>I see your point. It reminds me of the passage in Emerson's essay "Self
>Reliance" in which he describes the first time a child stops living for
>himself and starts living for the approval of others (language modernized
by
>me):
>
>The Lessons of Children
>
>Here's a good lesson in self-trust: take a look at children, or babies, or
>even the few remaining uncivilized peoples of the world. Study their faces,
>their behavior. Their minds aren't divided and rebellious like ours! They
>don't automatically discard ideas like we do when our mental computer
>calculates too much opposition to it.
>
>Since their minds are whole, their eye hasn't yet been conquered, and when
>we look in their faces we are disconcerted.
>
>Infancy doesn't conform to anyone—
>we all conform to it!
>It only takes one baby
>to turn all the adults in the room
>into four- or five-year-olds.
>
>The baby's magical charisma could be available to all of us in youth,
>puberty, and even adulthood if we'd just let it shine through us,
>unadulterated.
>
>Don't think teenagers have no power because they can't express themselves
>the way we might like. Listen! You can hear them expressing themselves loud
>and clear in the next room. They can speak perfectly well to their peer
>group. Through silence or shouting, they know how to make us adults very
>unnecessary.
>
>The casual sense of entitlement kids have when they know where their next
>meal is coming from—their princely refusal to acknowledge that you might be
>doing them a favor by feeding them—is just healthy human nature.
>
>A boy in the living room is like a heckler at a show.
>
>Independent, irresponsible, a spectator of the people and events that pass
>by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, swiftly and
>unceremoniously: good, bad, interesting, silly, cool, trouble. He never
>worries about consequences, about special interests. He gives an
>independent, genuine verdict. You have to court him! He doesn't court you.
>
>We adults are thrown into jail by our consciousness. As soon as others
>applaud one thing we say or do, we're committed.
>
>>From that moment on,
>we're forced to factor the approval or hatred
>of everyone we know into everything we do.
>There is no unlearning this.
>
>If only we could go back to that naive way of being! Imagine if someone
>could put aside all his attachments, seeing life once more from that same
>unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unafraid innocence. He'd be terrifying!
>He'd comment on whatever happened, giving opinions that wouldn't seem like
>mere points of view, but like the absolute truth. His words would stick
like
>darts in people's ears and inject them with horror.
>
>Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/
>Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
>http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
>Free newsletter! Visit Meme Central at
>http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com]On Behalf
>Of Jim Callahan
>Sent: Thursday, October 08, 1998 10:34 AM
>To: virus@lucifer.com
>Subject: Re: virus: Level three
>
>
>A child of say eight to ten is not. They have only started to build the
>boxes and walls that the rest of us fight to escape. And is not living
>without the boxes the idea behind level three?
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Brodie <richard@brodietech.com>
>To: virus@lucifer.com <virus@lucifer.com>
>Date: Thursday, October 08, 1998 10:40 AM
>Subject: RE: virus: Level three
>
>
>>A child's mind is at level 1.
>>
>>Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/
>>Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
>>http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
>>Free newsletter! Visit Meme Central at
>>http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com]On Behalf
>>Of Jim Callahan
>>Sent: Thursday, October 08, 1998 6:57 AM
>>To: virus@lucifer.com
>>Subject: virus: Level three
>>
>>
>>Is a child's mind at level three? I do think it is. As we grow we learn
and
>>we construct boxes. We move further away from level three. In these boxes
>>most people spend their lives. It is the spreader of the virus who
>>constructs the next better box.
>>In my line of work I am paid well to deconstruct the walls for a short
>time.
>>The effect on people is amazing. For a wile they are that six to nine year
>>old kid that we all carry around with us. And for a few moments the walls
>>are gone. They come back of course. But for a moment .......Jim
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
>>To: virus@lucifer.com <virus@lucifer.com>
>>Date: Thursday, October 08, 1998 3:29 AM
>>Subject: Re: virus: Lateral thinking (was:More virian propositions)
>>
>>
>>>In message <361C46B6.F130E128@qlink.queensu.ca>, Eric Boyd
>>><6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca> writes
>>>>I suspect that our minds are incapable of operating without "walls".
>They
>>>>are what keep us sane.
>>>
>>>They're what keep us on level 2, Eric. Which for some
>>>people is "sanity". Level 3 is not a big box, it's the
>>>limitless space within which all boxes exist.
>>>
>>>Right, Richard?
>>>--
>>>Robin Faichney
>>>
>>
>>
>
>