<Bob Clark (940519.1548 EDT)>
Bill Powers (940517.2120 MDT) Subject: Behind the power curve
As you know, Bill, every student pilot learns about the power curve
when he comes to "slow flight." A potential killer, indeed, but
readily avoided when recognized.
What is it that enables some people to look at their own
convictions with skepticism, to stand back from them and to avoid
becoming literally lost in thought until it's too late to recover?
and:
I think it may be some glimmer of a higher level of organization,
perhaps what we call awareness. I think that everyone has it, but
that in the attempt to learn how to control what matters in a
complex and uncooperative world, many people gradually fall behind
the power curve, with less and less awareness left free to ask what
is going on, and more and more of it committed to the demands of
learning ever more complex modes of control.
To me, the key lies with "awareness left free." In PCT there is
little discussion of "awareness," and no mention of "freedom." The
only place where I find even an implied freedom in B:CP is in pp 220 -
224 and Figure 15.3. Here we find two critically important single
pole double throw switches, with _no constraints_ on their operation.
Whatever it is that operates these switches must be aware of the
situation and be _free_ to switch the switches at will. Call it what
you will, this is the focus of the freedom of which you speak. If the
operation of these switches is abandoned to some set of beliefs, as
you point out, there is:
less and less awareness left free to ask what is going on.
Sadly, this even applies to an unquestioning acceptance of even the
best available system.
Philosophers debated "free will" for centuries -- the debate
continues. The alternative to the assumption of "limited free will"
is pure determinism.
I think that there is no logical, experimental, or other way to
"prove" which is "correct." I prefer to assume that I have at least
some minimal freedom to operate my own switches any way I want.
Regards, Bob Clark