PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICAL THEORY

This theory stren expresses my “change of mind” about the importance of practical theory.  I now believe I have overemphasized the “what” at the expense of the “why” and “how,” practical knowledge at the expense of practical theory.  It also deals with “I’ve changed my mind.”  Do you get it?

     “Practical” is the least amount of energy to do what works to get you what you want.  Theory that is practical is useful.  Previously I have proposed that knowing “what to do” was the practical knowledge of importance; “why” or “how” was unimportant unless you were a scientist or just curious about the way things worked.  I explained we don’t need to know why or how a T.V. lets someone thousands of miles away appear in our living room.  We simply need to know to push the “on” button and perhaps the “up/down” button.  On further reflection, I’ve “changed my mind.” 

     You see, “I changed my mind.”  My genes didn’t do it.  My nurturers didn’t do it.  I did it!  The “what to do” is often all that is needed to get the job done, especially when the job is simple.  However, the quantity and quality of your individuality, originality, rationality, creativity, wise use of power and choice of values often do involve the use of “practical theory.”    More than the knowledge and power science promises, theory paves our way to the wisdom and values that enable us to benefit from power.  You are best prepared when you not only know what to do to get you “there,” you’ll want to decide if “there” is where you want to go. 

     Mastery is the power to make change.   In Self-mastery, we create and choose among alternatives; our self produces and directs action.  We wisely “change our mind” when we get better information and some new explanation that leads to a more persuasive argument than our existing assumptive views.  Practical theory and understanding what is practical is worth your time and energy. 

     Those of you old enough to remember know that the early radios had only two controls, one “off/on” and one to change stations.  Examine the dashboard of any auto today and you will find a complex of controls.   What a range of choices – pick AM or FM ratio, tape, or disk; move the sound front or back and/or sideways; use the “equalizer” to customize the music so that you hear it different than the way it was recorded.  These choices require a bit of “theory” to know how to manage them to attain your desired result.   Flexibility is now available that recently wasn’t.  Flexibility is a basic characteristic of self-mastery.  We consider what fate has made us, and by our own initiative, we re-direct our lifestyle.  We can “change our mind.”  

     I (and you) want to be understood.  I prefer that we have clear communication.  Unlike other creatures, I attempt to share my views by somewhat complicated use of letters, words, and symbols.  We each have had years of training in writing and language use.  I try to make my ideas understood by using certain “rules” of punctuation – a question mark, a break in a sentence, a paragraph, and so on.  I use quotation marks to refer to another’s words but also to convey that I am using a word somewhat different than commonly used.  You see, the use of language requires understanding beyond that of the simple “what.”  The very essence of self-mastery, creating alternatives and choosing from them, requires some understanding of theory. 

     The “rules” of nature and nurture encourage blind obedience; they are primarily dictatorial.  Our capacity for language, data collection, and reflective thinking permit us to break away.  Emancipating our thinking is an active process.  Practical theory stabilizes and guides our change.  We exercise our mental interpretive power to modify or “override” the relatively automatic habitual behaviors provided by our nature and nurture.   We make assumptions, make a “test movie,” and if we like the outcome, we apply willpower to transform the mental script into physical reality.   We are instrumental in directing and producing our private mental “movie.”  How shall we design the form and function of our mental theater and dwelling place?  What changes might improve our current production?  What is the best timing?  When we “break away” from dependence, we best not become “blindly” independent. 
           
     The difference we make using our thinking willing power is not necessarily beneficial if we don’t apply it wisely.  Power without wisdom is quite dangerous.  Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.  It may be used to build roads and/or to make bombs.  He founded one of the most coveted honors among humans, the “Nobel peace prize.”  Was he suggesting we attend to more than the “what” to do?  Picasso changed his creative style many times.  He was a “master painter.”  You can change your style.  This is what makes you “master of your self.”  And this is why self-mastery welcomes practical theory to best meet its ends.  
           
     Much of the data we acquire has little or no applicable value for us to better manage our life.  Some understanding of the “how” and “why” is directly useful in selecting which is the appropriate data from which we create alternative choices and then choose our actions.  Practical knowledge provides power; practical theory enables us to be a wise director of power.
           
     As described elsewhere in greater detail, from birth, our nurturers have prescribed a newer set of directions with the good intention of adapting the fight or flight and “self-centered” behaviors of nature to our relatively civilized community.  Using sticks and stones or modern weapons of mass destruction are no longer acceptable methods to dominate others, and physically moving to a different area seldom eludes the threat.  Fighting and running away are forbidden; self-centered pleasure seeking behavior needs to be adapted to the “civilized” standards that our nurturers advocate.  Our nurturers emphasize restraint.  They seek conformity and submissiveness, and often demand uncritical acceptance of their “right”iousness.  Blind obedience may be required when dealing with an undisciplined immature mind, but not so for one seeking emancipation. 

     Our genes’ fight/flight and impatient pleasure-seeking behaviors are converted to more contemporary patterns such as blaming, resentment, punishment, social aggression, various means of avoidance such as procrastination and substance abuse, worry, stress illnesses, and so on.  A favorite controlling tool of the nurturing stage of development is guilt.  We are taught to blame ourselves, use self putdowns, direct aggression inward and become depressed, and when repeated demands are not fulfilled, we learn to shut down our energy factory – what I call the helplessness/hopelessness response.  Blind obedience and these negative behaviors may be the best our nurturers can do when dealing with an undisciplined immature mind.  These inflexible methods of adapting nature to contemporary society are neither suited to the power thrust upon us by our recent technology nor are they effective to manage our rapidly changing world.  Yet, we are considered “rebellious” when we use our creative ideas about what might work better. While life’s challenges change; the “rules” of nature and nurture remain relatively fixed.   

     I don’t mean to overlook the positive intent and important benefits of our nurturing.  We do acquire survival skills including language, useful facts and assumptions to describe what we are to expect from our world, and a detailed set of “rules” meant to help us get along.  We are so to speak launched like an arrow from a bow.  We have not determined our direction; “fate” has set our course.      

     Mental power unwedded to wisdom and inflexibly supported by habit is the source of most of our personal difficulties.  I also believe the larger scale societal and world conflict we share may be understood as a reflection of our unresolved personal turmoil.  We remain stuck using the methods we are taught by our nurturers when we were incapable of making wise decisions.

     While our nurturer’s prescriptions were well meant and many are still useful, their methods now restrict the development of self-mastery.  Self-mastery emphasizes the development of mental problem solving skills to become director of our own life’s experience.  We are required to go through a difficult transition from dependence on our nurturers to the independence of self-mastery, from “other” direction to “self” direction.  We change from being the “muscles” doing the bidding of our genes and nurturers to becoming “creators, directors, and producers of action.”   In taking charge, we choose our own destination and plot our passage to get there. 

     As I have developed my own new way of thinking, I start by asking myself what might work better to get me where I want to go.  I realize I start by surveying my data and knowledge and then make some assumptions.  I rehearse these assumptions in m my mind to see how they might work out.  This process is what I call “practical theory.”   It considers the “why” and “how” something might work.  If it “works” in my head, then I know “what” I will do to “will” it into action.   I have come to recognize that practical theories work “hand-in-mind” to better manage my own life’s experience.  Practical theory provides me with my understanding that “feeling good” and “doing good” is a path available by acquiring the skills of self-mastery.

     Now, given the above, here is the insight provided in this stren.  To succeed, we require a newer self-mastery operating system (O.S.), i.e., a new way of thinking (ANWOT), compatible with the independence we seek.  We begin by creating practical theories to wisely choose from our extensive data and knowledge. Applying rational thinking, we mentally rehearse our theories and reflect on their mental outcome.  The “why” and “how” is a major source of wisely making our assumptions and choosing our alternatives.  The “what” to do is helpful, perhaps necessary, but the very process of taking ownership of our thinking requires practical theory.     

     Our thinking is initially created in the service of our genes and our nurturers.  The transition to empower our self to manage our thinking may be viewed as no less than our struggle for freedom.  Freedom is commonly our most cherished goal.  History records that when Moses led the Jews out of slavery, he wandered in the desert 40 years to allow his people to get out of the habit of thinking like slaves.  Similarly, America’s freeing of its slaves unchained muscles but provided limited opportunity for the core ingredient of self-mastery -- “mental freedom.”  You’ve heard the expression, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he’ll eat the rest of his life.”  To become what we are capable of becoming, we need to actively teach ourselves how to “fish” and free ourselves from depending on others to “feed” us.  

     The freedom to independently manage our thinking requires new mental skills, what I call a new operating system (O.S.).  There are three ways we develop a new O.S. and/or modify that provided by nature and nurture.  The most efficient and preferred method is creating mental solutions.  This is called “cognitive rehearsal.”  We make an assumption of what may work.  We select pieces from our extensive data and knowledge, and then manipulate them to mentally create and test new ideas.  When we’re satisfied with an idea, we put it into action.  Understanding this process for change impresses upon me the importance of  “practical theory.” 

     A second method of learning is by making mistakes, “trial-and-error” learning.  Mental problem solving is far less “expensive” than trial-and-error learning.  This is especially so when the contemporary world we live in puts such a high penalty on “error.”   The third method we learn is by imitation; we get direction by copying from some “model” or outside source, and then we may take ownership of the new behavior.  This, like cognitive rehearsal, has been called “no-trial” learning (we get it right in our head before doing it).  If the role model’s pattern works for them, there is a good chance it will work for you.  Copying an “other’s” success is an efficient method of acquiring new skills, but it does not offer the independent original creativity unique to self-mastery.   Most organisms rely primarily on imitation and trial-and-error learning.  We effectively use all three.   The “what” to do, acquired by imitation and trial-and-error, is often sufficient.  Our theory of the “why” and “how” a method works helps us make valid assumptions and work through our solutions in our mind before “willing” them into action.  As mental creative beings, our self-mastery skill grows primarily through application of practical theories.   

     I hope this theory stren helps you understand my “change of mind” and the value of practical theory in addition to practical knowledge.    If you acquire the practical skills or strens offered in this guide, you will benefit by improving your life’s experience.  However, you will simply add another nurturer to your long line of nurturers, and still be following another’s script.  The intent of this guide is to motivate you to become your own director, to become “master” in your own dwelling.   I propose you take ownership of whatever knowledge you want from this guide and all prior “nurturers,” but no longer be “directed” by it.  I urge you to use your knowledge from all sources as information, to make wise assumptions from your knowledge, and thereby make your own decisions as you, your self, take ownership of your life’s experience.

     I have entitled this guide “A PRACTICAL PERSONS GUIDE ….”  If you choose to skip the practical theory strens, I believe you will still obtain major improvements in your well-being.  Simply change the title of the guide to the “short-cut” version:  “AN IMPATIENT PERSONS GUIDE TO FEELING GOOD AND DOING GOOD.”

I suggest you consider this stren with “Our Two Worlds” and “Our Three Operating Systems.”