A useful way to look at PRC Writings and Latest would be as an Analytical Tool or, Instrumental Construct.
It’s my position that, since all discourse, all talk, is ultimately a set of instructions, an analytical tool is simply an instance of such instructions.
The difference is that the problem-solving tool offered here is both heuristic and, of course, analytic. That’s another way of saying that it’s thinking is instrumental not constitutive. This is of the utmost importance.
Simply put, constitutive thinking says, in effect, Our/My way of thinking constitutes reality (is synonymous with reality).
Instrumental thinking, on the other hand, says, Any thought we/I offer is an instrument for responding to reality. That's all. As I've said elsewhere, I'm not interested in being believed. My hope is that those who might be interested in the ideas offered here test and use them in the real world.
The constitutive approach is the norm. And up to a certain point it might work ok. The problem is, it not only tends toward over-simplification and inflexibility, but it actually resists innovative problem-solving, even while claiming to value innovation. How? The constitutive approach is commonly used unconsciously, or intuitively, and therefore, automatically. Worse, it invariably moves in the direction of prohibiting any and all feedback and correction, which is the two-fold source of human adaptability.
Which is exactly why, for whatever its value, it always ends up creating more problems than it solves. It’s the problem-solving method of the unreflective thinker. The unreflective thinker thinks constitutively.
Such thinkers say, in effect, We know the essential features and defining attributes of this problem. Anything else is of no significance. Worse, constitutive thinking doesn't simply believe that it is always right. It firmly believes that everyone else should obey. Such thinking (or, better, such thoughtlessness) is the foundation of all prejudice and acts with devastating effect on our social-institutions, whether teaching-learning institutions, economic institutions, governing institutions, and the most basic bio-social unit of all - the family, where, often enough, such unreflective thinking habits first take root, following its firmest believers to their grave after spending their lives never knowing who they really are.
A life more wasted would be difficult to imagine.
Also, because it lacks consciousness, such thoughtlessness has no conscience, and is, therefore, the source of intellectual corruption. Since the source of all corruption itself is a lack of conscience. The popular use of the word conscience is “empathy.” One humorous irony found often in contemporary life is the repeated and irony-free use of the word empathy by people who have no conscience. Much in the same way such people use the word diversity to promote, enforce, and reinforce conformity.
And both done at the expense of the people they claim to be helping. The point is, there’s no consideration of anything that doesn’t fit the mental model of the unrelfective thinker. The unreflective thinker’s approach to problem-solving is presented as complete and final. This explains their delusional self-confidence and irritating self-righteousnes. It also explains why such people are a problem for any social institution (especially whenever they occupy a leadership position, as so many do today).
That’s why the analytical tool offered here is not supposed to be exhaustively descriptive of anything it is used to analyze, such as, for example, a particular problem a partner’s company might be struggling with, ie; problem-solving, effective communication, or leadership development.
That way the specifics are provided for by the user while the tools and methods are simply there to help guide and direct the problem-solving process itself. A process vital to the life blood of any institution. The basic aim is to make one's personal and professional relationships an example of effective communication and competent, cooperative problem-solving.
This is what is meant by aligning ourselves with our own needs and the needs of othes. Admittedly an enormously difficult task. But one made virtually impossible when the thinking involved is entirely constitutive.
This can be accomplished, in part, by recognizing the fact that language does not function by uttering truths, but by giving us instructions to do something, and the character of what we say is controlled by what we do.
In other words, with this approach, language is used instrumentally, not constitutively. The instrumental approach requires reflective thinkers.
The two go together.
Reflective Thinkers search, infer, and test.
1. search for (discover and confront) problems
2. infer hypotheticals
3. test ideas
Unreflective Thinkers don't do these three things simply because they always assume they're right. So why do it at all? When you think you're always right you've killed, not just your creativity, or ability to solve problems, but worse, your ability to face difficulties that can't be solved at all, but only lived with. Put bluntly, an inability to face facts and live in reality itself becomes the problem. People who live this way tend to develop the nasty two-fold habit of psychological projection and moral reversal. This often serves as the foundation upon which political parties are formed. Two such parties in the USA, and not just the USA, come irresistably to mind.
The important point is this: when we use language constitutively our definitions, ideas and explanations eventually end up in the same cul-de-sac, or tautalogy. Constitutive thinking keeps people going, but doesn't get them anywhere. As we said before, this is why it always ends up creating more problems than it solves.
Therefore, the value of using language instrumentally when problem-solving is that it eventually forces us out of language and into behavior.
Hence the value of instrmental thinking as an Analytical Tool.
Note: Another value of our Analytical Tool is that it can be used to stay firmly grounded in reality while providing us with a much needed laugh as we search for and expose the many paralogisms so often found in the constitutive thinking of such intellectual monstrosities as Critical Race Theory.
In other words, the subject matter of constitutive thinking is Belief. The subject matter of instrumental thinking is Reality. So then the real question now becomes this, What is the value of using PRC as an analytical tool?
The value of instrumental thinking as an analytical tool is this:
In the analysis of anything it is extremely easy and very common to surrender to one’s own point of view, value system, or personal interest, and thereby, distort the data. This can become a habit, a very, very bad habit. Or, more specifically, a discernible pattern of verbal behavior.
Two important examples of this would be Zionism and Identity Politics, both being monuments to intellectual backwardness, data distortion, and their consequences, cultural impoverishment and societal collapse.
I refer to both as Supremacy Incorporated.
Supremacy Inc. is The New Poisonous Pedagogy.
What makes it The New Poisonous Pedagogy? In the first place, because it demands to be placed above criticism, loved unconditionally, and blindly obeyed, or else, it can not survive without Scapegoating. Secondly, and far more importantly, it has the power to effectuate those insane demands.
The irony of Supremacy Inc. is that it has become the dominant Explanatory System in the Western world exactly because it's claims are not true. Also, and speaking of Scapegoating, just as Scapegoating is the crazy glue that holds dysfunctional families together, so too is it the crazy glue that holds dysfunctional societies together. A better example of the data distortion found in all constitutive thinking would be impossible to imagine.
So perhaps an intelligent and certainly more ethical response to the constitutive thinking of Supremacy Inc. would be the instrumental thinking that recognizes both the value and imperfections of each and every one of us, individual and group. From this perspective it's obvious that diversity is not our strength - imperfection is. Because human imperfection is what unites us all. Our imperfection is the reason and inspiration behind all learning, change, and growth. Our only real adequacy is found in facing our inadequacies together, without judgment, shame, or blame.
The purpose and value of this is that through facing our imperfections and inadequacies we can recover our freedom and become who we are. It also might have the added value of making us more modest and less murderous.
Concluding Remarks
People get locked into behavioral patterns not because they’re adaptive, but simply because pattern repetition offers a way to organize behavior and make it more predictable (and less free). In a world more complex and unpredictable than ever before this mentality, or orientation, is having a devastating effect on our social institutions – all of them. Just look around.
The purpose of PRC is to meet this problem head on.
In my experience I have witnessed moments where the distortion of data was very drastic indeed, and for the usual reasons, such as, Conformity, Change Resistance (fear of change), Arrogance (the mask of fear), Prejudice, Projection, Denial, Lack of Perspective and Self-Awareness (and a corresponding inability to admit when one is wrong).*
This results in Scapegoating and Gaslighting, whether of a provider, a partner, an employee, an employer, a family member, or a social group.
The consequence is a dysfunctional society that damages its relationships while not realizing its potential, because it can't solve its problems, because it doesn't know how to think, and can't admit when it's wrong.
For this reason, the purpose of instrumentalism as an analytical tool is to circumvent this very human tendency, as much as is humanly possible, so that we can achieve the fullest and freest expression of our powers. Join me in the next entry where I’ll ask and answer the question What Matters?
Until then!
*That all of us are prone to Data Distortion and that it can become a bad habit is exactly why the #1 theme of my work and life is Cultural Transcendence and the self-criticism without anxiety that goes with it, and also why one of my most often used mottos is Embrace The Fucked-upness!
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