Getting Out RC Ideas
Tim Jackins answering a question at the Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources staff workshop, December 2013
Question: About getting basic RC ideas out to the general population—how useful is that without close relationships and really sticking with people and helping them get through chronic distress? How useful is it to just get the basic ideas out about how discharge is good, people are good, and we can listen to each other? I think about how rapidly society is collapsing, and how long it takes to build relationships and get through chronic distress. But are RC ideas worth very much without the whole thing? Is it worth it to just get the basic ideas out?
Tim Jackins: I think it is very useful to get them out. How do we figure out which part of the challenge we take on*? I suppose it depends on our circumstance, what we are good at, and what we can enjoy doing.
Getting basic RC ideas out to people clearly enough that they get to think about them and experience them is useful. The fact that they have that experience, even though they are not going to be able to keep it going themselves, is important. If they get opportunities later, their mind will have information it otherwise wouldn’t have had. It will be able to make new connections and allow these people to do new things.
How do you start a successful revolution? I think that’s the basic question you are asking. How much do you need a dedicated core? How much do you need leadership? How much do you need a mass of people? I think we need a mix of all of these. We need a collection of people who have thought about, and are dedicated to thinking about, the process. They can provide the first set of ideas for people, so they can begin thinking about them. They can provide the leadership while other leadership trains and practices. We also need a core of people to support those efforts and to broaden them out. They need to have a certain breadth of understanding and to be getting sessions so they can keep functioning well. And we need to have five million people who can understand a correct idea even though it goes against their distress—people who have discharged enough to know their minds can shift. We need all of those pieces.
It is easy to get urgent as things speed up toward the collapse of our society. But I don’t think the fact that they are speeding up is most meaningful in determining what we do. The increasing clarity of what’s happening can actually help us by freeing us from having to answer all arguments. We won’t have to spend a lot of time debating climate change with people who are set against the idea. The fact of climate change is clear enough that people can’t be as disruptive from a denial position any longer. As an individual, you might want to reach them, but in the shift forward, they are not going to be in the way very much.
We don’t have to keep arguing those arguments anymore. Given the evidence, what people need is someone making a good decision. Then they can use the evidence, and the fact that someone moved, to make a new decision themselves and move. They often need someone to move first and show that it’s possible to move from an old frozen position. They need to see someone who has decided to do it differently before they can entertain the idea themselves.
* “Take on” means undertake.