232 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
None of the
attributes which we
have associated with
Perceiver confidence
were present under
communism. There
was no rule of law;
instead, the
authorities
imprisoned those
who stood up against the regime. There was no democracy; rather, the
party chose who would be in power and expected the people to rubber
stamp these decisions. Truth was a secondary concern, and the facts of
history were constantly rewritten to suit the fancy of the leaders. Private
enterprise was forbidden, along with the ownership of land. There was no
market economy; rather, prices were set by the state. Finally, identity itself
dissolved, as the central plan turned each „comrade‟ into a replaceable cog
in the machine of industrial growth.
The fall of communism plunged the average citizen into the threshold
of uncertainty. No longer was there a monolithic system to provide an
emotional source of stability. But, the problem is that most people did not
have the Perceiver confidence which was necessary to replace the thinking
of the old regime. As a result, at time of writing, Perceiver 'facts' are
largely determined by the feelings and pressures of the moment. Let me
illustrate this with some of my experiences in post-communist Russia.A
Any type of planning is very difficult to do in Russia. Planning requires
sufficient Perceiver confidence to decide that certain Mercy experiences
will go together. When we traveled within the country, we usually could
not buy return tickets. That would require the ability to plan in an
independent manner. Instead, we would buy a one-way ticket and travel to
our destination. Once we arrived, we would buy another one-way ticket in
order to return home. Sometimes we found that there was no return train or
bus despite the assurances of the clerk at the first ticket counter. This is
because accuracy is not possible without Perceiver confidence in facts.
Even if a bus or train did run, it did not always leave at the scheduled time.
For instance, when we took the bus to the airport in Moscow, the driver
chose to leave twenty minutes early. We only found out about this because
we decided to double-check a few minutes in advance.
Planning musical programs was also difficult. Programs were
continually canceled or rescheduled at the last minute. The fact that a
program was going to occur could be overcome by emotions from other
A I visited Russia twice in the early 1990s. My description is of that time
period.
R U S S I A