Chinese Advisor: This Donkey is a Horse
Let us give an example of Truth vs. reward and punishment.
An Advisor to the Emperor of China amassed enough allies in the court, including the General of the Army, so that he had sufficient power to take over leadership of the country. Everyone knew it and supported this move because the Emperor was not a competent ruler.
The Advisor approached the Emperor with a donkey.
Advisor: “Get on your horse, Sire. We’re going for a ride.”
Emperor: “I don’t want to go for a ride and besides that is not a horse. It is a donkey.”
Advisor: “It looks like the royal horse to me. How about the rest of you?”
The courtiers, servants, the nobility, and the generals all agreed that the donkey was the royal Horse.
General: “It looks like the horse to me. And I think you want to take a ride.”
All: “We all agree that the Emperor should take a ride on his royal horse.”
At this point the Emperor understood and submitted to his fate - which was not too bad - banishment to the royal estates in the countryside away from the center of power.
Literal Truth secondary to Deeper Meaning
A bloodless coup - best for all concerned. And all because literal truth was abandoned for deeper meaning.
While the literal message was that a donkey was a horse. Everyone knew that was not the case (~T = F). Everyone was telling a collective lie. However because the external lie was so blatant everyone knew that there existed an internal meaning as well. Everyone understood the internal meaning so well that no one even needed to verbalize it. It was a nonverbal understanding that was reached by all present.
The internal meaning or message was:
“We all stand so firmly behind the Advisor that we will tell an obvious Lie to the Emperor’s face. We also know that aligning with Power simultaneously protects one from harm and yields certain benefits.”
Nonverbal Truth imbedded in the Words
This example illustrates so many features of power. Let us examine it in more detail.
Applying our little Diagram to this situation:
The Form of Power was so strong that the Lie was passed on as True rather than False.
To confuse and elucidate as summaries inherently do, we could call the internal truth something that was non-verbal, but which was nevertheless imbedded in the words.
Similarly in reverse order The Emperor received the False external Message but heard the real internal message and responded accordingly.
Source has potential for Consequences
This is the way of much, if not most, communication.
As mentioned the Filters of the Receiver, are tuned to evaluate the Message of the Source.
On the most basic level the Receiver attempts to determine whether the Message is true or false. Many times this has to do with whether the Source is evaluated as honest or a liar.
On a more subtle level the Filter of the Receiver determines whether the Source is Us or Them. According to this evaluation if the Source is one of Them, then the Message is not to be trusted, while if the Source is one of Us, then the Message can be trusted.
If (S = Them) Then -> (Message Not Trusted = F)
If (S = Us and Honest) Then -> (Message = True = T)
On the next layer, perhaps the most important, the filter asks the question: “Does the Source have the possibility of Rewarding or Punishing me (+ or –)?”
This is not aberrant behavior. This is what communication is all about - whether verbal or non-verbal - whether between humans, babies or animals.
Example: Quite clearly, with little ambiguity, the cat with his behavior says: “Feed me and I will reward you by leaving you alone. Don’t and I will punish you by pestering you until you do something.”
Consequence Filter, Most Important; Logic Least
Thus the Filter of the Receiver not only evaluates the Source for being a Liar, and whether he is an Us or Them, he also evaluates the potential so the Source to do him good or harm, (+ or –). This Filter transcends the others.
Before Logic even comes into play the Source is evaluated on many levels - primary of these is the ability to Reward or Punish (+ or –).
Examples:
If the Source is behaving suspiciously and looks ‘foreign’, i.e. like a ‘Them”, but is carrying a submachine gun and pointing it at you, you will probably obey despite the Content of the Message because of the potential punishment that might be inflicted upon you.
Social Climbers will say that Wrong is Right to Get ahead
Similarly if those in authority are able to reward or punish (+ or –) depending on one’s viewpoint, then those who are interested in upward mobility will probably parrot the beliefs of their Boss or President. This is an underlying motivation behind the Propaganda. The Propaganda tells what those in power believe or at least what they want those around them to believe, or at least what they want them to say. Those attempting to scale the ladder of the hierarchy pay close attention to the news, not so much to know what’s going on in the world, as to know what to say to get ahead. Similarly the Chinese court said that the donkey was the royal horse so that they would be rewarded by the Advisor, who was going to be in charge. The literal truth was secondary to the potential rewards for cooperating, or the potential punishment for not cooperating.
Getting ahead for most has to do with the material rewards of belonging to the Establishment. If getting these material rewards has to do with compromising one’s personal integrity, then this disturbs one’s internal peace. If one’s internal peace is disturbed then one cannot really enjoy the fruits of materialism, except briefly. If at every moment of quietude the Mind begins babbling to resolve the internal conflicts caused by moving without integrity, then how can one enjoy the ecstasy of the Moment?
If Integrity disturbed, Then Internal Peace and Harmony Disturbed
Realizing that the external rewards of the Establishment are not worth compromising one’s integrity for is the first step towards escaping the cultural conditioning inherent in the Propaganda. Conversely, as long as the external rewards that belonging to the Establishment tend to bring, are rated as higher than the internal rewards, the Propaganda will be effective.
Consequences determine Truth of Message
The Receiver hears the Message, then Responds with the behavior that she hopes will give her the greatest reward. Whether the reward is immediate or long term is a separate evaluation. Thus for the Receiver the Content of the Message is of secondary concern to the potential for Reward of Punishment (+ or –).
If the Source has the ability to Reward or Punish (+ or –), then the Receiver attempts to choose the Response that will lead to the Reward (+).
Social Climbers: “The Establishment will reward me if I obey. If they tell me that they are going to bomb innocent civilians in the name of justice, then so be it as long as I am rewarded. That donkey is certainly a horse.”
Intermediate steps dependent upon outcome
Therefore the Receiver’s evaluation of the Message is based upon what they expect the Source’s Response to be in reaction to their Response. They are more interested in the Consequences, C, to their Response, R, to the original Message, M, than they are in the Contents of the Message.
The truth of the intermediate steps are not independent, they are totally dependent upon the outcome. For instance the truth or falsehood of the content is important only to the extent that it allows the Receiver make the proper Response that will bring the Reward from the Source.
Example:
If one of the literalists among the couriers had agreed with the Emperor that the donkey was not a horse - then he would have probably received serious consequences. Hence his understanding was wrong.
If the Receiver is Rewarded ‘+’ for her behavior - that was initiated by an understanding of the true component of the Message of the Source, then all stages are True = 1 = ‘+’.
Conversely if the response of the Receiver to the Message of the Source leads to Punishment ‘–’ by the Source, then all stages are False = 0 = ‘–’.
Potential Disobedience based upon Potential Consequence
Hence the filters of the Receiver, which lead to understanding and response, are wholly dependent upon the potential Consequences from the Source. If the potential Consequences are mild, then the potential for disobedience is greater. If the potential consequences are extreme, then the potential for disobedience is much less.
We will define as the Power of the Source over the Receiver as the ability to inflict pain and pleasure (+ and –), i.e. Consequence. Thus the child has great power over her Parents or a Leader has great power over his subjects.
This power is purely subjective. For instance, the President has no effect upon me, the Author, because I perceive no reward or punishment coming from him.
My Rewards are internal.
The External Rewards are not worth the Internal Punishment.
Compromising Integrity, Not worth the cost
Let us dig a little deeper.
If one rates Peace of Mind as the Key to the Ecstasy of the Present, which surpasses the fragmented potentials of the Past and Future, then the Source within has the ultimate Power. One must maintain an impeccable relation with the internal world to achieve this inner quietude, which is the ground from which the Divine Bliss emerges.
There are a variety of Sources that are pressuring us to Action for some Rewards and Punishment, i.e. Parents, Friends, Children, Boss, Fellow Employees, Greater Society, and Inner Being, who some call the Little Voice of God, to name just a few. When all these voices, internal and external, with all their Messages that expect a Response, are taken into account, then one decides to respond dependent upon a weighted reward and punishment scale. For instance, the consequences for not showing up to work, might mean that one would lose their job, which would mean that one would have no money for food, housing, and clothing. Hence even if the Person had a great internal desire to sleep in and watch TV all day, the Person would probably get up and go to work because of the severity of the potential Consequences.
Similarly, if one perceived that the Management tended to reward/promote those with the Mindset of the Establishment, then one might tend to cultivate that Mindset regardless if it asked you to compromise your own inner values and forget about the rights of civilians in other parts of the world. However, if one rated one’s relation with one’s Self as the most important, then compromising inner values would not be worth the external reward because the internal punishments would be so extreme. Peace of Mind and its potential ecstasies would be shattered for the sake of some type of superficial material comfort.
Choose the Ultimate Source carefully. Choosing to cultivate the external garden at the expense of the internal leads to a life of slavery and servitude to materialism, constantly plagued by a busy mind that crowds out the Ecstasy of internal Peace.
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