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 %TRAGEDY EVIL WRONG CRIME FAIL HARM VIOLENT COERCE+940325
  %MANIPULATION PREVENT BLOCK CONTROL PUNISH REWARD+940325
 %CYCLIC LINEAR PROCESS PROGRESS CHAIN CAUSE EFFECT+940325
  %HISTORY PERFECTION DESTINY START PREDICT IMPROVE 940325

     The following words point to much that we would  like
to avoid in inter-personal relationships:

    tragedy    evil      wrong-doing    crimes   failures

    harm       violence  coercions      manipulations

     The following  words point to human  behaviors  which
often  occur  in efforts to avoid much to which the  above
words point:

    prevent    block     control     punish    reward

     We  need to recognize that our efforts to avoid  much
of  what  the  first set of words point  to---are  efforts
which occasion much  of  what the first set of words point
to. Such efforts are counter-productive in tragic ways and
engender many of our evil relationships of alienation.

     We  write laws which define crimes by saying  what it
is  wrong  to do,  and seek systematic ways to punish  the
people who violate the laws.

     We define responsibilities, and seek to punish people
who fail to fulfill their responsibilities.

We   seek   to  prevent   harm   and   violence,   through
harmful and violent coercions  and manipulations  designed
to control bad people who are prone to do evil.

     In all  of these efforts we are often confused  about
what  is  cause and what is effect, and how everything  is
inter-related in the complex fabric of life.

     We often  pretend that in human relationships  it  is
possible  to  simplify  life and identify clearly  defined
linear chains of events A ==> B ==> C ==> D ==> where each
letter represents an  action/cause and/or an effect. Often
we simplify our perceptions even further and pay attention
only to two links at a time   A ==>   B   where "A" points
to an action, and "B" points to a bad effect.

     Our  efforts at simplification through  linearization
of  webs  of complex processes  into  simple  chains---are
efforts which often  fail to be  open and honest about the
complexity of the  fabric of  life in which the  processes
are inter-related in two, three,  four and more dimensions
within a volume or multi-dimensional manifold.

     Our  efforts at simplification often ignore the  ways
in which life processes are complex, cyclic,  chaotic, un-
predictable   and  un-controllable---rather  than  simple,
linear,  orderly, predictable and controllable. We need to
be  more honest about the complexities and cyclic  natures
of the fabric of our lives together.

     Our sense of "progress" is based upon a linear  sense
of  history---rather than a cyclic sense of history.    We
seek to "improve" our selves and others in a linear sense.
We  often believe we are moving from  imperfection towards
perfection.    We  perceive  beginning points  and  ending
points;  origins and destinations.   We think  in terms of
our  destiny  as  an  ending point,  rather  than   as   a
cyclic   process  with  each  other  in  open  and  honest
intimacy.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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