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302 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind

number of other items which it can explain. Something which gives order
to many elements will feel quite good, whereas an isolated bit of
information evokes no emotion. This labeling makes it much easier for
Teacher thought to come up with new theories. When the Teacher person
reaches back into his storage shed for some explanation which can give
order to his environment, he will automatically be „handed‟ ideas and
theories which „feel right‟—general concepts which have succeeded in
explaining other elements.

Gnats and Elephants

Let us see what happens when theories are not labeled correctly.
Without a feeling for generality, the thinking of the Teacher person might
well be described as „interpreting the elephant in the light of the gnat.‟ In
terms of „weightiness,‟ an elephant is much more meaningful than a gnat.
One would think that the best system of order would place the gnat
somewhere upon the
elephant, rather than
inserting herds of
elephants, less
successfully, into the
carcass of a solitary gnat.
Unfortunately, however,
this describes the state of
Teacher thinking in
many of us. Without a
sense of generality to
guide us, we are unable
to distinguish elephants
from gnats; and since life usually contains many more gnats than elephants,
we end up choosing some nasty little gnat as the basis for our general
theory; and then, when we stumble across an elephant which refuses to fit
into our narrow little world of thought, we declare that all thinking is in
vain.
I suggest that there are two basic reasons why we give elevated status
to such tiny „creatures.‟ First, there is the influence of Mercy emotion.
What we feel is the sum of Mercy and Teacher feelings; it is often difficult
for us to distinguish between the two. Because our physical bodies give
Mercy mode such a head start in learning how to feel, Teacher thought can
find it very difficult to catch up. If Teacher strategy encounters some
theory with a strong emotion, this feeling could be due to the generality of
the concept, or it could be the result of some emotional Mercy situation
which has attached itself to the Teacher idea.

The 'small'

Elephant

inside

The 'big'

Gnat