Another really cool concept I've been playing with lately is coersion --
I've been reading the TCS [Taking Children Seriously] directors cuts, and
although I don't have children, I've been following the philosophy with
quite some interest. You see, they beleive that coercion causes
*irrationality*, and moveover that it impairs creativity.
To see how this works, the definitions are in order (and this is what sets
a good philosophy apart from a bad one, methinks: good working definitions
of the main concepts). Coercion is the psychological state of enacting one
idea or impulse while a conflicting impulse is still active in one's
mind. What happens, over time, is that a coerced person becomes less
able to think rationally about the particular situation: ones mind "closes
down", and the coercion takes over. This, of course, is why Creativity --
the ability to solve problems that are worth solving -- is damaged, becuase
if you can't think about a problem, then you are NOT going to be able to
solve it!
Not this sort of analysis has opened up huge areas of my own life to
revealing things -- a lot of the things I did in the past make sense, once
I understand that many of them were fights against the coercion which
surrounded me. That is to say, my IRRATIONALITIES were caused by the
coercion which I sensed; even if I didn't know what it was at the time.
Now, of course, comming back to the problems which haunt me, I can see how
the coercion, both external and INTERNAL, has damaged my creativity to the
point that I simply can't imagine how I could change.
The only way out, according to TCS, is to stop the coercion. They
recommend that, starting here and now, you set aside a hour today and do
exactly what you want. Then, tomorrow, increase it to two hours, and do
exactly what you want. etc. until after 24 days, you are doing nothing
but what you want all day long. The point at which you are cured comes
when you can just sit quietly, and listen to the little voice inside you
(Marie's "center of authority" -- I like the concept, Marie, thanks), and
actually know what it is you want.
(all too often, in this society, that situation comes up where one person
asks the others what they want to do, and nobody knows. Their creativity,
their internal functioning, has been so damaged by coercion, that they
can't even tell what they want!)
Anyway, this is but a small taste of the theory -- you really have to
subscribe to the list for a month or more to see how it all works.
http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~tcs/index.html
ERiC