Tom Bourbon [940822.1239]
I think the following exchange between Bill L. and Bill P. gets to the heart
of an important problem that arises whenever PCT theorists step "outside"
their theorizing and begin to speak, as though with authority, on political
matters.
[From Bill Powers (940822.0905 MDT)]
Bill Leach (9408221.2125 EDT) --
I agree that there is a "fixation" with "winning" that in my opinion is
"unhealthy". But I also think that a great deal is expressed in
frustration and would not actually be carried out (nor even actually
desired) by those making the statements.This is called polarization, I think. One side, in order to win its
arguments, stretches the truth a little. The other side, seeing the
balance heading the wrong way, does the same thing in the other
direction: result, nobody got anywhere. . . . I have known about this
phenomenon for a very long time, and I still get sucked into it, every time.
Sorry, Bill. You're really not a bad fellow, and really, neither am I.What we need is a theory of human behavior that lets us understand how
people work, and with which we can work out some answers to the tangles
of conflict into which people get. The minute we take sides we abdicate
our positions as control theorists, and join the screaming fray. The
question is not "who is right" but "why can't we reach a reasonable
agreement?"
This is the issue. When we, as PCT theorists, air our personal
preferences for political leaders, social programs, economic policies and
the like, we are no more likely to be "right" or "wrong" in our preferences
that are any other people. It is easy for each of us to fantasize that
"PCT supports" our personal preferences, and to declare as much on the net,
but all we can say with any certainty is that an understanding of PCT might
help us explain our adoption of, and defense of, preferred perceptions of
principles and systems, _whatever_ those preferences might happen to be. And
once we better understand our own adoption of preferences, PCT has a few
things to say about what might happen when, inevitably, we bump up against
other people whose preferences differ from our own.
PCT does not "support" baptists over buddhists, liberals over conservatives,
greens over trashers, gun haters over gun owners, or haves over have-nots.
PCT is a theory about how every living thing controls its own perceptions,
nothing more -- but also nothing less.
Later,
Tom
