Open System, Closed System, and Bounded Choice
Dec 8, 2022 15:42:41 GMT
Feminist, AgnosticAgain, and 1 more like this
Post by unwrittenrules on Dec 8, 2022 15:42:41 GMT
Brad Sargent since 2007 has written about identifying and dealing with spiritual abuse by individuals and institutions. He has an abundant amount of research to read. Here is a small snapshot of what he has written:
A Tutorial on Terminology:
Systems, Systemic Abuse, Historical/Societal Oppression.
So – if we’re going to show how dealing with systemic abuse and historic/societal oppression differs from what often gets proposed by institutions that get caught – we need to define system and other terms. Here are some definitions and descriptions I use, followed by links if you’re interested in more detail.
Open System, Closed System, and Bounded Choice
Organizations that allow or endorse individuals who turn it toxic become a closed system. They rely on bounded choice to keep people orbiting around the status quo, with nowhere else to go.
An open system lets in new participants, new inputs, new energy. This allows the system and those within it to grow, get rid of pollutants, and take care of other tasks to keep things sustainable. In an open system, individuals have freedom of choice to discern and decide their own trajectory within all possible options.
However, a closed system is either self-contained – no new inputs, nothing old output – or at least socially isolated in ways that limit outside influences that would supposedly contaminate the purity of those living inside the system. A closed system creates what is called “bounded choice.”
Bounded choice is a basic type of “conditioning” designed to control someone’s behavior. This removes freedom for self-determination, allowing individuals to operate only within specified choices. As they do that, it may look like growth or change because people are active, but actually, it’s just an orbit around the set of rules and regulations designed to limit personal freedom and keep people in line.
So, even if someone is no longer tethered to the system, they’ve been trained to self-constrain themselves to negate any doubts, objections, or questions that arise. In other words, they keep on the same toxic trajectory, just because it’s become the only thing they really know.
Historical/Societal Oppression
Over time, these malignant individuals and toxic institutions use a flawed, self-benefiting theology or philosophy to justify their self-benefit from the system. Their abusive influence then goes wider (societal) and lasts longer (historical), making it long-term oppression and not just temporary repression.
HISTORICAL/SOCIETAL OPPRESSION.
When there is societal oppression, the things people typically fight for in order to obtain a democracy are the things that get restricted for one or more segments of society. The restrictions are historical—they last more than two generations. This means prejudice is “institutionalized.” So, there becomes a historic record of abuses, and an ideology that justifies the maltreatment of some for the supposed benefit of others. In other words, victims supposedly deserve what they get because they are inferior racially, morally, intellectually, physically, etc. Historical/societal oppression is a form of eugenics; it is the justification for physical, social, and/or spiritual genocide—killing the body or the spirit.
The main distinction for the purpose of this training series, is that historical/societal oppression holds back some demographic segments of a society, while totalist psychology exerts total control over all segments of a society. In both types, justice and peace-making efforts require looking at a much bigger picture than if only a Pyramid of Abuse were involved. Repair and reconciliation will first require truth-telling about the historical records of wrongs. This includes putting into the public spotlight issues of agency and culpability by key individuals and institutions, plus complicity by entire social segments who benefited from the harm done to those who were stigmatized. Peace is not achieved otherwise.
What are your thoughts?
When I read this I feel the PRC is a closed system. I felt the limiting of personal freedom and a keeping in line when I grew up there. I wonder if others feel that? I wonder if I felt that because I was a child and also female.
To read more about what Brad Sargent (Futuristguy) writes here is the link I took this portion from:
futuristguy.wordpress.com/a-cultural-geography-of-survivor-communities-compilation-of-posts/
A Tutorial on Terminology:
Systems, Systemic Abuse, Historical/Societal Oppression.
So – if we’re going to show how dealing with systemic abuse and historic/societal oppression differs from what often gets proposed by institutions that get caught – we need to define system and other terms. Here are some definitions and descriptions I use, followed by links if you’re interested in more detail.
Open System, Closed System, and Bounded Choice
Organizations that allow or endorse individuals who turn it toxic become a closed system. They rely on bounded choice to keep people orbiting around the status quo, with nowhere else to go.
An open system lets in new participants, new inputs, new energy. This allows the system and those within it to grow, get rid of pollutants, and take care of other tasks to keep things sustainable. In an open system, individuals have freedom of choice to discern and decide their own trajectory within all possible options.
However, a closed system is either self-contained – no new inputs, nothing old output – or at least socially isolated in ways that limit outside influences that would supposedly contaminate the purity of those living inside the system. A closed system creates what is called “bounded choice.”
Bounded choice is a basic type of “conditioning” designed to control someone’s behavior. This removes freedom for self-determination, allowing individuals to operate only within specified choices. As they do that, it may look like growth or change because people are active, but actually, it’s just an orbit around the set of rules and regulations designed to limit personal freedom and keep people in line.
So, even if someone is no longer tethered to the system, they’ve been trained to self-constrain themselves to negate any doubts, objections, or questions that arise. In other words, they keep on the same toxic trajectory, just because it’s become the only thing they really know.
Historical/Societal Oppression
Over time, these malignant individuals and toxic institutions use a flawed, self-benefiting theology or philosophy to justify their self-benefit from the system. Their abusive influence then goes wider (societal) and lasts longer (historical), making it long-term oppression and not just temporary repression.
HISTORICAL/SOCIETAL OPPRESSION.
When there is societal oppression, the things people typically fight for in order to obtain a democracy are the things that get restricted for one or more segments of society. The restrictions are historical—they last more than two generations. This means prejudice is “institutionalized.” So, there becomes a historic record of abuses, and an ideology that justifies the maltreatment of some for the supposed benefit of others. In other words, victims supposedly deserve what they get because they are inferior racially, morally, intellectually, physically, etc. Historical/societal oppression is a form of eugenics; it is the justification for physical, social, and/or spiritual genocide—killing the body or the spirit.
The main distinction for the purpose of this training series, is that historical/societal oppression holds back some demographic segments of a society, while totalist psychology exerts total control over all segments of a society. In both types, justice and peace-making efforts require looking at a much bigger picture than if only a Pyramid of Abuse were involved. Repair and reconciliation will first require truth-telling about the historical records of wrongs. This includes putting into the public spotlight issues of agency and culpability by key individuals and institutions, plus complicity by entire social segments who benefited from the harm done to those who were stigmatized. Peace is not achieved otherwise.
What are your thoughts?
When I read this I feel the PRC is a closed system. I felt the limiting of personal freedom and a keeping in line when I grew up there. I wonder if others feel that? I wonder if I felt that because I was a child and also female.
To read more about what Brad Sargent (Futuristguy) writes here is the link I took this portion from:
futuristguy.wordpress.com/a-cultural-geography-of-survivor-communities-compilation-of-posts/
