The Basics

Systems Thinking and The Fourth Way

You find something very complex. We often do. An explanation, a theory, the drift of an argument… No doubt underneath it all there’s something very simple going on. There usually is, but when somebody finds the simplicity of it and makes an attempt to reduce things to some kind of careful order they are often described as being ‘reductionist’ which suggests they should be ignored by ‘all intelligent people’.

But three-brained beings who describe an interlocutor gamely making such an effort as ‘reductionist’ rarely have much to offer in the way of an alternative explanation of all & everything related thereto.

The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine January 1953

"The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" is a short story by Ray Bradbury. It was first published in Detective Book Magazine in November 1948 as "Touch and Go". The story was re-titled and published as "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" in EQMM in January 1953.

The plot exemplifies Identification.

Mr. Acton begins the story standing over the body of Mr. Huxley, whom he has just killed. While attempting to cover up his tracks, he has flashbacks of his encounters with Mr. Huxley, with whom he is having an altercation over a woman.

His frenzy to remove all of the evidence distracts him from his actual objective, to get away with the crime. He is eventually caught, after polishing the entire house, while polishing and re-polishing the glass fruit at the bottom of a bowl.

Man Is in a Prison

When I was younger, for my sins, I spent time locked up in several of Her Majesty's prisons.

In this Work Mr. Gurdjieff and others have often made use of the analogy that Man is in a Prison, of the need to escape his situation and of what realizations and efforts are required.

When I look back upon my experiences of suddenly finding myself in prison – the austere and cramped conditions, the atmosphere and rules and regulations, the loss of what little dignity I had – I am immediately struck by how quickly one adjusts to the alien and hostile environment one finds oneself in. It immediately becomes normal and acceptable.

The prison environment is a mirror and reflection of outside society on all levels. There are those who find it hard – even impossible – to deal with the situation they find themselves in. Likewise, some find the strain of outer life hard to bear. The wardens, bullies, barons, and bravado all have their reflection in the human types and interactions outside. But the majority with a modicum of intelligence fit into the running of the machine from the first morning: just like in life, you do what is required.

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