290 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
principle can be applied in different situations. It detests the meandering
path of one step backwards for every step forward, and loves the elegance
of a shortcut. It approves actions that are smooth and graceful, and dislikes
the choppy movements of the beginner. It finds it strongly appealing when
each situation is approached with the same general understanding and it
suffers emotional agony when every new area requires a different theory.
The reason that we do not recognize this fractal analysis as „intellectual
thought‟ is because our theorizing usually detaches the wings of Teacher
theory from any body of experience. That is why the mathematician
doesn‟t „fly.‟ He has wings and he uses them, but they are seldom
connected to the „body‟ of me. The aerial gymnastics which he performs
are amazing, but they are done by remote control, guided by a me which
remains on the ground below.
In actual fact, Mercy and Teacher feelings can combine beautifully.
Mercy thought deals with experiences and situations; it is associative,
oriented around space. In contrast, Teacher strategy works with words and
processes; it is analytical, geared towards time. When these two are
brought together, then Mercy feelings determine what is done, and Teacher
emotion guides how it is performed. We live within the world of Mercy
experiences, but we use Teacher thought to determine how to approach
these situations. Like the warp and woof of a fabric, the two threads of
analytical and associative thought blend to form an integrated fabric.A
I suggest that the situation in post-communist Russia provides a good
illustration of the principle of learning lessons „fractally.‟ I have already
described the pervasive lack of Perceiver confidence. Suppose that one
tried to tackle Russian problems in a piece-meal fashion, perhaps
introducing private property, or market prices, or democratic government,
or honest police. The result would be like the frog of the fable, except in
this case the ratio would probably be one step forward for about five
lurches backward. For each situation in which Perceiver strategy was
encouraged to wake up from its slumber of hypnosis, there would be at
least five other related areas doing their best to keep Perceiver thought
sleeping soundly.
Unfortunately, the problem is even worse. Suppose that some Russian
citizen does try to make an honest ruble. Typically, the Russian „Mafia‟
then comes along and demands that he pay them protection money, buy his
goods from them, and set his prices according to their standards. If he does
not comply, then they beat him up, cut off one of his fingers, or threaten to
kill his daughter.B How can Perceiver strategy ever hope to wake up when
A In mathematical terms, Teacher and Mercy thought form an orthogonal
basis for the emotions.
B This was the situation when I visited Russia in the early 1990s.