedom and thus limit our collective effectiveness.
* Our failure to confront the magnitude of effort needed to meet our contemporary challenge forfeits our intiative to the exploiters of the world. This is the primary cause of our present world difficulties.
* What is needed to make dialogue and deliberation into a resource and a movement that are of comparable magnitude to the challenge we face?.
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A Sober Assessment Of Contemporary D&D
:(edited for Wiki by Larry Victor 07/11/2004)
I use the term "SoberAssessment" because good human-human fellowship that is part of D&D processes often produces an emotional "high". Euphoria is a frequent state of consciousness associated with D&D. Successful D&D makes us "feel good", to view our achievements and prospects through "rose colored glasses". We seldom can give an "Objectives" Assessment Evaluation of our D&D experience from within such states of euphoria.
I stopped leading D&D sessions when I became depressed by the excessive exuberance expressed by participants. They had had a "good time", and wanted more "good times". For persons who had only very infrequent encounters with sincere human dialog, D&D truly provides very special moments. Yet, as a leader with some anticipation of future progressive behavior from the participants * that they might have moved some way into becoming a pro-active team, and not just a "good fellowship group", I was disappointed by the almost total lack of response other than about feelings.
Indeed, it isn*t until just this moment, as I start composing this, that I realize that I did actually Organize Implement many D&D sessions for many years, both as a means to organize others to join with me in positive action AND as explicit experiments in D&D (I did not use that terminology, at that time). This started in the mid 1970s and continued through Y2K. Contributing to this remembrance is my current effort scanning my 100 spiral bound, hand scripted, notebooks from those earlier years and noting the extent of coverage related to D&D. I may find the motivation to search these records and assemble a listing of my considerable, practice-oriented efforts at D&D. Too many people "know me" only as a non-practical, abstract thinker and talker * but not a doer. I have done much, but have had few successes.
The usual evaluation of success for a session is how much participants enjoyed the process and what they felt they personally gained from their positive encounters with others. This is a necessary measure * as anticipated enjoyment is a primary motivator for continuing participation. But, for me, who views D&D as a necessary (but not sufficient) means to positive social/cultural/political/economic change, additional evaluative measures were called for.
The enjoyment factor emerged early in my research into how to make 1960*s anti-war organizations more effective, and later as THE most significant factor in motivating students to "study":
:THE PRIMARY MOTIVATION FOR STUDYING SHOULD BE THE ANTICIPATED ENJOYMENT OF THE STUDY PROCESS, ITSELF.
became a slogan I attempted to push on my Intro Psychology students.
Enjoyment also became the third E in my multi-dimensional (vector) Acronym Icon for evaluation: REEEE
*Relevant **Effective ***Efficient ****Enjoyable *****Elegant
Whatever other evaluative measures I applied to my D&D sessions, they rated poorly. I experimented with many techniques to make the sessions more "productive" but was not successful. One measure of successful D&D, for me, was increased self-motivated, self-organizing, team-like behavior of participants.
It comes to me now that my strong focus on Deliberation (in terms of planning future organizing and action, even to provide formal tools to facilitate planning), contributed to my perceived failures * as participants far preferred Dialog to Deliberation. Was I too impatient? Maybe, but my belief that MORE was needed; that simply having more Dialog heavy sessions would not have led to successful Deliberation.
The ole memory buds are being stimulated as I write. I recall the high significance I gave to an insight provided by Philadelphia community organizer, Stan Pokras: Networks can*t do anything (other than provide links between nodes). Systems can do, because systems have an organization (that channels component behavior through limiting component freedom) and can function as a whole entity. For a "collective" to become effective, it must organize as a system. Unfortunately, many "networkers" irrationally fear the constraints required of them to be functional component of viable systems. In this context * the shift from fun dialog to productive deliberation requires that we enable systems to emerge from within our networks. Stan coined the term Sys Nets, to use when we don*t need to attend to the significant distinction between Nets and Systems.
I now wonder whether I had been slowly, but negatively, conditioning myself so as to eventually stop attempting to organize D&D; conditioning so strongly as to even suppress memory of past efforts.
It just occurred to me that I, twice, rented large homes, with extra furniture (including to-be-networked computers) and in attractive environments with the explicit intention of hosting D&D sessions * and to eventually seed an emergent community. This was a financial sacrifice as I did not personally need so much space. I equipped these sites with tools to augment D&D and experimented with protocols. I attempted to organize extended gatherings that would involve both f2f dialog and online or virtual correspondence * in the early 1980s when computers were just emerging as tools for people. This remains a strong focus for me, as I research Synchronous Asynchronous Synergy.
For the past few years my habitat was such as to preclude hosting gatherings of any kind, even a personal visit by a friend for a relaxed evening of dialog. I always met with friends away from my habitat. It is now only a few months that I am again living in a habitat suitable for hosting D&D sessions * not as big as before, but adequate. Although thoughts of such hosting have occasionally popped to mind, they have been primarily repressed, as I let myself become attracted to other ventures.
The above is not fully accurate. I have been giving a great amount of time and effort in contemplating the design of sessions and augmenting settings so as to better insure success (as I would measure it). I resist simply hosting a gathering to dialog. Again, although well aware of the dialog and deliberation movements (primarily through reports from Tom Atlee and Tom Greco) I had not explicitly placed my efforts in the D&D category until a week ago when my attention was caused to rest and study NCDD and Nc DDWiki.
I had am emotional experience a few days ago that I now recognize as part of this remembrance/recognition process. While driving home I was listening to a New Dimensions Radio interview of some of the leaders of the recent "Lets Talk America" D&D gathering * also recently reported in very personal terms by Tom Atlee < http://www.co-intelligence.org/polarization-Fetzer.html >. I was literally being torn apart by two conflicting emotions. I continued to stew in my emotional juices for an hour after arriving home, until I achieved closure by dumping the following into my journal, in an item I entitled "ANGRY".
I don't want to be angry; it isn't good for my health. But I have been fuming inside, and with self talk for the past hour since I returned home. It started in the truck driving home, listening to a quality radio talk show that featured Let's Talk America, Conversation Cafe's and D&D. Leif Utne was one of three guests. What they talked about, and I was very pleased to hear it aired. was the new movement towards getting Americans dialoging and conversing with each other. I wish them much more than success - I would love to see a miraculous emergence of many gatherings and dialog/deliberation sessions. This is a very basic necessary process in our move towards creating a better world. But, it is far, far from sufficient action - AND, the level of concept and effort (not pointing at any individuals who are devoting their lives full time to this movement) for conversation, dialog, and deliberation is itself far from adequate (in my humble assessment).
I would not expect those on the radio program to air these (internal and process) issues. Nor, should they be topics of initial or even secondary dialog. BUT, I fear that they are not primary concerns of the leadership - or, if they are known, are relegated to the back burner as more immediate demands call. THIS avoidance of the MAGNITUTDE of effort needed to manifest significant change is, and has been, in my opinion the primary cause of our present world difficulties. We are in trouble by default, by forfeiture to the exploiter by the humanist change agent who was either unwilling or unable to open themselves to sufficient self study or were themselves only human and has succumbed to the addiction of good feelings about participation in so-called "good works".My strong emotional reaction can be attributed to decades of failure, and the realization that time is running out for me. At 69 I don*t have a probable 40 more years to share my insights and catalyze the emergent activity I envision. But, personal panic is no solution.
What is needed to move D&D from not only a necessary, but also a sufficient process? Since my insights have taken decades to emerge and transform, into a complex and often radically different system of perspective/paradigm shifts, I cannot share this briefly. But it is my intent to Begin Again * and I will start using NCDD and Nc DDWiki as one of my launch platforms.
This is already too long of a document, so I will end now and provide links to continuing discourse, and then post this on Nc DDWiki and my website.
RELATED TOPICS
Dialog Within Diversity Dialog Deliberation Creates Worlds Semiotic Settings Augmenting D&D (SSADD) Sufficient Action and Precison Of Fit Semiotic Structures, s Worlds and D&D Processing Structure / Structuring Process Epistemological Stages and D&D Synchronous Asynchronous Synergy and D&D Multiple Human Worlds Context Challenging Counseling Human Deception is an Inherited Propensity NU Emergence Transformation Bootstrapping Uplifting Scaffolding Learning Expeditions Nu Co Labs and Nu Coms Exodus And Return Survival Thrival Real Truth Sys Nets and Eco Hols What If The Best Are Inadequate? Seymour Sarason and the Resource Exchange Network
