The Character of a Group

A group exists as an optimal configuration of resources to maximize progress along a particular purpose to achieve a particular goal. Of course, it has a name too, but the name is only a label or identifier. The actual character and form of the group is determined by the group goal, purpose, and the set of policies that allow the purpose to be forwarded.

It is interesting to note that the policies that define the form of the group are the actual agreements between members that are acted from. In an aberrated group these may have little or nothing to do with written or formal policy, and there may be a lot of informal “localized policy” that is followed by some part or parts of the group, and which may be unknown to other parts of the group. Such “localized policy” results in the individuation of parts of the group. The individuated parts become less in touch with or involved with the overall group purpose and more into their own separate “thing”. This is symptomatic of dirtiness in the area. There will be found some sort of unethical or criminal activity happening in these individuated areas that undermines or cuts across the group purpose.

What happens if the goal, purpose or policies of the group change, either formally or through an accumulation of dirtiness as described above, but the group name does not? Is it still the same group? Should it still demand the same loyalties as before?

If the change was a reconfiguration of resources to follow the same purpose to achieve the original goal, then yes, it is still the same group. If the purpose, or even the goal, has been effectively changed, then it has become a different group, and should not expect to hold the same loyalties that were applied to the original purpose and goal. This can be a little confusing if the group retains the same name. It can get a lot confusing if the “change” of purpose/goal is the result of an accumulated amount of group dirtiness rather than a formal change.

Study Principles

There are several barriers to successful study. Two are often taken for granted, but should be given some consideration at the beginning of any course of study. They are false data and skipped prerequisites. Is it a valid subject that is to be studied? Is a valid text on this subject available to the student?
Have all prerequisite courses been taken? Are there any lower level subjects that the student is presumed to understand in order to continue with this subject?
In order to be successful in a study the student must have a self-determined desire to understand and apply the subject. There must first be a desire or intention there to get into communication with and make a mental duplication of the theory, facts and objects of the subject. This starts with an intention to get, receive, and have his own mental “copy” of the material . There is an agreement with self to understand what was actually communicated by the author or the lecturer. The communicated media is written or spoken language. Language is composed of words governed by the language grammar. Words are composed of etymons— the smallest phonetic units that carry at least a bit of meaning of their own.
When a student, in reading a text or listening to a lecture, comes to a word that he does not understand, at least not in the given context, he must clear up for himself the meaning of the word in order to stay true to his own self agreement to understand what was communicated. If he continues on without clearing up the meaning of the not understood or misunderstood word then he has violated this agreement with self to make his own copy of the studied material. At some level the student knows this is wrong. How deep or shallow this level is depends on how honest the student is being with himself. He is in violation of his own self-agreement, which may be rather strong. The physical manifestation of continuing beyond a word that was not understood is a yawning or a desire to yawn. There is also a mental “blanking out” or inability to duplicate that begins right there at the not understood or misunderstood word. The desire to yawn will disappear, and the “blanked out” area immediately following it will reappear if the meaning of the word is clarified using a dictionary. Do not overlook the idea that clarification of the meaning of a word using a dictionary may also require the clarification of any other not understood or misunderstood word(s) encountered in the dictionary definition. So another barrier to successful study is the word that is not understood or misunderstood. It can be overcome by a student who is honest with himself.
The key part of this is self-honesty. It is really very simple. If the student clears up the meaning of the word he will be able to successfully and comfortable continue with his study and the door will remain open to successful application. If he does not clear it up he will have diverted himself off his purpose of making a duplicate of the study material and will be less successful in his study. He will feel less comfortable in continuing to study, and less able to face up to continuing it. His ability to apply the data that he has studied will be compromised, possibly severely.
The last barrier to study is a lack of the physical presence of the object or objects under study. A common manifestation of this is when the student is attempting to remedy this by holding or rubbing his head with his hands, or fiddling with or playing with some object. A better remedy, for the purpose of study, is through the use of photographs, diagrams, pictures or models of the object(s). The student can also create his own diagrams with pencil and paper or model using clay. Small objects can also be used by the student as representations of the real objects so that he can then show himself how these objects would interact with each other according with the theory under study. These last few actions listed of creation and demonstration are also a good cross-check to verify that the student is able to apply the knowledge studied so far. If he is not able to apply competently and comfortably then his study has gone astray somehow. A review of the study should then be done to see at what point this occurred, and any needed corrections should be made.
During the course of study the student should frequently refer to his own desire to apply what he is studying. Once he has made a duplication of a part of the study material he should then apply his own volition to it. All data are not of equal value—some are more basic than others. It is a good exercise to periodically make an alignment of the data studied into a hierarchy of most fundamental to most specific data. He should also make a point of bringing the new data into application. How could he apply it? How useful is it? Can he diagram it or “show” himself in some way how it would be used?
The barriers to study, then, are false data, skipped prerequisite, misunderstood or nonunderstood words, and lack of physical presence of the object under study. Each can be avoided or remedied. Be honest with yourself for best results.

A Trick of Group or Team Awareness

A large part of the reason that knowledge and understanding of groups and group dynamics is not so easy to come by or to communicate about is that a component of the universe we live in is a scale or set of steps of different levels of analytical awareness of components of groups. The steps are always traveled in sequence. At each step the individual will be aware of, and so able to deal with and communicate about the group component or quality pertaining to that step and the group components of all steps below his current level. The awareness is an analytical awareness rather than a spiritual awareness. A person in a good spiritual state may not necessarily be high on this scale. The analytical awareness is a self-determined recognition of specific items within the individual’s team environment as belonging to a general category in the list below.

The trick is that he will NOT be aware of, and so UNABLE to deal well with or communicate well with any of the group components that relate to any of the specific scale steps ABOVE his current level of awareness. A partial exception to this is that if a person is really applying himself in a group context he will begin to be aware of the group component of the next higher step. If he continues along this line he will at some point fully gain the awareness of the next scale step component. This process can be made easier if the individual acquaints himself with the scale, determines at which point he is located, then informs himself what the next step is. He can then bring his focus to bear more fully or directly on the group component “in the offing” as he participates successfully in a team or group activity.

I first came across this scale listed in a writing by Ron Hubbard. It is such a useful philosophical tool, and such a part of the fabric of the universe we are all living together in that I hate to see it tucked away in an out-of-the-mainstream publication where few will ever see it and fewer still apply it. I hope you will see through your own application of it that it is more than just one person’s subjective ideas, that it can be independently observed, and so should be made available for all to freely use and communicate about. It is a terrific philosophical tool for use in de-aberration and improvement of the group or team member.

A Terminal, as used here, is just an ending point or terminus for a Line. A Terminal can be a machine, a piece of equipment like a telephone or computer, or a person occupying a post with the viewpoint of a hat for a particular job.

A Line is an established route or path for particles to flow along.

By Particle is meant any unit object that gets moved, relayed, transferred, changed, modified or communicated within an organization.

So an organization is a set of Terminals with Lines laid out between them for Particles to flow along. Hopefully the organization Terminals are of a high enough quality, quantity and competency and with proper Lines arranged between them to allow a viable flow of Particles that can be changed, modified, combined or separated to form a viable flow of Products (another type of Particle) that can then be exchanged with the environment for support and tolerance.

Here is the list of steps listed from top to bottom:

• PROPERLY CONFIGURED TERMINALS
  Operating to handle particle flows and correctly change particles
• GROUPED TERMINALS
• LINES
• PARTICLES
• SIGNIFICANCES
• FALSE TERMINALS
• MISDIRECTED LINES
• WRONG PARTICLES
• FALSE SIGNIFICANCES
• MYSTERIOUS TERMINALS
• CHAOTIC LINES
• MENACING PARTICLES
• DANGEROUS IMPRESSIONS
• NONEXISTENT TERMINALS
• NONEXISTENT LINES
• NONEXISTENT PARTICLES
• UNCONSCIOUS IMPULSES
• NO ORDER AT ALL = CHAOS

Notice that there is a repeated pattern on the way upward: some kind of Significance, then a kind of Particle, then a type of Line, and finally a type of Terminal.

Everyone is at some point on this scale of steps. In order to effectively communicate to a particular person you will have to talk about group components that are at or below his level. I hope this helps in coaching or communicating about teams or groups.

Advice to Those Considering Going to War

It is good to successfully defend yourself, your family, your country, though it is often avoidable and usually regrettable that it is necessary. A person who successfully defends from an analytical viewpoint will, when recalling the experience at a later time be thankful or glad at the continuance of the pro-life activity or purpose, and will not regret the required vanquishing of others, but will not take joy in it either. So, when considering whether to participate in an alleged defensive activity it is recommended to:

1) Educate yourself thoroughly in the pro-life purpose that you would be defending.

• Will you be defending your country? If so, then make sure you understand what any country is, what your country is, what makes it weaker, what makes it stronger. A country is a large group composed of groups of groups, which are composed of smaller groups of groups. For a country to be strong the groups should be strong. For a group to be strong it must have a coherent set of policy that allows a purpose to be forwarded to reach a goal for which the group members have a self-determined desire to reach. This set of policy should be known, agreed on and acted from. This is a different thing from a social group, which is a lower and weaker form of group, and which may have little or no formal structure. Please make sure you understand the difference.
• Has the country been stronger at any point in the past? If so, when and why?

2) Verify that a defense is necessary and from who and for what reason

• Have you been personally threatened?

• Do you know anyone who has been personally threatened?

• Have there been reports of fellow citizens being attacked? If so, take an independent look at the evidence. Does it all make sense to you? Does it all add up? Are there any doubts or conflicting reports? Do not accept the conclusions of others. Make up your own mind regarding it on the basis of factual evidence rather than opinion. It is your life and your decision. Unlike other generations, Uncle Sam is not drafting—he is only taking volunteers. Keep in mind that the determination of right and wrong in the larger sphere depends on alignment or misalignment with the pro-life purpose line. This is what it is, not what you may wish it to be.
• Have there been reports of returning soldiers killing your fellow citizens? If so, are these isolated instances, or do they outnumber the count of those killed by the alleged enemy?

3) Observe the effects of participation in this defense on the lives of others.

• Defense of a pro-life purpose is good life experience. Are returning veterans more alive, more “with it”, or are they dispirited and more “out of it”? Of course, this will vary from veteran to veteran, so try to take the average case.

• Contributing to something in a positive way makes it easier to face up to it in the future. Are returning veterans more able to face up to and participate in American life, or are they less able to do so?

4) If, as Americans, we feel so strongly about democracy that we are willing to send our young men and women half-way around the world to fight and die for it, and ask other countries to join us in doing so, then why do we not feel strongly enough about it to educate them in the public school system about the Golden Age of Greece in which the first democracy was born and which was the common inspiration of the founding fathers of the American Revolution? It would not be a new thing to do so. This was a regular part of the school curriculum for much of our history, and still is in some parts of the country. If you have not studied it, please take the time to do so before you may be required to aim at another human being and pull the trigger in a cause you do not fully understand.

5) If there is no immediate threat, consider whether you may be able to help your country more by taking action in the “offensive” front rather than the “defensive” front, by helping to make progress in the pro-life direction— farther away from the Dark Ages towards higher levels of group causation. This is progress in a direction that an enemy would not want to see made, but there is more of a requirement for analytical thought, teamwork, ability to align data successfully and to think and act for yourself rather than always following a path determined by others. War is an activity where there are many opportunities to become spiritually “dirtier”, but cleanliness is required to make progress in the direction of higher levels of group causation. You can teach a “dirty” person to aim a gun and pull the trigger, but you will have much more trouble getting that same person to operate on a self-determined basis within a framework of policy in a group with a high level of causation. If you decide to try this “offensive” front, consider that you may also be able to have influence beyond what you can accomplish yourself . You may be able to influence others by promoting a paradigm or paradigms for group participation that go above and beyond what has been common until now. Ideally every generation should build on the success of previous generations and reach farther and stabilize their gains so that the following generations may start from a higher point. An enemy would want to see us pulled back to the Dark Ages and re-enslaved. We don’t have to go there again, but we need to progress on the “offensive” front as well as successfully defending ourselves from real threats.

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.