December 20, 2011
Completion to Week 1
JK: There were 2 assignments given to fellow learners of this course: create a personal learning plan and read/comment on “what is discourse”. An accompanying paragraph was available for reflection:
“"Discourse" refers to the collective processes of social interchange and discussion relating to a particular subject area—for example, the international human rights discourse. More generally it can allude to a framework of concepts, shared understandings, and practices through which particular aspects of social reality are interpreted and constructed. The House of Justice is also using the idea of reading and undersanding "social spaces" in relation to participation in public discourse and this can be explored a bit--eg, professional, academic, civil society, local, and governmental spaces. Participation in the discourses of society implies a posture of learning with others and drawing upon both the insights of the Revelation and application of those insights in a way that enriches understanding about social challenges.”
JK: Many discussions addressed the speech and written language aspects of discourse and its needing to be used to “teach” the Cause of God. A few class members expressed interest in going beyond discourse to the creation of models that could be used to express our beliefs. This weekend also saw the Baha’i Social Economic Development Conference in Orlando Florida being conducted to attendees from around the world. Roya Bauman has “tweeted” on her Baha’I SED Conference Hosted by Rabbani Charitable Trust” site at Facebook her understanding of the various conference speakers. She references Mr. Ken Bowers talk on social discourse as follows:
“Ken Bowers is speaking this morning about participation in public discourse. So far, he has made reference to the massive and continuous changes that have affected the planet with increasing speed over the last several decades. He read the wonderful quote starting, "A tempest..." written by Shoghi Effendi in "The Promised Day is Come" in 1941. Now he is reading from "The World Order of Baha'u'llah", written in 1936; p. 203 -- "The unity of the human race as envisaged by Baha'u'llah...".
“We are somewhere in the middle of what these two passages speak of, being expected to participate in helping humanity become something it has never been. Forces of integration and disintegration.”
“Another spiritual concept too: being and doing. It's not enough to march out into the world with platitudes we don't practice. Will they mean anything if there is not behind them a sacrificial attempt to translate these ideals into reality?”
Comments?
JohnK
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