166 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
way that the wiring of the mind seems to be responsible for making parents
the „gods‟ of their little children, so the same wiring of the mind seems to
predetermine that children turning into teenagers will demand
independence from the authority of their parents.
Fathers and mothers often react to this teenage „rebellion‟ by
demanding continued blind 'faith' and obedience from their offspring. In
this case, I suggest that the problem does lie with the parents. If Perceiver
strategy in the father is mesmerized by the emotional 'facts' emanating
from the status associated with his wallet, his possessions, his boss, or
other pillars of society, then these 'facts' may become uncertain when
confronted with the questioning rebellion of his teenager. In the same way
that the teenager may try to use external control to prevent his parents
from bringing undesired Mercy feelings to mind, so the parent may
attempt to use external control to stop his teenager from plaguing him with
unwanted doubts.
In between these two conflicting sides of emotional 'truth' and adult
logic lies the threshold of mental uncertainty, in which the teenager does
not know what to believe and the parent is at his wit‟s end. In the average
house, these mental trenches are lit up regularly by flashes of verbal guns
firing blindly across a generation gap in the gloom and semi-darkness of
relational confusion.
This interpersonal conflict, I suggest, is the external manifestation of a
war going on within the mind of the teenager, which his mental wiring
predestines him to fight. While he cannot avoid this struggle, I suggest that
it is possible for him to find a path which minimizes the pain of growing
up.
There are two basic ways to overcome an opponent. First, I can try to
destroy him. Eventually, he will be so weak that he cannot resist me. This
is the method of war—I pummel the enemy into surrender. Second, I can
focus on building up myself. In time, I will be so strong that I can ignore
him. This is the path of economics. I defeat my opponent by out-producing
and out-trading him. I suggest that teenage crisis can also be resolved in
one of these two ways.
The Rebellious Teenager
Let us start with the option of attacking the enemy. Remember that the
„enemy‟ of the teenager is his childhood memories. He wants to grow up
and be an adult. However, the emotional 'facts' from his childhood get in
the way of his attempts to act and think like a grown-up.