1 00:00:00,860 --> 00:00:04,341 Sometimes a person asks a question 2 00:00:04,485 --> 00:00:08,301 in a field that they know very little about. 3 00:00:08,739 --> 00:00:14,220 If a person's not familiar with electronics at all 4 00:00:14,935 --> 00:00:17,657 says "What if the machine breaks down?" 5 00:00:18,139 --> 00:00:21,345 An electronics person doesn't know what he's talking about. 6 00:00:21,489 --> 00:00:25,740 Is it the transistors, the capacitors, the circuit, the welding? 7 00:00:25,884 --> 00:00:30,004 If you don't talk about specifics, you're not communicating. 8 00:00:30,401 --> 00:00:34,868 When a person says to me "You can't predict the behavior of people" 9 00:00:35,359 --> 00:00:37,423 they're telling me that they don't know 10 00:00:37,524 --> 00:00:39,786 how to predict the behavior of people. 11 00:00:40,039 --> 00:00:44,830 It's a subject that I can't do anything with unless they say 12 00:00:44,931 --> 00:00:48,713 "What do you do about people that insist that they're right?" 13 00:00:48,876 --> 00:00:51,579 That's a specific question. 14 00:00:51,735 --> 00:00:55,448 A specific question is "How do you arrive at your decision 15 00:00:55,648 --> 00:01:00,050 and why is your decision any better than any other decision?" 16 00:01:00,322 --> 00:01:02,750 The person that asks that question 17 00:01:02,887 --> 00:01:06,106 may or may not understand the answer. 18 00:01:06,281 --> 00:01:10,126 The assumption that people understand the answer that you give them 19 00:01:10,289 --> 00:01:12,779 is an assumption and projection. 20 00:01:13,652 --> 00:01:16,251 In order to check it out 21 00:01:16,389 --> 00:01:19,323 if you have the time and you have a few people 22 00:01:19,473 --> 00:01:22,482 you can say "What do you think I mean by that?" 23 00:01:22,682 --> 00:01:24,781 and if they come off with something 'off' 24 00:01:24,935 --> 00:01:28,416 you know that they didn't get your intention. 25 00:01:30,471 --> 00:01:34,862 People that work on automobiles, engineers 26 00:01:34,962 --> 00:01:40,162 not mechanics (mechanics are a little different than engineers). 27 00:01:40,363 --> 00:01:45,000 Engineers understand the efficiency ratio of the parts 28 00:01:45,452 --> 00:01:49,832 how many miles you get per gallon of fuel 29 00:01:50,132 --> 00:01:53,273 and the technician understands the function 30 00:01:53,419 --> 00:01:55,790 of all the parts of the car. 31 00:01:55,956 --> 00:02:00,521 If you say "Automobiles are unsafe!" with conviction 32 00:02:00,842 --> 00:02:03,490 that doesn't tell you how to make them safer. 33 00:02:03,746 --> 00:02:06,846 It doesn't tell you anything, unless you say 34 00:02:07,056 --> 00:02:09,334 "If you make the brake drums an inch larger 35 00:02:09,491 --> 00:02:13,658 the car will stop sooner," something you can use. 36 00:02:14,402 --> 00:02:17,480 A non-answerable question is 37 00:02:17,715 --> 00:02:20,243 "How are you going to control the population? You can't control 38 00:02:20,387 --> 00:02:22,996 the population. They go right on multiplying!" 39 00:02:23,249 --> 00:02:26,302 The question is "How do you control the population?" 40 00:02:27,687 --> 00:02:30,915 and not "You can't control the population. They go right on multiplying!" 41 00:02:31,081 --> 00:02:33,699 That does not give you alternatives. 42 00:02:33,999 --> 00:02:38,704 When a person says "You can't make airplanes absolutely safe" 43 00:02:39,580 --> 00:02:42,076 what the hell does that tell you? Nothing 44 00:02:42,220 --> 00:02:46,831 except for that person's limited ability to participate. 45 00:02:47,425 --> 00:02:51,291 If a man would say "If you made airplanes safer..." 46 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,005 that doesn't tell you anything you can use either 47 00:02:55,208 --> 00:02:58,516 so you have to discredit that. If a person says 48 00:02:58,700 --> 00:03:01,924 "Governments have been corrupt ever since history began!" 49 00:03:02,302 --> 00:03:05,205 That doesn't tell you how to make them 'uncorrupt.' 50 00:03:05,609 --> 00:03:09,012 They have nothing to offer, unless you show 51 00:03:09,150 --> 00:03:11,771 a method of making a government work 52 00:03:12,409 --> 00:03:15,637 unless you say "I would like to know 53 00:03:15,787 --> 00:03:18,615 what your view is on this." 54 00:03:19,010 --> 00:03:20,734 If a person comes up to me and says 55 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,763 "What is your view on automobile safety?" 56 00:03:25,913 --> 00:03:28,741 I'd say "Do you know anything about automobiles: 57 00:03:28,995 --> 00:03:32,289 the mechanisms, the valves, what they're for?" "No?" 58 00:03:32,433 --> 00:03:36,487 Then you can't talk about the anatomy of the automobile. 59 00:03:36,962 --> 00:03:38,730 Do you understand that? 60 00:03:38,867 --> 00:03:43,172 If you know nothing about the human body, you can't talk about anatomy. 61 00:03:43,316 --> 00:03:46,200 "People get sick and we don't always know why." 62 00:03:46,344 --> 00:03:49,510 That's something you can't do anything with 63 00:03:50,123 --> 00:03:52,699 If you say "You can't predict human beings. 64 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:54,813 They all come from different environments 65 00:03:54,913 --> 00:03:56,830 and they have many different reactions. 66 00:03:56,930 --> 00:03:59,465 You can't make them all react the same way." 67 00:03:59,746 --> 00:04:01,275 That doesn't tell you anything 68 00:04:01,390 --> 00:04:05,826 except the person's limitations that they're talking about. 69 00:04:06,439 --> 00:04:10,700 If you're not equipped to understand the answer, you can't ask questions. 70 00:04:11,062 --> 00:04:14,675 If a guy says "You know, electronics can fail too!" 71 00:04:14,826 --> 00:04:19,199 That's participation, but offering nothing. 72 00:04:19,774 --> 00:04:22,089 Do you understand that? 73 00:04:23,500 --> 00:04:26,444 Sometimes I will not engage a person 74 00:04:26,594 --> 00:04:29,603 if I feel they're not talking about the subject. 75 00:04:29,750 --> 00:04:33,407 If they say "You can't predict human behavior. 76 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:36,773 Different people may have different views." "Well, that's true. 77 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:38,916 Give me the different views." 78 00:04:39,063 --> 00:04:41,175 "Let's make our building ten stories high 79 00:04:41,318 --> 00:04:43,971 instead of four." "Why do you want to do that?" 80 00:04:44,155 --> 00:04:46,233 Just talk about the subject! 81 00:04:48,813 --> 00:04:52,276 Remember this. This is the thing you have to remember. 82 00:04:52,551 --> 00:04:55,805 People will talk about all kinds of things 83 00:04:55,990 --> 00:04:58,632 but not when their car breaks down. 84 00:04:58,740 --> 00:05:01,000 They take it to an auto mechanic. 85 00:05:01,305 --> 00:05:03,316 When the air-conditioning breaks down 86 00:05:03,416 --> 00:05:06,874 they take it to an air-conditioning mechanic. 87 00:05:07,090 --> 00:05:08,911 You can go to the baker 88 00:05:09,049 --> 00:05:12,117 and he can say "Well, I don't know. 89 00:05:12,267 --> 00:05:15,721 Check the input and output," but he doesn't know. 90 00:05:17,442 --> 00:05:20,275 Everybody likes to feel competent. 91 00:05:20,426 --> 00:05:23,790 Everybody likes to feel they want to participate. 92 00:05:24,070 --> 00:05:26,210 The question is, can they? 93 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:28,938 The only way you can participate in anything 94 00:05:29,075 --> 00:05:33,067 is to offer a tangible, referential description. 95 00:05:33,417 --> 00:05:37,797 If you believe that all things are affected by other things 96 00:05:38,182 --> 00:05:41,775 that means that human behavior is predictable 97 00:05:41,976 --> 00:05:46,521 if you believe that conditioning shapes behavior. 98 00:05:46,719 --> 00:05:50,176 If you think it's 'inborn,' you can't think about it. 99 00:05:50,601 --> 00:05:52,722 You can't predict. 100 00:05:53,162 --> 00:05:57,350 You say "Who the hell knows what the inborn emotions are going to be!" 101 00:05:57,657 --> 00:06:00,457 If you can't predict it, you can't deal with it. 102 00:06:00,601 --> 00:06:03,788 If you believe that people scratch their heads because it itches 103 00:06:03,938 --> 00:06:06,935 or they think it itches, that's all right 104 00:06:07,376 --> 00:06:08,950 as long as you know why. 105 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:11,705 Every act, like if a person adjusts their glasses 106 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:15,745 it means their ear pressure is bad or the vision is not good 107 00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:17,536 or the glasses are too low 108 00:06:17,686 --> 00:06:21,256 and they move it up, you have to ask why they move the glasses. 109 00:06:21,415 --> 00:06:23,664 You can take guesses 110 00:06:23,817 --> 00:06:26,907 but that's not why they move their eyeglasses. 111 00:06:27,189 --> 00:06:31,183 If you believe that human behavior is based upon 112 00:06:31,330 --> 00:06:34,521 what Skinner is known for, reinforcement 113 00:06:34,974 --> 00:06:37,971 he says people will do anything 114 00:06:38,127 --> 00:06:41,550 if you reinforce them in their terms. 115 00:06:43,176 --> 00:06:47,750 A person asks "Do you allow for individuality in that society?" 116 00:06:47,919 --> 00:06:52,999 Individuality to me means, differences in values 117 00:06:53,256 --> 00:06:55,839 by different aspects of the culture. 118 00:06:56,055 --> 00:06:59,168 We can't afford all kinds of individuals. 119 00:06:59,312 --> 00:07:04,395 When a guy wants to wear a suit with 3 creases in it 120 00:07:04,867 --> 00:07:10,073 well, that's individual. But it's 'unsane' individuality. 121 00:07:10,357 --> 00:07:14,601 'Unsane' individuality is when people say 122 00:07:14,710 --> 00:07:17,404 "I've got a new dance, it's this. 123 00:07:17,818 --> 00:07:21,097 You don't need to get up!" Well, that's an individual 124 00:07:21,525 --> 00:07:24,662 but that dance doesn't do anything for people. 125 00:07:25,065 --> 00:07:28,214 Convincing them of that, do they want to know? 126 00:07:28,354 --> 00:07:30,867 "What do you think of this type of dancing?" 127 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:35,398 I would say, it's no different, no better, no worse 128 00:07:35,538 --> 00:07:40,590 than existing dancing, but I can't deal with that kind of problem. 129 00:07:40,735 --> 00:07:43,285 If I say dancing is a 'nothing' thing 130 00:07:43,425 --> 00:07:46,004 I mean, what does it contribute? 131 00:07:46,144 --> 00:07:49,786 It contributes to the well-being of people. They feel good, dancing. 132 00:07:49,926 --> 00:07:53,407 Is that important? What if they want to see a bullfight? 133 00:07:53,510 --> 00:07:56,453 They feel good watching a bullfight. 134 00:07:56,749 --> 00:07:59,155 "Feel good" is not the ultimate answer 135 00:07:59,295 --> 00:08:02,695 it's the collective utility of the answer 136 00:08:02,835 --> 00:08:04,590 that I would go by. 137 00:08:04,730 --> 00:08:08,108 What will benefit people most? To know about 138 00:08:08,248 --> 00:08:11,258 basic things, how they work, how a flashlight works 139 00:08:11,551 --> 00:08:16,060 how automobiles are interconnected, how we relate to the environment. 140 00:08:16,659 --> 00:08:19,900 If you say man is part of nature 141 00:08:20,076 --> 00:08:23,490 say without food, man cannot survive. 142 00:08:23,660 --> 00:08:26,948 That's what I mean by that when I say he's part of nature. 143 00:08:27,070 --> 00:08:30,740 If the oxygen is not in the air, he will die. 144 00:08:30,842 --> 00:08:34,478 He thinks he's part of nature because he doesn't know 145 00:08:34,618 --> 00:08:36,482 that we depend on nitrogen. 146 00:08:36,615 --> 00:08:39,686 Lightning fixes the nitrogen in the soil. 147 00:08:39,787 --> 00:08:42,500 It makes it available to plants. 148 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:46,489 Is that the purpose of lightning? No. 149 00:08:46,629 --> 00:08:50,780 Lightning occurs and nitrogen becomes modified. 150 00:08:51,412 --> 00:08:54,969 But lightning is not there to modify the nitrogen. 151 00:08:55,813 --> 00:09:01,249 You can tell by ... electricity would flow only in the ground 152 00:09:01,812 --> 00:09:05,616 and modify the nitrogen only. It wouldn't go through the atmosphere 153 00:09:05,756 --> 00:09:09,614 and hit a tree and a little girl on a bicycle. 154 00:09:10,121 --> 00:09:13,696 Then it means it wasn't designed for a purpose. 155 00:09:14,287 --> 00:09:17,077 If you have ice weather, you say 156 00:09:17,177 --> 00:09:22,482 "The purpose of winter is to give us a change in season. We need change." 157 00:09:22,660 --> 00:09:25,700 People living in the tropics have never heard of winter time 158 00:09:25,801 --> 00:09:27,762 those who've been brought up there 159 00:09:27,862 --> 00:09:30,180 and they wouldn't know what you're talking about. 160 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:33,427 If they say "What is the winter for?" 161 00:09:33,567 --> 00:09:37,355 you'd reply "Well... it's to give us a change in season." 162 00:09:37,455 --> 00:09:39,811 The average person not being 163 00:09:39,951 --> 00:09:43,465 a meteorologist (a student of weather) 164 00:09:43,605 --> 00:09:45,993 doesn't know what questions to ask 165 00:09:46,133 --> 00:09:49,630 but there are lots of kids who would love to participate. 166 00:09:49,846 --> 00:09:53,594 So they'll say "What if a person doesn't want to live in that city?" 167 00:09:53,734 --> 00:09:56,887 They're looking for participation. 168 00:09:57,666 --> 00:10:02,177 If you say "The water supply is not even in all the houses. 169 00:10:02,317 --> 00:10:05,989 Can you make it so that all people get water when they want it?" 170 00:10:06,166 --> 00:10:08,813 that's what they want to know, but you can't say 171 00:10:08,913 --> 00:10:10,838 "What if I don't want to live in that city?" 172 00:10:10,938 --> 00:10:13,726 That's just bringing up an argument 173 00:10:14,542 --> 00:10:17,955 do you see, for the recognition of participation. 174 00:10:19,970 --> 00:10:23,450 Real participation is "How would you 175 00:10:24,350 --> 00:10:27,480 acclimate people to this design 176 00:10:27,580 --> 00:10:31,207 if they were brought up to believe in individual housing?" 177 00:10:31,786 --> 00:10:34,092 You can't do that unless you tell them 178 00:10:34,232 --> 00:10:36,629 where people get their values from. 179 00:10:36,769 --> 00:10:40,250 If you live in an igloo or a thatched hut 180 00:10:40,390 --> 00:10:44,286 or a wigwam, those become normal to you. 181 00:10:46,561 --> 00:10:49,766 Your assumption that you've answered a person's question 182 00:10:49,906 --> 00:10:54,684 is an assumption unless you ask them "What do you think I mean?" 183 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:57,235 and they come up with something entirely different, you say 184 00:10:57,375 --> 00:11:00,299 "Apparently I was unable to get that across" 185 00:11:00,439 --> 00:11:03,039 or they don't have the background 186 00:11:03,179 --> 00:11:07,538 to understand what went wrong with the electronics. 187 00:11:07,678 --> 00:11:10,509 If you tell them "The kidney 188 00:11:10,859 --> 00:11:13,649 and the spleen are not working properly" 189 00:11:13,972 --> 00:11:17,638 and they say "Oh" but they don't know anything. 190 00:11:18,101 --> 00:11:21,942 In order to know things, you have to get the handbook of the spleen 191 00:11:22,146 --> 00:11:25,172 and anatomy of different organs: 192 00:11:25,312 --> 00:11:27,384 how they work, what they do. 193 00:11:27,524 --> 00:11:31,353 Do the organs work or are they controlled by emotions? 194 00:11:31,493 --> 00:11:34,950 If you study emotions and the effect on organs 195 00:11:35,090 --> 00:11:37,324 which is another subject altogether: 196 00:11:37,464 --> 00:11:40,014 the psychology of illness. 197 00:11:40,348 --> 00:11:43,815 It isn't always the failure of the kidney. 198 00:11:44,009 --> 00:11:47,099 It could be the failure of love of life in you. 199 00:11:47,340 --> 00:11:50,100 If your whole family is killed in an automobile accident 200 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:52,346 you may not want to live anymore. 201 00:11:52,486 --> 00:11:54,963 They call that the will to die 202 00:11:55,104 --> 00:11:57,720 and there are some people that can will death. 203 00:11:58,956 --> 00:12:02,053 I know it seems strange but they go to bed at night 204 00:12:02,193 --> 00:12:05,730 and they don't feel alive, and they don't sleep well. 205 00:12:05,870 --> 00:12:09,970 They miss the other people and their life has been cut 206 00:12:10,110 --> 00:12:12,197 what they call their life. 207 00:12:12,337 --> 00:12:16,398 If people live in a world where everybody is friendly 208 00:12:16,538 --> 00:12:19,278 everybody is concerned about your well-being 209 00:12:19,418 --> 00:12:23,347 when your closest friend dies, you're not left alone. 210 00:12:23,487 --> 00:12:26,840 "How am I going to pay the rent? How am I going to eat?" 211 00:12:27,300 --> 00:12:29,673 People live alone today 212 00:12:29,813 --> 00:12:33,064 and I would say that if everybody tried to work 213 00:12:33,204 --> 00:12:38,072 to enhance the lives of everybody else, you wouldn't be desolate 214 00:12:38,212 --> 00:12:41,490 when somebody died in your family that was important to you. 215 00:12:41,972 --> 00:12:44,526 There is no communication with people 216 00:12:44,666 --> 00:12:47,544 that are not schooled in that discipline. 217 00:12:47,684 --> 00:12:51,454 What you have to do is teach them that discipline first 218 00:12:51,594 --> 00:12:54,975 that their behavior is not their own; it's shaped by culture. 219 00:12:55,091 --> 00:12:58,064 If you can convince them, do that first 220 00:12:58,204 --> 00:13:01,535 and then go off in a different direction, you're better off. 221 00:13:01,867 --> 00:13:06,379 If you show them... If they believe that every person's an individual 222 00:13:06,519 --> 00:13:09,476 and individuality is within the person 223 00:13:09,616 --> 00:13:13,017 if you can't disprove that, get out of the conversation 224 00:13:13,157 --> 00:13:15,322 because you can't take it anywhere. 225 00:13:16,050 --> 00:13:17,759 If you get mad at somebody 226 00:13:17,899 --> 00:13:21,412 it means you really don't understand this subject. 227 00:13:22,849 --> 00:13:26,152 If a guy says "You wanna fight?" 228 00:13:26,737 --> 00:13:31,598 he believes that if he can beat you in a fight, he's right. 229 00:13:32,008 --> 00:13:36,174 He may be better at fighting than you are, but it doesn't make him right. 230 00:13:36,468 --> 00:13:39,021 Normal, ordinary people believe 231 00:13:39,230 --> 00:13:42,565 that the guy who's better at fighting is right. 232 00:13:43,281 --> 00:13:46,406 "Right is might!" You've heard that shit. 233 00:13:47,961 --> 00:13:51,562 If you're right, you can get the shit kicked out of you. 234 00:13:51,899 --> 00:13:55,702 Do you understand questions and answers? There are no answers. 235 00:13:56,172 --> 00:13:59,313 An answer is... Can you answer this question: 236 00:13:59,453 --> 00:14:03,044 What makes war, like there's an answer? This is the answer: 237 00:14:03,457 --> 00:14:07,932 It's a whole study of kingdoms and habits of thought 238 00:14:08,072 --> 00:14:10,799 and this nation is different than the other nation 239 00:14:10,939 --> 00:14:13,194 and believes their way is the right way 240 00:14:13,299 --> 00:14:15,722 so they try to kill the other nation. 241 00:14:16,139 --> 00:14:19,700 Are they bad? No. Are they murderers? No. 242 00:14:19,999 --> 00:14:22,745 They're victims of a different culture. 243 00:14:23,205 --> 00:14:25,912 If you can't get to people 244 00:14:26,052 --> 00:14:29,633 instead of saying they're dumb, either you don't have the time 245 00:14:29,740 --> 00:14:32,142 to build a referential language 246 00:14:32,496 --> 00:14:35,642 or they don't have the background to understand you. 247 00:14:35,742 --> 00:14:37,242 That's possible. 248 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:41,033 I wanted you to get this bit so you don't waste your time. 249 00:14:41,355 --> 00:14:45,997 I don't talk to people that raise questions like: 250 00:14:46,635 --> 00:14:50,746 "You can't predict human behavior." I can't do anything with that.