[ This section uses dialog directly from the teaching version of Scout to the Pole, chapter 18. Nanook is talking with George. Nanook is shown in italic type.]

 

“Hmmm. . . You’re saying not every human has the A3 level brain structure? This is a big problem, isn’t it?”

“These are perfect examples of people who are just not able to handle organization. Yet our society refuses to acknowledge this and lets them get into positions of leadership where they can’t do the job. People want, desperately, to believe that, quote, ‘everyone is created equal’. So they insist that these skills, which seem so simple for some people, can be learned by everyone, ‘as long as people take the right courses in school’. It’s not so. Some people just don’t have the fundamental BRAIN structure to learn it. And note, I didn’t say ‘brains ( plural ) to learn it’. To have said ‘ some people just don’t have the BRAINS ( plural )’ would be a euphemism for a singular brain function which is just more or less capable and more or less trained.

Now, let me refer back to something I read earlier. Remember this from Julian Huxley, Man in the Modern World:”

“Before humanity can obtain, on the collective level, that degree of foresight, control and flexibility which on the biological level is at the disposal of human individuals, it must multiply at least 10 fold, perhaps 50 fold, the proportion of individuals and organizations devoted to obtaining information, to planning, correlation, and the flexible control of execution. The chief increases are needed in respect of correlation and planning and of social self-consciousness. A self-conscious society would be one in which every individual comprehended the aims of society, his own part in the whole, the possibilities of intellectual, artistic and moral satisfaction open to him, his role in the collective knowledge and will.”

“Do you see the problem?”

“I think so. Huxley is implying that this in not only a big problem for society in a general way, but that the magnitude of the lack of organization in our society is huge.”

…

“Wow! 98% ? I see your point. This could be a really big problem. So, that’s what Huxley was trying to tell us. If this is so, then our social institutions will be in the hands of people who really can’t organize them or lead them..”

“Exactly! Now you’re getting it. And if what we see around the lab here is any example, my 98% number is a big under estimate.”

“But this doesn’t just impact companies and government, right? I mean, it affects school teachers, police, workers in general and parents as well, right?”

“That, sir, is a HUGE understatement. What I’m saying is that, in the current world, there are at least TWO DISTINCT SPECIES of humans! These species are as distinct in ability as Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. The people who don’t have this A3 brain structure are fundamentally UNABLE TO COMPREHEND ORGANIZATION. Think about it.”

“You’re not just saying they aren’t good at it, right? You’re saying they are totally not able to create those kind of thought patterns?”

“That’s essentially correct. A3 is like a switch – that is, it’s either there or it isn’t. But those with an A3 brain can also exhibit A3 function over a very large range of performance. The ability will appear to be stronger in some people and weaker in others. But there is a true night and day difference in capabilities that can be seen between the top and bottom of the scale. This gets blurred further because A2 level skills can be used as crutches to mimic A3 skills. For example, some people just can’t read maps. Yet they can still get from one place to another. Have you noticed that?”

“Yeah. We have that problem in Scouts. Maps are a big factor in hiking. Some kids just can’t get it. They can’t intuitively handle a compass or remember the location of stars. It’s funny thinking about this. Those kids can envision the mythical characters in constellations in a snap. Actually, I don’t do so well at that. But those kids, who see the small scale patterns, and who can recite long stories about the characters in the sky, can’t remember how to find them when the sky turns.”

“Right! This is their inability to deal with ORGANIZATION. And that creates a lot of problems for them in life. THEY CAN’T COMPREHEND ORGANIZATION. Therefore, they aren’t able to appreciate organization when they see it or comprehend how to implement it. This causes them significant social problems with serious negative repercussions.

To protect themselves, they hide their limitations from others and go into denial about themselves. They won’t ask for help because society would limit the roles that they could play and limit their control in life. It would also be intimidating to their self esteem. So, they develop other skills to mask their inabilities.”

“Like what, for example?”

“Well, go back to maps. How do people you know who can’t read maps deal with that?”

“Hmmm . . . I guess my mother is the prime example. She can’t read a map. But she can remember a hundred directions.”

“Exactly. Great ability to remember lots of details. I bet she cooks pretty well and can do it by memory. But try to change any of the details, or not have all the ingredients and she quickly get’s confused.”

“Wow! That’s exactly right. I’ve seen other situations like that which really stumped me. I was at a horse show and my friend’s mother was helping out in the registration booth. The lady in charge was a famous rider. She made up all the forms for the show. The problem was, they didn’t make logical sense.

For example, she printed up lists of the events that the riders could compete in. I guess, she only made up 30 sheets to begin with, which she passed out. Those sheets listed 35 events. There weren’t enough. So she made up some more sheets. But in the process, she thought of some new events to add and a new order for them to occur in. So the second 30 sheets had 40 events, but in a different order. This happened a third time. The third list had 42 events, again in a different order.

“When the contestants registered, the staff was supposed to grab a clip board with the event number on it and write the contestants name on the list and their horse number.”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, they actually asked me to help out after registration had been going on for awhile. One of the contestants came up to me and said he wanted to change his events. I asked him what he wanted to drop and what he wanted to add. He said he didn’t remember the number for the event but he wanted to cancel the flag race and add the Texas barrels. So, I grabbed an event list from the table and looked up the flag race. It was number 36. I grabbed clip board 36 to cross off his name. It wasn’t there. He had his own event sheet and he showed it to me. Sure enough, on his sheet, the flag race was number 34. I put the lists side by side. Sure enough, they didn’t match. It was a nightmare. I told one of the ladies working in the booth. She said we shouldn’t say anything because the head lady would get mad. I could believe that because I had heard the head lady yelling at everyone that she wanted all the paperwork straight so no one could get in the events without paying their money.”

“So? What did you do?”

“I told the lady in the booth she had to do something or the whole process would eventually come apart right when all the action was taking place. If the numbers on the clip boards didn’t match the events, it would be chaos. She wouldn’t do it.”

“SO? What happened?”

“Everything went OK until we got to event number 14. When they called out “event 14, Western pleasure, juniors 18 and under“, a bunch of contestants came running up to the booth asking us what was going on.”

“SO??? What happened?”

“The whole thing became a disaster. Well, at least to everyone in the booth. The head lady told them to stop calling out the event numbers; to just call out the event titles.”

“Did that work?”

“NO! Sure, that got the right people into the ring. But we also had to record the order of the winners. For that we had to use one of the clip boards. None of the clip boards above event 14 had the right list of people. I used the program with the highest number of events and wrote the event name next to the event number on the corresponding clipboard. The booth ladies scribbled the horse names in the winning order at the bottom of the sheet with the matching name. But, of course, the actual participants didn’t match the names on top.”

“So, what finally happened?”

“When the head lady came in at the end to check the forms, she saw the marks on the clip boards. She asked what they were about. The registration lady I was talking to tried to explain it. The head lady just blew up and called everyone idiots. One of the registration people tried to fight back, but she was just thrown out. Then everyone else blamed the problem on her.”

“What happened to all the paperwork?”

“The head lady threw it all out! She said the lady she threw out was trying to cheat her and messed up all the clip boards on purpose. So they were useless.”

“That really happened? At a real show?”

“Yeah! I mean, this was a professional event.”

“Unfortunately, that’s very typical of what frequently happens in our society. The people in charge, who are not competent to do the job, have the power to control the situation. They find a scapegoat to take the blame and then hide the evidence.”

“There was another situation like that, which I’ll never forget. My aunt asked me to go to a ballet recital. It was an invitation only big event in Boston at the world famous Boston Ballet Studio to celebrate the opening of their new rehearsal hall. Programs were handed out. The program listed all the events in detail with many side notes about special instructors from Paris and Moscow. Each event was listed for a different room. But when I tried to think through how we would move from one room to another, I saw that there were no room numbers near the doors to the rooms to identify them. I also noticed that there were no times listed for the events. So, it was clear to me, that with 200 guests, this was going to be a disaster. I pointed this out to my aunt. She said I didn’t have to worry about it because ‘these people are professionals. It will all work out.’ Well, I wasn’t convinced. She was pointing out special people to me. When she pointed out the Art Director, I decided to mention the problem to her. She said not to worry. She would tell everyone where to go. Yeah, right. Before the first event even started, it was a nightmare. Nobody knew where to go. Everyone was mad. They just wandered from one room to another all day and watched whatever was there. But the real sad part was that the Art Director never understood why the event was fouling up. In fact, to the end, she was in total denial. She kept saying how well things were going.”

“NASA is a government agency. I’m going to guess that history will repeat itself, because our society has not fixed the problem of its inability to understand SYSTEMS. If that happens, NASA will spend hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars to get into space. There will be disasters. More money will be spent on fixes. More disasters. And then some innovative small business will come along and do it for peanuts. AND, this is all because society is not able to understand the A2, A3 problem.”