This man - a hero?
I love what he said.
I love the way he said it.
I'm a coward.
He was brave.
I love the way he walked in water.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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No need to read this bit.....
My name is Oliver. Originally I set out from Dublin to London to teach English. I ventured into Youth and Community work.Then I went back into schooling, working with youngsters many schools didn't want.
Now I'm retired. I enjoy walking the streets of London and getting on with my own education. I have a lot of catching up to do.
Now I'm retired. I enjoy walking the streets of London and getting on with my own education. I have a lot of catching up to do.
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2 comments:
Hi O,
A great man with noble intentions but a poor argument.
“When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave”.
Walking through water, does the philosopher Jacob Bronowski at the concentration camp Auschwitz offer this as knowledge or as belief?
I am old enough to remember watching this and being moved by it when it was first broadcast. I also remember the moment aged 14 when I found myself disagreeing with Plato and realising, with shock and perhaps fear, that I could think for myself. Sadly, this snippet of Jacob Bronowski's thesis fails in almost every degree, except for his deeply felt good intentions.
Perhaps there is no message supporting what he is attempting to say that will succeed when (if there is no absolute knowledge) everyone's reality is different. In the end and in reality, it is Mao Tse-tung’s reality of political power growing “out of the barrel of a gun” that is the reality shared by all flesh and blood. It is that reality, it is that absolute knowledge that is enough. Armed and forewarned with that knowledge, the direction we take is our personal decision. Thereafter, to our pleasure or pain, we must share the consequences.
Incidentally, if I had to make a list of heroes, Bronowski would be on it.
L
Hi L,
I read your piece when you posted on Intothelight, thought quite a bit about it, decided to leave it at that.
Not even sure how I came across the YouTube clip - but it surprised me when I did. As part of a final last training session with colleagues I went to the trouble of copying that very clip and showing it and about three others. One was from "All Creatures Great And Small", another was to do with the Atom Bomb being dropped on Hiroshima. The theme for the session was a very personal attempt to illustrate some aspects of inspirational teaching/education.
For me, the clip is a more a moment of 'Art' rather than a good or "poor argument". It is performance, broadcasting, a lesson in humanity, history and humility. And more. Bronowski's target, for me, is that tragic mix of Arrogance and Certainty which exterminated millions - but then history and the daily news are littered with tragedies caused by similar flaws.
I don't think I have "heroes" - there are people I admire, or more precisely some of their writings, works, deeds that I know of. They do not aspire to be Gods, or to know God.
Maybe Mao is right - though reality could be out of the bowels of the earth, for instance, rather than any ultimate weapon[s] - much more likely.
In the meantime, we can only get on with life as best we can. Today, that meant getting up late, strolling round the market and coming back to cook a fish curry!
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