Frontiers in Our Thinking
In 1995, Harvey Jackins* laid out an important collection of “new frontiers…which need to be explored.” We continue moving in these directions.
Re-evaluation Counseling consists of a set of ideas, a set of loosely organized relationships between people in eighty countries of the world (so far), and activities to further these ideas and these relationships and to bring about their increasing effectiveness in the world and the universe.
From time to time developments and “corner-turnings” in our thinking create new frontiers in this set of ideas, frontiers which need to be explored, understood, developed, and practiced. Some of these frontiers recently opened, or needing to be opened at this time (January 1995), are the following:
- The extension of “Inclusion” to every human on our planet, with no exceptions. (Every living human is to be assumed to be fully and adequately human in every way, treated as such, and given full respect, support, encouragement, and adequate use of all available resources.)
- The extension of “Cherishing” to every form of life on our planet. Each form of life is assumed to be of priceless value because of the unique complexity it has achieved as well as its possible utility to us and its beauty to our beholding. (Means of protection against forms of life dangerous to us may and should be devised, but our goal shall be the preservation of all existing species of living things and reconstitution through our increasing genetic engineering knowledge of any species previously extinguished.)
- The extension of “Caretaking” to every factor in our total environment. (All pollution and degradation of the atmosphere, waters, and soils of our planet are to be terminated and reversed. The environment shall be restored to approximate the natural balance it possessed before the overcrowding and over-exploitation by our species, before the distress patterns which were imposed upon our species had contaminated it and interfered with it. The environment shall then be allowed to develop with a minimum of interference from our operations.)
- The elimination from among us of the nearly-universal chronic patterns of feeling and believing that we are unloved. (Counseling in the direction indicated by the leading-edge technique of asking repeatedly, “Why do you love me, counselor?”)
- The elimination of the nearly universal and deeply installed patterns of separation of all humans from each other. (Counseling in the direction indicated by the leading-edge technique of using the phrase, “You and me, Jane [John], completely close, forever,” followed after each repetition by a statement of the client’s first thought.)
- The elimination from among us of the nearly universal overall timidity, completely foreign to our inherent natures but patterned upon us by a lifetime of conditioning begun in our earliest moments of life. (Counseling in the direction of assuming complete power to achieve or bring about anything we rationally desire. [Kipling: “If you can meet with Triumph or Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.”])
- Achieving an operating relationship between all of us based on the reality that each one of us is completely good, completely intelligent, completely able, completely powerful, and completely capable of acting on all this in all circumstances. (Counseling in the direction of agreeing to the complete distinction between actual reality and “pseudo-reality,” and agreeing to examine all situations and answer all questions only from the viewpoint of actual reality, then carrying out these agreements.)
- Achieving a universal agreement among us that persistently offering and publicizing rational solutions to problems (individual and social) will always eventually win majority and, later, universal support. (Persisting in offering rational solutions to any problem no matter how repeatedly the solution is rejected. Alternative irrational, oppressive solutions will always fail. The opposition to rational solutions is certain to eventually be worn out.)
- Accepting the reality of the universal attractiveness and charisma of every human who commits themselves to a rational outlook on life and to functioning rationally. (Include yourself as such a human.) (Everyone yearns to find a person that is safe to admire and to love. By your thinking and actions, give people reason to decide you are safe in this way. Allow people to love you, support you, and follow you.)
- Accepting the necessity and correctness of women RCers taking responsibility for solving and overcoming any difficulties which until now have delayed the development of a powerful RC Men’s Liberation Movement and an effective cadre of men’s leaders. (Failure to do this until now is simply one aspect of persisting patterns of women’s powerlessness. Women already see clearly the patterns in which men RCers are ”stuck,” and they discuss them with each other continuously. They need to share this information with men clearly and forcefully, help devise effective contradictions to the men’s patterns, and require and assist men to move to discharge these patterns.)
- Facing clearly and awarely that all class societies to date, including the present one, have sanctified GREED as the highest priority motivation for all people in all situations, and that this 6,000 years of conditioning must be exposed and repudiated in all fields of life. (Planning and beginning a campaign to secure a universal attitude in our societies of rejecting greed as an acceptable motivation for anything.)
- Realizing that competition, in the sense that that word is used in our cultures, is an inhuman activity. Cooperation is the effective way of functioning for our basic human nature. Competition is an invention of the oppressive, class society. (Enhancing and praising every tendency to cooperation visible in human functioning, in various cultures, and in religious and poetic traditions. Decrying, exposing, opposing, and eliminating every expression of competition, including the most presently “sanctified” examples in the present cultures and societies.)
- Universally accepting and practicing the viewpoint that all individuals are delightfully unique but that differences between individuals are trivial, shallow, and unimportant, and that commonalities between all individuals are deep, powerful, and important. (In particular, members of all classes are oppressed by and are the victims of classism. The class society is equally the enemy of, the damager of, and the oppressor of owing-class people, “middle-class” people, and working-class people, and all have a common interest in eliminating classism.)
From The Kind, Friendly Universe, pages 11-14
(Present Time 213, October 2023)
Last modified: 2026-04-28 23:01:36+00