Did you notice the very limited role history played in problem solving? Only a small amount of very current history was needed to establish the present conditions. Avoid using to much history, more often than not, history is an obstacle to problem solving, old solutions tend to inhibit new solutions. But don't discard history out right because of this obstacle, an old solution is better than no solution and an old solution in one field may be a new solution in another.
    Were you surprised the word 'computer' was not used more often. The systems approach is not limited to computer use, in fact, it has nothing to do with the use of computers. Computer use should be the result of the systems approach, not the cause, a very common error when considering the use of a computer. A system analysis should have been done long before the use of any new equipment was ever contemplated. Very often the old system is so inefficient that two jobs must be done in a very short period of time. One, clean up the old system and two, convert to new equipment, placing a tremendous burden on everyone concerned.
    The word 'need' was also used sparingly because of the difficulty in distinguishing between an actual and a perceived need and since both are encompassed in the word goal, why use two words when one will do.
    The word 'objective' used as a noun is absent, again why use two words when one will do. To use both 'goal' and 'objective' is redundant and if one is the name of a set and the other a member of the set why are they being treated as equal, the value of using a hierarchy will be lost. This error is common in definitions and descriptions, I hope I have avoided it. To avoid misunderstanding, never use the name of a member of a set as the name of the set and never use the name of a set and one of its members as equivalent.
    The word 'control' was used very sparingly because it is reserved to describe regulation in a closed loop feed back system where regulation is much more precise and accurate, such as, using a thermostat to 'control' the temperature of an environment. The capability of control is really very rare and usually requires a large expenditure of resources.
    As humans we like to think of ourselves as being in control, we are 'free', we can go anywhere, do anything. We habitually ignore, we can't go anywhere, do anything, we must remain in our biosphere at all times and must follow its directions, not ours, if we are to survive.
    For example we travel under water, in the sky, and in space, but do we really? No. Everywhere we go we must take a microcosm of our biosphere to surround us and we must return to the biosphere when we deplete the resources or pollute the environment of the microcosm.
    Resources can be used as long as directions are followed. Every system must follow directions or risk being destroyed. We don't even know the direction of our own system, we can't even manage ourselves. The only instructions we can dact are the very few we have learned. Is that what we mean by control?
    Systems use resources according to the directions of the using system, but the resource continues to follow its own directions and if the system directions are not compatible with the resource directions the attributes of the resource will be destroyed. We use the euphemism 'degrade'.
    For example, we can cut a tree into lumber. We can continue to cut the lumber and as long as we follow directions we can continue to use the attributes of lumber, but if we don't, we will end up with sawdust and the attributes of lumber will be lost. We can burn the lumber for fuel, in doing so we have destroyed all the attributes of lumber and have traded those attributes for the attribute of energy and also have created waste, ashes and gasses.
    In both cases we used certain attributes and in the process we destroyed some attributes and or systems. We can use the attributes of a system or a community of systems, but for every use there is a loss and waste. We lost the shade of the tree, its oxygen production, and its erosion protection to name a few. We must always balance use with loss and waste.
    Users have some degree of control at the level of the attributes used, but the individual systems in the resource continue to follow their own directions without regard for the user and at that level the user does not have control.
    The tree was a system of cells and the cells were created from a community of atoms and molecules. Each level has a different set of attributes. As long as the directions at each level are followed the attributes can be continually used at that level, but the individual cells and atoms follow their own directions, not the user's.
    Unfortunately, when ever a system uses another system, the system is used as if it was a single attribute, a bit, the other attributes of the used system are ignored.
    A system can enter and leave another system, but it does not give up any characteristic while doing so, it keeps its integrity. Therefore, the management system of the now higher level system can communicate, supply or withhold resources, or expel the internal system and can deny entrance thereafter, but it cannot dact the system, even when it is within its environment.
    Most economic systems and most employers (users) consider employees as a resource and ignore that every person is an independent system. This error has been a source of difficulty for centuries. Every normal person has their own management system and is capable of evaluating the environment surrounding them and can change directions if they disagree with the conditions and or the activities in the surrounding environment. The change in direction may not be compatible with the goal of the using system.
    Most changes are made capriciously, dacting is not capricious, dacting encompasses all the steps of the systems approach. Dacting is guilty of malice of forethought, dacting is premeditated. Monotony feeds us, variety pleases us, change scares us, dacting satisfies us.
    Remember dacting only applies to the directions, operators, and operands, all other dacting is done indirectly by an operator operating operands while following directions, such as a surgeon, a contractor, or a repairman, but great care must be exercised or the other system may be damaged or destroyed. The directions of a system are known best by its creator.
    By definition, a system can be used by another system and system activities are confined to the environment. The effectiveness of dacting is in direct proportion to the knowledge of the directions of a system. The management of any resource is in direct proportion to the dacting that can be done. If a manager can't dact the direction of a system, a manager can't manage the system; therefore, a manger manages a system, a manager leads independent subsystems.
    We need to define, develop, and use the leadership activity. An activity that has been known for centuries, but is still not understood. Any search of the literature will disclose how little is known. One article will contradict another and some authors contradict one paragraph in another. This much is known, the leadership activity can obtain the willing acceptance of goals by another independent system. Most books and articles on management blur the distinction between management and leadership and confuse the issue. Management is not leadership and leadership is not management. A manager manages a system, a manager leads people.
    The old activities of authority, power, fear, coercion, etc., must be eliminated from our interaction with independent systems because they can not be managed, independent systems must be lead. We must place much more emphasis on cooperation and much less on competition. We must use communication, persuasion, motivation, agreement, etc., the attributes of leadership or we will eventually destroy our own economic and political system and possibly ourselves as well.
    When a thinking system spends most of its time thinking about itself, it is in trouble. Its way of thinking will become so restricted and its way of not thinking so expanded that it will die from self inflicted stupidity. Parochialism will develop, we are the best and our way of thinking is the only way to think. We must encourage diversity in order to prevent this from happening. Diversity encourages different ways of thinking. We must create many new and different ways of thinking to avoid being imprisoned in a blind spot of any one of our ways of thinking.
    Unfortunately, diversity can lead to conflict by reducing the conformity needed to maintain a community. We must continually balance the needs of the individual (diversity, individualism, freedom, etc.) with the needs of the community (conformity, sameness, parochialism, etc.) so we can maintain some level of peace, a low level of selfishness (the hoarding of resources and pollution), and a higher level of sharing.
    We must change our parochial thinking, the universe was not created for us, we are a product of the biosphere and we must live by the directions of all higher level systems. We are capable of indirectly dacting another system, but we can effectively dact only the systems we create and even then we must be careful because most of the systems we create are meta stable at best, we must continually renew and support them.
    For example, we have created our own economic system, a higher level system that can exist within the environment created by a community of systems (people) and the higher level system, the biosphere. We can dact our economic system, because we created it and we should know its directions (do we?), but we can't dact the biosphere. We can rearrange it, we can take resources from it and dump waste into it, but we can't change the directions of the biosphere to suit our desires. We can't dact what we don't know and we can't manage what we can't dact and we certainly can't control what we can't manage. I think we need to be a lot more humble. We must eventually learn the directions of the biosphere and follow them or else we will destroy ourselves.
    We can never have complete peace, we can only strive to minimize conflict. The primary source of conflict is the activity of each system. Every system must be active. The activity of one system may interfere with the activity of another system. One way to minimize this type of conflict is for all systems to be a member of the same community. In trying to minimize one conflict we have created another. A community requires agreement and to have agreement every system must sacrifice some individuality. This conflict between the individual and the community can never be resolved. The best that can be achieved is a balance between the needs of the individual and the needs of the community.
    Did you notice how the error of allness creeps into almost everything we do? Communication is fraught with opportunities to commit the error of allness followed by listening, reading, writing, problem solving, data gathering, data analysis, etc.
    'Our standard of living fell because labor productivity fell,' is another example of 'allness'. That's All there is to say and its All labors fault. Why is management's failure omitted from the statement. Our standard of living fell because management failed, not labor. An operator only follows directions, if productivity fell, what was management doing? Management is supposed to compare, evaluate, and dact the system, this is not the operator's responsibility. Correcting this statement would disclose the ineptness of what we call management. Labor unions would be nonexistent if management was doing its job.
    The mass media are failing miserably when such inaccurate statements are repeated without pointing out the error. But they are not alone, the thirty second sound byte and sensationalism are not new, 'Look before you leap,' or 'He who hesitates is lost,' or read a history book. Storytellers and historians, for some reason, record much about the triumph of power and the horrible results of errors, but very little about ideas or solutions. The mass media are, just, continuing a 'bad' tradition.
    Did you notice mass media, mass education, mass citizenship, etc., violates three rules of communication, speak on the receivers wavelength, use the receivers logic, and speak the receivers language. It would be impractical to do otherwise. In the country that made mass production the world standard method of production, the lack of knowledge about the requirements for mass production, mass education, mass anything is sorely missing.
    To use mass media, mass communication, mass citizenship, etc., for any reason requires mass agreement on the meaning and the use of data. We must trade individuality for community. We must continually remind ourselves why we need agreement on words and language and why we need one language. Without it, we will not have one community, one nation, one world.
    We need to remind ourselves why we do things the way we do and our storytellers, historians, and mass media should help not hinder the process. When we change the way we do things, we should stop reminding ourselves of how we used to do things and move into the future instead of remaining in the past. If the 'good old days' were so good why did we change?
    We must stop repeating incomplete and inaccurate statements to the point they are accepted as fact. 'The squeaky wheel on the wagon always gets the grease,' is an excellent example. Why is this part repeated without the rest of the verse, the omitted part is far more important. Do you know the rest of the verse? 'The squeaky wheel on the wagon always gets the grease, but it is the worst wheel on the wagon because it always requires attention.'
    Another example, one I really love, 'Those who can, do, those who can't, teach.' Do you know the rest of the saying, 'Those who can do, those who can't, teach, those who can't teach, preach and those who can't do any of the above misquote this saying.'
    The rules of grammar and the definition of our words limits our effectiveness. Our language and how we use it profoundly affects our verbal thinking, in turn, reducing our ability to create new thoughts, ideas, and solutions; reduces the clarity with which we can convert our nonverbal thoughts, ideas, and solutions, into verbal format; and can prevent us from clearly expressing all thoughts, ideas, and solutions. We can express some things without using verbal format, feelings for example, but not thoughts, ideas, or solutions.
    Indefinite, indistinct, incomplete, and incorrect definitions, rules of grammar, and use of language will yield indefinite, indistinct, incomplete, and incorrect solutions to problems, many times prohibiting a problem from being defined. Obviously if a problem cannot be defined, it cannot be solved and indefinite, indistinct, incomplete, and incorrect solutions will not be effective and never efficient.
    People cannot create anything one hundred per cent definite, distinct, complete, and correct so we must continuously dact definitions, descriptions, and ways of thinking to ensure our ideas, solutions, and systems are effective and efficient.
    This is one reason why I stress education, in the hope that more people will learn how to create new ways of thinking and new solutions and learn how to convert their nonverbal solutions into verbal format so those solutions can be shared. It is also a source of discomfort because our verbal format, our language and its use is sloppy, inconsistent, confusing, inefficient, and ineffective and I'm not aware of any conscious effort to improve our verbal format. Most people and institutions prevent improvements in our verbal format, in fact many of them force the change in the opposite direction. Evolutionary changes in our language and changes caused by changes in fashion seem to be the only way changes in our verbal format are made, an extremely slow and haphazard way.
    If an instruction does not point to the goal it should be eliminated. Many of the rules (instructions) of our language do not point to the goal of communication. Obviously, I would like to dact our language so it is easier to use, especially for students and nonverbal people like me, and the rest of the world needs to learn our language. Why our language? Expediency. Because most scientists and a large number of educated people know and use our language and the large bulk of the world's knowledge is written in our language.
    As the world population approaches eight billion, the need to disseminate new knowledge about the biosphere will become critical. The whole world will have to participate. We will need to convince people to change their life styles rapidly as we learn more about the biosphere in which we live. We wouldn't have the time to convert to a common language if we wait much longer. We will need all the brain power we can recruit to learn the directions of our biosphere and to solve our coming problems and to convince people to change rapidly. We don't have another century. Most people do not understand the urgency.
    A major obstacle to our attempt to discover, describe, define, and understand the world in which we live, is that we are inside the system and cannot see the entire system. We don't know the directions of the system and we have great difficulty learning the directions.
    If a higher level system ceases to be active (dies) so do all lower level systems. Only if we keep this in mind will we be aware of the peril we place ourselves when we pollute or attempt to dact the biosphere, the higher level system in which we live. If we knew the directions of the biosphere our probability of success would be much greater, we may be able to avoid pollution and we may be able to dact the biosphere without destroying it.
    Even though the systems approach and all its definitions are arbitrary, the systems approach describes the situation far more accurately than much espoused economic, management, and political theories. We need to incorporate the conclusions from the systems approach into our thinking and correct some of the errors of incomplete and inaccurate theories.
    Obviously such a small book can not contain All there is about the systems approach, nor does it contain All I have to say about the systems approach, but it does contain All I will say at this time. I intentionally did not extrapolate some ramifications thoroughly, such as economics, politics, history, freedom, etc., and some I avoided completely, such as, religion, truth, beauty, pain, pleasure, etc. My goal was to introduce you to the systems approach and to share some of my thoughts it brought about for me, not to make you proficient in any of its activities or to extrapolate thoroughly any of its ramifications.
    I chose to present the systems approach as slowly as I could and recursively hoping you would be able to accept some of the ideas. Use the systems approach on the systems approach until it meets your needs. I hope the view from the systems approach branch will help you see, describe, define, and understand more of the world in which we live and to use and create systems more effectively and efficiently.
    Now on to some more thoughts.

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    Warning! Be on the alert for a syndrome more dangerous than Ebola and more pandemic than AIDS. It killed the cod fishing industry and has seriously impaired many other fishing industries and the logging industry. Congress has a chronic condition of one form or another. Most people are completely unaware of the syndrome because it occurs in so many different forms. I call it the 'Arsenic Factory Syndrome'.
    The syndrome can afflict anyone at anytime with devastating results. I think S I Hayakawa wrote, "A way of thinking is at the same time a way of not thinking." Every way of thinking has at least one blind spot and if a person has only one way of thinking, the blind spot can become a prison because a person may be able to create only one solution and more often, no solutions.
    The syndrome begins mildly, first the environment is neglected, next concern for others is abandon, then education is forgotten, then economic activity is endangered, and in the acute form, either suicide is the only solution the person can create or the most common form, complete paralysis caused by not being able to create any solutions.
    Obviously, the cure is the most dangerous and difficult task a person can undertake, diversification, a person could have more than one way of thinking. With more than one way of thinking the blind spot of one way of thinking would be illuminated by the other ways of thinking keeping all blind spots small enough to skip over without being imprisoned. With more than one way of thinking a person could create more solutions preventing the syndrome. The cure is dangerous because diversity of thought can place a person in a position of internal conflict and enlarging one's mind is the most difficult thing a person can do.
    The syndrome was brought to my attention by the following story. The personnel manager of an arsenic factory ran into the president's office yelling repeatedly, "I told you to stop threatening our employees."
    "Calm down. Tell me what you're yelling about."
    "All our employees are committing suicide."
    "Why? How?"
    "Every employee is seasoning their food with arsenic. A little each meal so they will consume two   ounces in a year."
    "Are you sure?"
    "Yes. A blood analysis confirmed each employee's story."
    "Didn't you tell them to stop."
    "Yes, but they refused."
    "Why?"
    "Each employee emphatically said the same thing, 'If sales decline by two ounces, I'll lose my job.'"
 

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    I was waiting for the results of my prostate biopsy, it was negative, when a thought crossed my mind that I had not considered before, why hadn't I used social services to help pay for my own physical? I thought nothing of it when my wife's doctor suggested she request help to pay for a mammogram her doctor insisted she have. I even drove her to the social services department and helped her fill out the forms, but it never crossed my mind to do the same so I could have a long over due physical.
    It wasn't pride, it was a way of life, a way of thinking. My parents were married in 1934 and because of the depression, if we didn't have enough money we did without. I was raised to pay as I went, to be independent and not owe anyone. It became a way of thinking and every way of thinking has at least one blind spot. Because of my way of thinking, it never occurred to me to ask for help when our income, briefly, fell below thirteen thousand a year.
    Our religion, our philosophy, our way of life restricts how we think. Our religion places to much emphasis on sins, such as the sin of pride. Our philosophy places to much emphasis on the individual, freedom, and independence. Our way of life places to much emphasis on the free market, it can solve all problems.
    Because our thinking is restricted, we fail to see the blind spots. It wasn't pride, to much independence can shorten your life, and the free market cannot solve all problems. While I was pondering this, I recalled a story from my childhood that highlights all of these points.
    Shortly after we moved to a new neighborhood, my brother and I split a newspaper route. An old man on my half of the route piqued my interest because he always paid me to deliver a paper to his neighbor. I became friends with him during the next summer after I learned his neighbor was not related to him, I wanted to learn the rest of the story.
    The old man had been a wealthy person at one time, but was forced to move to this neighborhood because of his economic condition. Even so, he owned his own house and that of his neighbor, he paid the taxes, utilities, and maintenance for both houses. His neighbor was the doctor who brought him into the world sixty years ago in the poorest neighborhood of the city. His mother was widowed before he was born, but the doctor made sure his family and many others were fed, clothed, and kept as healthy as possible.
    I only saw the doctor a few times before he died. He was ninety and lived a lone. He had white hair, watery eyes, and drool running down an unshaven chin. He spent all of his time reading and in spite of that fact and the fact that he could barely move; he, his old clothes, and his old house was clean and neat.
    The doctor made house calls and would accept what ever payment was offered, most of the time nothing. The doctor came from a wealthy family and he spent everything and all he could borrow. Not only did he take care of the neighborhood, he raised and educated nine children, he out lived everyone of them, his wife died before the youngest left for college. He spent his entire life helping people until his health forced him to retire at eighty.
    His own children deserted him because he was always asking them for money. Indirectly, they kept track and took care of him and so did many other people, including the bank which forgave all his debts long before he retired, but would not lend him any more money.
    The surviving family members of the people he took care of, took care of him. Most of his caretakers were inconspicuous, they entered his house by the side door or came up the alley and entered by the back door, I had to be alert to notice their comings and goings, but notice I did with the help of the old man.
    The first one to catch my eye was an old barber. The doctor put up such a fuss when he tried to shave him that he only came once a week, it was the fuss that caught my eye. The same thing happened at bath time. A different person brought each meal, a different one would clean the house and do the dishes, etc., more than a month would pass before I would see the same person again.
    As the doctor's story unfolded, subconsciously I became aware that the doctor did not think of himself as any one special, he did not think of himself as a saint or a super do gooder or anything else, he only thought of himself as a doctor and he thought he was supposed to take care of the whole person. He refused all awards, honors, and special recognition. He truly could not understand all the fuss, he had not done anything usual, why was everyone else so impressed.
    And that is exactly why his story was recalled, to the doctor's way of thinking he had not done anything unusual, he was just carrying out his way of life, his way of thinking. The blind spot in his way of thinking was finances, his wife, his children, his nurses, his receptionists, and the business people of his neighborhood took care of his finances as best they could. The others did what they could, vegetables from the garden, mowing the grass, doing the dishes, the laundry, etc. Their blind spot was that they could never repay the debt, in their way of thinking they owed more than they could ever repay.
    The doctor was not thinking about pride, he certainly was not thinking about himself or freedom or independence, he was bound to his patients more tightly than any slaver's chain, and the free market certainly would not have supported him, he never made a profit.
    You see, it wasn't pride or anything else, it was a way of life, a way of thinking and we must be constantly on guard to prevent the blind spots, of our religion, our philosophy, our way of life, our way of thinking, from blocking our view of reality because only when we can truly 'see' can we create true solutions to our problems.
 

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    Like most people, I remember negative events quite well, such as when my mother died, when my wife miscarried, and when my grandfather, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews died or were very sick. People may remember negative events more easily because many times they have survival value, like losing money, leaving an event before a fight breaks out, or narrowly avoiding an accident.
    I can remember one set of positive events very easily, those involving our children. I enjoyed raising them. I can count the bad days on one hand and have fingers left over. All are in good health; all are intelligent, good students with masters degrees; all were active in school events; all are employed; and all are independent.
    I like to play poker and the stock market. Addiction was never a problem because, I never thought of myself as being lucky. I knew I would never win, so I always quit when I lost my preset limit. At poker, I rarely hold a pair or better more than thirty per cent of the time and when I do, I rarely hold the winning hand more than ten per cent of the time. In the stock market I made money, but during one three year period I lost more than one hundred thousand dollars. I can remember each loosing stock and every gain that could have been much greater.
    One in particular, I will never forget. The week before the crash of 87, I bought several different OEX puts for less than $700. I closed out all the expiring October puts before Friday and on Friday I closed out my November puts at a profit because the market had dropped two hundred points during the week and I expected the market to recover the following week. I sold my November puts for eight dollars and those same puts were worth one hundred dollars the following Monday. I could have made an additional $92,000 if I had waited one more day.
    While doing research for this book, an author pointed out that people have a built-in negative positive bias. He used the following example, if some people bought $10,000 worth of stock and the value rose to $20,000, most people would sell, but if the same people bought $20,000 and the value dropped to $10,000, most people would continue to hold the stock hoping to recover their value.
    From a second author, few people will risk what they have to improve their life, but look how much they will spend to continue living the most miserable of lives.
    And a third, we say, 'Why me God,' when events don't go our way, never when they do.
    Research, analysis, and reflection over the following years caused me to agree with the authors. This knowledge didn't remove my disappointment from those three years. I could recall very easily the lost $100,000 and the missed $92,000, but I had difficulty in remembering the profitable trades like the $8,000 gain on a $600 investment in the November puts that allowed me to lose the $100,000. I had to review my records to remind myself how lucky I had really been.
    After the review, I could not stop myself from thinking over and over, again and again about the built-in negative positive bias. We do not treat negative and positive events objectively, we do not treat them the same way, we don't treat the same positive event equal to the same negative event. When analyzing and evaluating events, past, present, and future, we must constantly be on guard, to prevent this bias from blocking our vision. Even in the hindsight of a past event, when all ramifications are known, we must be careful or we will still see what we want to see and not reality.
    One reason gamblers become addicted is because they continue to believe they can recover their losses quickly. Most people don't understand probabilities, but that is not the real problem, most people will not do the simple arithmetic that would dispel what they want to believe. People can become addicted to any pseudo activity (any activity that goes beyond survival requirements, such as, over eating, over exercising, over recreating, for example, computer games, etc.) because they are not aware of their negative positive bias. How else can you explain a person getting into an automobile and thinking an accident will never happen to them and the same person will gamble and think they will win.
    We always think, 'I could've won, I could've won, I almost won,' never, 'I could've lost, I could've lost, I did lose.'
    Another and a much more important example. I'm a male WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), in good health, born in the USA and in this era to good parents who provided a good home and education. So have millions of others, so what's the big deal. Turn it around and put it in negative terms and it is a big deal a great big deal.
    I don't have any genetic defects. I don't have AIDS or any other serious disease. I didn't have drunken or abusive parents. I didn't have poor teachers or poor schools, I didn't live in the slums of India or Brazil. I didn't go to bed hungry. I didn't have to deal with prejudice against me, etc.

    Very often we are not thankful for what we don't have.

    The negative positive bias is very evident when agreement is required, such as contracts, laws, procedures, candidates for office, civic projects, etc. One negative will out weigh many positives when we disagree or don't want it. One positive will out weigh many negatives when we agree or do want it. The bias increases when we try to justify our actions and is greater still when we try to avoid responsibility for our actions. Destroy the destroyer, kill the courier, murder the messenger, but what ever you do, don't take responsibility for your actions. Pardon my venom.
    For me, the original sin is not disobedience or any of the other much espoused sins, for me, the original sin is not taking responsibility for our actions. Adam blamed Eve, he even blamed God, and Eve blamed the serpent. Again our negative positive bias blocked our view and we misinterpret the story.
    Most mature people are very careful to avoid justifying their actions and try to take responsibility for their actions thus avoiding these two pitfalls. The worst thing that can happen to a person who is not aware of their negative positive bias is to experience an event that reinforces the bias. Balance is lost and the extreme controls, we think we did it or we are in control. For example, a gambler winning, a wealthy person making more money, a poor person losing more, a depressed person's friend dies, etc. We must always be careful to take only the credit we deserve and not to accept responsibility for events we did not cause.
    When I came to the conclusion that the authors were correct, I became very aware of my own negative positive bias and became more responsible for my actions. I hope you are now aware of your negative positive bias and will take more responsibility for your actions and like me realize, I'm not lucky, I'm blessed.
 

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    Those two thoughts collided on a rainy Saturday. My wife was at a weekend girl scout meeting and the children decided not to come home while mom was gone. I worked Friday night and Saturday trying to rewrite my chapter on communication without success. More than ten years before I added a comment from an author about the error of allness, but something was missing. During dinner the error of allness kept returning to my thoughts. It even interfered with the evening news. The only other thought that came to mind was, 'There had to more to it.'
    Suddenly, a burst of anger interrupted my peaceful weekend. I could not see straight, my body temperature rose, and my heart was pounding. Then as quickly as it came it left. I could feel a chill start at the top of my head and cascade down to my toes like a mountain stream. I was aware of a struggle taking place in my mind, I ran to my note pad and pencil. I've had this same feeling many times before and I knew what was going to happen next.
    Before I reached my desk, my brain was reeling with many different thoughts. I tried to write one key word from each thought to increase the probability of recall later. There was no way my hand could keep up with my brain, fortunately, it recycled through most of the thoughts again and again. The error of allness returned and my thoughts came to a halt.
    I quickly scanned the pad, every line was full. Many words were repeated at regular intervals. I could associate each word with a different place in time. I eliminated duplicates and put the words in chronological order and paused to rest.
    Have you ever had an 'aha' experience? Many times I awake with a though, idea, or solution nearly complete in every detail and I can't go back to sleep until I write it down. When I'm awake, I am aware of the struggle and suddenly the nonverbal part of my brain connects with the verbal part and my nonverbal thoughts are converted into verbal format. The 'aha' comes when the conversion is complete.
    Most of our thinking is done in nonverbal format, but we are not aware of our thoughts until they are converted, the verbal mind is the conscious mind. Many thoughts are never shared because we are unable to convert them into verbal format. We cannot share our nonverbal thoughts with anyone, not even ourselves, until they are converted into verbal format.
    The experience I just described was an 'aha' experience, but it was different in some respects. It was the first time one was associated with anger and did not solve a current problem. The last word on my list was 'mad.' I tried to recall what triggered my anger. I was mad at myself for some reason. Then the last words of the news cast returned, 'Remember the Holocaust.' I didn't want to remember the holocaust, it was too gruesome. I hated the person who reminded me and my anger returned. Quickly I focused on why I was mad at myself and my anger subsided.
    When no new thought was forthcoming, I returned to my list and let my thoughts return with each word. I was in my childhood living room listening to the radio with my family. A news bulletin interrupted the program, 'Pearl Harbor.' We followed the war as a family when my father was home and awake and without him when he was at work or sleeping. Many family members and friends were involved in the war. During waking hours, we listened to every news cast and read and looked at the picture magazines 'Life' and 'Look'. The pictures of dead bodies and wounded people repulsed me, but my child sense of fairness and justice was satisfied by similar pictures of the enemy.
    When the pictures and words of the holocaust first appeared, I had a morbid curiosity which was quickly satiated. After two years of what seemed like a continual bombardment about the holocaust, I became ill after looking at one of the magazines. I closed it and never opened another magazine of any kind until I was a junior in college, eight years later.
    I stopped listening to the news and I left the room when anyone began to talk about the holocaust, if I could not escape, I became violently angry. In the episodes I could remember and analyze, each had a common thread, I was angry at myself for being stupid. How was I being stupid about, 'remember the holocaust'? When I came to the next to the last word on the list, 'all', I knew. How could I've been so stupid for so long!
    ALL I have to do is to remember the holocaust and it will not be repeated. ALL I have to do is remember an event and it will not happen again. How absurd.
    To stop a serial killer, ALL I needed to do is remember his heinous crimes and he will stop. Ridiculous.
    Hitler said, 'The Jews caused ALL our problems; therefore, ALL we have to do is eliminate ALL the Jews and ALL our problems will be solved.
    How could I've been so stupid for so long. Now I understood my anger. I quickly reviewed the author's comment about the error of allness as written in my chapter. "Guard against the error of 'allness', that is, the communiqué contains only and all there is to be said about the topic," and as fast a I could write my nonverbal mind transferred to my verbal mind recollections about the error of allness that I had not included in my chapter.
    Remember, for communication to be possible in the first place the time dimension had to be contracted, be sure to re-expand it. No one can possibly say 'all' in the short time span of communication, nor can anyone receive it 'all'. The error of allness is the most frequent error people make and we make the error most often during communication. We are guilty of the error of allness so frequently it boggles the mind.
    Most errors result from the error of allness, 'That is ALL there is to the problem and ALL we have to do is ... and ALL our problems will be solved'. Allness leads to over simplification and the problem is never solved, the problem is forced to fit a solution. Politicians and salesmen capitalize on the error of Allness. Is it any wonder why government programs seldom succeed and require many changes if they do and why most things we are 'sold' turn out to be disappointments.
    We need to develop strategies to prevent the error of allness. We need to have different ways of thinking, we need diversity without divisiveness. We need to avoid generalizations, be specific. We need to know our goals and remain focused. We need to know our problems and make sure the solutions we employ solve our problems. We must take responsibility for our actions and our actions alone, the problem we solve must be our problem.
    The short statement, 'remember the holocaust' doesn't contain ALL about the holocaust in fact it doesn't contain anything about the holocaust. It doesn't point to a goal or a problem or a solution, not even the error. Such statements are worse than useless they are counterproductive, they keep pain, grief, bitterness, resentment, and hatred alive. They almost guaranty that the event will be repeated.
    I don't want the holocaust to be repeated, so will you join me and remind yourself everyday,

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    Every four years the politicians remind me to return to the values of my ancestors, the values that made this country great. Each time I'm left wondering if they ever listen to what they say? Do they know what made this country great? To which values do they want me to return, those of my ancestors? Really?
    I don't want to return to the values of MY ANCESTORS, at least not the values of some of them. For those of you who do not know, an island in the East River bears my family name. The island is known to most people because of a prison of long standing or for a mental institution. My family is both famous and infamous. We have had our share of pirates, bank robbers, highwaymen, and train robbers.
    The prison and the mental institution are symbols of the values of our ancestors, greed and escapism. The large bulk of the immigrants came to this country to escape persecution or to seek their fortunes. These are not the values that made our country great and they are not the values I wish to have.
    Greed is not 'good', never was, never will be. Greed leads to hoarding, parochialism, and arrogance. A hoarded resource is a wasted resource. The resource is not used to its full productivity and in the worst case it is not used at all. As we hoard more of a resource, we become parochial, we delude ourselves into thinking we must be smart because we have more of the resource than others. This delusion is self reinforcing, as we accumulate more of the resource, we think we must be right as well as smart. As we accumulate more, we think we must be the best and so on, until our egos are so large all else is blocked out and we can not think correctly at all.
    Sadly, during this process we subconsciously know the error and are dissatisfied, we try to escape from the environment we have created. Escaping requires more resources so we accumulate more so we can escape more and a vicious circle is established. The effect of these two dominate values of our ancestors should not be under estimated.
    Also, the politicians want us to return to the values of God, country, family, friends, honesty, and hard work. If that is so, why don't they emulate those values and what makes them think we don't have those values? Doesn't everyone, every where? What makes this country different? Why are the politicians so parochial, what makes them think we have a franchise on these values?
    I believe, Clinton Goldman said, "Every company gets the labor relations it deserves." Is a corollary true, 'Every country gets the politicians it deserves?' If that is the case our problem is self evident, greed and escapism are so dominant, our other values are suppressed. To release our other values, we must change our behavior and eliminate greed and escapism.
    Talking about it and telling ourselves how great we are will only keep us on the path to self destruction. A trend DOES make the future unless we CHANGE. Look at our country, the richest in the history of the world, the most unique civilization the world has ever known and we are trashing it away. We spend most of our time hoarding and escaping, gathering things and being couch potatoes, watching someone else do something, creating piles of waste in the process. Very few seek satisfaction and activity.
    We continually tell ourselves how great we are and we don't even know how or why we are great. We think we did it, we're the greatest, we're the best, we are in control, everyone should follow our lead, we know how to do it, ours is the only way, the best way, the right way.
    If anyone of intelligence could read an unvarnished version of our history they would vomit. We are squandering what we took. Yes, we have accomplished much, but have we accomplished anything near what we could accomplish with the resources we have taken and the fantastic good fortune we have had. Are you proud that we have incarcerated more people than the entire population of many countries, that we consume more than one third of the worlds resources with less than one tenth the population, that ninety per cent of our people are physically unfit, that more than twenty five per cent of our people are mentally dysfunctional, etc.
    Wake up America and smell the coffee, the world is not our oyster. We are past the time to talking, of forming another committee to study the problem. We consume to keep our false economy going and ignore the path we are taking. Very few understand the laws of large numbers and geometric progression, our numbers are growing too rapidly and we are not taking care of ourselves or our children.
    Most people pooh pooh the doom and gloom people, unfortunately much of their story is true. I'm not a doom and gloom person, I'm an optimist, I know we can change, but we can't wait any longer. Even if we start tomorrow, we may be to late, but we must try, we must give it an All American try.
    We can change because that is what makes our country great, not the slogans we keep repeating. What other country in the history of the world developed a form of government that allows for peaceful change for all its people and for all its activities? What other country maintains as many degrees of freedom for everyone? What other country encourages innovation, development, and the pursuit of knowledge to the same extent, by and for all its people? What other country has created so much technology, so much change in so short a time? What other country is so generous?
    Having said that, what I find so frustrating is that we are the only country in the world that promotes stupidity and ridicules wisdom. Politics and politicians do more to promote stupidity than any other person or group followed by congress and how we handle our history and our language.
    We are so paranoid about opposing ideologies and terrorism, we poison ourselves, don't we know our own strength? We stand for freedom and we suppress it inside and outside our borders. We stand for free thinking and do not listen to the rest of the world. We stand for law and order and disobey our laws in every other country. We are the only country that rushes headlong into the future following meaningless slogans not knowing where we are going or what we are going to do when we get there.
    We can change.
    First, every citizen and every organization operating in this country must obey our laws everywhere in the world, not just inside our borders, no special privileges not even for the CIA. We must obey our own laws everywhere or our view of law and order is a sham.
    Second, if our laws are obsolete or ineffective, lets dact them, lets stop complaining and talking, lets do the systems analysis, choose a solution, and do it, if it doesn't work, dact it again.
    One law we should change is the base for citizenship. Only children of a mother who is a citizen should become citizens automatically. Everyone else must apply for a visa and then apply to become a citizen. No preferences. Marriage to a citizen does not grant citizenship.
    Third, we must continue promote the free exchange of ideas. Secrecy should be eliminated, even for national security, and any person or organization that tries to force their ideas on anyone else in any way no matter how noble should be outlawed, government bureaucracies included. Even God gives us the right to choose how can anyone else usurp that right.
    The abortion issue is an excellent example of how we promote stupidity. No one has a 'right to life.' God did not give us a special dispensation, God did not exempt us from the laws of the biosphere. We must identify all the laws of the biosphere and obey them. If we don't take care of ourselves, our children, and the biosphere, we will become extinct. If we don't take care of ourselves, we can't take care of anyone else. If we don't take care of our children there is no future. If we don't take care of the biosphere we will not survive.
    The abortion issue will never be resolved because both sides, stubbornly, are trying to solve a symptom. Every student of the systems approach knows a symptom cannot be solved. A problem may have a solution, a symptom never. Is there any wonder then why so much heat and so little light has been created by the abortion issue. If we solve the appropriate problems we can reach a goal and reaching a goal provides satisfaction.
    Making more money is the sleaziest of goals because the satisfaction received is so transient. The satisfaction received from an increase in wealth rarely lasts longer than the time it takes for the ink to dry on the check or the report showing the increase because as little as one more penny becomes the next goal and immediately negates the old goal making the old goal worthless, past history. For this reason, accumulating wealth without a purpose is of little value. Is it any wonder why so many wealthy people die disillusioned, they have accomplished nothing. Their names may be on buildings and endowment funds but their names are meaningless to those who use them and most will not give a moments thought or even a simple thank you.
    Fourth, recognize that we will make mistakes, don't let fear and paranoia cause paralysis. Our country was built on change. If we make a mistake and we have made many, we can start again and we have, we've done it before and we can do it again.
    Fifth, our welfare system should be a federal program so the poor can move or be moved out of the high rent districts, preferably to areas designed for people without cars.
    All able-bodied adults must work. Everyone needs to work, unemployment causes abnormal changes in the brain, vacations are necessary, but idleness debilitates.
    Eliminate all income tax exemptions except for one individual, their spouse and two children, no other dependents allowed. Everyone else should receive a private pension, private insurance, or public welfare. Put the unemployed to work at tasks for which society will not pay, such as recycling, picking up trash, child care, visiting invalids, etc. Encourage training and education by granting appropriate leave time. For example, school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and work Tuesday and Thursday.
    Taking care of children is work and it should be treated as such. Brains are the most important resource we have and the care and nurture of young and growing brains is the most important task we can undertake. Any debasement of this activity in any form is complete and unadulterated stupidity.
    If any single parent wants to stay home and take care of their children, we as a society should insure their welfare. I mean take care, the home is clean, the children are clean, well fed, clothed, immunized, educated, etc. Have every caretaker sign a contract, if the contract is not fulfilled, stop the welfare check and take the children away from them. Pay the caretaker the equivalent of two adults and no more, with free sterilization after two children. Make sure the recipient understands no more money and the price of failure.
    Sixth, we must reduce our consumption. Yes, our standard of living will fall on one side, but it will increase on another. We will have fewer things, but we will also have less pollution. Remember our measuring stick is warped, we continue to measure by comparing the amount of things we have and consume. We must include the condition of our environment and the quality of our lives in our measuring stick.
    Did you draw the same conclusion I did from the thought 'Giving and sharing'? I have left many things unsaid, I was not explicit on purpose. First, because I had no intention of writing a text book, second, because it would require to many volumes, third, because I don't have enough time, and fourth, if you come to the conclusion on your own you are more likely to accept it.
    OK, I'll make my conclusion explicit. We continue to measure the quality of our lives in terms of quantity. Only material resources have a quantity attribute; therefore, we cannot include our non material resources in our measurement. Unfortunately, material resources can't contribute to the quality of life, only our comfort. I know people who are so comfortable it is sickening, but their lives are meaningless and they know it and as far as I'm concerned their quality of life is zero and I know people who are very uncomfortable, in great pain, who's quality of life is at the maximum and they know it, they share at every opportunity and many people share with them.
    So you see, not only is our yard stick warped, we are making the wrong measurement. What do you think the prophets have been trying to tell us?
    Our goal should be to maximize the quality of life and to minimize our discomfort and our use of material resources. As we reduce our consumption we will have to reduce the number of hours we work to keep everyone employed. Our income will fall, but we will not need as many things and we will have more free time. We must learn to use our free time constructively and inexpensively.
    I think our economists, bureaucrats, and politicians are overlooking many things. For example, we have reduced the weight of our cars by nearly two thirds and they wonder why our economy is not recovering as fast as in the past. The jobs that produced the lost weight are gone and those jobs will never return.
    Another example, a recent report in the Wall Street Journal pointed our the deleterious effect of reduced government spending on our economy. How could a change in spending of the largest consumer in the world not have an effect on our economy?
    Also, we must not delude ourselves, we cannot continue to supply the rest of the world. As the rest of the world increases their capacity, the need for our capacity will decrease, more jobs will be lost. The outlook for our economy as we now know it is very bleak, but it is not hopeless, we can change and I hope for the better. Maybe, just maybe, we will design and build our cities for people, maybe even our work. What a change that would be.
    In addition, the rest of the world can not come up to our present level of consumption, pollution would suffocate us. The biosphere could not recycle the pollutants fast enough. Water and other resources would become scarce and prohibitively expensive. The entire world economy would collapse.
    We must find a way to spread the wealth more evenly than we are currently doing. Concentrating the wealth in the hands of a few is a delusion. Yes, we need capital formation, but does it have to be with only the wealthy, what about the poor are they to be denied capital because of some accident of fate. Most unemployed have no control over their condition.
    The hoarding of any resource causes inflation, we have been undergoing capital inflation for many years, but it does not show up in the CPI. We are spending much more for our infrastructure, land, buildings, housing, and other capital goods than ever before in the history of our economy. This unnoticed inflation is sapping strength from our economy and changing interest rates will not have a positive influence on capital inflation.
    Plus, we are wasting resources, we are building to many monuments to our egos. Look at our building, our courts, our athletic facilities, our homes, our cars, our clothes, our jewelry, etc. No, you are not worth it. So little is used, so much wasted space, so many unnecessary symbols of affluence. Are our memories so poor and our egos so weak that we need to be reminded of our wealth all the time, everywhere? We are rich in things and poor in spirit and the former can never substitute for the latter.
    Lets change now, while we can still do so in reasonable comfort, while we can make mistakes and still recover, while our economy can recover from the changes we have to make, before the tidal wave swamps us all.
    We have two perversions in our values that need to be changed. First, we will not let people fail. Some people will never get the message unless we let them fail and the sooner the better. Propping up failures is a useless waste of resources. Give them help when they truly recognize their need for help, they will change their behavior.
    Second, we continue to let men believe sex is a right. Any student of biology knows females were not designed to service males, males were designed to service females. Sex is not a male right, sex is a male responsibility. The male is responsible for supplying sperm when the female needs it. All other sex should be for the reinforcement of pair bonds.
    Yes, men will be frustrated, I should know, I can remember my adolescent years very well, but that frustration is a man's problem, no one should assume another's problem. A woman should not be forced to have sex by any means, legal or otherwise, all such contracts and marriage vows should be null and void.
    The politicians, ideologues, and demagogues like to quote meaningless slogans, such as 'A rising tide raises all boats and a bigger pie allows everyone to have a larger piece.' Did anyone consider that more than a quarter of our population doesn't have a boat and that no boat will survive the tsunami that's coming and the pie can't be larger than the world and everyone can't have a piece if some people continue to take two or more pieces.
    We must change and we must start now. We, the supposed leaders of the world, must mobilize the rest of the world. We can't do that in a few years and we must begin at home. We have taken a few faltering steps and the reduction in the weight of our cars was significant, but we have not continued the effort. We must start again. If we don't start now, we will have a new name sake, the Dodo bird, and we will be just as extinct and just as dead and just as stupid as our new name sake.
    The Dodo bird was a hapless creature, it could not learn. We are not hapless nor hopeless, we can learn, we can solve problems, and we can change our behavior. I wonder why the problem is not apparent to every one? A few of us look at the gigantic world with our telescopes, a few of us look at the invisible world with our microscopes, a few of us look at our world, and even fewer look at the biosphere. I have answered my own question. Very few of us are reading the book of life because it is not written in stone (diamonds, emeralds, or rubies).
    Our ancestors crossed their river to the land of milk and honey and they killed the natives and raped the land. In time they built a temple and on its alter they placed an idol and worshipped it with meaningless praises. There were periods of repentance only to be followed with another idol, such as, sovereignty, destiny, profit, the white man's burden, capital formation, the Monroe doctrine, free enterprise, and recently, a great big one.
    Our slogans followed, we have a sovereign right to this land, we have a manifest destiny, we have a right to make a profit, we have to convert the world to our way of thinking, big capital makes a right world, we are in charge of our hemisphere, the free market can solve all problems, and we're right, we're the best, we're the greatest, we're worth it, we're number one.
    Aimlessly, we spin the wheel of our economy, apparently thinking speed will some how overcome a lack of direction. The directions are in us and all around us. Every living thing contains the laws of the biosphere, we only need to take the time and make the effort to read.
    Our temple will be destroyed. We have a choice, we can let the indifferent biosphere do it or we can change, we can destroy our temple one block at a time and build a new with compassion and care. We must learn the laws of the biosphere and obey them. The laws of biosphere preempt all laws written by people. After all WHO wrote the laws of the biosphere? Those laws contain the values to which we should return, but we must be diligent to avoid our false perceptions of what those values should be. The greatest experiment in our history is taking place right now and we will know the result within thirty years, will you or your children live that long?