Handbook For The Positive Revolution
Amazon link: Handbook for the Positive Revolution
Author's Note
Why bother?
This is a sensible phrase to cover a sensible strategy.
Go your own way.
Do your own thing.
Carve out a little niche in the complex world and then be happy and content in that niche.
Being worried about the rest of the world is too futile and too difficult a task.
Let those who are motivated to change the world work on that task.
The world will always last long enough to see out your lifetime.
I am not going to disagree with this point of view but to side-step it in order to write for those who know that they are inseparably part of the world in which they live: their own internal world, the local community world and the world at large.
Let the others munch contentedly like cows in the field—happy that there is grass today.
My concern has always been with human thinking because this seems to me to play so central a role in human happiness and development both from moment to moment and also over the longer term.
I believe that we have done relatively little about thinking but have been content with a fluency of argument and the ability to attack and defend positions.
This sort of thinking unfortunately lacks the creative, constructive and design energies that we really need in order to go forward.
Indeed, our absurd emphasis on negativity seriously impedes such progress.
This particular book is not, however, about thinking habits and methods.
This book is about the fundamental background and setting in which we would use our thinking skills.
If we are disposed to be negative then our thinking skills will help us to be negative.
If we are disposed to be positive then our thinking skills will take us in that direction.
This is more than a moment to moment emotional bias—it is the fundamental attitude of our being.
There are far too many people who believe that natural evolution controlled by critical negativity will form the ideas that we need—just as Darwinian evolution perfected a variety of life forms.
This is a dangerous fallacy.
Evolution is very slow, very messy, very wasteful and is incapable of making the best use of available resources.
Inadequate—but not disastrous—ideas and institutions will survive, perfect and defend themselves thus preventing the more effective use of resources.
That has always been the logical basis for revolution.
This book is intended for those who see this logical need.
There is a useful place for negativity in changing values:
in providing shaping pressures;
in curbing excesses;
in removing defects in order to improve an idea; and
in forming the conscience of society.
But the constructive and creative energies have to be there in order to get the steady, step by step progress that is the basis of the positive revolution.
How we generate these constructive energies is what the positive revolution is about.
Principles ::: Methods ::: Power
The Principles: Effectiveness ::: Constructive (design) :::
Respect ::: Self-Improvement ::: Contribution
Effectiveness: Lord heart of the matter
Introduction
This is a serious revolutionary handbook.
The greatest strength of this serious revolution is that it will not be taken seriously.
There is no greater power than to be effective and not to be taken seriously.
That way you can quietly get on with things without the fuss and friction or resistance from those who feel threatened.
In the positive revolution there are no enemies.
Traditional revolutions are negative and derive their energy from being against things.
The only energy of the Marxist revolution was derived from its struggle against capitalism.
Where that struggle was successful the new system eventually died of inertia since the struggle becomes only an ancestral memory.
Is it possible to have a revolution without the rage, hatred and passion of being 'against' something?
Is it possible to have a revolution without the sense of mission and focused energy that an 'enemy' provides?
Many would say that it is not possible.
Such people are locked into that old-fashioned and tiresome habit of thinking based on 'I am right — you are wrong.'
Righteousness is indeed a traditional source of energy.
A simplistic view of an enemy does give the cohesion, shared views and camaraderie of professional revolutionaries.
But the positive revolution is not for professional revolutionaries but for ordinary people for those amateurs who can make a difference, inch by inch.
A positive revolution is not the mighty clash of the 'rock logic' of brutally arrogant ideologies but the slow and steady power of 'water logic' with ability to surround and infiltrate.
The weapons of the positive revolution are not bullets and bombs but simple human perceptions.
Bullets and bombs may offer physical power but eventually will only work if they change perceptions and values.
Why not go the direct route and work with perceptions and values?
With the positive revolution there are no enemies even those who want to enjoy being enemies need to be denied this legitimate pleasure.
There are a few who will join the positive revolution immediately.
There are those who will join later when it is fashionable.
There are many, including the enemies, who will be quietly by-passed.
Most will not notice it is happening until it is far advanced.
I finished writing my book I am Right — You are Wrong one sunny summer morning at nine o'clock.
Half an hour later I had started this book.
This book is the short practical handbook for the positive revolution.
The other book provides the intellectual basis and seeks to show why our traditional clash system of thinking is insufficiently constructive.
The book I am Right — You are Wrong was received with rather comic sputterings of indignation and hysterical outrage — directed at me for my temerity in challenging the hallowed basis of Western thinking, rather than at the substance of the book.
Mostly, this quaint fury indicated how necessary it is to move forward from the traditional negativity of thinking towards the positive habits that are going to be increasingly required in the future.
This practical handbook was originally written for Brazil, which so badly needs a revolution but whose intellectuals are much too old-fashioned to design one.
The book was published in Brazil, in Portuguese, at the end of 1989.
This original purpose may account for some aspects of the book, particularly the need to be simple and definite.
Nevertheless the positive revolution is needed everywhere.
This is particularly the case in the United Kingdom where negativity has so often been the means by which a club of mediocrity holds on to power.
After reading this book, or the preceding one, some thinkers may come to see negativity not as the highest exercise of intelligence but as the squalling of a baby who has no better means of getting attention and is incapable of other action.
This book is a practical handbook and not an intellectual thesis.
There are not many pages.
In writing this book I am well aware that some aspects will seem gimmicky and unnecessary.
I am prepared to accept such criticism because perceptions do require to be anchored in symbols, slogans and rituals.
Traditional revolutionaries have been right about this.
Most successful world religions have maintained their strength through intellectually unnecessary gimmicks and rituals.
Such rituals provide the continuity between bouts of emotional energy and provide the permanent seeds for the survival and dissemination of the new perceptions.
This is your personal revolutionary handbook.
It is a permanent symbolic reminder of the positive revolution, not a bowl of cereal into which you dip one morning to soothe a temporary hunger.
The more you invest in the positive revolution the more you will get out of it.
Is the positive revolution a personal revolution within an individual?
Is the positive revolution a social revolution?
Is the positive revolution a national or international revolution?
You must answer that question for yourself — because it could be any or all of them.
If you want to spread the positive revolution buy a few copies of the book for your friends — or encourage them to buy the book for themselves.
It is not so much a book for reading as a book for working from.
Effectiveness and Action
Effectiveness: Lord heart of the matter
Intelligence Information Thinking
If I had to design a system in which it was impossible for intelligent people to be effective, then I would design the following system.
1. People in positions of power would use their intelligence to defend their position and to survive.
They would have to look after their own interests on the short-term basis that is necessary for survival.
They would need all their intelligence and energy to defend themselves.
Initiatives are risky because they only confirm friends and create new enemies.
If this sounds a little bit like normal politics that is no coincidence or any fault of the people involved.
It is the natural behavior of the system as it is designed.
2. Intelligent people mainly use their intelligence to attack, criticize and blame others.
This is easy to do and is also low risk.
This is also the highly esteemed Western tradition of 'the critical search for the truth'.
3. Everyone else is intelligent enough
to be passive,
to get on with their own lives and
to assume that their occasional vote is a sufficient contribution to local and world affairs.
Where necessary, protest and pressure and the threat of vote switching will get things done.
It is assumed that those whose business it is to get things done will respond constructively to the pressure.
Two people of matched strength are pulling on a rope in opposite directions.
There is huffing and puffing and both parties are red in the face from the exertion.
A great deal of energy is clearly being used.
You could not, however, tell this from the position of the rope because the rope has not moved at all.
In fact the whole system is perfectly static even though so much energy is actually being used.
You start up the car and try to accelerate.
The car moves forward very slowly.
Suddenly you realize that you have left the handbrake on.
There is no law of nature that says that energy and working hard must produce a forward or beneficial effect.
Energy will only produce an effect when it is coordinated and organized towards action.
Every piece of iron can be considered to be made up of thousands of tiny magnets.
All these tiny magnets are pointing in different directions — so the overall effect is zero as they pull against each other.
If, however, all the tiny magnets can be lined up to point in the same direction then the piece of iron acquires the mysterious power of a magnet.
Mighty mountain ranges and landscapes are sculpted by the power of tiny drops of rain each of which eventually comes to act in the same direction.
It takes time.
Traditional negative revolutions are led by a revolutionary group.
According to Lenin, who carried through a successful revolution, the power group had to lead and everyone else had to follow.
Is it possible to start a revolution the other way round?
Is it possible to have a general shift in mood and action first?
I believe it is if the weapons are perceptions rather than bullets and bombs.
Why bother?
The memo THEY don’t want you to SEE (perceive)
- Handbook for the Positive Revolution
- Title page
- Contents
- Note on the Author
- Author’s Note — why bother
- Introduction
- Effectiveness and Action
- People in positions of power would use their intelligence to defend their position and to survive
- Intelligent people mainly use their intelligence to attack, criticize and blame others
- Everyone else is intelligent enough
- The way things are
- Traditional negative revolutions are led by a revolutionary group
- Is it possible to start a revolution the other way round?
- Negative Revolutions
- The Positive Revolution
- The positive revolution has three supporting legs
- PRINCIPLES: The basic principles are the guidelines for thinking
- METHODS: What are the methods and mechanisms of the positive revolution?
- POWER: It uses the power of perception, of information and of effectiveness
- The Principles
- EFFECTIVENESS
- CONSTRUCTIVE
- RESPECT
- SELF-IMPROVEMENT
- CONTRIBUTION
- Constructive
- Contribution
- Circles of Concern
- SELF
- LOCAL
- COUNTRY AND WORLD
- These three circles can also become another symbol of the positive revolution
- Special Talent and Positions
- Selfishness
- Effectiveness
- The Joy of Effectiveness
- Education
- Self-improvement
- Increasing the Positive
- Reducing the Negative
- Better at What You Are Doing
- New Skills
- Emotions
- Respect
- Human Dignity and Human Rights
- Methods
- Perception
- Crude Perceptions
- We need tools to enable us to see things in a different way.
- HUMOR
- NAMING
- ALTERNATIVES
- THINKING
- INFORMATION
- The positive revolution is about people and perception
- Humor
- Information
- Naming
- Symbols
- Yellow
- Yellow Book
- Yellow Hand
- Yellow Arm-Band
- Three Circles
- Greeting
- Salute
- Slogan
- Name
- Flag
- Organization
- Members of the Positive Revolution
- Groups
- Education Groups
- Spread
- Education
- The New Education
- Leadership and Effectiveness
- Self-Help
- Thinking
- Power
- The Power of Positive and Constructive Attitudes
- The Power of the Best People
- The Power of Perception
- The Power of Thinking and of Information
- The Power of Co-Ordination and Alignment
- The Power of Support
- The Power of Spreading
- The Power of Water
- Sectors of Society
- Women
- Older People
- Younger People
- Media
- Business
- Art
- Labor Unions
- Political Parties
- Other Revolutionary Groups
- Problems
- Summary
- Appendix: How to Run an E-Club
- General Overview
- The Tasks
- Report Back
- People
- Time
- Ritual
- Statement
- Format and Agenda
- Thinking Skills
- The Organizer
- Log Book
- Achievement Score
- Laziness
- Register
- Competition and Communication
- Further Information
Negative Revolutions
In a traditional negative revolution there is an enemy to be hated.
It is this hatred which gives cohesion to the revolution and provides a sharp sense of purpose.
Traditional negative revolutions are defined by what they are attacking.
In a traditional revolution you are defined as a revolutionary by what you are against: colonialism, Marxism, capitalism, tyranny, etc.
The unexpectedly sudden changes in Romania, the rest of Eastern Europe and the USSR show that this sort of revolution can be effective and may seem to reinforce the validity of that traditional model.
But there are two important factors to keep in mind.
In Eastern Europe the revolutions were nationalistic revolutions against an 'occupying power'.
In all cases the revolutions were against one system, Marxist economics, and towards the perceived benefits of the well-established capitalist system with its freedoms and material well-being.
In other words it is relatively easy to switch, by revolution, from the existing model to another known model.
But if there is no known model to switch towards then traditional negative revolutions are pointless and dangerous.
The struggle against the 'enemy' still gives a sense of mission and a purpose to life.
The struggle becomes an end in itself.
The revolution is only successful as a struggle and when the revolution has succeeded there is too little experience with the constructive attitude that is needed to build and to run society.
The negativity that may be so valuable during the revolution is now turned inwards into fighting between the factions and, sometimes, a suppression of 'counter-revolutionaries'.
The habits of negativity and attack are not suddenly changed to positive construction.
That is why it might be better to start off with a positive revolution in the first place.
A positive revolution may be contrasted with a negative one.
Instead of attack there is construction.
Instead of criticism there is design.
Instead of change through violence there is change through perception.
Instead of the power of guns there is the power of information.
Instead of the hard edges of 'rock logic' there is the flow of 'water logic'.
Instead of ideology to provide the direction there is a humor to allow changes in direction.
Instead of a centrally organized system there is a self-organizing system.
Although the positive revolution is non-violent it is by no means passive.
On the contrary the emphasis is on action and effectiveness.
The revolution of Karl Marx was inspired by the unfairness of the steam-engine technology of the industrial revolution.
The positive revolution is inspired by the opportunities offered by the electronic age of information.
Freedom … Power … A revolution in every generation is not the answer … The alternative to tyranny continue
Contribution
Some of Peter Drucker’s contribution thoughts
You are walking along a street which is full of pieces of paper.
Now it is possible that all that paper blew off the back of a truck carrying waste-paper.
It is possible that dogs upset some dustbins and the wind blew the papers about.
It is most likely that each piece of paper was casually dropped by someone.
So you casually drop the wrapper of your chocolate bar.
If the street is already so dirty, what difference will your additional piece make?
Or you say to yourself that it is too bad the street is dirty.
It is the business of the town cleaning department to clean the streets and they are not doing their job properly.
Now that story is the opposite of contribution.
If you are following the principle of contribution you do not drop your piece of paper — whether this makes any difference or not.
When enough people also do this the street becomes cleaner and easier to clean.
Suppose you picked up a piece of paper: one piece, two pieces, three pieces.
Should you clean the entire street?
No.
Just pick up a few pieces.
When you pick up these pieces of paper, how constructive are you being?
You are helping yourself by practicing the attitude and discipline of contribution.
You are helping to make the street cleaner.
You are setting an example that can spread to other people.
There is a hole in the road in front of your house.
You try to fill in that hole.
Very soon the traffic has opened up the hole again.
You fill it again.
Is this a real contribution or are you wasting your time?
There are three answers.
You are developing your sense of contribution.
Even though it is not filled permanently the hole is now filled at least part of the time.
There may be a better 'design' for your contribution:
finding better ways of filling the hole;
putting a sign warning drivers of the hole;
informing the local authority.
The basic principle of contribution is represented by the little finger on the hand to remind us that contributions may be small but are still contributions.
The biggest difficulty with the principle of contribution is that everyone says: 'I am not in a position of power so what can I do?'
That is negativity and passivity.
Nor is it enough to say: 'If I do my own job well that is enough contribution.'
This is indeed an extremely important contribution — but not enough.
Suppose you kept a 'contribution diary' and at the end of the day you put down your contribution that day.
One day the entry might read: Picked up a piece of paper in the street.
Another day the entry might be: Helped an old woman across the street.
Then there would be days with no entries at all.
Would you really say to yourself: 'There was nothing that I could contribute today.'
If such a diary sounds silly, ask yourself why it sounds silly.
There are three aspects of contribution.
1. The person making the contribution.
2. The person receiving the contribution.
3. The person thinking up ways of contributing.
One of the most important roles of the positive revolution is that of the 'work-packager'.
This means putting together a catalogue of all the different ways in which ordinary people can contribute.
There is nothing worse than having people with the time and energy to contribute but not knowing what to do.
It is not easy to think of things to do there and then.
The catalogue, of which there may be many, can put together the experience of people in other areas.
The catalogue can be put together by a group that specifically sets out to design valuable forms of contribution.
We assume that 'work' exists and is obvious.
In the future of employment one of the most important roles is going to be the 'work-packager' who designs work that can be done in order to provide value.
Such work would be paid for with the normal economic currency.
The contribution catalogue would be similar except that the work would be paid for with an imaginary 'care currency' which will come to exist one day.
The catalogue could include such things as the following.
Collecting and passing on information.
Bringing people together for a purpose.
Explaining regulations to people and helping to fill in forms.
Micro-education in teaching things to people willing to learn.
Helping people who are sick or handicapped.
Stopping environmental pollution.
Cleaning places up and making them more attractive.
Preventing crime.
Adding to the catalogue on a local level or a wider level.
Encouraging a constructive attitude in others.
Devaluing negativity and passivity.
Passing on the message of this handbook to others.
Setting up a project group or joining a project group.
Constructive achievement can become a hobby.
Setting out to do something and then doing it gives a great sense of joy.
It is this idea of achievement as a hobby that is the basis of the -E-Clubs ('E' for Effectiveness) that are described later in this handbook.
Circles of Concern
Where do we contribute?
Imagine that there are three circles, one inside another.
The innermost circle represents your self.
The next circle represents your family, friends and community.
The third circle represents the country and the world.
1. SELF: What are you contributing to yourself?
This includes skills, education, training, experience.
It also includes a positive attitude, a constructive attitude, and the discipline of contributions.
Self-improvement is one of the five basic principles of the positive revolution so it is an important area of contribution.
2. LOCAL: I could have suggested one circle to represent your family and your friends and another circle to represent the local community in which you live and also the community of the people with whom you work.
I did not want to do this because there is already too big a gap between family and friends and the local community.
So the circle includes family and friends and the local community and the work community.
Your family will always be special for you and this single circle also makes your community special.
There is no boundary between your family and your community.
3. COUNTRY AND WORLD: This is a big area but each country is made up of its people and the world is made up of many countries.
How you vote in elections, what signals you send to politicians, how you try to make the country work, these are all matters in this third area.
If you learn to read and write, that is a contribution to your country as well as yourself.
If you grow more crops, that is also a contribution to the country.
If there is a reduction in crime, that contributes both to the community and to the country.
These three circles can also become another symbol of the positive revolution.
Of any action we can ask:
Is this action constructive?
To which area or areas does this action contribute?
Special Talent and Positions
Some people have a special talent and can contribute much more.
Some people are in a special position and contribute much more.
There are wealth creators.
These are entrepreneurs who set up businesses or people who run businesses that have already been set up.
They may be people who have inherited or bought land.
Wealth creation is a valuable part of society for it provides both employment and food and goods to raise the standard of living.
Wealth creation can also provide the exports which earn the money to buy goods from abroad.
Some traditional revolutions have attacked wealth creators on the basis that they exploit other people and that workers do not get a fair share of the wealth that has been created by their efforts.
These things are certainly true in many cases and have been more true in the past.
But where the government has tried to take over the wealth-creating needs of society the results have not been very good.
Some abuses disappear but others appear instead.
On the whole, far less wealth is created so everyone suffers, as the Marxist economies found.
How can the talents, energies and risk-taking of entrepreneurs be harnessed for the good of society?
Here we need to use the concept of contribution.
What is the business contributing: in employment, in taxes, in quality goods, in low-cost goods, in profit sharing, in infrastructure, in training?
A business certainly has to survive in a competitive world and a business has to be profitable otherwise no one will want to put up the capital.
Risk, enterprise, organization and hard work should certainly be rewarded.
The rewards should be related to the contribution.
For example, profits might be related to the number of people employed and their wages.
If we can solve this problem of fair reward and fair contribution then wealth creators can use their energies to create maximum wealth and contribution.
There are special talents of leadership that need to be recognized, trained and rewarded.
Not everyone is able to be a leader or wants to be a leader.
Leaders should be encouraged and given responsibility — provided they can show that they are constructive and can contribute.
Leadership training should be part of education.
Someone once described a bureaucracy as a group of people who are brought together for a purpose but very quickly forget the purpose for which they are there.
In part this is true.
Many bureaucrats seem to believe that the purpose of a bureaucracy is to survive and to get paid by the government.
Yet bureaucracies and the people in them should have a strong sense of contribution — both to the overall purpose and also to individual members of the public.
Some politicians also seem to play the game for its own sake: survival and continuing in power.
There is some sense in this because if a politician is not in power, he or she can achieve little.
So survival is important.
But the point of survival is contribution.
Contribution is much more than just playing by the rules.
You may stick to the rules and laws and yet contribute very little.
Contribution is a basis of judgement.
Instead of saying 'Is he (or she) right or wrong?',
we might say: 'What is his (or her) contribution?'.
Instead of saying 'Is he (or she) good or bad?',
we might say: 'What is his (or her) contribution?'
Selfishness
There are people who only want to contribute to their own well-being — not even to their own self-improvement.
These are the people who will cheat and exploit others.
These are the people who will jump queues instead of waiting in line, and will find ways of beating the system.
How should such people be treated?
Such people are often talented.
The first step is to see if that talent can be used to play the new game: the constructive game.
Such people often want an opportunity to use their enterprise, energy and ingenuity.
Could this be used in a constructive way?
Information networks in any community quickly identify such people.
This identification will be made easier by the naming process that is also part of the positive revolution (and which will be described later).
Such a naming process will bring about the loss of respect for that person by the local community.
All dealings with that person will be on this basis.
The key weapon against selfishness is perception.
Quite often the macho, selfish, rip-off person is regarded as a demi-hero.
Young men want to impress their peers and the young women around.
A gradual change in perception of such people from heroes to social cockroaches is the most powerful way of changing behavior.
'That's not so smart…'
'That's not so brave…'
'That is just plain selfish…'
Almost everyone needs the respect of other people at some level.
(naming) People behavior
In order to make concrete the values of the positive revolution we need to name categories of behavior.
Once we have these named categories we can talk about them and think about them.
We can set up nine categories of behavior.
People who show a certain type of behavior can be perceived as being in one of these categories.
There are four positive, four negative and one neutral category.
CATEGORY ONE: behavior that is constructive but also very effective.
The effective part is very important.
A person who is a leader and organizer.
Taken all together this is a person who can make things happen in a positive and constructive way.
Because of these qualities this is a person who contributes.
If a person has all these qualities but is not in a position to contribute at this moment, we might say 'potential category one'.
Find "contribution" in What do you want to be remembered for?
CATEGORY TWO: This is a person who is actually contributing a great deal at this moment.
Such a person may have none of the qualities of category one but nevertheless is contributing.
For example, a rich man who has inherited money may give a lot of money to help the poor.
A talented artist may use his or her talents to contribute to society.
A famous sports star may use his or her talents to contribute.
The contribution is great but the qualities of category one are not present.
CATEGORY THREE: This is someone who is hardworking, cooperative, helpful and also effective.
The difference between category one and category three is that in category one there are also the qualities of leadership, organizing ability and constructive initiative.
Someone in category three might be very good in a project team or when the task has been defined for him or her.
CATEGORY FOUR: This person is positive, agreeable, pleasant and cheerful.
This person does the job he or she is doing just well enough.
This person is nice to have around but is not very effective.
CATEGORY FIVE: behavior that is neutral, behavior that is passive.
You cannot say anything positive about this person but you cannot say anything negative either.
A person who is apathetic and content to drift from moment to moment with no sense of involvement and no sense of control over destiny.
This is the neutral category.
CATEGORY SIX: This behavior is critical, negative and destructive.
The person may be highly intelligent but uses that intelligence not to build but to destroy.
In a group this person does not make proposals but attacks the proposals of others.
In attitude this person may be gloomy or depressed or may not.
Some negative people enjoy being negative so much that they are not gloomy.
Category six people still believe that negativity is the best way towards progress.
CATEGORY SEVEN: behavior that is totally selfish.
behavior that is exploitative or corrupt.
There is a wide range of behavior from simple selfishness to extreme corruption.
This person is not seeking to hurt others and may be within the law.
The characteristic of category seven behavior is that it is totally selfish.
Category seven behavior is the exact opposite of contribution.
CATEGORY EIGHT: This is the behavior of the bully.
This is the behavior of the person who seeks to get what he or she wants by demanding it from others.
The category eight person uses force to get his or her own way.
Both category seven and category eight people may be exploiters but in the case of category eight it is a deliberate exploitation of other people and the use of force to achieve that.
CATEGORY NINE: This is the behavior of the outlaw.
This is the behavior of the person who has no respect at all for other people or the rights of other people.
This is the criminal who has no conscience and no morals.
This is the sort of person who would murder for a small sum of money.
Note that category eight people may acknowledge the rights of others but are capable of infringing those rights from time to time.
Category nine people acknowledge no rights at all except their own intentions.
In time there may arise a name for each category.
For example the behavior of category seven is parasitic so we might call such people 'cockroaches'.
The behavior of category six is to draw their energy from others so we might call them 'ticks' or 'leeches' that live on the blood they suck.
There could be competitions for people to find the best names for these categories.
We can use the categories right away without special names.
'He's a category four person.
He is nice enough but he won't get anything done.'
'He is not really category one.
He does contribute but that is because of his position, not his constructive energy.
He is more category two—but that is very valuable.'
'I have heard that he is definitely category seven so we shall have to keep an eye on him.'
'You would not think so to look at her, she is so small and frail, but she is definitely category one.'
'We need to find a lot more category three people in order to get this project moving.
We are not short of ideas but we need action.'
'Don't invite her—she is pure category six.'
Once the categories are there we can use them to praise and reward behavior.
We can use them to encourage behavior because if someone knows that he or she is regarded as being in a certain category then that person will try to live up to a good image.
We can use the categories to blame people and to point out to them their failings.
We can use the categories to let people know what other people feel about them.
We can use the categories to encourage people to try to move upwards out of the category in which they are placed.
In moving upwards you do not have to move only to the category above.
For example, a category six person could jump to category three immediately.
The categories provide a language in which the members of the positive revolution can value the behavior of other people.
It is important to make clear that the person is not locked into the category for ever.
These are categories of behavior, not of character.
So we should really say: 'You behave like a category six person.'
There is always the option of change.
If a person shows no inclination to change then we perceive that person as within his or her category and treat that person accordingly.
By virtue of their positions teachers, doctors and journalists could be category two people because they are in a position to make significant contributions.
But a teacher may be category four or even category five.
Many journalists are category six.
The heroes and villains of the positive revolution are defined according to the values of the categories.
So people who are selfish are villains.
People who are constructive and effective are heroes.
The vices and virtues of the positive revolution are also defined by the categories taken together with the basic principles.
Being negative is a vice, so is being passive and apathetic (even though this is neutral on the category list).
Being effective is a virtue.
Being positive is a virtue but not as high a virtue as being positive and also effective.
A person need not be entirely within a category.
For example, you might say: 'Sometimes he shows category eight behavior.'
In this way the categories also become adjectives.
Could there be more categories?
Yes, and in time there may be.
For the moment it is enough to become familiar with nine.
Situations
There is a need for new words to describe particular situations so that we can perceive these situations more easily and refer to them more readily.
The examples given here are only an indication of what is needed.
'I don't like you and you don't like me and we disagree on most things but it is in both our interests that we work together effectively on this matter.'
We need a single word to cover the pragmatism of this arrangement.
We need a word to bridge the friend / enemy division given us by normal perception and language.
In English we might just say 'frenemy' by combining friend and enemy.
'In this situation any sensible politician would have to make these necessary public noises.
They do not mean anything but are full of the right sounds.'
We need a single word which acknowledges the necessity for certain political noises.
Such a word would make it easier to distinguish between serious political statements and routine noise.
We might say 'n.p.n.' for necessary public noises.
'Knowing what to do is not enough.
There is a skill in designing how something can be done and in carrying it out.
There is a skill in making something happen.'
Some time ago I invented the word 'operacy' to cover the specific skill of doing.
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