Profound effects

Steve Bridger's comment on my blog post - what can I say?-  feels like one of those life-changing moments! He led me to a brief interview with Michael Wesch who did that great video of Web2.0.

If I substitute "cultural anthropology" for "life learning" then Wesch is talking loud and clear to me. In the interview he says:

"...cultural anthropology is a continuous exercise in expanding my mind and my empathy, building primarily from one simple principle: everything is connected. This is true on many levels. First, everything including the environment, technology, economy, social structure, politics, religion, art and more are all interconnected. As I tried to illustrate in the video, this means that a change in one area (such as the way we communicate) can have a profound effect on everything else, including family, love, and our sense of being itself. Second, everything is connected throughout all time, and so as anthropologists we take a very broad view of human history, looking thousands or even millions of years into the past and into the future as well. And finally, all people on the planet are connected. This has always been true environmentally because we share the same planet. Today it is even more true with increasing economic and media globalization."

And that reminds me - again - of why I have to move beyond reading, talking about, and doing communities of practice and Web2.0 because it is reductionist and ignores all the other things that bring meaning, connectivity and learning to our lives. Or rather, my understanding of what I'm trying to do will come as much from things outside the magnifying glass as it will from what I see through the lens.

Let's face it - you can't look at learning in isolation from history, love, philosophy, sex, religion - and cross-country cycling - and that's just how it is!