A Useful Analogy

Building a group is like building a fire. The heat is the self-determined desire of the individual or individuals involved to achieve a goal by following a purpose line. If there is enough heat there will be a localized ignition—a spark or a flared match. This is analogous to an individual feeling strongly enough about something to take action.

For the ignition source to become a sustained fire it must be applied to a set of dry fuel that has been configured to receive it. This configuration involves gradient sizing as well as spacing that is not too close together and not too far apart. Until the flame has “taken hold” it must be guarded and “nursed” to protect it from external elements (wind, rain, etc.) that would extinguish it before it becomes strong, robust and easy to support. It is more of an art than a science, though scientific principles apply.

The size and heat of the fire is analogous to the level of group causation. The fire set, and the care and attention it requires is analogous to getting a group of people together and the care and attention required to put together a coherent set of policies that are arranged in a gradient from the most basic, fundamental, to the most particular, and the education of each group member in and the elicitation of self-determined agreement from each group member on this policy set.

Wind and rain are analogous to arbitraries from the environment that impinge on this policy set.

Fuel dampness is analogous to the aberration of the individual group member which manifests as resistance to or inability to learn and come into agreement with and act upon this policy set.

A civilization without the ability to build and care for groups with high causation levels is like a people who cannot control fire. They are only capable of a miserable existence and are subject to attack from the sub-human elements that cannot face up to fire. A people who had never been able to control fire might not even have been able to conceive of being free from this type of attack. They might not realize the inability of the sub-human elements to confront fire.

In terms of a civilization, sub-human elements may be wild, marauding animals, but they may also be those who cannot monitor themselves for and keep themselves out of the mob mentality.

Here’s to a warm future!