POSSIBLE CHOICES OF ACTION

How should we counteract or fight back against the infection of our whole humanity by the Four Plagues? Our first thought might be to:

•  form a party or a movement
•  set up a committee
•  'band together' to oppose them
•  get involved in some kind of 'joint action'

This would be exactly wrong; because all of these actions, and others like them, would show us still to be infected with PLAGUE 4. They would result in our unique individual skills being mixed up and diluted with different ones of other people; our intentions being deflected by compromise; and our variety of choices and actions being reduced. The result would be us being 'in a coalition'. Then, like any coalition government, we would have a compromised mix that no real individual person actually voted for: just an entangled mess. Instead of such a PLAGUE 4 organizational approach, we need to stop believing in SEDUCTIVE SIMPLICITYAND SLIPPERY STRATEGY and retain our unfettered abilty as individual human beings to make a unique input to every one of the wide variety situations that we may face.

Understanding the principles of REQUISITE VARIETY  confirms this approach and suggests ways that it can be done. These principles show us that there is no narrow choice of actions, or strategy, that can deal with the complex and high variety problems that we face against the 4 Plagues. Yes, the core nature and the dangers of the 4 Plagues can be stated in relatively simple ways; but they still represent a complex of individual and different situations. Given their infection of a whole range of societies, subjects, politics, legal systems and human relationships; the principles of Requisite Variety tell us that the ways that we can counteract the 4 Plagues need also to be complex and varied.

One way to combact the ever-encroaching infection of the 4 Plagues, is to learn some lessons from other situations where individual people were in conflict with powerful and apparently overwhelming organizational forces that were acting on their lives. When doing this, we should continue to remember that the principles of Requisite Variety warn us against fixing on a one-off, one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, if there is any 'rule' for our choice of action; it should be for us to be open and flexibile in our choices, and to relate them to the particular situation we're facing.

Given that caution, here are some ways from history that may be appropriate:

SILENCE BEATS SHOUTING                                   NOTHING CONCEDED                                   WORKING TO RULE                           AVOID FIXED BATTLES