by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright October 2015
Part One is about the fabric in which the patterns are woven -- these are the foundation concepts.
The foundation consists of two broad categories: those things which are constants throughout history, and those things which vary from time-to-time and place-to-place but are very much a part of every event.
The constants center around human instinctive thinking. This thinking style changes very little from generation to generation and it is a powerful motivator in the choices humans take when action is called for. (Analytic thinking is the other style humans engage in.)
The variables center around technology changes and circumstance changes. When these are different, the actions taken will be different. And when lessons are learned the actions taken will be different -- which is analytic thinking in action.
Here are some examples:
o The Constants: Human Thinking of the instinctive thinking sort. This includes: Us versus Them, Blame Them, End of World, Ambition versus Fairness, and Chosen People among others. These are my terms for these thinking styles and I will be defining them in this part.
o The Variables: These center on changing technology and circumstance. These include: changing technology, changing circumstance, how novel and scary an incident is, and lessons recently learned.
Again I will be defining all these terms more fully in following sections in this part. That said, lets start by defining the two styles of thinking.
Analytic thinking is learned thinking. When we learn to do arithmetic or learn to ride a bike, we are engaging in analytic thinking. Instinctive thinking is that which comes into our heads without requiring learning. It is fast, simple and comfortable thinking. Falling in love is the classic example. Another common one is Us versus Them thinking -- treating strangers differently than we treat friends.
Some background for these concepts: Our thinking is a product of evolution, just as our bodies are. Instinctive thinking develops to quickly deal with situations that come up repeatedly in each generation and can be dealt with in the same ways by each of those generations. Conversely, analytic thinking develops to deal with new and novel situations -- one of a kind situations. These take a completely different kind of thinking to be handled well. We have to learn how to handle these situations, so analytic thinking is learned thinking.
Humans use a mix of both, and in the Stone Age environment instinctive thinking carries much of the load. That is because we have lived as Stone Age people for thousands of generations, so evolution has had a chance to "hardwire" the solutions to recurring problems into the brain. This hardwiring is instinctive thinking.
But as we become technologically advanced, and prosperous, we must use a lot more analytical thinking. This is because technology and prosperity are both novel -- humans have not experienced them for thousands of generations, so instinctive thinking can't provide the right answers.
This division of thinking styles comes with an interesting twist: Technology and prosperity may be novel, but instinctive thinking doesn't go way. It is still there, and still offering powerful suggestions as to how people should act -- again, think of the power of the falling-in-love feelings. The constantly hard question for people in modern circumstances to answer is: are these instinctive answers the right ones to apply in this current situation? As in, "Is falling in love with this person going to let me live happily ever after?"
Intinctive thinking is a constant. Now lets look at some variables.
The variables in the pattern are those things which change with time and circumstance. The most enduring changes are those associated with the change in technologies a community deals with. Semi-nomadic Stone Age Cave Men do not experience life the same way sedentary farmers do, and sedentary farmers do not experience life the same way mass production factory workers do.
The technology a community has available affects how the community lives, and what community members think about. And because it is affecting what they are thinking about, it affects how community members are acting as well. Changing technologies brings on all sorts of changes in how people both think and act.
In the same way, the community circumstances also affect the actions taken. As an example: If a community has just harvested a bumper crop, a harsh winter will be unpleasant, but not a reason to change the rhythm of living. But if this harsh winter happens after a decade of poor harvests, it may be time for a big change in activity, such as going to war or cutting bait on this place as a home and migrating to some new distant land.
This is the kind of difference circumstance makes.
These are the kinds of concepts that are going to be explored in Part One.
--The End--