Posts Tagged ‘Game’

About the Human Measure

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

A few years ago (2003) somebody asked me to address the Dutch IT Architecture Congress. The subject was the Human Measure. To understand the Human Measure you have understand the relationship between the Human Being and The Human Measure System, The Emotions.

At that time I was already highly influenced by Will McWhinney so I used his model of the Four Worldviews to describe the Human. Later I discovered a Fifth Worldview (Consciousness) that was hidden in his teachings.

The consciousness is the monitor of the Whole of the Human Being. It reflects about the behavior of the parts and takes action when the Whole is not in Balance (Stressed).

According to Will McWhinney the Human can be described by The Emotions (Values), The Imagination (Ideas), The Senses (Desire, Facts) and the Expectation (Control, Rules).

The Four parts can be combined in six (or twelve = 4x3x2) Games. A Game is a strategy to solve the Conflict between the Four Independent Parts.

To me it is very clear that IT is focused on the combination Expectation/Senses. This combination is called the Analytical Game. It solves the Conflict between Facts and Rules. Will showed that this game was the dominating game in Western Culture.

In the Analytical Game the Emotions, the Consciousness and the Imagination are not important. In the Analytical Game you want to find the Absolute Truth, The Rules of the Game, by Analyzing the Facts sensed by the Eyes.

When you want to understand the Emotions you have to look at “emotional” Psychology. When you start to study “emotional” psychology the “box of Pandora” of Psychology opens up. Psychology is not a science like Mathematics or Physics. Everybody has his own theory about Emotions and everybody is defending his own “territory”. Psychology is simply a scientific mess.

One of the most helpful scientists (a friend of Will) was Rodney Cotterill. Cotteril analyzed the evolution of the Sensory-Motor System of every Organism on Earth. The Sensory-Motor System is an Interaction between the Emotions, the Motor, and the Senses.

The bacteria is drifting around, explores an inhomogeneous environment that contains all kinds of chemical structures. Some of these structures are destructive, some of them are neutral and some of them are attractive (food). When the bacteria finds (senses) food his rotator (the flagellum) moves the bacteria in a circular motion. The circular motion of the bacteria is preserved for a short time and this preservation could be called memory

The emotions are aimed at the survival of the human being. They Explore environments to find something that helps them to survive and Avoid destructive environments. When Humans have found an Attractive environment they Stay there and Store the data about the environment in their Memory. Humans are Moving Memories (E-motion means movement!).

According to Rodney Cotterill the Emotions are the basic structure, the infrastructure, of an organism. All the other structures are specializations of one of the parts (the Sensors, the Calculator (Imagination, Expectation)) of the Emotional Infrastructure.

IT is highly focused on Sensors and Calculators (the Senses and the Expectation). IT has no idea what to do with the Emotions, the E-Value-ator, the basic Measurement System of the Human Being. The main objective of the Evaluator is to find Food and to stay Alive.

The Human Imagination has created many “abstractions” of Food and Secure Environments. They are all stored in the Memory as Symbols and Metaphors but it is not difficult to define what Humans don’t like. They don’t like the same thing IT-experts don’t like. IT-experts want to be Valued. They don’t want to be Dominated. They demand the freedom to Express their Creativity. They don’t want to play a role in a Play that was Designed by somebody else.

IT-experts love to play the Analytical Game. In this Game the Humans, called the Users play the role of the Object, the reusable Module, that has to do its Job. In the Analytic Game Users don’t have Emotions and Imagination. They have to Eat the Food that grew out of The Seeds of the Imagination of the Architect.

What is the Human Measure?

The basic measure of the Human Being is related to everything that gives him or her a feeling, an Emotion, of Security. The Human Value-System, the Emotions, is always looking for Shelter, Protection and Love. Humans Beings need other Human Beings to tell and show them that they are Value-able.

If the Human Being has an Expectation this Expectation has to be realized in the near Future.

When the Emotions of the Human Being are Dominated it wants to move away from his environment because a dominating environment could be Destructive. When something or somebody is Dominating a Human Being he/she feels worthless.

If the Imagination of the Human Being experiences No Change, (Highly Repeating Actions) it wants to Explore a new Environment.

If the Senses experience Too Much Change the Human Being becomes Confused. When you are Confused your Expectation fails and the Human starts to drift around just like the bacteria.

If the Human Being is not Conscious (Aware, Focused) it is unable to Reflect. If the Human Being is not Aware he is unable to Balance the Emotions, the Imagination, The Expectation and the Senses. If there is no balance the Body becomes Stressed. A Stressed Body slowly kills the Immune System. An Unbalanced Immune System is the Cause of many Diseases.

What is IT Doing?

IT is still creating Dominating, Always Changing, Insecure and Confusing Software.

IT is not automating the repeating activities Humans don’t like. IT is producing highly disconnected software-systems.

IT is not helping the Humans to makes senses of the complexity of the Outside World. IT is increasing the Complexity of the Environment.

IT is not supporting the Human to explore its environment. IT is shielding the outside environment and is creating an artificial outside environment. Many people believe the Imaginary World is the Real World. The most destructive artificial worlds are the Destructive Computer Games. They give the Player the Believe that Killing People is no problem at all. The destructive Games are the Games of the Military. They kill people by looking at simulators and pushing buttons.

IT is Playing the Same Game using Different Terminology all the time. If you understand the transformation of the terminology the Game is Boring. If you don’t understand the terminology the Game is Confusing. If you Mix the Terminology the Game is too Complex to Play. Almost nobody knows the Rules so many People make mistakes, believe they win the Game but in reality lose the Game.

What to do?

Perhaps somebody is able to Invent a New Game.

I have an Idea.

Why don’t we create a Game that Creates Games? According to the Theory of Will this Game is called the Game of Culture. It solves the conflict between The Imagination (The Creator) and the Emotions (The Mover). When the Mover is Inspired by the Creator the Sensory/Motor-System starts to Act with Spirit (Imagination) and Soul (Emotions). In terms of Emotional Psychology: The Human becomes Highly Moti-vated!

If we look at the theory of Will we now can see that the Analytical Game is the Complement of the Game of Culture.

If we Unite the two Games, the Games of the West and the Games of the East, we are able to connect all the parts of the Human Being in a Cycle, the Cycle of Human Innovation.

LINKS

About the Human Measure

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Posted in Business, Completed, Computer and Communication Technology, Philosophy, Psychology | 1 Comment »

About the Struggle of the Classes

Monday, October 20th, 2008

E-cigarette aerosol contains fewer numbers and lower levels of most toxicants than does smoke from combustible tobacco cigarettes. Exposure to nicotine and to toxicants from the aerosolization of e-cigarette ingredients is dependent on user and device characteristics. Laboratory tests of e-cigarette ingredients, in vitro toxicological tests, and short-term human studies suggest that e-cigarettes are likely to be far less harmful than combustible tobacco cigarettes. However, the absolute risks of the products cannot be unambiguously determined at this time. Long-term health effects, of particular concern for youth who become dependent on such products, are not yet clear.

Although e-cigarette use might cause youth to transition to combustible tobacco products, it might also increase adult cessation of combustible tobacco cigarettes. The net public health effect, harm or benefit, of e-cigarettes depends on three factors: their effect on youth initiation of combustible tobacco products, their effect on adult cessation of combustible tobacco products, and their intrinsic toxicity. If e-cigarette use by adult smokers leads to long-term abstinence from combustible tobacco cigarettes, the benefit to public health could be considerable. Without that health benefit for adult smokers, e-cigarette use could cause considerable harm to public health in the short and long term due both to the inherent harms of exposure to e-cigarette toxicants and to the harms related to subsequent combustible tobacco use by those who begin using e-cigarettes in their youth. Find out the most unharmful products at vaprzon.

Population modeling is a useful strategy to help estimate the balance of potential benefits and harms from e-cigarettes in the short term before more definite scientific data are available. Factors that would promote the potential health benefits associated with these products include determining with more precision

Page 2
Suggested Citation:”Summary.” National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24952.×

under which conditions e-cigarettes could serve as an effective smoking cessation aid, discouraging their use among youth through tobacco control strategies such as education and restrictions on products particularly appealing to youth, and increasing their safety through data-driven product engineering and design.

Millions of Americans use electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), even as rates of smoking1 combustible tobacco cigarettes continue to decline among youth and adults. In 2016, youth e-cigarette use was substantially higher than cigarette smoking or use of any other tobacco product. A common picture emerges from national surveys. Prevalence of use increases with age in children and youth. E-cigarette use also varies by gender, with typically greater use among boys than girls. E-cigarette use also varies by race and ethnicity, with higher rates of use among youth who identify as Hispanic and non-Hispanic white compared with black, Asian, and other races. Early results suggest that use stabilized or decreased in youth between 2015 and 2016, despite increases between 2011 and 2015 across a range of measures and surveys. Substantial proportions of youth report using non-nicotine electronic cigarettes. Rates of e-cigarette use among adults are relatively low when compared with youth e-cigarette use and to adult combustible tobacco cigarette smoking. Most adult e-cigarette users report currently using other tobacco products. Among adults, as among youth, patterns of use vary by demographic subgroups—age, gender, and race and ethnicity. E-cigarette use is generally greatest among young adults and decreases with age in adults. Few adults begin using e-cigarettes who are not already using combustible tobacco cigarettes.

Despite their popularity, little is known about their health effects, and perceptions of potential risks and benefits of e-cigarette use vary widely among the public, users of e-cigarettes, health care providers, and the public health community. For example, whether e-cigarette use confers lower risk of addiction compared with combustible tobacco cigarettes is one point of controversy. Electronic cigarettes contain constituents that are not inert and are likely to have some negative health effects on their own. However, because the known risks of combustible tobacco are so great, understanding the net public health effect of e-cigarettes requires understanding not only the inherent risks of e-cigarettes, but also the relationship between e-cigarette use and combustible tobacco cigarette use.

Furthermore, concerns have been raised that e-cigarettes will induce youth to begin using combustible tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarette use among youth and young adults is especially worrying if e-cigarettes cause

___________________

1 The committee uses the verb “smoke” to refer to use of combustible tobacco cigarettes and “vape” to refer to use of e-cigarettes. Similarly “smoker” refers to someone who uses combustible tobacco cigarettes.

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Suggested Citation:”Summary.” National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24952.×

dependence or the normalization of smoking behavior, and subsequently lead youth and young adults to start smoking combustible tobacco cigarettes. This is of particular concern for youth who otherwise would never have smoked. Among adult populations, to the extent that e-cigarette use promotes either reduction or complete abstinence from combustible tobacco smoking, e-cigarettes may help to reduce health risks.

E-cigarettes are regulated as tobacco products2 by the Center for Tobacco Products of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convene a committee of experts to conduct a review of the emerging evidence about e-cigarettes and health, make recommendations for the improvement of this research, and highlight gaps that are a priority for future research. The Statement of Task can be found in Box S-1.

The committee undertook a comprehensive review of the scientific literature regarding key constituents in e-cigarettes, human health effects, initiation and cessation of combustible tobacco cigarette use, and harm reduction. The committee considered the quality of individual studies, as well as the totality of the evidence to provide structured and consistent conclusions on the strength of the evidence. See Box S-2 for a summary of the framework the committee used for those conclusions. The committee notes that the framework is a guide, but that a great deal of expert judgment—in the evaluation of individual studies and in bodies of evidence—is always involved. The Annex to this Summary includes a compilation of the conclusions grouped by level of evidence, whereas they are listed by type of outcome in the sections that follow.

CONSTITUENTS
E-cigarettes contain liquids (referred to as e-liquids) that are aerosolized upon operation of the device. E-liquids typically contain nicotine (although some users prefer zero-nicotine solutions), flavorings, and humectants. Nicotine is a well-understood compound with known central and peripheral nervous system effects. It causes dependence and addiction, and exposure to nicotine from e-cigarettes likely elevates the cardiovascular disease risk in people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease(s), but the cardiovascular risk in people without cardiovascular disease(s) is uncertain. Based on studies of long-term users of nicotine replacement
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24952.

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Why Politicians are Afraid to Play the Game of Politics

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Will McWhinney defined six games. In the previous blogs I told you about the Game of Life and the Analytical Game. In this blog I want to tell you about a very special game called the Game of Politics.

The game of Politics is a conflict between the worldviews Unity and Social. Unity is the world of Norms and Social is the world of Values.

Many people consider the Game of Politics a “dirty” game. They don’t like politics at all.

It is a dirty game because many people that call themselves politicians are formulating and enforces rules (by the Analytical Game) but don’t apply the rules. They are not consistent.

It is not necessary to be consistent because everybody learns and makes mistakes but the “bad” politicians don’t admit their mistakes.

When they don’t admit their mistakes or deliberately misuse the rules they enforce, they are making use of the System for their own benefit. They want to gain or increase their power and/or their wealth.

When you want to increase your power you believe that your current power is not sufficient to protect your self. You are afraid. Although they never will admit this fear is the main driver of politicians that misuse the system.

When the fear becomes unbearable they develop an extreme position and focus on one worldview. If they do this they are not playing a game anymore. They are focused on one worldview (Unity) and develop a tendency that psychiatrist call Paranoid.

Many powerful leaders in history fell into the trap of fear to loose their power and created very powerful paranoid systems. Famous examples in recent history are of course Hitler and Stalin. When paranoid leaders enforce rules they become opportunistic. They don’t mind if the people believe they are inconsistent or “evil”. Every act is motivated by the impulsive reaction to a possible threat and every threat is part of a big conspiracy.

Let’s get back to the Game of Politics.

The Social worldview is the worldview of emotions. Emotions help you to evaluate attracting and repulsive forces. We show our emotions with our “body-language” and the tonality of the sounds we produce.

The Game of Politics is a game where we express our feelings directly in concepts. Our feeling evaluates so we could also say that the Game of Politics evaluates concepts and (the other way around) attracts or repels us when concepts are stated. We give our opinion.

The Game of Politics is very dependent on the Emotions.

The Emotions are a “very old part” of the Human. This part “does not understand” rational concepts.

The Emotions are “open” to manipulation when we are in a state a trance. We get into a state of trance when we are focused.  This happens when we are looking at TV or a Movie or Driving a Car.

One of the most simple techniques to move a person into a trance-state is to “surprise” a person. We surprise a person when we do something the Expectation ( our Thinking) is not expecting. Surprise is the basis of hypnosis.

Many powerful politicians knew how to manage the Emotions. They are not managed by words. They are managed by the way the words sound and the body-language of the person who speaks the words.

The emotions are strongly managed by collective contexts. When people are united in a stadium the emotions connect. When pressure is used the personal fields of the humans unite into one collective field. They become one entity, a crowd.

LINKS

About Crowds

About the Games of Will McWhinney

About Manipulation

About Mind Control

About the Invisible Fascist State

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About the Infinite Game

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

In the Western World many people play the Analytic Game. The Analytical Game resolves the conflict between the Facts of the Senses and the  Models, Rules and Norms of the Human Prediction System, the Expectation (often called Thinking).

The complementary Game is what Will McWhinney and his friend Burkhard Sievers, called the Game that Creates New Games.

James P. Carse (A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility) calls this game the Infinite Game. Perhaps a much better name would be the Game of Life.

Life is a Journey

Infinite players play with rules and boundaries. They include them as part of their playing. They aren’t taking them serious, and they can never be trapped by them, because they use rules and boundaries to play with.

The players are always busy to continue the Game of Life by creating new Games.

They love to play but the aim is not to win because winning ends the game.

The Infinite Game is a Game where the Imagination and the Emotions are playing their roles. The Emotions e-valua-te and the Imagination creates.

A very important distinction between the two Games is Context. The Analytic Game is “above the Context”.

It uses the Abstractions of Maps and Diagrams. When you use a map to travel you will never see the real territory.

The Game of Life is “in the Context”.  In this game Life is a Journey. You will meet people you will never meet when your life is completely planned and you will see places nobody has seen before.

Life Above the Context is dull and predictable.

Life In the Context is an Adventure and Full of Risks.

Evaluation is a Context-Dependent Process. It takes into account that every Situation is unique and needs a unique approach.

The Game of Life is an Improvisation

The Game of Life is about Improvisation. You listen to the Rythm and the central Theme and start your own variation that is “in line with the flow”.

Sometimes you are the person who starts a new rhythm and a new theme and others follow you. You are there at the right time and the right moment.

Timing is essential in the Game of Life.

The Game of Life is about the Tao and Synchronicity. Things happen by accident but the events are meaningful. They are created by the Imagination.

The Game of Life is about Magic. You are the creator of your own reality and your creation bounces back on you. Reality produces signs but the signs are the result of your own creation.

Your personal Magic becomes much stronger when you have a vision and you believe in this vision.

The Game of Life is about belief and not about truth. You know there is no eternal truth because everything changes but behind the changes is an emerging pattern.

The pattern is chaotic and structured. It arise out of the Whole and moves back into the Whole.

The Game of Life is the game of AND. Life is a contradiction, an eternal conflict, a dilemma because meaning is created by “making the difference‘. It is the Comm-Union of Diversity.

The Game of Life is about Spirit (Imagination) and Soul (Emotion).

The Game of Life is Immortal. When the Fire of the compassion of your soul and the Light of your spirit becomes One with the stream of Creation  you will live for ever.

The Game of Life is eternal and new Games are created all the time.

The Games are not competitive but collaborative.

The Game is fueled by Ideas and Ideas are abundant. Some of them stay for a long time. Other ideas just arise and move away like clouds in the Wind.

The Game is Life is a Field. It contains (Standing) Waves and Waves merge without any problem.

dance

The Game of Life is the Game of Music, Dance and Poetry. It does not force. It gives you the freedom of your own interpretation, your own mood.

The Game of Life is a Spiraling Spiral.

The Game of Life is about Values and Quality.

Your personal Values help you to evaluate and Quality is what you want to accomplish.

Quality is the complement of Quantity.

It is something the Numbers and the Names are unable to Express.

LINKS

About the theories of Will McWhinny

About Buckert Sievert

About the Infinite Game of James P. Carse

About Boundaries

About Context

About Adventure

About Synchronicity

About Collaboration

About Fields

About (Standing) Waves

About Music

About Poetry

About the Spiraling Spiral

About Values and Quality

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About Erving Goffman

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
theaterErving Goffman (1922-1982) observed mental patients in an Asylum (his first wife committed suicide, Asylums, 1961), Players in a Casino (Goffman was an expert in blackjack, Interaction ritual, 1967) and People in Public Places (Behavior in Public Places. 1963).

His most important book is Frame Analysis (1974).

Watch out: Goffmann uses “unusual language“.

“When an individual in our Western society recognizes a particular event, he tends, whatever else he does, to imply in this response (and in effect employ) one or more frameworks or schemata of interpretation …[which]is seen as rendering what would otherwise be a meaningless aspect of the scene into something that is meaningful“

“It has been argued that a strip of activity will be perceived by its participants in terms of the rules or premises of a primary framework, whether social or natural, and that activity so perceived provides the model for two basic kinds of transformation - Keying and Fabrication.

It has also been argued that these frameworks are not merely a matter of mind but correspond in some sense to the way in which an aspect of the activity itself is organized – especially activity directly involving social agents.

Organizational premises are involved, and these are something cognition somehow arrives at, not something cognition creates or generates.

Given their understanding of what it is that is going on, individuals fit their actions to this understanding and ordinarily find that the ongoing world supports this fitting“

“Self is not an entity half-concealed behind events, but a changeable formula for managing oneself during them“.

Goffmann was a Spectator in the Theatre.

In this theatre a play was performed called Life. In this play we are deceiving others. We are constantly trying to understand what is “Behind” the actions of the others.

Goffmann was highly interest in Espionage because he recognized these as extensions of everyday behaviour.

Life is a game and in this game we can be ‘pawns’ that may be sacrificed or ‘tokens’ who express a position. In life we make “moves”.

A player can represent a party or negotiate for a party. Players can be naïve, covered, uncovered and even counter-uncovered.

When we remove all the attributes we carry “nothing” is left. We are just a “changeable formula for managing oneself during events“.

Most of us are not controlling a situation or context. We are controlled by the Context. We are controlled by Frames and we React with Frames (Action patterns). We use frames to identify what is taking place.

The most fundamental frameworks are ‘primary frameworks’ which reveal what is ‘really’ happening either in the natural or social world. The meaning of a primary framework can be challenged in various ways.

It can be ‘Keyed‘.

We observe a fight and suddenly we understand that someone is “joking“.

They are playing a fight.

We laugh.

Suddenly one of the players hits the other and he becomes angry. He uses a knife and blood is flowing. The play changes into a real fight.

Many people watch and wonder what to do.

Is this Real or is this a Play?

One hour later we discover that our wallet is gone.

Someone in the audience was a pickpocket and the joke becomes a nightmare.

He was part of the team and we are “framed” and suddenly the “frame breaks“.

We understand that we were part of a “Fabrication“.

Many Humans are unable to distinguish “Reality” from a “Fabrication“.They “know” Dreams are a Fabrication but they don’t know for sure if the journalist on the Television is telling a Real Story.

They play the Soldier until their friend is killed. At that moment the frame breaks and they are in a new Reality. Later they realize that the War in which they were playing the Role of the Soldier was a Fabrication. It was set up by other people who were playing in a higher game to make money and to gain power.

They trust a friend and lend him all their money to invest and make a profit. Suddenly the friend and the money is gone. The frame breaks. Suddenly they don’t know if their other Friends are really Friends or are also trying to gain their confidence to solve their own financial problems.

They are the “Naïve“, the Pawns in the Play of the Secret Agents who are managed by a Director who is performing a Play that is written by an Author who is paid by an Investor who is watching the Play from a distance who is playing a Role in another Play and who is managed by …….

Who is Behind this????????????????

Behind this all is the Joker (also called the Trickster or the Demiurg) who has invented the Game of Life and is Playing Games with Us to help us to understand the Game behind the Game of Life.

This Game is not a Game at all. It is a Game to create New Games until Infinity.

In this Game we are Playing with Our Selves until we realize that the many Selves we Are are just One Self observing Itself.

If we understand this Game we are able to return to the Infinite Potential, the Void,  that was there before Creation Started.

LINKS

About the Void

About the Trickster

About the Game of Life

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About Muddling Through

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

A parliament is a Place where People Talk (Parler, French). There are many places where people talk. They talk at home, in a café, at their work. People talk everywhere.

Most of the time people talk to find out what they are talking about.

In a Parliament people talk about the Actions of Government.

In the Netherlands 150 elected people talk with one person of the Government. Because 150 people are unable to talk with one person most of them listen, sleep or are away. Only when they have to vote and the vote is important they are there. They are also there when they are on Television.

The 150 people are divided in 75+N en 75-N. N is >1 and gives them a majority. The 75-N are called the Opposition. It is their task to ask nasty questions. There are many small parties and to create a majority many parties are involved.

To create a majority many parties have to compromise. The effect of this compromise is that nobody is doing what he really wants to do. To do what they really want to do they use the complexity of the government system. Actions are hidden behind a huge wall of marketing fog.

The Opposition hopes that one day a representative of Government (called a Minister) will make a mistake and they can send him away.

When N+1 people of the others also disagree all the Executives have to leave. If this happens they try to find 75+N people and take over the management of Government.

What are they talking about? They talk about Laws, Plans and the Performance of the Government.

About the 5 P’s

I defined a Cycle-based Approach based on the 5 P’s Possibility, Plan, Performance, Protection and Potential.

The 5 P’s are related to the 5 (!) Seasons and other Cyclic models. The People in Parliament are Playing a Game and according to Will McWhinney they are playing The Analytic Game. The Analytic Game can be played in two ways called Make (Plans are implemented in Reality (Performance)) and Test (The Performance is compared with the Plans).

Outside the Government others are playing other Games like the Game of the Market (Performance vs Potential) or the Game of Politics (Plan vs Potential).

I have to tell you that I am in favor of the Infinite Game. The purpose of the Infinite Game is to continue Playing the Game of Life. The Game of the Market, the Analytical Game and the Political Games are Finite Games. Somebody Wins and many Loose.

When you want to play the Analytical Game and you are in Opposition you have to play the Game of Testing. Testing is a very well developed Game in Western Society. To Test you have to know more about the Method. A Method is ‘a Way of working”. In Government you HAVE TO (!!! A RULE) use a Method called Prince2

When you are using Prince2 it is rather simple to Oppose. The Project is equipped with a Quality System and the Quality System is there to Avoid and Report Exceptions. The exceptions could be discussed in Parliament. This never happens.

The big secret is that almost nobody in Government is using Prince2. Government is not applying its own Rules. It is unable to apply his own rules because The Bureaucracy is not a Project Management System it is a Political System.

Every Minister is controlling a Department and the Departments of the Government are highly overlapping. They fight and most of the time the Minister is unable to understand what is happening behind the Scene. Because of the Fight of the many Departments Projects Fail. Not only the Departments are overlapping. There are also many overlaps with local Authorities and of course the other Games that are played (The Market).

When everything is overlapping you know it is a waste of time to apply a Project Management approach. It is not Practical. You use a part of the method or (better) your Experience. Using something that Suits Your Purpose was called “Muddling Through” by Charles Edward Lindblom (The Science of Muddling Through, 1959).

“Muddling Through” is a “Method” where you try to Find Your Way through the Ever Changing Landscape of Many projects. Step by Step you move through the Mud where projects are suddenly started and suddenly stopped. Where priorities are set and suddenly change. Where money is provided and suddenly is gone. In the Mud you are able to move two steps ahead. Later you have to move one step back. When the result is one step ahead you are happy. When the result is one step back you smile and start all over again. Sometimes a Miracle happens and a project is successfull.

Because the Bureaucracy is not using Prince2 many of the Projects in Government FAIL. Parliament is accustomed to this. When Projects Fail the Minister is often not aware of the real reasons. In Parliament he tells the Story his Department has written for him.

The Representatives in Parliament know this. When you are part of the 75+N you Protect the Executive. When you are part of the 75-N it is easy to attack the Executive but you know that it want help at all because the Executive is Protected.

Parliament was created in the Trias Politica to be a Counterforce to the Executive Power representing the People. In reality the 75+N are a representative of the Executive. Only the Minority represents the People and they are without any Power. Even the Majority is without Power because they are unable to manage the “Muddling Through”.

It is not difficult to see why the People that Elected the members of Parliament to control the Executive Power don’t believe in the System.

I want to tell you my secret. I also don’t believe in a Project Management Approach. It only works when You have Total Control. You have Total Control when Everybody is Supporting You. This happens when everybody believes in a Common Enemy (or Friend). When you use the Method of the Common Enemy and convince people that when you don’t fight the Common Enemy you are a Coward you have a lot in common with a Fascist. They created common Enemies. Democracy was created to avoid this.

Big Changes need the Support of the Majority of the People but at this moment the Wheel of Time is in the State of Individuality. This is the real reason why there is such a big overlap. Everybody wants to do it on his Own Way.

Individuality shows itself in two ways Egoism and Holism, trying to find the Whole again.

Politicians could start to focus on the Whole instead of the Detail.

They could stop protecting the Minister and help him.

They could also stop to ask Nasty Questions when they already know the Answers.

Dialogue is about finding out what you are really talking about.

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About the Game of Chess

Friday, October 12th, 2007

radha-krishna_chessI want to tell you something about Games. What I want to show is that behind many Games there is a simple structure.

If we understand this structure we are more aware of “What the game is telling You” or “What Game is playing ME” or “How can I leave the Game and create my Own Game“.

Chess originated in ancient India and was known as Chatur-Anga – Meaning 4 bodied, as it was played by 4 players. The Sanskrit name Chaturanga was also used to describe the Indian army of Vedic times in which a platoon had four parts: one elephant, one chariot, three soldiers on horseback, and five foot-soldiers. The board was known as the ‘ashtapada’ (eight-square).

The ancient Game of Chess represented a very old structure, the Four with the Fifth (The Playing Board) in the Middle.

The Game was a Scenario Game. The Players could explore the Fixed Structure of the Universe (The Cycle) implemented in the Playing Board using the Roles (The Pawns) that are available in Our Reality that is controlled by the Matrix.  

 Every ancient game has a “mystical meaning“. It was not only used to play but also to learn about “the Game of Life”.

Every “old game” can be mapped to a “Standard-Model”.

The most comprehensive model is the TAROT. The Tarot is the basic framework for all the old Card Games.

It contains 3 levels where every level is an enfolding of a higher level. The Four Forces with the Five (Consciousness) in the Center are expanded into a level of 22 (Higher Arcana) and a lower level of 56 cards (Lower Arcana).

The structure of the Tarot, Chess, the TORAh, the I TJING can also be mapped to modern physics.

Will McWhinney used the Four World Views (with the Fifth in the Center) to define Game Levels. The lowest level he defined was the Analytical Game. It is a combination of Unity (Models, Rules) and Sensory (Reality). This game is about Mapping A Model into Reality or Testing a Model with Reality.

In the Mystical explanation this is the Fight (or Tension or Conflict) between Control (Model) and Desire (Reality, What we See with our Eyes).

The Analytical Game is the game of Western Civilization. It can be been seen on every level. In Society it is the fight between the State (Control, Laws) and Companies and Citizens who want to exceed the Limits of the Law. The Analytical Game is also the Game of Competition and War (Winner takes all).

If you are Played By this Game you are Out of Control. You are driven by your Ego (Desire) and/or by the Fear to lose Control.

If You are Different there are two other forces called Spirit (Mythic, I AM, Imagination) and/or Soul (Social, YOU ARE, Empathy) that are playing a Role in the Game of Your Life.

You are playing the Game of the Market (Desire/Impuls vs Soul/Emotion), the Game of Politics (Soul/Emotion vs Control) or the Game of Innovation (Spirit/Imagination vs Action/Desire).

The highest Game, The Infinite Game, is the Game of Spirit AND Soul. It is the Game to Keep on Playing by Creating New Games.

At this level You are Co-Creating with a Spirit on a higher Level (I AM WHAT I AM). It is a Game without Words and Logic. It is the Game of the Gnōsis (Knowing and Being).

When the game of Chess was transformed into a game of Two Players it changed into an Analytical Game. The aspect of Cooperation (Soul, Green) and Creation (Spirit, Yellow) were removed. The Colors Red, Blue, Yellow and Green turned into Black and White.

I know many of you think this an interesting way to explain something but Imagine (Spirit) that this was done “On Purpose” (Control).

Imagine there is a Force (Ahriman, the Fear to Lose Control, Mind, Thinking, Air, Wind) that is cooperating with the force of Desire (Lucifer, Fire) to take over.

rainbowIt does not want his Expectations of the Future to Fail. The Fear to Lose Control changed the many Games Levels into one level of Play.

It changed the Spherical Field of the Multicolor Rainbow of Existence into a 2-dimensional Black and White World of Crossing Lines, the Plane of Cause and Effect.

It even made it very difficult for people who “Feel, Care and Love (Nurses, Priests)” and/or “See the Light (Prophets, Artists)” to make a living. Imagine You are equipped with one or even two of the faculties this Force is trying to disturb.

What can you do?

I am very interested in History. All my life I have spent a lot of time to find out “what happened”. One of my searches brought me to the level of Religion.

Religion is the game of Spirit AND Soul. It is about the Experience of Beauty and the Whole. It can be changed into an Analytical Game by enforcing Control, Telling people How to Believe.

magiA part of the History of Christianity can be traced back to the Cult of Mithras  and earlier the teachings of Zoroaster . The three Magi who came to see Jezus where of the faith of Zoroaster.

Founded in Persia Zoroastrianism is the world’s oldest religion (3500 B.C). Parsis, most of whom have made Mumbai their home, are the followers of this religion. Parsis can also be found in Karachi, Pakistan, and Shiraj, in Iran. Its founder, Zoroaster, was born in Mazar-I-Sharif in Afghanistan!

To understand more about Zoroaster I ordered a book called The Teaching of Zoroaster and the Philosophy of the Parsi Religion by S.A. Kapadia. This small book is one of the most beautifull religious books I ever read. The book is about Love. It is about the Eternal Love of Man and Wife, The love for Childeren, The love for the Sick and the Poor, the Love of Mankind and The Love of Nature.

In this book the Teachings of Zoroaster are translated into 3 simple statements:

Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds.

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How to Create a Good Will

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Assagioli was a student of Sigmund Freud. He introduced Freud’s teachings to the medical fraternity in Venice in 1910. Assagioli saw that there was a need for something beyond analysis. This was the need for a person to become whole – to be united in synthesis.

His most famous book is The Act of Will. What follows is a long citation from Chapter 7, pages 85-90.

 “Many attempts are being made to replace Competition with Cooperation, conflict with arbitration and agreement, based on an understanding of right relations between groups, classes, and nations.

All this is basically a question of WILLING.

 The individual has to discipline itself and choose the aims which as are consistent with the welfare of others and the common good of humanity.  

There are two methods of accomplishing this task:

(1): The elimination of Obstacles.

(2): The active development and expression of a Good Will. 

Selfishness constitutes the fundamental obstacle. Selfishness springs from the desire to possess and to dominate, which is an expression of the basic urges of self-preservation and self-assertion.

Self-centeredness. While less obvious and crude than selfishness, it is also a great hindrance because of its tendency to refer everything to the personal self, to consider everything from the angle of one’s own personality, to concentrate solely on one’s own ideas and emotional reactions. 

Lack of understanding. With understanding comes the abandonment of the inclination to criticize, to judge, to condemn. With understanding is born the recognition that an individual “Is As He Is,” and in a certain sense has the right to be what he is.

For he is the product of an enormous number of collective and individual elements rooted in the past and the present, and all kinds of conditioning over which he did not have control.

The individual is not fixed and immutable but is in a continual state of becoming.

Everyone can direct and regulate his own “becoming” process to a certain extent; thus comes into play the Responsibility he bears for the beneficent or harmful influence he has on other people”  

The most important capability to create a Good Will is to become Vulnerable, to allow others to Affect us.

If we do this we will not dominate others and others are incapable of dominating us.

Slave and Master play a simple game, the game of Control and allowing Control.

If we become vulnerable we can play the most satisfying Game of Creation.

LINKS

About Masters and Slaves

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