What is paramount in co-creative learning is its collaborative nature, drawing and building on the work of many others. Critical Thinking’s conclusions are the culmination of millions of man hours, worked by hundreds of thousands of people, shared by thousands more and filtered through the Critical Thinking community to be re-shared via email, the website, conversations, books, articles, videos, podcasts and Twitter. Critical Thinking’s motto is:
Thus no individual or group can claim “ownership” of what Critical Thinking has produced – knowledge is one of the most important commons. Theft of the commons is one of the three fundamental flaws in the political economy.
Critical Thinking urges us to plagiarise.
Knowledge is not to be held secret and rationed out to the privileged but is our birthright denied us by the political economy. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) don’t exist to reward creators but to perpetuate ignorance and the abusive and destructive political economy.
Among those who’ve contributed to Critical Thinking’s work are some who “get it”, ie. are pretty much “on board” with its conclusions. There are others who are at a different place on their own journey of discovery and have yet to see the whole picture of the political economy.
The power of co-creative learning comes from the growth of a shared understanding which resonates and as the resonance grows, one can sense or feel it.
It is as though an unseen force pushed the idea/concept of resonance at us until it began to “resonate”. As many will know, when vibrations resonate, they amplify each other, creating super or hyper vibration. And this is what Critical Thinking has experienced on occasions. It would be untrue and misleading to suggest we’ve achieved true resonance among all people engaged with Critical Thinking. It has been the case, on occasions, where resonance has been widespread for moments in time and that some in the Critical Thinking “community” resonate more frequently than others.
The resonance is growing but from a very small beginning. To nurture and feed that resonance, we need to keep learning and sharing what we learn. Question everything. The most important question is cui bono or who benefits?
When we look at the world from different perspectives, it’s a lot less frightening than we previously imagined and we begin to see our way to escape the human farm.
“The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John G. Saxe (read by Tom O’Bedlam)