It is actually quite difficult to perform the alternative path
when it goes against "social gravity" -- I agree with Rolfe when
he says, "The ecosocial relationships between (potentially endless)
discourses, power and play" are "fertile ground for speculation" -
but why not also for systematic study? I don't mean that we should
look for Heyokas, but that we should pay attention to the Heyoka-like
effects of certain interactions, in certain activity settings. Kris
Guttierez identifies the "3rd space" in classrooms, where official
(teacher-controlled) scripts and counter (student-controlled) scripts
intermingle. Maybe performing the alternative path against social
gravity needs such a "3rd space" or maybe we should ask how "3rd spaces"
can be deliberately framed.
- Judy
At 06:06 PM 3/1/96 PST, you wrote:
>The ecosocial relationships between (potentially endless) discourses, power
>and play strike me as a fertile ground for speculation. I can recall working
>at the Berkeley People's Office back in the late sixties (initially to
>assist incarcerated protestors and later as an organizer in the first
>attempt to form a tenants' union) and one of the standing jokes among a few
>of us "operatives" was that we could get a lot more done if only the talk
>would stop for awhile (the political meetings had a certain interminable
>quality since issues were rarely resolved and there was always a bit of
>one-upmanship going on of the "more revolutionary than thou" variety).
>
>However (to provide some "alternity" to Hannu and Jay's points) instead of
>resorting to violence or direct power displays against confederates, some
>cadres would simply decide on an action and initiate it on their own. Group
>solidarity subsequently demanded that others, even those who had argued
>against that specific action, must perforce join in the activity; thus was
>social motion and engagement initiated by material example.
>
>Some of these "spontaneous" actions were extremely playful in nature but
>they all were also just as certainly rational, or perhaps more broadly,
>logical -- either to break the deadlock or, in the Heyoka sense, to show
>another path in the morass by the simple expedient of walking it.
>
>Rolfe
>
>
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> Rolfe Windward (UCLA GSE&IS, Curriculum & Teaching)
> ibalwin who-is-at mvs.oac.ucla.edu (text)
> rwindwar who-is-at ucla.edu (text/BinHex/MIME/Uuencode)
> CompuServe: 70014,00646 (text/binary/GIF/JPEG)
>
> "I respect belief, but doubt is what gets you an education." W. Mizener
>
>
>
Judy Diamondstone
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University
.................................................