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        %COMMUNAL LEARNING FROM MISTAKES INHIBITION 871201

     Communal and personal  integrity depend in a critical
way upon each community learning from the mistakes made by
members and groups within the community.

     Any  ideals,  values,  or patterns of behavior  which
inhibit  the ability  of  a community to  profitably learn
from mistakes made within the community will threaten  the
integrity of the community,  and should be regarded  as  a
threat to the integrity of the community,  and so a threat
to the integrity of the members of the community.

     For  a  community  to  profitably learn from mistakes
made  within the community it is essential to get unbiased
information  regarding events which lead up to making  the
mistake:   what were  the thoughts,  attitudes,  feelings,
emotions, values, goals, ideals, ideas, etc.  which played
important roles in leading people to the mistake.   In the
absence  of   unbiased   reflexive information   regarding
such  considerations it will not be possible to  learn  as
much  as  might otherwise be learned from the  process  of
making  the mistake.

     Such  profitable  learning is inhibited if the people
closest to making the mistake are shunned, excommunicated,
rejected,   imprisoned or otherwise made the scapegoat for
the mistake.

     Mistakes   have   their   communal,    as   well   as
their  individual  origins.   To put all the blame  for  a
mistake  on one scapegoat who is  sacrificed   to  satisfy
the    communal  gods'     desire  for  vengeance,    will
undermine  the  possibility of the  community   profitably
learning  from the mistake and what  the mistake can teach
the  community  about  promoting  personal  and   communal
integrity.         The   community    needs    to     gain
understanding   as   to  what its contribution    was   to
the  making of the  mistakes  which threaten the integrity
of the community.

     The ways in  which persons closest to the making of a
mistake  are  treated  should  be  chosen with an  eye  to
maximizing  the  profitable  communal  learning  from  the
experience  of  the mistake.   Mistakes  should  inform  a
community, not divide a community.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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