>All right so as children we are close to level three and as we get older we
>move away from it.
>As our model of the world and how we are expected to interact in it evolves
>we move to level two. Those persons who do not evolve correctly or have no
>access to civilization take the e- ticket ride to level one. But we also
>have the handful that refuse to conform their conciseness to level two and
>they move to level three. Upon seeing the freedom these people seem to have
>others strive for level three. And then what happens?
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Brodie <richard@brodietech.com>
>To: virus@lucifer.com <virus@lucifer.com>
>Date: Thursday, October 08, 1998 12:42 PM
>Subject: RE: virus: Level three
>
>
>>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