I say “acknowledgements” because we already know so many things.  So let’s write them down, and refine them where necessary.  “Getting on the same page”, these may be Tools for Dialog. (Numbers are for reference only, and not for priority nor ordering.)

Categories:

A. Getting things Done;

1. We want to engender action, which happens on the physical plain.  Because it is only through action that we can improve lives. (Even the action that is to stop what is counterproductive.) We do not want to work only on theories that have limited application to our day to day lives.

2. Where we are empowered to be the “cause of the matter”, results most often come with a focus, and not by accident.

3. Breaking that focus would be called a non-sequitur, (something that doesn’t follow), and is to be avoided when seeking a result. Please stay on point.

4. People may simply say “what about this”, and think they have finished off an argument. Heading off “what-about’s” (objections), is pre-acknowledging the opposing thought. That opposing thought is exactly what we are investigating.

5. Other times a “windfall change” could occur, (without any apparent focus), but it is received only if we are open enough to see it, and adventurous enough to act upon it. Being able to see and adopt what shows up by good fortune is also a part of being the “cause of the matter”.

6. Our basic assumption is that tomorrow is built out of today’s action. Some will deny that, by saying my tomorrow is built on other people’s actions. Although we cannot author every action, we can choose how to receive them, and see what difference that alternate mode of reception might make.

7. Default actions (that which we normally do), always produce default results.

8. Conventional wisdom was built in the past and cannot cause change in the future, (or it is very far from a sure thing).

9. Our method for expanding agency is to find some niche where we can be the “cause of the matter”, and expand upon it. We start slowly.

10. Our preferred speech act is a “conversation for possibility”.

11. We will reserve much of the discussion on oppressive outside circumstances until after we are well versed in personal and interpersonal agency, (empowerment).

B. How to move forward;

12. If we are “stuck” in developing the “next step”, that is not the next step. The real next step in any process is easy. Keep looking.

13. Questioning is the method for deeper investigation and discovery. (It can be annoying for some people.)

14. We acknowledge that thought is the precursor to action, and we want to learn how we can have “new thoughts” to produce new actions.

15. Can we learn to pick up (and run with), only those thoughts that add to our objectives, and can we learn to set down those thoughts that are counterproductive to them?

C. Procedure;

16. Our focus is experiments that can point to new ways, and we are testing the synergy that a dialog can be more creative and powerful than individual thought.

17. We want to investigate the “linkages” between thought, emotion, and action. We don’t necessarily prioritize one node in the matrix as the antecedent, or as the one causative item. The chicken and the egg arise together.

18. Writing can (and must) be a part of dialog, because we can submit differing conversational topics, and their parameters, before each discussion. And then writing what we discovered this time, it’s our new platform for the next discussion. Writing is a focusing tool.

D. Respect for Others in the Group;

19. If we can become satisfied within ourselves, can we express a satisfaction for the other person?

20. We make so many judgements about the other person. Which ones should we choose to hold, and which ones to build upon?

21. Our objective is to build on mutual dialog, so we will watch out for our temptation to scold the other, that they are not “with the program” or are deficient in any way. (We can joke around a bit.)

22. Tit for Tat: we may think that every time someone says something, we should respond. I suggest that we can look at it as, “I have a limited number of allotted statements per week”. Use them wisely.

23. We acknowledge that we are all adults, and do not live in “glass houses”, nor force others to tiptoe around our “no-go-zones”. We can say what we want, with respect. Or realize, maybe it is not even necessary to say anything?

24. We have made some commitment to a group that attempts to express their views, and we are also committed to express our own views and look at them with introspection. We are not prone to leave the group or play “take-away” if it looks like we have been leaning on false assumptions.

25. Neither are we holding people outside the group as deficient, such as the deplorables, the sheeple, or part of the “masses”. That is only a way to off-load our possible responsibility for presenting a clear argument.

26. We are not out to crash any belief systems, so we are respecting other people’s boundaries. But at the same time, boundaries are the result of holding a certain context, all of which we are examining. We acknowledge that we come to this blog to improve how we think and act. At least we are willing to look into it.

E. Context is the Foundation of Content;

27. Every thought process, conversation and dialog are limited by our incomplete world-view.

28. The context of the conversation may be more important than the content, at least more (blindly) limiting.

29. We have defined the context of our world-view as our verbal container, which we can change or add to at our volition.

30. Contexts are expanded as we penetrate more into the unknown.

F. Emotional Charge;

31. Emotions are the “energy” behind actuating thought structures. Thoughts with weak emotions attached to them, will not get acted upon. (Not necessarily emotions like anger; we say that conviction is also an emotion.)

32. All world, local and personal conflict is caused by the judgement that: “the perceived circumstances shouldn’t be this way”. We justify this by calling it UNJUST, (or not my choice or whatever excuse we can manufacture).

33. Injustice is a subjective interpretation, not universal, and its driving force is the emotion behind it.

G. Truth;

34. Most judgments are rightly or falsely tied to what we believe is “the truth”. If that is so for us, we are powerless to change them, because we cannot hold an untruth. So, we will just have to endure the effects of those judgements until we determine they are mistaken.

35. Truth might be just another concept word that does not prove out, (it rarely or never shows up). In our modern world every message is somebody’s narrative designed to convince us of something, or its opposite. Let’s not search for “the truth”. Let’s just parse the existing narratives to find the conflicts of interest. Who benefits by this discourse?

36. The bottom line from the above is that if you want to be empowered you COULD choose to hold that there is no objective truth. It is only made up of our personally chosen narratives. Since we are not the prime movers in society, they are someone else’s narratives that we have consciously or unconsciously adopted. Therefore, the whole world is fighting over second-hand stories.

37. THIS IS IMPORTANT: When we are not sure of the truth (maybe never), we can make a temporary judgement based on whether it would it engender a positive, or a negative personal or collective future behavior? One that would bring myself and society forward, and constructively fulfill our objectives. Or at least, we can keep an eye on those ramifications. Look at the “side effects” of holding these different “truths”.

Thank you for being here.

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