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INERTIA, the difference between concept and mindset

                                     
                                                                                              rice farmer

the answer to the question “why don’t people listen?” is simply that that is a dumb question. no matter what people think of their ideas, religion, aspirations or social agendas it would be a prime mistake to think that compassion is obvious. when it is taken as a given, social analysis is much simplified, but both historic and personal growth is a very long road. recall that for a huge percentage of history and still a majority of present day humanity, life is dominated by MIND NUMBING malnutrition and labor. for an equal period the “social norm” is VIOLENCE TO THE POINT OF EXTERMINATION OF GROUPS with SLAVERY or little better for whoever remains. without social continuity or even the time for reflection, what ideas do surface take the form of SUPERSTITION and ENFORCED CONFORMITY. a long term government survey was just released that confirmed what the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective - authors of Our Bodies Our Selves, in the reading list - said decades ago: ONE IN THREE WOMEN WILL BE RAPED IN THEIR LIFETIME, with the added stipulation that puberty the numbers BEFOREAPPLY EQUALLY TO MALES. with these four factors as background, what hope is there for the nurturing of individual relationships that is the prerequisite of compassion? a person can not give what they have not experienced, hence the IDEA of compassion could grow only slowly throughout history. mindset is composed of a welter of both ideas and emotions. given the above social analysis, the stark truth is that the mass of humanity is burdened by a legacy of ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE BITTERNESS, with a person’s natural spontaneity crushed BEFORE THE AGE OF THREE, while anyone with the requisite PRACTICE in critical thinking knows that there is no such thing as a simple idea, even simpler ideas have complex roots and variations. therefore growth can only be through a constant interplay of positive emotion and extended analysis. what could possibly motivate and focus this process, of what use is this DIVERSION of energy from SURVIVAL for a dimly seen goal??? in truth, very little; random experience, the luck of finding kindred spirits, the ABSOLUTE necessity of leisure time, the obscurely subtle pleasure of gradual freedom from PATTERNED thoughts. NONE of this can take place without INFORMATION. the most basic BACKGROUND to a person’s daily life is the feeling: 

this is the true meaning of self education, education not only independent of the social structure but FOR INDIVIDUAL GROWTH, not accumulation of concepts, but the gradual attainment of a THRESHOLD of self respect, and hence the possibility of seeing a similar delicacy in others and one’s entire environment, i.e., the planet we all share.

CHILDHOOD                 
                                                        synapse density with age

why?
why have a section, and so early on, on childhood in a piece that seems like politics? because it is not about politics, but spirit. what use is philosophy or social programs to someone whose heart has been crushed or alienated before they can speak, or reason, or become aware of the larger world?

history
children have historically been treated as little more than economic units with no intelligence or emotions, ignored at best and brutalized at worst. when the european cathedrals were built, it was common to depict in sculpture priests BEATING orphans, the idea being that the orphan should be GRATEFUL for the discipline. in NEW ENGLAND the state SUPREME COURT ruled in favor of a man who beat his son until HE REQUIRED MEDICAL ATTENTION. the reason? he was DISCIPLINING HIS SON ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE. does this mean he would have been prosecuted if he hadn’t quoted the bible? 

nothing has changed in five hundred years.

elementary physiology
people have no idea how absolutely fragile preemies are, and not just in obvious physical ways. it is also homeostasis that is incomplete, which is attached to emotions. to look in a preemie’s eyes at the same time as you touch their hand can kill. that’s a very hard lesson for mom. sensitivity. - many people, especially those who use strollers, don't notice how direct sunlight is painful to young eyes and can drive babies to total distraction. m.f.k. fisher, the wonderfully literate fore mother to julia child and alice waters - see the reading list - theorized that babies are not really picky eaters but that their sense of taste is so acute that it can at times be uncomfortable. "wipies" -  you'd face life with a grimace too if every day someone pawed your face just because diner was all over it. this is often where children first become disconnected from parents. they squirm and scrunch just in anticipation and the attempt to get away. just be gentle, this small change makes a huge difference. most people still are ignorant of the fact that internal thermoregulation isn't fully developed until one year of age - put a hat on that little gal!!! because of either winter weather or being sick, many kids get a runny nose, and the snoot also starts to hurt from being chapped. it really hurts. but being chapped comes from the the acids in the mucus. why don't more moms know to rinse off the nose, not just wipe it? so many little kids have bubbly coughs when they aren’t sick. this is the sad start of the “civilized” long slide in health. such kids need to run more in the sun and wind, and a cup of tea and rubbing their chest wouldn’t hurt.

dicipline is an error 
the saying “the child is the father of the man” has been scientifically backed up, NEGLECT being just as effective as brutality in producing an a-social adult. even children of economically stable parents are constantly humiliated as fools and ordered about. the truth is that all people are born with a fantastic intelligence that rarely survives past the age of three, conformity and “good behavior” being more valued.  in the smallest children, crying is seen as “normal”, yet all that is really required is a little eye contact and almost any activity to ward off boredom. it is simplicity itself to distinguish between the four kinds of crying: (1) "hey, pay attention", (2) crying ignored that overwhelms the child's ability to control it, (3) intense crying from a mysterious cause, for instance, colic - something still not understood - or an actual body malfunction and (4) a learned automatic despair from long term neglect. all on top of the very normal lack of sleep for the parent. the last two are the hardest to deal with, and are what causes the unprepared to be violent to their children. new people are a lot of physical and psychic work, a one way street without short cuts. that you be equal to it is the one absolute, without morbid worries about development. many people still see children as "unimportant", so likewise with their problems - but remember this: to someone whose life is only a few years long crying is the whole world. its not cute, its horrible. to the lethargic and spiritually bereft “discipline” and “obedience” are still the paramount issues, failing utterly to understand the value of curiosity for a rounded personality. a generalized idea of “wrong” behavior is a concept from the messed up adult world – the only needful lessons are:

(1)don’t hurt yourself by accident, or “hurties”: sharp, hot, headhurt, bigfall, spicefood/bugsting
(2)lost
(3)don’t hurt others - showing “gentle” from the earliest age
(4)stay in sight of the parent(s).

when these lessons are learned from gentle repetition, everything else follows easily. so the mashed peas get on the wall – so what? if you’re looking for behavior based on advanced logic, you’ll have to wait a few years – AND IF YOU TRY TO FORCE IT onto a mind which is not yet capable, it won't work and emotions become skewed.

again and again, endlessly since the 1950s, there is a battle of generations, but between parents and grandparents, the older person insisting on "proper" behavior while the parent risks resentment for wanting their child simply to be left alone.

in fact there is very little to be concerned over, anything that might require a strong voice. and at that, the lesson is learned, finished. mostly the lesson is just “make nice”. anything less important is susceptible to “noodging.” little pats and mis-directions in the right direction. the other lesson, basic safety, should be driven in like steel, mercilessly. to freeze or “STOP!”, should always be followed by the most patient of demonstrations of the relevant “hurtie”. to maintain the safety/protection afforded by the adult, “come here NOW” should be followed immediately by the act. the key to using a strong voice is to use it as rarely as possible, so as not to water down either the lesson or the learned reaction. the purpose is NOT obedience, but its opposite, affection. with older kids, sometimes as young as five or six, if you don’t respect their intelligence, though it is not an adult’s, all your efforts will be for nothing. respecting intelligence is a form of affection. does your child drive you crazy with repititious requests for attention? try answering the first time, even if its just with, "wait a bit , honey", and then that promise. the annoying repetitions come from the keep LEARNED idea that they will be ignored.

with really little ones, even into the beginning verbal years, you just have to know everything, you have to be perfect. there is no manual, no simple answers. its terrifying and wonderful and what you signed up for. for a person used to dealing only with adults this is a real hurdle. a kid can't tell you what's up, all you know is it's important.

differences in learning
little kids love repetition. hide the ball in the same pocket and you'll still get a big smile. later, read "a snowy day" four times in a row and it will still be interesting. just add little variations.

what childhood involves or the really tough times between three and four years of age many children have extremely intense fits. a child is branded with the label of “willfull” or “out of control” or the parent agonizes over their own possible errors in teaching. here in truth - a simple explanation can be very grounding and releaving of stress – at this age a child is learning independence. literally the question is, “am i part of mommy or am i my own person?” there is no trigger, no event or reason, no behavior,  no “issue” – everything is changing, and it just HURTS LIKE HECK. the storm can be incredibly intense, but don’t blame anyone and hold on tight. you’ll lose a bunch of half days. think of it as three year old colic. in a very similar yet opposite sense the legendary “terrible twos” don’t really exist as such. there is no doubt that two year olds can be suffocatingly attached. the new abilities of intelligence and mobility –“i can go to mommy now” – is a wonderfull game intense in its newness, and rare is the mom that can ignore real tears. the point is to see these times as both natural and positive. at two there is a blossoming of affection, while at three or four it is intelligence which is beginning. children dismissed as “unreasonable” in these ages will grow up to be pretty miserable examples of adulthood. right. original caption from an early addition of  "your baby and child" by p. leech: "if she'll let you hold her, your arms will be a comfort when the terrible storm dies down."

"it takes a village"
these are the times when the concept of “ego boundary” is very important. this is when friends or the rest of the family an be extremely helpful, so that mom or dad can talk to friends or eat or simply go to the bathroom. big people provide guidance in life, which the parent can’t do if they are so overwhelmed that they can’t remember their own name, much less their own mother’s favorite lullibye that was sung to them.

                       
                                       from babyhood, by penelope leach. see the reading list.

adults are children
endless anecdotes and surveys recount that most people have children, not out of love, but because “its what everyone does” or “so i won't be so lonely”. in many many places it is still true that MALES, because of their chauvanist condescension, are so ignorant of the needs of children that they are AFRAID of them, hence responsibility devolves on the female and the child is deprived of the nurturing from an entire one half of a couple. we're speaking about very basic emotional development.

not idiots
by the age of TWO, the age of wonder and absorbing of the environment, a child can walk and has an “operative vocabulary,” one used by listening and not speaking, of 200 words. many ADULTS never do better. the french psychologist Piaget - see the reading list - being more concerned with development than nebulous spiritual concepts, proved that children have the same abilities, if not the experience, of adults by the age of fourteen. the descendants of his school have cut that almost in half to SEVEN YEARS OF AGE. what exactly is happening is still not clear.

                  for wonderful examples of language in very young children, click

             fish here, fish there, fish everywhere!!

crush that flower
though pure intelligence is complete in the very young, mature intelligence can only come through accumulated experience. therefore, before that event all behaviors are learned by rote, through observation. 

• yelling at or in front of a child only teaches that yelling is correct, not whatever words are yelled. 
• making rules or ordering children about teaches kids that they are less important than adults, which they then in turn apply to others. 
• half truths, deceptions or casual indifference only teach that a child's intelligence is not important, crippling a major faculty for dealing with life. 

the most evil thing in the world is not war, but hurt feelings, the origin of all other problems. as it ought for any creative being, the kind word is paramount. once a heart is broken it’s hard to get back.

“you’re stupid,” or “what do you know?”

 “later” means never.  -   “be quiet” means stop feeling.

 what big people do is make sure things are “JUST AOK” every day. the best start in the world is simply enough “sleepies” and “good bites” and “make nice.”

the heart and a weather eye
who do you let your children be with? what is their experience in school? just walking through any community they might encounter something that may hurt their heart. with all the pain in the world, and the random way most people grow up, the important consideration is ideas. when someone is hurt, or a child just witnesses hurt, will this percolate for years, turning the soul with shades of self doubt, or what is worse, indifference? you don’t have to, as many do, be a fanatic and barricade yourself from the world, or take the all too common “me-and-mine-against-world” attitude. with these approaches what in reality will slowly seep through to a child is a fear that will kill the spirit as surely as any direct harm. to preserve natural innocence, the key is simply not going off the track. this means, besides avoiding total idiots, just keeping a careful eye on their feelings, and how will you do that if you don’t do the same for yourself?

quiet time
alternatively, a wise parent understands the absolute value of "quiet time", a short period each day of quiet communication and intimacy. practiced regularly, it is one of the most amazing experiences in life to see how in children, even younger teenagers, all sophistication drops away and shining eyes look to their parents as if they were again only two and saying, "my parents love me, i am a person." the point is NOT obeadience. au contraire. life looks more like chaos to the untrained mind, but the patterns are just harder to see. this is more a check on abilities - can they be quiet, can they deal with the differences and needs of older or younger siblings, can they truly absorb the lesson of the adult, or just seem to, can they accept parental affection in the way its intended. yet instead, in their relations with adults children are so used to being ignored that when two adults meet, children's faces go blank and feet shuffle aimlessly. smart mommies say, "you better say hello to my baby too!!"

spirit
the byword is, play is serious business. it is the mark of a creative, flexible mind in adults as well as children. most people make children then ignore them in the crucial early years, and frustration replaces natural wonder at the universe. it can't be turned off without ill effects any more than you can stop your heart because, "i'm too busy... distracted...  responsible... tired... "

 
this is not cute. – it’s really, really sick.
somehow, in schools everywhere, a little song about bugs is always sung on “memorial” day:
“here we go marching two by two.”

love yourself
the absolute and not obvious truth is children learn, are designed to learn, through observation. what you say or try to teach is less important than what you do. this concept taken to its natural conclusion defines the best way to "teach" children is to live one's own life to the fullest. spend time on your dreams and whims large and small, recognizing that there are no failures, only the process of becoming familiar with yourself. this is the wellspring not only of personality but 

it is impossible to over emphasize this truth, which is denigrated by many portions of society as improper, undisciplined, "unspiritual" or even unmasculine. it is telling that all these traditional ideas, given ascendancy, can produce a very warped personality.

they only want YOU
in case it isn't clear, the most important thing, and indeed the only real thing you can give kids is

no gifts, "special" events, trips, clothes plain or fancy, "advantages" of education, and absolutely least of all, "sacrificing" for food and shelter, can equal your simple presence.

the time between five and seven is truly magical in terms of mental development, but how many people retain the self respect, or much less, are allowed the experience to let these abilities come to fruition? what would the world be like if it was populated by people whose childhood had never been stunted? probably pretty amazing. 

peace is not the absence of war.

on the nature of intelligence
a young woman in her early twenties is overcome by a deep depression, unexplained bouts of weeping and oddly vague nightmares that totally destroy her ability to function or have any social relationships. she comes from a stable, kind, middle class family. no therapy or drugs have any effect. finally two facts are acertained. one, that her mother when young was subjected to horrible experiences during world war two, which she wisely and kindly never told her daughter about when she was young. secondly, the simple fact that until the age of four or five the depressed woman had slept with her mother. it turned out that what the mother had consciously shielded her daughter from had been overwhelmingly expressed in constant nightmares, which the child had absorbed while totally asleep. only a brutally mechanistic or behavioral pschology would view this as a merely symbolic or function defined event. in truth, the child, essentially pre-verbal, certainly pre-cognitive and absolutely incapable of comprehending the brutal "adult" events that brought on her mother's nightmares, had completely absorbed her mother's pain. when this was discussed with the young woman the depression and weeping ceased, but she was still unable to form stable relationships until her mid-thirties, long after the first flush of youth when many people experience the joyous freedom of young adulthood and the hope of a true love. intelligence is not just the capacity for intellection,, mere problem solving, but an expression of the incredible complexity of the soul. in this instance, the fully natural and sane impulse of motherhood was perverted into the destruction of half a person's life. if this is possible with the subconscious, what illimitable harm is made possible by the view that children are the mere recipients of instruction or dicipline, no matter how kindly the intent?

two examples
one small press book of the sixties recounted the story of a ghetto mother who took in desperate neighborhood children. the city refused her a daycare license or food assistance and prosecuted her for running an unlicensed daycare. in desperation she took the twenty children out to the country to live. within a month the children proved themselves completely independent of her. in england a lone couple with experience in education started Summerhill, a little kid through  high school experiment emphasizing self reliance in a safe atmosphere, with only a "school council gathering" with a few adults present as a control. it proved educationally to be highly successful, and again, the children proved themselves independent. in both instances the older children helped the younger ones.

                                                                 
                                                                            this photo is a found object from a large city.

there's an insidious myth that jealousy is inherent to the young mind.
is that what you see here?

mountains of love
three to five year olds are perfectly capable of interacting with babies and even helping out with their care. sadly, this isn’t even a consideration with most people, yet once kids get the hang of it they display a remarkable glowing pride. first tell them, “see how nice she/he is? that’s your little sister/brother. they really, really like you and they’ll be here a long time.” teach them to look into the baby’s eyes and hold it. show them what gentle stroking is and to just to make nice soothing sounds, and tell them that babies like these things. the songs they learn they can sing to the baby. they should stay away from eyes and ears. tickling is nice but say they shouldn’t get carried away as with big people. they should let a big person do the feeding and also should also know to call one if they think something is wrong. at first little kids will say, “but babies can’t talk!” but then you say, “sure they can. they talk by wiggling and making sounds and with their eyes. that’s how momies and daddies do it.” tell them that babies understand the tone, the feeling behind words. a good example is, “hi baby. it’s a nice day. are you o.k.? this is what i did today. look what i have.” be interactive. ask, “do you think she/he is happy/tired/hungry? does she/he want to be held or just be quiet?” since preverbal children undeniably have a ‘listening vocabulary” even they can be shown what to do. as with anything with little kids, just be persistent but not in a hurry. they can help with the rough times too, not just fun things, like when the baby is cranky or crying. explain that babies can be lonely too and sometimes all they need to do is play next to their sister/brother. when they get big enough to do it they’ll like holding baby too. in a wonderful episode of “the simpsons” marge explains to a cranky bart that little lisa “thinks you hold up the moon.”

well done
in europe both prenatal care and abortion on demand for all members of society are common and are accounted the greatest single factor in highly successful  anti-poverty programs, not to mention simple human decency. "every child a wanted child" is a principle repugnant to the religion crazed, yet was not illegal child pornographyuntil about 1974.

NO TV !!!!!
television can be the universal baby sitter, a relief from stress, or just accepted as common. make a little survey and take a closer look. almost universally modern children's programing is violent. there won't be blood, but there'll be everything else:  violent action, threats, grimaces, yelling, and a constant attitude of aggression, one-up-manship and put downs. what is passed off as "adventure" is always danger, fighting the bad person and constantly being unsafe. early childhood is the most important time in forming adult attitudes. constant exposure to violence is not just more entertainment, but has complex ramifications: the acceptance of violence in the real world, learning violence itself, and feelings of fear and helplessness. these three things have been substantiated through careful scientific analyses. in addition, the most modern of cartoons are all graphic nonsense where a clean human image is totally lost, with very little facial or emotional subtlety. "sponge bob" can't hold a candle to "betty boop".

           
 left. the cover from “read to your bunny” by rosemary wells, which lacks any moralizing or danger-as-adventure, or modern jarring graphics. right. one graph from the handout reproduced below, received at a “read to your bunny seminar” at a large library.

Meaningful Differences
"the seminal research that explains the devastating learning
gap that at begins at home and then comes to school."
by jim trelease, 2001

<< eds. - the essence is, that the number of words a very young child hears, and how many rare words, makes a fantastic difference in later development. as they grow older, the gap between the advantaged child and their peers grows wider and wider. >>

g

growing up
how do you explain growing up to a child?
                                   –  “well, first you sit still and talk. you do this more and more. then you stop having fun. it sneaks up on you, like a friend who’s going to tickle you, but there never is any tickle. you get grumpy a lot and it doesn’t feel good to wake up in the morning. then you spend all your time fighting other people just to have something to eat, which is called “work.” your body gets really heavy and you don’t run any more, which is called “being respectable.” you stay inside most of the time and the air is so stuffy that you can’t breath. you have a few friends left, but all you do is talk with them about how other people aren’t as “good” as you. some people - and this is really odd - they try to hurt you. it’s usually because their mommy and daddy weren’t very nice to them, or they don’t have enough to eat. they have to stay some place, like you stay in your room when you’re sick, but for a really, really long time. all of this stuff goes on for forever, so long that you forget what you used to do, running around and looking into everything.  finally, you get together with lots of other people, and just for something to do, you make war and religion.
                                                           - understand?”

some people prefer goats milk, but what babies really need is the right anti-bodies, and cuddly good stuff.

not to instruct but to preserve.  not by rote but by guidance.

not from fear but from beauty.

let's make this absolootily clear. 
despite all the milk carton and post office notices, 
MOST CHILDREN ARE SEXUALLY ABUSED BY 
SOMEONE THEY KNOW.

“it affected all aspects of my life.” 
people still, males especially, express DISBELIEVING astonishment that abuse can happen more than once and nothing is said. this demonstrates a PROFOUND lack of understanding of human nature. 
the factors listed below have the common property of involving
                                                                     INTENSE EMOTIONS.

the ugliness of denial of lives destroyed
many people, especially older generations, refuse to believe child rape happens at all.
this is not at all an easy idea to comprehend. the seemingly smartest, kindest people will live out their lives as if everything had stopped at four or five years old, yet with the people about them totally unsuspecting, totally deprived of the characteristics that define adulthood. they will have no common sense - exhibiting bizarre concepts that are apparent only when a circumstance stimulates them, absolutely no adult capacity for affection or attachment, a profound lack of a sense of direction in their lives, a totally disproprtionate terror of small things - even just loud noises can bring some to tears, a feeling of panicked desperation which they daily struggle to hide from other adults, and nightmares that end in insomnia.

and that's just the ones that survive, while others commit suicide without any outward indications, leaving their friends mystefied. 
while others commit the same sin with their own children, or others hapless enough to cross their path. 

  
                      MURDER AND DAILY RAPE
                              and they walk free!!!
             IS THIS HOW WE PROTECT OUR CHILDREN?
                                      this is now. both are from 2005.

good point. jail is cheaper.

THE GREATEST ILLUSION
on this path is seeing the HALF WAY POINT AS THE GOAL. the elements of this analysis have the appeal of a very basic logic and inclusiveness. if one makes claims to a social agenda or religion, but does not include this logic, the sincerest person is little different from one in the most chaotic periods of history. personal interior and interpersonal damage is INEVITABLE, basic emotional needs are denied, and ultimately religion is diverted as an excuse for war and social repression. THERE IS NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS THAN SOCIAL CONTROL GIVEN THE STAMP OF AUTHORITY OR DIVINITY, whether through a hierarchy or subtle social cues. only the very naïve will deny that some people relish control and even ENJOY GIVING PAIN, really not differing from marauding hordes in sentiment, seeking victories petty or grand. the catholic church in one era is supported by whore houses and in another is the only resistance to fascism, but the long term result is the same, power is given to a ELITE group and superstition is the PRIMARY tool of repression. cults abound in all ages of those who are “realized”, the half educated will ALWAYS deride anyone different as “not making sense,” the perceived inferior, by race, gender, ethnic group, social status are ALWAYS characterized as “childish” and "in need of guidance" thereby belying a primitive view of children. read frederick douglas - see the reading list - an escaped slave turned author, for a description of the “ideal” slave, one who has no emotions of their own, but takes on the concerns of their master. if a person cannot understand that there are 
                               levels to “common sense” 

they will eventually either stagnate or go merrily down a narrow path.  in the preface, articles 13a and b, are intended partially to suggest an essential identity between an arrogant elite and the idea of “protest.” and if anyone is hurt along the way, it's described as anything from “unfortunate” to "who ever heard of such a thing" to “part of god's plan.”

what is absolutely amazing is the INFINITE VARIETY that self-righteousness can take, with never a thought to logic or harm. self righteousness exists in a definite inverse relation to development:

“you can’t say that to ME!!”

for every cool headed person in the world there are twenty who couldn't care less. even very nice people are inculcated with an alienation that makes them insecure around strangers. as said in the "large print" section, people being afraid of each other is the true norm. so many people have been so hurt that, because of some squabble or mis-perception, they deny themselves the one thing, friendship and community, that could help them rise above their circumstances. there has NEVER been a civilization on this ball, and we are at a critical make-or-break juncture, and if break, without the support of any traditional or higher culture, it will be total.

the last (lost, lowest) words:
a tiny baby is crying? - "babies do that", a bully torments another child? - "children are like that",  raped? - "boys will be boys", evicted or fired from a job? - "the world is like that", a dirty deal destroys someone's savings and family? - "that's business", can't get the sewers repaired? - "you can't fight city hall",  disaster victims? - "those poor people. what can you do?",  racism? - "i didn't do it",  the land is being destroyed? - "we need jobs",  genocidal war? -  "support our troops".

this little fella can roller skate.
but don't let him cross the street.

COMMON SENSE – the parable of the little robot
in the early days of artificial intelligence research people were obsessed with pure analytical ability, but things never seemed to go right. a group at one school designed a small robot to do just one, seemingly simple, thing – navigate around a city just as a human pedestrian would. they programmed in all the information they thought it would need, giving it a few simple instructions and let it loose. at the first street it came to, it stopped, looked around and never moved again. this happened again and again. finally in frustration the entire robot was torn apart and carefully reassembled. the entire program for the robot was analyzed down to the smallest bit and no errors were found. it was let loose again, and again it froze at the first street crossing. have you figured it out? finally a light bulb went off in someone’s head. the rule programmed into the robot said, “when you come to a street, look both ways, and if there’s a car coming, don’t cross.” the critical point is that the university where the students worked was in washington, d.c., which is a designed city where many streets are arrow straight for miles on end. so the robot would come to a street, see a car two miles away and wait patiently. obviously there was a sub-rule needed to the street crossing program. examples like this led to the examination of “world view based” intelligence.

people started making libraries of the rules that are used to define a world. a few years after the above incident two libraries had accumulated the following astonishing numbers of rules:

20,000 and  500,000.

no such aminal
the point we’re trying to show here is that this is what is involved in just the physical aspects of life. this is why human cubs stay stupid so much longer than those of other creatures. they’re spending all that time accumulating zillions of pieces of information, which only slowly form a coherent whole. is it ridiculous to assume that the mental and spiritual worlds of people are equally complex?

what IS ridiculous is to assume that human values are “obvious.” anyone who wants to tell you that their way of doing things is the best because it's what’s obvious, or “what everyone knows” or is in some dusty old repressive “holy book”, just doesn’t have a top floor, isn’t operating with all their marbles. most people don’t have even simple rules for decision making, nor are such things standard fare in your average religion. life is not just a collection of rules, but neither is it independent of same.

WITH THE WORLD FULL OF PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SHOVE DOWN YOUR THROAT THEIR IDEA OF WHAT’S RIGHT, DON’T YOU THINK IT’S TIME FOR COOLER HEADS TO HAVE A CHANCE?

CODA - dead dreams
the middle sixties were a very special time and place to be a part of. maybe it meant something. maybe not, in the long run...   but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that no one really understands at the time - and which never explain, in retrospect, what really happened. but being absolutely certain that no matter which way i went i would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as i was, no doubt about it at all. there was madness in any direction, at any hour. you could strike sparks anywhere. there was a fantastic sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. and that, i think, was the handle, that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of OLD and EVIL. not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that, our energy would simply prevail. there was no point in fighting, on our side or theirs. we had all the momentum; we were riding the great crest of a high and beautiful wave. so now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in las vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark - the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

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