Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Leadership In The World Today

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

June 28, 2017

"The one thing that most people can agree on is that real leadership is lacking in the world today." ...		ante-ing up for the Leadership in the World Today webinar

This essay, Leadership In The World Today, is the prequel to Leadership In The World Today II: Webinar.

I am indebted to the creators of the Leadership Course and to the alumni of the Leadership Course who inspired this conversation.

I'm old school. I freely confess my theories about how transformation is successfully disseminated in the world, will be in danger of coalescing ie will become fixed and rigid if I don't keep a wary eye on them, and ensure I stay facile and open. There are many ways people claim disseminating transformation works. There's probably great value in all of them. That said, my personal loyalty is to ie I stand with Werner Erhard who, time and time again, and again and again and again, over decades and decades, unerringly teases out transformation for millions and millions of people worldwide. So mine's a pragmatic stand rather than a philosophical one.

Here's the mother lode idea: distinguishing the meaning-making-machinery we are, is essential if there's going to be a chance authentic, real, thrilling transformation will occur. This requires more than merely reading about it, listening to audiotapes, or even earnestly discussing it. To determine if any given way ie any given access to transformation will work, I look to see if this essential requirement is implemented thoroughly. I question whether the access is set up in a way that artfully avoids the trap of meaning-making-machinery interpreting meaning-making-machinery. For there to be transformation, the veil of illusion preventing us from distinguishing our meaning-making-machinery, must be decisively pierced. So if the author of any access claims it unfetters transformation, that's the litmus test I apply to determine if it really does. And I simply don't know if it's possible to do this through books or tapes or in casual conversations (I'm not yet convinced it is - I have my doubts).

Thus the idea of delivering transformation through a medium like the internet using what's become colloquially known as a "webinar" (a clever wordplay on "sem-inar" of course) presents intriguing challenges, to say the least. Here's how three of these challenges occur for me:

First, in a webinar, we (say, a group of five hundred or more of us) aren't in one room together in real space: we're in virtual space. Listen: virtual space is not real space. If we blur the two to the point where we've created a false equivalence between them, it'll cost us every remaining shred of our humanity (I really want you to get that!). Second, we're not committed to be engaged in the process for many hours face to face for as long as it takes. Virtual face-to-face screen time (like Skype for example) is worlds removed from real face-to-face time. Third, we're not led by ie we're not in the presence in the flesh of someone who embodies transformation and who delivers it (the word of transformation, spoken, includes the body language of transformation, demonstrated).

That said, what works to a degree, is distributing descriptions, abstracts, and components of transformation by book, by audiotape, and digitally ie by .pdf and / or by webinar - but there's a caveat and it's this: if the experience of transformation is already in place, such distributed materials can be useful. But whether or not they're powerful enough in and of themselves to deliver the experience of "getting it" ie of getting the Big "IT" ie the experience of total and unbridled transformation, well ... the jury's still out on that one. Said another terser way, materials in and of themselves, just aren't enough to pierce the veil of illusion. Sorry, but they aren't.

With that laid out, a worldwide webinar is actually a vast opportunity, once we've distinguished the real possibilities of what it can't and can disseminate. For starters, its physical reach is limitless, potentially transcending even planetary boundaries (imagine, if you will, a scenario with astronauts in orbit participating in a webinar along with all of us earthlings down here on the planet - that's awesome). Next, it's scalable - which means it could potentially accommodate the entire living human race all at once (now that's a thought, yes?). And while it may not be able to disseminate the essential one-on-one face-to-face personal experiences that bring forth total transformation, the idea of Werner being accessible to a global audience, stirs me deeply. What an opening it would be! Listening him speaking, in and of itself, is enough to call forth the deeper questions and inquiries which lead to choosing to participate in a real-time, real-space total transformation disseminating event - like the Leadership Course for example (the moment I got that, I noticed I was naturally 1,000% enrolled in the possibility of his Leadership in the World Today webinar).

On Wednesday June 28, 2017 it was my privilege to make the following international announcement to two thousand people plus by e-mail, sharing an opportunity to be with Werner in a rare worldwide event. My announcement (it wasn't the only one for this event) with its invitation to participate in a webinar and the Leadership Course itself, was distributed to both graduates and non-graduates of Werner's work alike. Here it is, Conversations For Transformation e-mail announcement #1,231:

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Leadership In The World Today

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

June 28, 2017

To: Laurence Platt and Associates
From: "Laurence Platt" <LaurencePlatt@laurenceplatt.com>
Subject: From Laurence: Be with Werner in the "Leadership in the World Today" worldwide webinar
Cc:
X-Attachments:

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA
Wednesday June 28, 2017

Hello!

I'm Laurence.

An extraordinary opportunity has become available to Be with Werner in the "Leadership in the World Today" worldwide webinar.

This free event will take place on Thursday July 13, 2017 from 12:00pm through 1:00pm Central Daylight Time (United States) which is also 6:00pm through 7:00pm British Summer Time (United Kingdom).

Even if your local time zone prohibits you from participating in this webinar, I recommend you register anyway. Registration promises two additional valuable benefits: you will receive

-		a recording of the webinar to experience later at your own convenience;
-		a discount for "The Leadership Course: Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model", the latest of which will take place in Cancun, Mexico from Saturday October 28 through Monday November 6, 2017.

To register in this extraordinary event, click here, or copy and paste this link into your browser's location box:

http://www.beingaleader.net/webinar-signup-leadership-in-the-world-today

You will also have an opportunity to submit questions by e-mail which will be addressed in the webinar by Werner and colleague Dr Michael Jensen.

Thank You for Your Listening.

Thank You for Your Relationship with Werner.

With my Love,

Laurence

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It's clear to me the "Leadership in the World Today" webinar won't be the Leadership Course itself. Look: it doesn't purport to be. What it is, is secondarily an opportunity to grapple with what it is to be a leader and to effectively exercise leadership, and also to confront the fact that, like it or not, there's a shocking, saddening, sickening absence of leadership stepping up to bat in the world today.

Primarily the webinar is an opportunity to look and see whether or not the Leadership Course is a conversation which calls you, and in which you'd like to participate. Perhaps equally valuable is the webinar is one of those rare, latter day public opportunities to be with and to listen and to engage with Werner.

Werner speaking any idea, is a force of nature to reckon with. Werner and Dr Michael Jensen speaking leadership will surely jolt the leadership-challenged status quo.

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