[From Kenny Kitzke (2012.12.16. 1300 EST)]
Hi, David. Man, it has been some time since I saw you and we played tennis together. Unfortunately, I can’t even remember for sure the last CSG Conference place or year when I chased your high spin shots!
Anyway, I would like to share a couple of thoughts about your question to Rick and its relevance to PCT in understanding human behavior.
- I do not believe it is possible to know post facto what variable or variables the assassin was controlling at the time of the shooting since he is dead.
- Even when he was alive, I am not sure we PCTers are adept enough to conduct an investigative test with him to feel certain we have identified a single variable and reference value for which he will certainly control at that time or much less in the next morning or next week.
One reasonable reaction to these perceptions (which Rick seems to agree with) is that, so what’s so hot about PCT that I should waste my time trying to understand PCT?
Indeed, I sense that many people walk away from PCT because it seemingly offers little help in understanding why the assassin did what he did which is affecting (in PCT speak disturbing) millions of people all around the world, including the President of the USA,
At least for me, it is like seeing the other side of a valuable coin. By understanding PCT, and understanding that the key reference perception variable and error in the assassin’s mind which he controlled provided references for his lower level actions which are uncomprehendable and illogical to us as observers.
As a therapist for troubled people experiencing perceptual error in high level perceptions, you can probably understand what goes on in the non-PCT world and express it far better than I can. But, suffice it to say that most of psychology and religiosity are searching for the Cause or Causes that led to this action. And, their quest seems noble for if they could figure it out, they could prevent those causes from reappearing ever again. Yeah, right! No these S-R experts can’t and won’t achieve either goal with a high degree of certainty or success. So, the apparent uselessness of PCT in such matters is just as much true for them. Who is fooling who? Who understands enough about human nature to prevent such human actions?
This is not a mystery for me. Ed Ford used to ask a misbehaving child in school, “What are you doing?” Is there a rule against that behavior? He searched for having the child move up a level to look at their own behavior (how their behavior conforms to the rule which is either imposed on them or accepted by them as reasonable) and use self-control of their perceptions to comply with the rule. There is a lot of evidence of just how well a Responsible Thinking process works in complying to the rule without outside coercion against certain available actions.
The rule here is pretty simple: “Thou shall not kill.” A better rendition or specific example is thou shall not murder the innocent. If such murder was the reference variable in the mind of the assassin, and the value is zero or never, would his actions have followed? PCT says NO and I agree.
Most people, regardless of their religious beliefs, accept this reference of NEVER murdering innocent children in a school. Did the assassin? Why not? It seems to me to be a better thing to investigate than what kind of gun control rules (and a hundred other possible actions like better school door locks or policemen in every classroom) would prevent this kind of horrible action by another human being who is just controlling his perceptions. The search for the Cause in this case is a illusion of an incorrect theory of psychology. Who knew? Worse, the causes have causes. Where does one start?
I suggest a good place would be to teach every child in school (and every school psychologist) to understand why people do what they do? We can understand that diddy only when we understand PCT and quit thinking that stimuli in your life or environment cause you to do or not to do specific actions.
Oh, and Rick, please spare me your naive comment about your solution. Excuse me, I won’t accept your premise nor what our President will say later today about increasing gun control as a preventable action. How about people control? What could you teach Obama about PCT to find a scientific solution?
.
In a message dated 12/15/2012 9:01:50 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, davidmg@VERIZON.NET writes:
···
From David Goldstein
(2012.12.15.2056)From Rick Marken (2012.12.15.1645)]
What was the person who did the shooting in Newtown Ct controlling?
How can we find out given that he killed himself?
David Goldstein
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 15, 2012, at 7:45 PM, Richard Marken rsmarken@GMAIL.COM wrote:
From Rick Marken (2012.12.15.1645)]