ASSIGNMENT >> 8. Read “The Individual and His Dynamics.”

THE INDIVIDUAL AND HIS DYNAMICS

By inspection of Man himself, an individual seems to have a thrust in each one of these departments. In other words, an individual is interested in the survival of groups on a parity with his own survival.

As soon as you knock out one of these dynamics on a human being and you say, “For this individual, this dynamic cannot possibly exist,” you get trouble, because they all get knocked out. They come down on the same level, in other words. If you cut out half of one dynamic, you have cut out half of the rest of the dynamics. This package of dynamics is very vital to the survival of an individual.

Right now we have a whole society which is educated along the line of “Man thinks for himself alone.” People have to be forced, whipped, beaten and educated to have a Third Dynamic. They have to be jailed. They have to be sent to school. They have to be punished, fined, taxed, made to go to the polls and vote Democratic. All of these various things have to be done in order to make a person have a Third Dynamic.

In other words, in this society they are working like mad to build something which is already there. But take away all of these big structures which train the individual to adapt to society and you will find lying behind these structures a much prettier structure and a much stauncher one than any artificial structure being built.

It is the same way on the Fourth Dynamic. Have you ever known anyone who thought only cats were fit to associate with and that Man was no good? There are such people. “Men are no good. Men are cruel, they’re beasts, they do terrible things. And the human race is no good and Man is no good. But cats and dogs and dear little dumb animals, these are what are nice.” In other words, this person throws it all over on the Fifth Dynamic. She will be all right and she can go on living only until that concept fails on her, because it is an artificial concept.

Man can do almost anything he wants to these dynamics as long as he is consistent about it. The second he gets inconsistent along any line he is in bad shape.

There is no thought or statement here that any one of these eight dynamics is more important than the others. While they are categories of the broad game of life, they are not necessarily equal to each other. It will be found among individuals that each person stresses one of the dynamics more than the others, or may stress a combination of dynamics as more important than other combinations.

The purpose in setting forth this division is to increase an understanding of life by placing it in compartments. Having subdivided existence in this fashion, each compartment can be inspected (as itself and by itself) in its relationship to the other compartments of life.

In working a puzzle, it is necessary to first take pieces of similar color or character and place them in groups. In studying a subject, it is necessary to proceed in an orderly fashion.

To promote this orderliness, it is necessary to assume (for our purposes) these eight arbitrary compartments of life.

A further manifestation of these dynamics is that they could best be represented as a series of concentric circles, wherein the First Dynamic would be the center and each new dynamic would be successively a circle outside it. The idea of space expanding enters into these dynamics.

The basic characteristic of the individual includes his ability to so expand into the other dynamics. But when the Seventh Dynamic is reached in its entirety, one will only then discover the true Eighth Dynamic.

As an example of use of these dynamics, one discovers that a baby at birth is not perceptive beyond the First Dynamic. But as the child grows and interests extend, the child can be seen to embrace other dynamics.

As a further example of use, a person who is incapable of operating on the Third Dynamic is incapable at once of being a part of a team and so might be said to be incapable of a social existence.

How does Man act so as to operate successfully along the dynamics? With the state of the world around us, there is no evidence that an answer has been forthcoming. It may seem to be a gift of natural insight in a few individuals; however, this is far from the truth. Any person can acquire the knowledge he needs to determine the most favorable course of action for his survival.

The dynamics can be represented as a series of concentric circles with the first dynamic at the center. The individual expands outwards as he embraces the other dynamics.

the state or condition of being equal, or on a level; equality.

to eliminate or get rid of.

built more solidly; stronger.

(of animals) unable to speak as a natural state and thus regarded as helpless or deserving pity.

having a common center, as circles one within another.