192 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
other words, I will see it, 'know' that it is mine, and take it without feeling
any pangs of guilt, even though it does not belong to me. On the other hand,
if my Perceiver observer is awake, then it will look for a permanent
connection between object and person. I will see the jacket and think, “Oh,
someone left their jacket here. Let me see if I can return it to its owner.”
If our goal is to encourage Perceiver confidence and to discourage
emotional 'truth,' then we will try to uphold ownership and prevent theft.
Adults will band together, accept the principle of ownership, agree to
respect the private property of others, and punish those who take objects
which do not belong to them. This is the foundation for government law.
Suppose that someone does steal the jacket. How should society
respond? It should help the offender to learn Perceiver confidence.A Is this
lesson taught by putting a person behind bars? No. Locking up the criminal
teaches him that bad Mercy experiences should be blocked off, because
society regards him as a „bad experience‟ and it has quarantined him. This
is how Mercy thought responds to pain when it is totally free of Perceiver
rules; it is the path of „multiple personalities.‟ Is it necessary to lock up
some criminals? Yes, this is society‟s safety valve for extreme crime, just
as multiple personalities are a mental safety valve used by children who are
subject to extreme abuse. But it should not be the normal response, just as
people with multiple personalities should not be regarded as typical
humans. Instead, the goal should be to teach the criminal how to pursue
opportunities which are based in Perceiver logic.
That brings us to our second type of opportunity. This is the concept of
creating wealth for myself—in place of appropriating that of others. When
we examined principles of childhood training, we saw that parents could
only provide the environment for Perceiver thought. This milieu created a
mental vacuum which drew into itself the contents of common sense.
Where was this common sense learned? In the real world. Similarly, I
suggest that government—the „parents‟ of adults who live under it—
cannot teach common sense. Instead, it can only create a climate within
which opportunity and common sense may grow.
How to teach time-oriented Perceiver thinking to a group of adults:
Permit opportunities that require Perceiver confidence.
Squelch opportunities that do not need Perceiver confidence.
Step out of the way and allow society to guide itself.A I suggest that restitution can play a major role in lesser crimes. If a
person must repair the damage that he has done, or pay for the goods
which he has stolen, then he learns that every opportunity carries with it an
associated cost.