[Neurons] 2013 "Neurons" -- Meta Reflections #47

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall


Meta Reflections 2013  #47

Nov. 4, 2013


 

 

 

WHEN GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM

 

Originally I didn't plan to write more than just one post on the
over-spending problem of government (#46).  Then I received a dozen emails
questioning my assumption that the problem is one of over-spending.  Several
suggested that the problem is unemployment and under-employment.  And true
enough, that's another significant problem that we are currently
experiencing in the US and in many countries around the world.

One person suggested that if only government would spend more, namely give
the unemployed more money and benefits, that would help.  And yes, in that
case, there would be more money in the economy.  Of course, doing that is
only dealing with a symptom of the problem and not the cause.  Sure, in the
short-run it would help.  In the long-run, however, it creates another
problem- dependency on the government, and more costs, and a sense of
entitlement.  The hidden presupposition is that  it is government's role and
purpose to "take care of us"as if we were helpless and powerless and unable
to take care of ourselves.  And that's a frame that violates one of the
fundamental assumptions that we operate from in Neuro-Semantics.

 

To make sense of all of this let's back up, identify what we mean by
"government," and then use the questioning power of the Meta-Model of
Language to gain greater clarity on these things.

What is it?  How does it work?  

Who is it?  What is it about?  

What are the assumptions (presuppositions) that any given form of government
is operating from? 

 

What is it and how does it work?

The term "government," a nominalization, refers to the process of governing
and that speaks about how we govern the way we communicate, interact, create
rules for ourselves, gather money, spend money, protect ourselves, and so
on.  This is what we refer to as the governance of a home or business or
corporation or association.  And when it comes to governing a group of
people-we are speaking about how we organize ourselves and what form of
organizing that we use (dictatorship, kingdom, oligarchy, representational
republic, democracy, tyranny, aristocracy, etc.).  And of course, this is
the way we "author" our reality (our organization) and so creates the
"authority" that we live by.

 

What is it?  It is us.  It is how we as a group function, organize
ourselves, invent the rules that we then use and follow as our government.
In the US, our founders framed a constitution that operates as the
foundational rules of our society and started it by a declaration.  That
declaration declared itself as valid because it is an expression of We the
People.  We are the government and the good thing of a democracy, or a
represented republic, is that if we don't like it, we have rules and
processes by which we can change it.

 

How does it work?

It works by the rules.  The rules describe the operational processes of a
government.  And the rules work by its explicit and implicit assumptions.
That is, the rules themselves are governed (managed) and they are governed
by the presuppositional frames that drive the assumptions.  So now we can
back up to ask philosophical and psychological questions that drive the
government: 

           What do these rules assume about human nature?  Dependent,
independent, inter-dependent?  Good, bad, neutral?

           What do the rules assume about people coming together to create
a society?  Natural, unnatural; natural competitive, cooperative,
collaborators?

           What do the rules assume about what people need, what drives
them?

           What do they assume about people following the rules- their
motivation, intentions, understandings, etc.?

           What do they assume about leading people- those in charge, those
creating the rules (legislators), those enforcing the rules (police, judges,
tax collectors), those overseeing and executing the rules (executive
offices, supreme court, etc.)?

 

Ah, within and behind our thoughts and ideas about government are lots of
psychological and sociological ideas about we the people who need
government, create government, and exercise government.  We separate
Government and Politics as if they are separate disciplines, yet they are
not.  They inherently and inescapably involve human psychology, human
functioning, human communicating, and so on. 

 

Who is government and what is government all about?

It is we the people getting along with each other.  First and foremost to
create a safe environment so that people are safe from being attacked by
domestic or foreign enemies.  It is to create stable enough society so
people can predict how the economy, schools, and businesses function and how
to succeed in making a sufficient living.  It is to create a free enough
society so that people can fully develop their talents, intelligence,
creativity, art, etc. so that people can pursue their  interests and
passions.

 

What are the assumptions (presuppositions) that any given form of government
is operating from? 

Does the government now think that their job is to control people or free
people?  Do they think they need to police everything the people think, say,
and do or that they are to enable, equip, and empower people so that they
can be the best they can be?  Do they think the people are children who have
to be taken care of or adults who can take responsible to take care of
themselves? 

 

These questions indicate that "government" is us, it is comprised of our
human psychology.  It relates to what drives us, how we function at our
best, our potentials, our social nature, etc.  So when government is the
problem-it is a problem due to the frames it is operating from.  And if it
operates from conceptual frames of beliefs about how to lead and govern,
then when it is the problem, we can correct that problem by changing the
frames.

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

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