Tools
Previously we introduced and defined: a system, a society, and core beliefs. In this section we'll introduce tools to help us understand and connect concepts in general. And we'll specifically use these tools to first comprehend a system, a society, and core beliefs, simultaneously as separate components and interconnected concepts.
None of the tools or models we're using are perfect, nor are they meant to be perfect. They are USE+FULL to help us get a clearer idea and understanding of WHERE society and core beliefs exist. When you understand WHERE society and core beliefs exist, you have taken the first and most important step to uncovering your core beliefs.
None of the tools or models we're using are perfect, nor are they meant to be perfect. They are USE+FULL to help us get a clearer idea and understanding of WHERE society and core beliefs exist. When you understand WHERE society and core beliefs exist, you have taken the first and most important step to uncovering your core beliefs.
Re+View
A system is an organization that consists of interrelated and interdependent elements (components, entities, factors, members, parts, etc.), continually influencing one another (directly or indirectly), maintaining their activity and the existence of the system, in order to achieve the goal of the system.
- organization: an arrangement into a structured whole
- interrelated and interdependent: two or more things related, connected, and dependent on each other.
- continually influencing: repeatedly and constantly having an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something
Re+Phrase
An example of a system, is a large social grouping of interdependent members, continually influencing one another to maintain the dominant cultural expectations.
Tree Analogy
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Tree: 1) a thing that has a branching structure resembling that of a tree 2) a diagram with a structure of branching connecting lines, representing different processes and relationships.
Analogy: a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification; a process of arguing from similarity in known respects to similarity in other respects |
In this Tree Analogy we compare a society to a tree. As mentioned earlier no model is perfect, still--an analogy allows us to look at what we know about two things, and learn more about one of those things we may not know as well. Here we're looking at how a society operates compared to a tree to get insight into an earlier question what is a society? Some essential similarities:
Trees can lose their leaves, branches can fall off, the trunk can be snapped in half, and the tree can still manage to survive. But there is one part that is absolutely essential to the tree's survival--the roots. If a tree is uprooted and it's roots destroyed, that particular tree will die. If a seed of a different species were to take root in that spot, the former tree would have no space to return.
Societies have had leaders assassinated, buildings destroyed, economical and government collapse, wars, coups, revolutions, famines, epidemics, yet somehow the society still manages to survive and grow again.
What part(s) are absolutely essential to a society's survival? What would equate as the seed and core root of a society? If that core root is found, how could it be uprooted? If it was uprooted, would it die like the uprooted tree? And how would a seed of a different society take root, so that the former wouldn't have space to return?
Responses to the first two questions are available if you continue scrolling, which also answers WHERE do society and core beliefs exist.
- Both are systems subject to universal systems. (physics, geology, ecology, etc)
- Both are living systems growing, evolving, protecting, and perpetuating themselves.
- Both can survive in many different places if the proper conditions exist.
- Both have different parts playing different roles all dependent on each other to survive and thrive.
Trees can lose their leaves, branches can fall off, the trunk can be snapped in half, and the tree can still manage to survive. But there is one part that is absolutely essential to the tree's survival--the roots. If a tree is uprooted and it's roots destroyed, that particular tree will die. If a seed of a different species were to take root in that spot, the former tree would have no space to return.
Societies have had leaders assassinated, buildings destroyed, economical and government collapse, wars, coups, revolutions, famines, epidemics, yet somehow the society still manages to survive and grow again.
What part(s) are absolutely essential to a society's survival? What would equate as the seed and core root of a society? If that core root is found, how could it be uprooted? If it was uprooted, would it die like the uprooted tree? And how would a seed of a different society take root, so that the former wouldn't have space to return?
Responses to the first two questions are available if you continue scrolling, which also answers WHERE do society and core beliefs exist.
Every society is a system.
Every societal system is an organization of interacting and interdependent members,
continually influencing one another (directly or indirectly), maintaining their activity
and the existence of the society, in order to achieve the goal of the society.
Ebb & Flow
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Ebb-Flow: conveys 1) how what seems to be opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent, 2) how two or more things give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another, and/or 3) how two or more things continuously give way to one another.
Conventionally known as Yin-Yang |
Ebb & Flow give us the ability to see holistically, rather than linearly. It gives us the ability to see and understand how two things mutually and simultaneously create and re+create each other. For example, which came first, the roots or the fruits? The seeds or the leaves? The chicken or the egg?
Ebb & Flow removes the riddle. The proper response is they came together. They mutually and simultaneously created each other.
To understand this idea, if you find yourself struggling with it, you have to let go of an ideal. You have to let go of the ideal that everything happens isolated in a nice-neat, observable and measurable, static, step-by-step, linear-sequential-order. The reality is all life operates in a dynamic interconnected-interdependent-interactive feedback complex, operating in a constant state of ebb and flow.
What's the equivalent for a society? What does a society create, while mutually and simultaneously, being created by? We don't have THE answer. We offer a response and our reasoning.
This '<==>' symbol represents ebb & flow, mutual and simultaneous creation:
If we continue from this line of reasoning then:
What came first the roots or the fruits? The seeds or the leaves? A society's way of being or it's beliefs?
Ebb & Flow removes the riddle. The proper response is they came together. They mutually and simultaneously created each other.
To understand this idea, if you find yourself struggling with it, you have to let go of an ideal. You have to let go of the ideal that everything happens isolated in a nice-neat, observable and measurable, static, step-by-step, linear-sequential-order. The reality is all life operates in a dynamic interconnected-interdependent-interactive feedback complex, operating in a constant state of ebb and flow.
What's the equivalent for a society? What does a society create, while mutually and simultaneously, being created by? We don't have THE answer. We offer a response and our reasoning.
This '<==>' symbol represents ebb & flow, mutual and simultaneous creation:
- (Who eye am, as an individual) <==> (Who eye am being, as an individual)
- (Who eye am being, as an individual) <==> (What eye believe, as an individual)
If we continue from this line of reasoning then:
- (Who we are, as a society) <==> (Who we are being, as a society)
- Who we are being, as a society) <==> (What we believe, as a society)
What came first the roots or the fruits? The seeds or the leaves? A society's way of being or it's beliefs?
Every society is being it's beliefs.
Every societal system (in any phase of it's being or expression)
and the beliefs of that societal system, mutually create and reinforce each other.
Core Connected Circles
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Venn Diagram: a diagram representing mathematical or logical sets pictorially as circles or closed curves within an enclosing rectangle, the universal set, the common elements of the sets being represented by the areas of overlap among the circles, the core.
Conventionally known as Venn Diagram |
Core Connected Circles allow us to see something as a whole, in it's parts, and interactions, simultaneously. The circles give us a still shot to some otherwise constantly moving complex, operating in a dynamic interconnected-interdependent-interactive fashion. And finally the core that forms where the circles connect, reveals the source, the basic fundamentals, that direct every part of that entire system.
A tree, with it's DNA at the core of every cell on every part of that tree, follows the same principle. As does mostly every living organism.
DNA for those who don't know, refers to deoxyribonucleic acid, 'a self-replicating material which is present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information.' It also refers to 'the fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something.'
Every society has it's own DNA. We refer to it as core beliefs. DNA is to an individual's physical characteristics and expression what core beliefs are to a society's collective cultural character and expression.
In other words, where DNA is the core programming of an individuals physical appearance and abilities, core beliefs is the main programming behind:
HOW we think, is like a filter for WHAT we think. If we think a certain way that effects what ideas get in and how things are interpreted. Which we cover next in Guiding Principles.
A tree, with it's DNA at the core of every cell on every part of that tree, follows the same principle. As does mostly every living organism.
DNA for those who don't know, refers to deoxyribonucleic acid, 'a self-replicating material which is present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information.' It also refers to 'the fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something.'
Every society has it's own DNA. We refer to it as core beliefs. DNA is to an individual's physical characteristics and expression what core beliefs are to a society's collective cultural character and expression.
In other words, where DNA is the core programming of an individuals physical appearance and abilities, core beliefs is the main programming behind:
- where we live, how we live
- what we do, how we do it,
- who and what we idolize and idealize,
- what clothes we wear, if we wear clothes at all,
- what we say, what we don't say, how we say things literally, verbally, physically, explicitly, or implicitly
- more importantly, what we think,
- and perhaps most important of all, how we think
HOW we think, is like a filter for WHAT we think. If we think a certain way that effects what ideas get in and how things are interpreted. Which we cover next in Guiding Principles.
Every part of a society has the same beliefs at it's essence.
The beliefs held in common, at the essence of every part of a society, can be referred to as core beliefs.
The core beliefs of any societal system are ideas and thoughts embedded and rooted
deep within the mental being of every individual member of that society.
Guiding PrinciplesHOW are core beliefs instilled?
HOW are core beliefs re+created? |
ContentsHOW are core beliefs identified?
HOW are core beliefs distilled? |
Metamorph your mind and the rest follows.
We proposed that society is a kind of system and that the elements that make up a societal system are its individual members. If we take these ideas further then what follows is that society itself does not exist in some other country, far off region, nor exclusively in the territory which you dwell. Society itself doesn't exist in any one building, set of buildings, or in any architectural structure. Society itself does not exist one document, set of documents, or any oral declarations. Society doesn't exist in any particular race, sex, class, “elite” group, nor in any one single individual. Society does not exist out there--some where. Society exists in you. Society exists within you. Society exists within you and everyone around you. In essence, you are your particular society.
You are a seed of your society. The thoughts in your mind, continually influenced by everything around you, directly and indirectly, is where society exists. If you assassinate the queen, king, president, or prime minister others would simply take their place or be voted in. There is an assumption that their must be some recognized leader. If you blow up the court, congress, or parliament, convening would simply take place else where until the buildings are rebuilt. There is an assumption that there must be some governing body. If an empire, country, or corporation collapses today, others would vie to replace them tomorrow. There is an assumption that there must be organization over large territories. If all the constitutions, declarations, and documents were torn up and burned, in an effort to rewrite them, many of the details and emphasis might change but the main points and premises would be fundamentally the same. There's an assumption perhaps that if something unwritten is illegitimate. At this point we are not arguing the validity of any of these assumptions, for now we're pointing out that: Unless you have an alternate set of core beliefs, an alternate set of assumptions, an alternate vision, you would recreate the same essential structures and dynamics instilled by your particular society because society lives in you.
To change a society, first you change yourself, you change your mind. More accurately you begin the changing the thoughts, beliefs, expectations held in your mind. To do that you'll need to know what those thoughts, beliefs, and expectations are.
You are a seed of your society. The thoughts in your mind, continually influenced by everything around you, directly and indirectly, is where society exists. If you assassinate the queen, king, president, or prime minister others would simply take their place or be voted in. There is an assumption that their must be some recognized leader. If you blow up the court, congress, or parliament, convening would simply take place else where until the buildings are rebuilt. There is an assumption that there must be some governing body. If an empire, country, or corporation collapses today, others would vie to replace them tomorrow. There is an assumption that there must be organization over large territories. If all the constitutions, declarations, and documents were torn up and burned, in an effort to rewrite them, many of the details and emphasis might change but the main points and premises would be fundamentally the same. There's an assumption perhaps that if something unwritten is illegitimate. At this point we are not arguing the validity of any of these assumptions, for now we're pointing out that: Unless you have an alternate set of core beliefs, an alternate set of assumptions, an alternate vision, you would recreate the same essential structures and dynamics instilled by your particular society because society lives in you.
To change a society, first you change yourself, you change your mind. More accurately you begin the changing the thoughts, beliefs, expectations held in your mind. To do that you'll need to know what those thoughts, beliefs, and expectations are.
Guiding PrinciplesHOW are core beliefs instilled?
HOW are core beliefs re+created? |
ContentsHOW are core beliefs identified?
HOW are core beliefs distilled? |
