Tele or Rapport?

[Ivo Banaco]

Dear Adam,
Just some quick notes before the main topic about tele. "Spinning plates"
was just a form of saying that I really appreciate your skills with words,
but didn't quite find useful for the arguments in question (for me the more
useful thing to do with a plate is to eat..);

About tele and rapport: First, I don't think it's another topic at all. The
use of such terms like tele or rapport could be very important in education.
If you Adam are worried about critical thinking in Education, I think tele
could be a good way to foster that reflection. Most of the languages in the
occidental world use this Greek prefix to refer to the main communication
technologies like television or telephone, or telecommand, etc...; tele
links what is apparently  separate; it does make sense to use tele to define
the principal human technology - human connection. "Unnecessary jargon" is a
too strong reference to such an important concept. If it is difficult to
people understand, that should not be the reason to drop it, I think, on the
contrary. The principal criteria for me is: does it makes sense? my answer
is; definitely yes.

Ivo

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Adam Blatner <ablatner at verizon.net> wrote:

>  Dear Ivo, Your response to my question, "So what do you think about my
> comments above?"  seems to be:
>       IB: Full of meaning this apparently simple question. The context is
> our potential crossing about education.
>            AB: Don't understand what you are saying in this sentence.
>
> IB My answe r: It felt like spinning plates (as I remember a great song
> from Radiohead right after I've read your question). What I mean is that
> there is not one single point in your argument that showed fundamental
> disagreement with me. You played very well with words, emphasised important
> aspects but you moved very little forward from my arguments. I felt that we
> reached a platform of mutual understanding that was not clearly emphasized
> by you (even though it's there, textually).
>         aB: You're right that I did agree with you in some ways, but I
> think I'm somewhat more wary about how many people keep up the standards
> necessary for serious analysis. My impression is that you think it's common
> and I think it's rare.
>
>    IB  So if I criticize you with that, I'll try to move forward and stop
> spinning the plate (I don't know if this expression means anything to you as
> I understand it...).   AB: perhaps this is a Spanis idiom? I imagine
> jugglers spinning plates, but that can mean either a very dextrous skill,
> well done, or it might imply activity in the service of foolishness.   So
> I'm not altogether sure.
>
>     IB  Let's bring an important topic, I think. I disagree about your
> preference to use rapport instead of tele. Even tough they can both be
> used as synonyms, tele is much more universal (for the ocidental world at
> least) and rapport is much more US oriented. If that is your intention (your
> writings being directed to US audience) that's OK with me. But in my
> opinion, tele reach a wider range of people, and with a supposedly universal
> phenomenon that we're trying to define that could make the difference. What
> do you think? ;-)
>         AB: This is indeed another topic, and a fair one that I would
> invite others on grouptalk to comment on. Perhaps you're right about the
> semantics---the emotional tone color given to various words. For example,
> certain cuss words in Australia seem to have  become more mainline and
> casual, while in the USA they are more socially unacceptable.
>
>     Other than within the field of psychodrama, I've met very few
> people---almost no one---who understands or gets tele unless the concept is
> explained. Even then, it seems like a bit of unnecessary jargon. If I
> explain that we're talking about the psychology of preference, especially in
> the social sphere, and the dynamics set up when you make contact with
> others, I find the word rapport evokes the most effective associations.
>
>        It's not hard for folks to get to the idea that there can be
> negative or neutral or indifferent rapport between people.
>
>     Now if you can back up at all that many or most people in England,
> Spain, or other countries who know little or nothing about sociometry feel
> more understanding when the term "tele" is introduced, then that might
> change my thinking.
>
>     warmly, adam
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://grouptalkweb.org/pipermail/list_grouptalkweb.org/attachments/20090127/1df0546f/attachment.html>