130 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
with facts. Schools load us with information. Researchers gather statistics
and numbers. The result is a type of knowledge which resembles an
encyclopedia, but without the benefit of even alphabetical order.A
Second, we try to stay objective by divorcing the world of Perceiver
facts from the messy realm of emotional Mercy experiences: The reporter
attempts to stand on the sidelines when presenting the news. The professor
avoids subjective feelings. Legislatures pass conflict-of-interest laws which
prevent government ministers from serving in areas of personal expertise.
Even in daily conversation, we usually talk about the weather, sports, or
the economy, and we avoid personal issues. Why? Because we have
learned that Perceiver facts can be overturned by emotional pressure.
Therefore, we respond by removing the pressure.
Facts can be protected by sheltering them from emotional pressure.
This is called „staying objective.‟
Objectivity gives the illusion of instant knowledge.However, if facts acquire Perceiver confidence by surviving emotional
attack, then we are „protecting‟ our Perceiver information from the very
environment which it needs in order to gain stability. As a result, I suggest
that we are gradually losing the ability to deal with information rationally.
In essence, we are like the ninety pound weakling who copes with his
frailty by avoiding heavy work. The more labor he shuns, the weaker he
becomes. Eventually he turns into the couch potato barely able to press the
remote control for his television set.
Saying it again, if we ignore questions of belief, I suggest that the
inevitable result is lower levels of Perceiver confidence, because we are
avoiding the very situations which test our confidence, and it is only by
surviving episodes such as these that our level of confidence can grow.
This strategy of suppressing feelings becomes a vicious circle, because the
more emotional pressure we avoid, the more we must avoid. Meanwhile,
the flood of information increases, and the need for solid Perceiver facts
becomes ever greater.
For instance, I mentioned „conflict-of-interest legislation.‟ This states,
for example, that if a certain legislator is a potato farmer, then he is barred
from becoming minister in charge of potatoes. The goal is to make sure
that the minister remains rational when making laws about potatoes.
However, I suggest that the interaction between Perceiver confidence and
Mercy emotions produces exactly the opposite effect. First, Perceiver facts
become separated from the Mercy experiences upon which they are based.
If the minister of potatoes must be someone without recent personal
A We will see later that keeping knowledge fragmented is one way to avoid
Teacher thought and emotions.