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!

What Dad Can Do for his Teenage Daughter

Well, first off I have to say I do not have a teen-age daughter, so take this with a grain of salt. I am writing this from the viewpoint of helping girls become women who have value to the purpose of forwarding the purpose of civilization. This seems appropriate to me since women have traditionally promoted themselves as being civilizing influences.
First, I have heard it said that teenagers are living through a stage of their lives when their brains are still being “wired”. I would definitely use a good amount of salt here because I am pretty far from believing that people are their brains. Nevertheless, there may be some correlation that could be paid some attention to. First, ask yourself which gender is generally the more competent—men or women? Now, take into account that usually teenage girls tend to spend more time with their mothers at this stage of their life, and their mothers spent more time with her mother, and her mother spent more time with her mother, and her mother spent more timer with her mother, etc… Is there a pattern here? YES! All of this “extra time” is being spent at a time in their life when, supposedly, the teenage brain is undergoing its final wiring.
Maybe for the sake of future generations Dad could intervene in this cycle. Though there are probably many forms of intervention, here are a few of my suggestions:
1) Like the advertisement says, “Take her fishing”. I recommend taking her fishing on a creek or stream rather than a river or lake. The reason is that in a stream it is possible to predict not only WHERE the trout will be, but even where the BIGGEST trout will be. They will be in the best holes, and if you can teach her what kinds of things that trout like and what they don’t like, then she will have the basic tools to figure out for a particular stream where they may be. This will help her with her ability to align data from the general to the particular.
2) Have her make a fire without matches or lighter fluid. No, not all the way primitive with a fire drill or fire bow, but like her ancestors of 250 years ago did—with a spark from a flint and steel. Actually there are better spark producers than flint and steel you can pick up today at any sporting goods store, but the idea is for her to care for and grow the spark. If you don’t know how to do this already, please look it up on the internet before going into the field. Basically the idea is to land the spark onto a prepared “charcloth”, which is just what it sounds like, and nurse it along from there. Next time you do a barbecue you can make some charcloth by putting pieces of an old T-shirt of sheet into a small metal can and putting the can into the coals. You will have to figure how long to leave it there by trial and error. The cloth should end up to be uniformly charred black and still retain at least some structural integrity. Why is this so beneficial? Well the real lesson has only begun. To successfully nurse the spark into a flame there must be a prepared gradient of fuels beyond the charcloth from tinder, through kindling, twigs and larger fuel. So the lessons learned will be preparation, and a value of and judgement for gradients. These are analytical skills that are broadly applicable in other areas of life, and she will be able to impress future boyfriends.
3) Make sure she is not too easily impressed with the handling of force. This will allow her to more easily retain an independent perspective when dealing with men. There are many ways to do this. Hopefully she is already doing some.

• Sports, particularly team sports

• Sailing is great, since it requires the use of the mind to add up a set of forces in the moment in order to control the resultant to arrive at a destination in the future.

• Archery is good.

• Developing skill in working on cars, bikes or machinery is a possibility.

The idea is for them to be able to face up to and control the force involved. For this reason shooting may not be so good because the forces involved are usually more than most people can confront.

More On the Ideal Scene

The ideal of a civilization should be a positive-feedback activity or progression, i.e. the more progress is made in the right direction, the more “pull” or inclination would exist to go further in the right direction.
Individuals who were relatively deaberrated in the area of groups would value a group with a high level of causation for its ability to act as a servo-mechanism to forward whatever self-determined purposes he may have in order to achieve self-determined goals. He would also understand that the driving force of group causation is always the competent application of self-determination by the individual within the framework of a coherent set of policy. He would feel it strongly in his interest to have available in the public as large a pool of self-determined potential group members as possible, all of whom would have a firm grasp on the set of basic group policies which would underlie the particular policy set or framework of any given group. This would allow more chance of there being enough competent group members to "salute" any purpose he wanted to "run up the flag pole".
When you add this all up it means that there would be a self-motivated desire by the individual for others to increase competency and respect for the right to apply competency. So, above a certain level of deaberration there would be a mutual desire to have others do well, but it would exist above the personal level. It would exist in the impersonal band of formal group participation, and be independent of personal like or dislike. This then allows the individual, as the civilization becomes less aberrated in the area of groups, to asymptotically approach complete control of his personal life by dealing only from an impersonal "hat" viewpoint with those he does not want to be part of it, while at the same time increasing his ability to forward his self-determined purposes to improve conditions in the larger sphere. It would also offer a paradigm through which those who may not like each other could still operate effectively within a given system of policies by adhering to their respective impersonal "hat" viewpoints.

Is Organization Always Needed?

The extra overhead of putting together an organization to forward a particular purpose and achieve a goal is not always justified for a short-range goal. Try to keep the resources spent on organization as a small percent of the overall resources spent to achieve a particular goal. Short-range goals = less organization.
Small activities may be “do-it-yourselfers”. In a task involving more than one person all that may be needed is to set up and possibly “smooth out” some flow lines for sub-products and products. This can even be done “on-the-fly”.
Keep your organization lean, but with enough structure and “muscle” to retain its integrity and make progress despite any obstacles the environment has to offer.

Work as A Therapeutic Activity

First, make the assumption that the goal of your therapy is to recover more “you” in the form of more competent self-determination. First realize that the physical universe we live in and react with is built and arranged on the basis of aligned data. The alignment is not only of data of equal value, but also in terms of hierarchies of data from the most basic to the most specific. Now get the idea that once upon a time, and it probably was very long ago, you had a very good understanding of the fundamental data and hierarchies of data that applied to whatever you were working with or communicating with.
So what happened? Well, you most likely did have a lot of good experience in working and getting things done, and what defined it as good was its alignment with fundamental data of the area in which you were working or communicating. However, along the way a lot of mistakes, goofs, unethical activities, even crimes resulted in accumulated aberration that cut across your ability to face up to areas of life and work with them. So there are pools of good experience buried down there under the aberration. You want to tap into these pools. How to do it?
First, make an effort to educate yourself in the fundamental data of the area in which you will be working. It is probably true, especially in the beginning, that what you are thinking of as fundamental may still be quite shallow (or particular) in relation to the “deeper” more fundamental data you would have known before. But all that is OK. Think of it as an archaeological dig. You may be getting good results by regaining contact with a certain level of knowledge and understanding, while still deeper levels lie as yet untouched.
As you are working try to remind yourself of the basic fundamental data that underlies the top layer data of your work. If you have a good work purpose, and you are making progress on it, you can build up a communication with and awareness of the underlying basics if you keep them in mind to some degree. It is not necessary to keep them all in mind, or even any in mind at any given moment. Most people have trouble keeping more than a couple of things in mind at one time. Just pick one of your fundamentals up and hit on it every once in awhile in the course of your work. If enough progress is being made and enough of this “hitting” is being done along the lines of fundamental data known in the present that match or come close to matching fundamentals known and used before, then you will at some point tap into a reservoir of your own good experience. Your reservoir may allow you insights into other aligned data that you had not been aware of as well as greater confidence and certainty on the data you were working with.
A good example of the application of this theory is the previous article in this blog on Tai Chi exercises using the Tai Chi fundamental principles.

How to Evaluate the Optimum Solution for a Particular Existing Group Scene

First, define what the limits of your existing scene are. It is best to focus on what you can influence or change directly or with the least amount of indirection. Include in this scene a “third dimension” of data ranking or data hierarchy, where more basic or general data underlie less general, more specific data. Think of the data items as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. So, there are functions, activities, production, knowledge, purposes, competency, hats, hat wearers, policy, technology, training, equipment, etc. All of these are pieces of the puzzle. They are aligned in a particular configuration in the existing scene. You just want to look and see what you have, not what you wish to have or think you have, but what you actually DO have in the existing scene.
Next work out what the ideal of this scene would be. Bring to bear any relevant practical philosophical knowledge that you have. You should want to include safety, production, viable exchange of products, freedom for the scene participants to apply self-determined competency, ability to self-correct, and ability to support or back-up higher level s of production through judicious application of resources that increase the degree of organization of the scene.
Now go back to the existing scene and “look” in the direction you would have to go in order to progress towards the ideal scene. If you rearrange the puzzle pieces of the existing into different configurations, which configuration will give you the maximum progress towards the ideal scene? That is your answer. In working this out you may want to use lists or diagrams or representative manipulatable items that can be moved around to represent different possible configurations of resources.
Don’t worry if you don’t get it done perfectly. Close will do, and you have your whole life to practice getting better with it.

Contra-Life Acts or Sins, Cleanliness and the Ideal Scene

What is a sin? A sin is whatever a Christian authority says it is. That is not a very useful datum for providing guidance to live ethically. It also leaves organized Christianity open to subornation and perversion.
A better guide is "pro-life". This should be inclusive of any legitimate religion, and it puts the responsibility on the individual to apply his self-determination in comparing and aligning data with the pro-life direction. In this way not just the few, but the many exercise their analyzers and take some measure of responsibility for seeing that the overall scene does
not head in the wrong direction.
Whether an action or activity is pro-life is determined with reference to the pro-life direction, which is the direction of movement towards the ideal scene. It is the direction of winning the game of life; winning in the game of "chutes and ladders". The goal is recovery of self, allowing opportunity for generating and building on good life experience and getting back to the better states of life that we as spiritual beings have been in at some time in the past.
The ideal scene I am referring to here really enters in above the level of the personal life. The ideal scene should be capable of including at least all honest people, while the personal life is centered around the individual. The ideal scene is a practical philosophical tool that refers to the here and now. It is not meant as a metaphysical or religious or spiritual intangible. It is meant to be a workable, achievable template that individuals and groups can use to reconcile their
activities beyond their private life against.
How is the ideal scene determined? The ideal scene could be stated in general terms as steady progress and movement in the direction of improved conditions. One way to get more specific is just to list out all the desired components, then see how or if they can be optimally arranged to allow the most components to be included and to allow the most opportunity for success in
achieving or improving each component for the most individuals. The desired components should appeal to all unabberated individuals, not just a select group or strata.


LISTING ITEMS

This list is just intended as a starting point. It can be added to and modified with the idea of moving closer to the optimum. It might help to list the points down on separate pieces of paper and lay them on a table top so that they can be moved around in an effort to align with each other. The idea is to end up with a coherent set of items that can be used as a guide in
determining the pro-life direction.

Competency
In working, communicating, staying out of traps, correcting self and others, aligning and evaluating data. A commitment to Continuous Improvement of Competency.

Harmony
As advances are made in the pro-life direction it should become easier to get along with others. But this should not preclude:

Freedom to Dislike or Hate Others
A person's individuality is expressed not only through their likes, but also through their dislikes or even hatred. A common turn-off to the idea of increased harmony is the intimation that an individual would be required to like everyone else. Like, dislike and hatred are components of the personal life, but since they are subjective, should remain subordinate to objective realities and considerations and so should never trump the

Right to Work and Participate in Groups
For all honest individuals.

Increased Productivity

Decreased Crime

Decreased War

Increased Personal Health

Increased Sanity

Increased Education and Literacy

Increased Intelligence
A basic activity in moving in the pro-life direction is analagous to playing horseshoe pitching. The individual faces up to all factors in his environment and tries to choose the optimal activity and use of resources that allows the most progress from his current position or situation in the pro-life direction. Just like in horseshoes, he doesn't have to be perfect. In the general direction is good, close is better, ringers can be gotten over time, and so will increased intelligence (from all that analytical exercise of aligning data to give a better result).

Increased Understandings and Ability to Communicate

It should be driven by the individual-- from the "ground up", so that its continued success is not dependent on any particular leader or group of leaders. This makes it more robust and much more difficult to pervert. To this end the activities should be:

Simple and Doable
There should be no great costs involved. The main costs would be analytical "elbow grease". Much of this would be applied during the hours already being spent in work and chores. Some time would also be spent on study, which requires:

A Technology of How to Successfully Study for the Ability to Apply,
which is a very different thing from studying to pass a test or get a grade, and which can be applied by the individual, if he desires, beyond the halls of formal education.

It should be capable of being forwarded from the starting point of any existing culture wherein the individual has at least basic human rights. Revolutions should not be needed, but the individual will become stronger, more capable, and less easily led. Some may object to that.

There should be no central authority. Central organization should be kept to a minimum. This would decreases or eliminates the opportunity for infiltration and perversion. There can, however, be:

Consultants
Consultants should be expected to encourage the individual to think for themselves, rather than supply answers. Possibly the teaching model of Socrates could be used in which he (Socrates) only asked questions of his students, rather than lecturing them.

Correcters or Checkers
Who the individual can reference to. A Corrector or Checker should always appeal to the self-determined understanding of the individual.

Libraries and Depositories of write-ups of successful actions and hats, policy system templates, etc. The Internet is ideal for this.

Opportunity for the individual to acquire enough resources to allow him to work, maintain his health, provide for his family, and communicate as required to engage in the pro-life evolution.

Opportunity for the individual to rise above the level of hand-to-mouth existence and the struggle to fill immediate need so that he can devote at least a minimum amount of time to education and practical philosophy and self-determined application of what he has learned to his accumulated life experience. Part of this would be increased health leading to increased longevity which then allows greater amounts of life experience and time to reflect on it.