Sharing

I’ve been doing what I can to share the idea of the Charter for Compassion.

I just read that
“The names of all affirmers on December 31 will be sent along with the Charter for Compassion to 5 world leaders whose countries are engaged in conflict.”

and I notice that Karen Armstrong was interviewed by CBC (repeat of show will be Nov 26)
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/index.html

Also, I’m still hoping for some feedback on my Nov 20 posting.

Karen Armstrong’s Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=10905&post=47548&uid=163223499166#/topic.php?uid=163223499166&topic=10905

Is the link to an ongoing conversation about the Charter for Compassion.

Because some people have told me that the charter is not practical or even that it is a lie (something I do not believe) I have asked a question in that forum. I believe the answer would help me explain to the “naysayers”. Here is my question:

Dear Karen,

I have affirmed and I am promoting the charter, but I would like to hear your answer to a question that would guide me in responding to those people who say “it’s not practical”.

Here’s the question (it’s related to the Golden Rule.)

“I would not want to be incarcerated, yet I accept the idea that society needs to be protected from, let’s say, a violent offender. I would expect that in prison this person would be treated humanely, but I do not want them out in society if there is risk that they might offend again. This seems compassionate to the potential victims. Is it also compassionate to the offender? It’s taking away his or her freedom — something I would not want to have ‘done unto me’”

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(Actually, when I think about this I believe that if something snapped in me that turned me into a violent offender, I actually would want to be taken away from society – so maybe this isn’t a perfect example, but hopefully it expresses the point.)

The Charter ∞ Share ∞ Charter for Compassion

The Charter ∞ Share ∞ Charter for Compassion.

The wording of the charter is now available, with a message that works in terms of religion, spirituality and/or ethics.

e.g.

“honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

Charter for compassion

I just watched the TED talk that led to the Charter for Compassion: Karen Armstrong about a year ago.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/karen_armstrong_makes_her_ted_prize_wish_the_charter_for_compassion.html

She makes her wish and the early stages are beginning to happen through the series of talks I mentioned in my last blog post.

While respecting religion, she acknowledges how it has been and is still being abused… the “strident use… for nefarious gains”. And she wants to end that by having leaders from different religions agree to accept a common charter.

She describes that “belief” was not originally intended to mean accepting creed (which is basically how we interpret the word today when applied to religion) but rather in early times it meant something more along the lines of cherishing or holding dear so that one can commit to a compassionate form of behaviour. It’s the compassion that she wants to see returned as the core value.

Compassion, compassion, compassion

TED has a series on compassion right now.

Robert Wright, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/robert_wright_the_evolution_of_compassion.html

Robert Thurman, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/robert_thurman_on_compassion.html

and many others. I’ve been listening… love yourself, then you can love others. Nobody really ever feels better for having hurt someone.

It’s very interesting to come at compassion from different viewpoints. What I see is that an important part of compassion begins with an attempt to understand the pain someone must be experiencing that would make them want to lash out and be your enemy; their pain makes them want to hurt you. And when you’ve been hurt, you don’t have to hurt back or even run away, no matter how tempting. (Well, maybe sometimes you *do* need to get out of harm’s way.)

But when it is possible to stand, understand and feel love even when you’re being hurt, it is good for *all*.

Imagining multi-roles in Web 2.0 Distance Education

“Imagining multi-roles in Web 2.0 Distance Education” is the title of a chapter that I have written with my colleague, BJ Eib for the George Veletsianos (Ed.) book to be published in early 2010 by Athabasca University Press titled:  

Emerging Technologies in Distance Education

We have just finished this work, which was started about a year ago…. and the big questions in our minds at the beginning have grown over the past few months. Our initial premise was related to ideas from Clay Shirky, Charles Leadbeater (and others) but turned to shed some light on Web 2.o possibilities in distance education, something that BJ and I have in our lives on a daily basis. As we’re working more and more with the new tools, our excitement is growing and we see it in our colleagues and friends as well.

“Are we experts and amateurs, audience and authors, learners and educators– all at the same time? Perhaps Web 2.0 and our ‘role(s)’ in distance education are causing us to reinvent ourselves.”

I’ll certainly be using this blog to point to more information about the book (which I understand will be offered as an online book as well as in print) when it becomes available.

Google wave and science research

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7266/full/461881a.html This link is an example of the vision of connections in data and how they can advance our understanding.

Video of Sir Ken Robinson “The Element”

This video is highly connected to his book “The Element” and includes a lot of what was said at UBC.

http://www.psfk.com/2009/03/video-sir-ken-robinson-the-element.html

Tribes, Pro-D, Sir Ken Robinson & more

Here’s a blog post showing the use of a Ning site to
“break the culture of professional isolation”
http://www.teachersourcebook.org/tsb/articles/2009/10/01/01ning.h03.html

Having been to Sir Ken Robinson’s talk yesterday (and I read most of his book on the ferry coming home – finishing it this a.m. and hope to be blogging much more about it soon) I’m thinking of his terminology of “tribes” (we tend to require support to be creative) and also thinking about how much easier tribes are to find with Social Media tools.

Which leads me to revisit some earlier thoughts about tribes: in the context of a Kevin Kelly’s article — arguments against technology http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/now-new-next/2009/04/4-arguments-against-technology.html

The idea of insiders and outsiders implies those who adopt something new and those who resist changing, and this fits with a thought I had when responding to Yule Heibel who looked at Kelly’s reasons and added her own — that technology disturbs a comfort zone. I blogged about what this might mean in a repressive regime.

http://elizabethtweets.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/contrary-to-staying-the-same/

But I guess that’s what the ‘third cycle’ of world-changing ideas might be about – change made possible because of the ways that like-minded innovation-friendly folks can find each other (like never before).

And perhaps tribes can now also disband and re-form into new tribes with a new ease as well… once informed, it’s just as easy for one person to take another away by the hand as it is to bring them in. No residual loyalty — only participating when it’s a good fit to do so. If information is allowed to flow (and if the population has acquired filtering skills, we mustn’t forget Clay Shirky here) tribes will emerge to create necessary change.

Coping, Resilience and Zimbardo’s presentations in Croatia

dove

I received a message via my Youtube account today from someone who had just attended a talk by Dr. Philip Zimbardo during his speaking engagement in Croatia. Here’s a link to that message which is basically to thank me for my video “Echoes from the Square” which Zimbardo had shown as part of the presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMrf_sd3gkA

My understanding is that Zimbardo is focusing on coping and resilience for this tour. I’m sure he’ll be referencing the Stanford Prison Experiment and his book “The Lucifer Effect”. What is really thrilling to me is that he followed through with his plan of using my video, which tells a story of coping and rebuilding.

Dr Zimbardo had requested permission to use the video  about six months ago and I thought I might never know if he would actually end up presenting it or not. Thank you to Youtube user “TheAshes987″ for using the comment feature and letting me know