Science has only recently reached a high level of understanding of how the brain of Modern Man works. Both Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine had cover stories a while back that reported the latest knowledge of the physical events that occur during the human learning process, including color photos of high tech brain scans. This was, by coincidence, very validating for me, because I found that I had unknowingly adapted, duplicated actually, the same methodology as a practice for my own Learning process.
In attempting to construct a career as a writer, in either Hollywood [
screenplays] or book publishing [
a series of detective novels], I naturally for me spent the effort to gather every bit of data about the Entertainment Industry and the Publishing Industry that I could, from the L.A. Times and other local newspapers, the Hollywood trades, as well as writerly sources like Writer's Digest, The Writer, and Publishers Weekly. I built a database of flat files on my antique computer, over months & years, with names and titles of people and where they moved job-wise, the companies and divisions and alliances and takeovers, and the agents and unions and moguls and editors and publishers. Even the record label divisions and broadcast satellite companies and movie and video distributors. Everything.
Over time I developed a feel for how the people and executives related to each other; a sense of the effects of major takeovers and mergers and fads; for the ebb and flow of fickle fortune in the huge and overlapping corporate and independent businesses that make up 'show biz' and the publishing industry.
This is precisely how every child of Homo sapiens sapiens is designed to Learn, no matter the environment or the intention behind the subject matter being taught. Everything is absorbed, avidly, up to about eight or ten years of age; then the design of the human brain removes or deletes any category of Learning that is no longer active.
Really: The design of the brain wants a flood of raw material, to establish pathways and relationships, and then keeps only the most-necessary for Darwinian survival information and skills.
It is possible to re-fill the organic 'gray matter' data banks that were deleted, some time later in one's Life, with proper effort. It is even possible to begin new subject areas not previously covered, but the effort required is considerable.
What this new, deeper, more precise scientific understanding of the mechanics of the human brain provides us with is clarity on the proper, most efficient, most beneficial as relates to Mankind's Highest Value and Purpose approach to Learning. (I avoid use of the term 'education' here because the monolith of academia is best side-stepped: official 'education' provides little Learning.)
That proper approach to Learning is to flood the empty and still-growing brain of the child every child from birth to teens, with all and every manner of stimuli.
The facts being poured into the open minds of kids are not what is important. The key is to cover all kinds of art and mathematics and language and ethics and the internet and history and music and dance and science at an early age, so that the resulting teenager can process what is necessary for success in all circumstances of their later Life.
This is similar to Montessori-based schooling, and a strong reason for their success, both as a business and in their results. This is also why the
"Sesame Street" television programs are so great.
The principle of developing the Working Mind requires Learning how to Learn, re-Learning how to Think, and not absorbing what one is given to learn or think, i.e. rote or 'received' information. The Culture-Structure avoids anything that threatens its narrow, dis-empowering intent; the young unstifled mind [or the developing Working Mind] absorbs anything and everything that it can get its [proverbial] hands on. The Working Mind looks freshly at Objective Reality, intending to discover the Distinctions {Chapter 21} that will provide Empowerment for him/herself and others.
This is the process of learning as the Distinction 'Learning', pure and simple. This Learning is a form of Empowerment. Mankind must give kids every chance to be able to Think, to Reason, to make Distinctions all on their own. And the generations after us will be better able to deal with whatever Life puts in front of them, whatever might arise. And they will be separate individuals, not dependent on the Culture-Structure, and oh so very dangerous to the dis-empowering status quo and to their personal False Mind/s.
The Freedom of this process of Learning also frees the teachers, gives them the Power to Empower their charges. Building an empowering school system gives Power to the students; a school system that Empowers is one that kids cannot get enough of give kids the Power to Learn and the next generation will be
giants on this Earth.
* * * *
Empowerment is saying 'No' or 'Yes' at the precise moment that Makes A Difference, of pleading the guilty as guilty and only the innocent as innocent. Empowerment is standing alone in the face of the False Mind, separate from the Culture-Structure, which stance is, of itself, the stance that the Culture-Structure is not one's god-head, that it is not all-powerful, that the Culture-Structure is designed to steal Power. It requires Courage to stand aside from the Culture-Structure and to take the stand that you are not giving up your Power without a fight.
Survival is a struggle, a mean existence. Learning is a natural delight, the expression of your personal movement along the Path to realize a part of Mankind's Highest Value, the fulfillment of Mankind's potential. To fulfill your Self, your own potential, is to do all that you need to do in this Life, for the fulfillment of Mankind's potential. The fulfillment of your personal potential Empowers the potential of Mankind's fulfillment.
The on-going practice of Learning is your most precious tool for the fulfillment of anything that you take on. The bully believes that he/she has no option other than extortion; beneficial change in the bully's behavior will occur when the bully Learns a new life-skill. The legal profession sees no other option than ripping and tearing at the Value Justice; when the lawyer discovers Learning, he/she will be Empowered in the fulfillment of the Value Justice, rather than its destruction. Academics see no higher Value than Survival 'publish or perish', get that tenure but when they discover Learning as a Distinction they will naturally Empower others by passing on to their students the benefits of Learning, which in turn benefits all Mankind.
The practice of Learning is a form of Empowerment that lasts a lifetime; there is always more to Learn [while mass 'education' ends at graduation, if not before]. Learning is the kind of never-ending personal Purpose that Empowers the Working Mind, the individual who takes it on as a Value, as personal Meaning. To be on the Path of Learning is to be on the Path of Empowerment, and on the Path of fulfilling both one's personal potential and Mankind's potential.
[copyright 2001 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
This issue's editorial content is an excerpt from Chapter 14 of my forthcoming book, "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment", which
excerpt is also posted on the Working Minds website.
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N E X T M O N T H: "Winning & Losing" [excerpt from Chapter 12]
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w e b s i t e a n n o u n c e m e n t
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In case anybody missed the GOOD NEWS,
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Improvements include the removal of ads, leaving only
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Issue #7: "Winning & Losing"
[February 2001]
"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."
Lily Tomlin
"Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."
Vince Lombardi [1913-70]
=================================
oh, frabjous joy!!
The WM website has received the 
from the Erratic Impact / Philosophy Research Base website
=================================
Ayn Rand was born on 2 February 1905
Visit some of the many weblinks constructed to honor her
via http://www.working-minds.com/AynRand.htm
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" W I N N I N G a n d L O S I N G "
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Losing, for many members of Mankind, is a way of life; such individuals manipulate events to a crisis, often the basic goal of standard Game behavior. The effort to manipulate is the measure of one's involvement in the Game. This effort is always the individual's best attempt at surviving the equally-intentional counter-moves by the thousands and millions of opponents doing exactly the same thing. This is true
within whatever level of class one 'belongs', and the same opposition occurs
between social or economic classes, between nations, between corporations. [You're not paranoid, they
are all out to destroy you!]
The difference between the Loser and the Winner in each such Game is that the Loser accepts that the proper ending to the Game, like a crescendo in music, is for oneself to lose. The Loser expects this all the time, and is indeed very surprised should he/she win.
This losing of the Game is somehow right and fitting, according to the False Mind, especially that of the Loser losing is part of the design. The Loser is constructed to take action by which he/she
will not win {see Sacrifice, Chapter 34}.
There is even a worse game-plan than Win-Lose, and that is the No Win or Lose-Lose scenario. In this sort of deal, you will find the martyr, the terrorist, the suicide, the batterer, the reckless practitioner of unsafe sex, the drunken driver.
For some, the False Mind happens to be designed to be a Winner; but most commonly, various parts of the individual's False Mind are designed to be Loser, while other parts may be designed to be Winner: an individual may be Winner in business or sports, and Loser in relationships, or vice versa.
The Loser is not happy, yet the False Mind gives him/her reinforcing feedback, aggressively manipulating its near-innocent victim, the Self. [When the Self knows about the Loser False Mind's dis-empowering design and still obeys its counsel, the Self is being a willing and irresponsible victim.] The possessor of the Winner False Mind, however, may not feel any better about his/her Life, and must contend with the same bogus internal advice from the False Mind as to proper action.
The Working Mind, which is the Self, must develop its potential by Act of Will only, in the face of the opposition of its local False Mind, and in the face of the opposition of most of Mankind. The local False Mind knows every way of manipulation that works on its local mind-slave YOU! [Your new Working Mind is what got you to read this next sentence after the struggle inherent in the preceding paragraphs.]
In operating in obedience to the False Mind's advice, and mis-using his/her skills and great amounts of physical and-or psychological exertion, what the Loser settles for is merely a kind of Success: Success with no benefit.
Whatever social class one plays among, the fact of the on-going Game allows one at least to exist as a player of Games: the Loser is at least a player. The effort to manage the Mega-Game [the multitude of Games in which one participates] in whatever area of Life, and the successful realization of the expected outcome, reinforces the value of the False Mind to the local and always-frightened naive pre-Working-Mind individual.
The pre-Working-Mind Self, fully contaminated by the False Mind, is afraid to make any move not sanctioned by the False Mind, based on the oft-reinforced belief that events will turn out even worse if one attempts independent action and ignores the False Mind's advice. To the Self that is contaminated by the Culture-Structure, the False Mind is the only source of advice that he/she has heretofore known, since the child was overpowered by the 'education' {Chapter 14} of the Culture-Structure and the child's ability to Think for him/herself was obliterated.
The pre-Working-Mind Self, under the thumb of the Winner version of the False Mind, is again hardly better off, except perhaps materially. The Winner False Mind is still designed strictly for Survival of the False Mind and of the Culture-Structure that has installed the False Mind and thus is opposed to any activity not related to Survival. The possessor of the Winner version of the False Mind feels dis-satisfied in Life because even the contaminated Self knows that he/she won over someone else: the Loser was dis-empowered.
In Win-Lose, somebody gets hurt, somebody is always dis-empowered.
But the Working Mind designs itself to generate Win-Win Games. That is what Empowerment is: I win and you win, and maybe some other folks, too. In the daily world, it may be necessary to keep playing the intense Win-Lose Games of business, of government, etc. but the Working Mind will make the effort enough effort so that Empowerment happens to include an empowering event in the mix: Somebody gets to win besides him/herself.
I remember one meeting at a security client's offices. One of the execs 'spun' the summary of the meeting by claiming credit for an idea that I had presented during the meeting (and was approved for implementation). There was no question in my Working Mind that the proper action was to allow him credit, to 'Be With' his usurpation of credit. My win was that he was now responsible for the implementation of my idea.
I did not plan this out in any sense. I like to enter such meetings with the intention to 'fly by the seat of the pants', to invent actions on the Existential spur of the moment, to speak rigorously from inside the conversation.
You may think that I am demonstrating achievement of some high level of mastery, bragging that I can do this wonderful thing that you too can learn to perform, like I have reached the end of the development of my mature Working Mind. I may have reached such a plateau, and so also will you, but the Working Mind will on its own perceive that more work is [always!] yet to be done. In the case of the above story, the next level for me from that plateau might be to generate more such meetings, within which to generate still further Empowerment. Always!
Okay, I have a skill, some level of expertise; but such skill is only temporary, not owned in perpetuity. The skills developed into my Working Mind remain available to me, with effort, even after long non-use; but such skills of Empowerment are more readily available to the Working Mind to the extent that such skill is in operation, to the extent that the skill is used among people, on a regular and intentional basis.
* * * *
I have Empowered myself: I have read and do read a lot, and I struggled and took the courses and tried things out in the field [of Life]. I do Empower others. And I must always strengthen my skills in Empowerment, must further develop my Working Mind. Or my Power will die.
Empowerment does not eliminate the struggle, it just makes the struggle worth the effort.
Not to Empower leaves one not fulfilled. There is no alternative or substitute: Empowerment of oneself [of one's Self] and of others is the only action that produces Satisfaction in Life. The challenge of Life, the purpose of the Working Mind, is that lots of Empowerment produces a Life That You Love, one where Fulfillment and Excellence and Satisfaction are a daily occurrence.
* * * *
The lucky few among the Winners of the world are the Golden Ones, the few members of Mankind who have developed such that their Working Mind [or the equivalent] is fully operational, by inheritance or some such. They seem to be almost never dis-empowered by an internal False Mind voice. However, the near-Golden Ones who merely arrived with a semi-enlightened or semi-empowering internal False Mind, or even a Winner False Mind, still must deal with the common problem of dissatisfaction, only to a lesser degree.
I am not one of these Golden Ones.
But perhaps you or those you love directly will attain this enlightened state. Or perhaps your children or students or employees in this life, not any other will evidence the Empowerment that permeates the very air around a Self when that Working-Mind-Self is empowering him/herself, even when merely taking the first steps to developing further one's newly-constructed Working Mind.
More effort, more Empowerment. More Self-Empowerment, more Empowerment in the lives of those inside one's orbit.
* * * *
One of the milder paradoxes of the Working Mind phenomenon, of enlightenment, of Empowerment is that the effort to empower one's Self to develop the Working Mind proceeds at a more rapid pace when one's intention, and one's attention, are directed to the Empowerment of others.
It is not that some measurable, physical quantity of Empowerment is 'given' to another, like the Old Gods bestowing a boon for Mankind. That is the old model and no longer works in Reason. Whatever the gods and-or Nature intended for Mankind, that has already come to pass: the Old Gods are bankrupt and have no more use. Mankind must survive on its own from this time forward, must make use of all that it possesses in the Now, for there will be no outside intervention. Mankind's potential will be fulfilled
only if Mankind acts in concert to bring its potential into existence.
Mankind, collectively but also individually, must will itself to develop Consciousness {next chapter} and to will into existence progress toward the mature Working Mind. Mankind's greatest asset, for the survival of
Homo sapiens sapiens, is its intellect. Properly educated, the intellect will use Reason to replace the False Mind of dis-empowerment.
There is only one direction to go in the fulfillment of Mankind's Highest Value. By choosing Higher Values those based on a Commitment to Empowerment the developing Working Mind brings into existence Empowerment also for those he/she contacts.
It is only in the act of Empowerment that Empowerment exists. One cannot store it up, like karma or entries in Saint Peter's ledger. One cannot give it away, like some object. One must do Empowerment repeat: one must
do Empowerment for it to exist in the world. How one knows that Empowerment occurred is that some person is now empowered.
Your job is to develop your Working Mind, which is designed to Empower others. Do just some small Act of Empowerment a few times a week; then a few times each day, and Life becomes completely fulfilling.
I did Empowerment. I am Empowerment.
The purpose of this Life can be said to be: To Empower.
[copyright 2001 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
The preceding is an excerpt from Chapter 12 of my forthcoming book, "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment", which
excerpt is also posted on the Working Minds website.
==> Visit and-or bookmark the
N E W Working Minds website:
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==> Forward this e-mail to anyone with a philosophical bent.
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==> Make out your Will, and-or set up a Living Trust.
==> Unplug all of your TV sets.
==> Write a letter to your Congressperson or Senator, and one to The
Editor, and one to your Secret Lost Love. Mail (or email) two of the three.
==> Rotate your tires.
==> Whenever you receive an unsolicited offer for another credit card,
write "29% [or whatever] APR is usury" on the unsigned application
and put it into the postage paid envelope and mail it.
This is an example of civil disobediance against the Culture Structure.
N E X T M O N T H: "Is Television Necessary?"
Issue #8: "Is Television Necessary?"
[March 2001]
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage
over the man who cannot read."
Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"Can modern man survive the moral collapse of his culture?"
C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]
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" I S T E L E V I S I O N N E C E S S A R Y ? "
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Surveys give differing statistics on the amount of time that we spend watching the tube. The consensus is that the average American adult watches six to eight hours daily. How? Breakfast news shows and daytime soaps and midday talk shows, thru prime time to the "Late Show Tonight". And don't forget the weekends.
Cocaine is said to be Nature's way of telling you that you have too much money; television is Nature's way of telling you that you have too much empty time on your hands.
At 56 years of age, it is an accomplishment to be able to say that I have never owned a television set. Nor do I feel deprived. There are so many books; there are so many activities that require intellectual participation. There is so much to do.
As a writer, I naturally observe the ebb and flow of cultural 'tube speak' and witness the insidious influence of television in society, yet I am not required to succumb. The print media keep me well-informed about the current TV season: the shows, the personalities, the scandals and petty feuds, the drivel. It is difficult to remember any recent conversation that did not include multiple references, TV-derived buzz words, or sound-bite quotations, all automatically ingrained in the TV addict's speech.
Yes, addict. The TV addict's behavior is entirely automatic and unthinking. The couch potato ignores one-on-one interaction with family and friends in favor of passively basking in the artificial shenanigans on the sitcoms and voyeuristic intrusion into the private lives of strangers, and mindlessly parrots the televised opinions of pundits who cannot parse a sentence. Thinking is a lost skill.
Am I being harsh? Not even! Civilization trundles off to hell in a hand-basket while John Tesh and Geraldo Rivera and Pamela Anderson Lee make millions, and Puritan voyeurs watch 'Survivor Island'. The ancient Roman curse of 'bread and circuses' has been replaced in modern America and our cultural satellites by 'fast food and cable', as this once-generative culture devolves into fear-driven lemmings hiding behind barred doors & windows and security alarms, mesmerized by the flickering images on the tube. An entire country mesmerized and asleep at the wheel.
You say that television is necessary? Not addictive? And certainly not in your case? Well, here we get to the proof of the matter: If TV is not addictive, then you will be able to cease your consumption. So here's the bet: Your addiction will prevent you from unplugging every TV set in your home for two weeks time. The addict cannot do this.
Resist the temptation to act the automaton, stand alone as a sentient being, cut the cord and meet the people in your life face-to-face for a change. Watch the sunset, play cribbage or toss a ball with the kids, clean the garage or the attic, renew your marriage.
The strong, the awake, the still-alive will stash the devices of unconsciousness in the garage or attic permanently and stand up for real life. No 12-step program is required, just unplug the idiot machines. Remember: Garbage in, garbage out.
Reject the cultural addiction to the vast wasteland, the great time-waster. You have only one life to live, so live it! It might even be fun participating in your own life.
[copyright 2001 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
The preceding was published in the 'Daily Breeze' newspaper in 1996;
the
original essay is also posted on my personal [author] website.
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N E X T M O N T H: "Reason-Based Taxation"
