by Redemption
"Ten?" ventures Andrew.
"Very good. How did you know?"
"Ten keeps recurring. Is there a significance I've missed?" thinking briefly about the factor of ten in unused brain capacity.
"I'll let you know. Here's the little list for you, sometimes called the 10E. Most of the items are self-explanatory. Also, one would have thought, fairly evident. Obviously not in days gone by, as their use in combination was so limited."
V
D: Effective Impact (10E):
E1 Action Process. Understand when leading people in a voluntary situation, rather than pushing them in a forced process, that certain steps need to be followed for best results.
# Gain their attention and interest.
# Communicate effectively to ensure understanding.
# Involve their participation.
# Motivate them to help themselves.
# Obtain action towards desired results.
# Follow up, review, reinforce.
E2 Cause vs. symptom. Work on the cause of the problem rather than the observed symptoms. One of the worst oversights of 20C - in medicine, education and throughout society. (Remind me to tell you about the Bishop's letter,' says Christiana.)
E3 Proactivity. Don't wait till things get worse. Start to make positive change as early as possible in any process. Best of all is preventative action. Pre-emption. (An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, a stitch in time saves nine.)
E4 Efficiency. Start with people least ill-affected. Defer till later the hopeless, helpless and hapless. Gives quicker, easier and better results. Get quality first and then go for volume. Demonstrate benefits to others, positively influence them, then start working on the harder and softer cases.
E5 Basic motivation. Start with those who really want to help themselves. Commitment and self-help. Same reasons as E4.
E6 Common interest. Focus most of the time on things that are unifying, co-operative and integrating, rather than polarising effort and being combative and divisive. Mediation rather than adversarial roles. Transcend limiting dichotomies. Move from either-or to both-and. Identify common needs and aims, clarify differences that divide. Dialogue replaces division. (Occasionally be adversarial so as to challenge and be provocative, but not most of the time, as used to be the case.)
E7 Past / present / future. Learn from the past but don't dwell there. Plan for the future without living in a dream. Spend most time in the present, and act.
E8 Stage 4. In areas such as learning go to Stage 4 wherever possible. (Andrew notes this as a dink, but waits till he has finished the list)
E9 Leverage. Organise activities to obtain multiplier effects - gearing, purchase, centres of influence, technology, computers, networks, teach teachers. ('Uncle Jim does his mustering by helicopter,' said Pip.) Aim for geometric rather than arithmetic progression.
E10 Follow up. Reinforce, most important. The last step of the Action Process - often ignored, thinking the job has been completed.
=
Christiana speaks as she sees him finish reading the list. "I'll save you the comment Andrew - there isn't a lot that's new and much is obvious. But in the past so much of it was only in people's heads. Little was done, and that was fragmentary. Any one item on that list brings results. Combine them and you compound benefits, leading to achievements which in your day would be considered extraordinary but nowadays are expected - par for the course."
"Gen, Lgen and Sgen points," Andrew murmurs, rapidly dinking 'Stage 4' before Christiana, again intrigued, can ask what he means. (Negcom, revealed in Andrew's dream, is part of 2050 life, but Gen, Lgen and Sgen are not (as yet) part of their current experience.)
~
V
D: Stage 4 of Learning:
Ed: "The 'Stage 4' concept was understood in late 20C - in some circles. That's the trouble. it got stuck within the circles and couldn't get out. Like many discoveries and new knowledge on the social and educational fronts it took an inordinate time to percolate down to the level where it could be useful.
"I will explain the concept by way of an example. A boy (or girl) sees others riding bicycles and wants fervently to do the same. He is in Stage 1 - he can't ride a bicycle but doesn't realise it. At one time this was referred to as 'unconscious incompetence'.
"The child tries to ride the bicycle and, to his horror, fails. He doesn't have the skill and now knows it. He is in Stage 2 - 'conscious incompetence'.
"After persisting, because he wants very much to be able to ride, he succeeds and reaches Stage 3. He can ride and knows it - 'conscious competence'.
"He then continues to ride, so that in time the skills are ingrained. Through practice he becomes experienced and reaches Stage 4 - 'unconscious competence'."
=
"I knew all that," Andrew grumbles defensively.
"Well why didn't you use it? Education was one of the worst offenders - by people who should have known better, and, by your own admission, did. You stopped mostly at Stage 3, meaning students seldom got to practise 'riding their bike' and the skills you spent so much time building - well, they stagnated and evaporated, didn't they? You blew it for the sake of a little time in Stage 4."
"All I can say is that it may look simple now, but it wasn't then," he says defensively. Impatiently: "Are there any more of these so-called 'weapons' you want to talk about?"
~
Kent: "Another 'Broom' is 'Everyone's RRights'. This emphasised a fundamental point. It encapsulated some of our other changes and helped widen the overall appeal of the movement to an expanded audience, including some of the so-called 'thinkers' of the time.
"Late last century there were, as you know, several 'rights' organisations. They did a fair job - as far as they went. What limited their progress was their narrow focus. They concentrated almost entirely on rights to the exclusion of responsibilities, leading some to describe it, in simplified terms, as a 'gimme' approach. Whereas in the real world significant personal and social advancement is dependent on, and works best on the basis of a balanced, bilateral approach.
"But the big question was - how do we generate responsibilities? It tied back to individual abilities and ethics and capacities. 'The grand paradox of our society is that we magnify man's rights but we minimise his capacities'.(32)
"People had been kept away from (denied access to, if you like) their abilities and thereby below their full capacities. Utilisation of Smiles empowered them to more easily gain their rights and, importantly, through a balanced ethical and moral understanding brought them to the point where they recognised their responsibilities and had the developed abilities and capacity to discharge them.
Kent continued, obviously enjoying the subject. "Human rights and civil liberty groups fought a rearguard action along the lines that people should not be 'pressured' or 'enticed' into doing Smiles. They had a right to be 'left in peace'. This line of thinking disappeared when a clutch of followers who had been influenced by it found they were highly disadvantaged and sued the perpetrators through Negcom. They won.
"Once it was understood how readily a balance of rights and responsibilities could be achieved, the rights movement in general took it up as a prime right of the populace - self-discovery, to access one's capacity and potential. A hard core of the rights movement refused to accept that rights should necessarily include responsibilities and were left behind as an anachronistic rump. The new mainstream wholeheartedly accepted responsibilities and forged ahead. We gave it a new name. The RRights movement - Responsible Rights.
V
D: RRights:
Kent: "The lists of RRights for individuals includes F(r)ee access to:
# Total information that can improve them.
# How to use the information.
# How to develop skills and potential e.g. Smiles.
# Choice of models, pathways, philosophies.
# Networks of choice for support, mentors, careers, research.
"In this way people
are not consigned to a life of poverty or deprivation or neglect. If they really want to improve their life they are given the opportunity, even encouraged. They are given the wherewithal to realistically, in a balanced way, know whether they 'really want to' advance their lives. Once they fully understand the situation and the issues there is seldom any doubt as to the direction they will take. If some choose not to take up the opportunity, at least it has been made available to them.
"Eventually the RRights movement progressed to the extent that governments supported it and legislated - keeping people from their right to access their potential is an offence listed with the Negligence Commission, in which individual and class actions proliferated for a time. People were granted the power to be empowered."
=
Christiana adds a further note: "A final weapon, a Lever, was Eduction. You heard the term before but perhaps not in full context. In passing it may have sounded like a sub-set of education, whereas the opposite is true. Eduction with its emphasis on developing personal abilities in lock-step but ahead of general learning was shown to be a far superior basis for preparing people for an active, gainful and fulfilling life. The old model of straight education - 'cast iron guarantee' as some recall - became as relevant as cast iron in the age of steel, a backwater for moneyed people seeking the 'pursuit of truth', 'intellectual enquiry', and 'knowledge for its own sake'.
"What about… was it memes?"
~
[Memes: Ideas and ways of doing things are able to propagate themselves by transferring directly from brain to brain, in a way similar to genes moving from body to body via sperm and eggs. (33)]
~
"Oh yes, thanks for reminding me. I'll lead into it with…" She types a heading on her keyboard and it appears on the screen.
'Sed vs Des'.
"Sounds like a Russian tennis player."
"Perhaps so. I'll let Pip explain."
V
D: Sed vs. Des:
Pip: "The first skirmish was won as soon as we got people to realise what Social Entropy and Sed meant. They could see - and were usually surprised - at the infiltration of the disease, its insidious effects, the damage caused, its impact on their lives, its importance in a negative way. Some people had previously understood that syntropy - the drive towards greater order and the opposite of entropy - is part of nature. The question is, why did they ignore it, do nothing about it?"
Kent: "Because the few who got to know what syntropy is were either too busy studying or didn't have the inclination or fortitude to do anything about it. Those who enquire into such concepts in minute detail and subtle nuances and endless variations aren't usually the types to understand the wider implications or ramifications, and certainly not the ones to do something constructive about it."
Pip: "Once they understood, through Smiles, what was happening and became concerned Des showed what could be done by upgrading their abilities, their 10 Q. Through active and purposeful minds Des overcomes Sed. People can move from Sed in the guard's van of life to the vanguard of possibilities through Des, from being reactive laggards to proactive leaders. Des is the plumber who removes the Sed sludge from the system, purges the constipation."
=
Pip: "Now to memes. I coined two terms: 'Nemes' - negative memes - for concepts and actions which increase Sed and detract from the human condition, and 'Pemes' - positive memes - for concepts and actions which add to Des and improve the human condition.
"Nemes are numerous and vary from cheating and selfishness, taking unfair advantage, abusing systems, negative media and peer pressures, to political correctness and cargo-cults. There are thousands of examples, contributing to the brutality, alienation, dysfunction or just plain sloth of humanity. Pemes are less prolific. They include things such as helping and encouraging others, volunteer and charity work, co-operation, sharing and a 'fair go'. And the Peme Supreme is Smiles. But in a perverse way Nemes are seductive and have the capacity to proliferate and transmit more quickly and multiply faster in furthering Sed than Pemes can aggregate in support of Des. It's as if there's an immoral gravity, a quicksand of the will, that assists Nemes and works against Pemes.
V
D: Neme Stream:
Pip: "Nemes can begin in small ways. Trickles and rivulets descend from many quarters and combine, swirling and surging, gathering their cloying effects and negative impacts to become the Neme Stream. The more strength it gathers the harder it is to stand against the current, the easier to go with the flow. It is mostly below the surface, but the undercurrents of its cumulative and widespread power are treacherous. It can become a one-way tide of trouble, transporting to tribulation, before drifting into backwaters of isolation, stranding in hopelessness.
"It brings to mind another stream - the Gulf Stream. Huge in its magnitude but hardly noticeable on the surface. Has a major world impact on climate and peoples and nothing can be done to change it. Whereas the Neme Stream, also hardly noticeable, has immeasurably greater impact on all people, always negative. However the difference is that something can be done to change the Neme Stream to reduce its negative impacts.
=
Pip: "As happens with Sed and Des, benefit accrues when you define a new concept, give it a name and then use it to distinguish the good from the bad and treat them accordingly. We found that people, once they understood Sed and Des and the clear desirability of Des, started assessing ideas and actions and favouring Pemes over Nemes. The consequences of their choices became evident, resulting, 'amazingly', in actions in their own best interests - for a change. Pemes have accelerated the rate of positive evolution of the mind.
"They also coined the term 'Leme', referring to latent Memes. These are concepts lying all around us, waiting to be discovered, named and used. Lemeology has become a fertile field of research and discovery.
Rose: "The result, the gradual turning of the tide, the new paradigm arising led to new patterns, a strengthened fabric of society, and enhanced morphic fields(34). We emancipated the imprisoned from their self-imposed jails, galvanised the paralysed, energised the inanimate, overpowered impotence and torpedoed torpor."
~
[Morphic field and morphic resonance: where fields of characteristic structure and pattern in one area / dimension / place can influence similar characteristics in like behavioural and mental fields over space and time.]
~
Christiana: "So, that's a summary of the main weapons in the Bold War. Carrots entice, Sticks impel, Brooms sweep clean and Levers magnify. You've seen the outcomes of the contest. We think it was well worth it. What are your views?"
"Obviously the results are more than worthwhile," Andrew concedes. He feels himself begin, inexorably, to assume a critical view of 'his' 2020 - the negatives, the lack of action, or even care about the danger. "But are you satisfied there was a need to resort to the charade of 'The War'?"
"Absolutely. Remember, nothing was happening at the time and rescue from the disastrous down-trends may have been years or generations away. The Team mounted a benevolent 'Flanking Movement'. On one flank they announced and publicised the aspects of 'The War' that affected people negatively, with facts and statistics and valid, logical argument as well as emotional persuasion."
V
D: Left Flank:
F1 How the enemies (crime, wars, substance abuse, etc.) were exerting a bad influence on society, covertly waging war, slowly suffocating us.
F2 Quantifying the cost to individuals and the community (money lost, taxes, health, happiness, etc.).
F3 How the situation was worsening, with no sign of any change for the better.
F4 Emphasising it was not a matter of choosing not to enter the war, rather the war would be lost unless positive corrective action was taken.
=
"This created legitimate concern and an awakened awareness, getting the public's understanding and thereby their distaste and opposition, even panic in certain quarters. Whereupon the other flank was announc
ed and publicised."
V
D: Right Flank:
F5 People could do something to fight back and improve the situation.
F6 Help would be made available in the form of Smiles courses to all those who really wanted to help themselves.
F7 Endorsement by centres of influence who had already completed Smiles.
F8. It needn't cost anything - F(r)ee.
=
Christiana: "The flanking movement, the 'Jaws of Life', as it became known, was a very effective engagement."
"Only 8F?" Andrew queries in mock surprise. They're weakening."
"Not so, we don't arbitrarily make numbers up to ten just for effect, despite what you may think."
"Sorry," says Andrew, "that slipped out. I'm still surprised you were able to interest large numbers of people in the early days."
"One of the avenues was a series of simple questionnaires, mostly with rather obvious answers, that were used not only to create interest but to form or clarify their thoughts and views. There were three questionnaires:
Snapshots (10S) (not Tennis)
Wants (10W)
'Not - Fors' (10NF)
V
D: Snapshots (10S) - People's Views:
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Andrew: "Motherhood statements, combined with subtle manipulation of thought paths, eh? Sneaky!"
Christiana: "Not at all. Merely opening up new avenues for positive thinking - with the best of motives, of course."
"People actually biting the bullet and committing themselves? It's hard to believe."
"It happened. Once they thought about 10S - the problems, trends and need for solutions, and that those solutions could very well be within themselves (as vouched for elsewhere by people they respected) - then first base had been reached.
V D: Wants (10W):
~
Guiding people, helping them to form their thoughts about what they really want in life, other than money and power, that would satisfy them, make them happy. Listed in no particular order.
Tick if you want to:
W1 Do more interesting things ____
W2 Feel more fulfilled ____
W3 Get more out of life ____