Insight Resources 5 mMay 2015 newsletter

Insight News Greetings in Christ! Al is finishing up his work in Mozambique and South

Africa and will be back in the U.S. soon. We should have a full report on the

goings-on in Africa for our next newsletter. The short summary is that he

has been seeing great success, a little trouble, and a lot of God's blessings in

there! We are now getting ready for the trip to Alaska. Al and I, and, with

God's blessing, several other IRI leaders from around the world will be vis-

iting with tribal leaders in Nome in July. Please pray for this opportunity to

help the Native people of Alaska.

In the meantime, I wanted to take a little time to give an illustrated look at the real reasons and

challenges that many of the people we work with face. We have found that the hardest obstacles

to overcome are not specific circumstances or particular habits, but the way we think about our-

selves and our situation. In our ministry, we spend a lot of time talking about the difference be-

tween direct and indirect identity, the impact it has on our understanding, sense of agency, and associated

responsibilities. In short, the more directly I understand myself (as opposed to what my culture or envi-

ronment tells me about myself), the greater my overall sense of agency, control, and associated responsi-

bility. I want to explain how the process of suppression (in particular, cultural suppression) contributes to

the dissolution of agency, direct identity, and someone's sense of responsibility. At IRI, we have found

that this is very widespread (going beyond obvious instances of suppression like slavery). The harm it

has caused cannot be understated.

To explain how the loss of identity can affect a culture, let's look at the story of the “Brans,” a fictional

people who will illustrate how a culture can go from dynamic to dependent. Please note that as far as I

know, the Brans have no direct real-world analogue, though you may see some substantial simi-

larities between them and various cultures you may have encountered. I want to illustrate this

phenomenon without getting too personal for anyone who is from a suppressed or recovering

culture – even stories of suppression can be rough to those to have experienced it firsthand.

The Brans start off as a fairly stable, solid, creative culture. They have a strong sense of self-

understanding, agency, and responsibility (what we call a direct identity). They have a stable

civilization that is comfortably advanced and the people are generally satisfied with how things

are progressing in their society. In real life, cultures have some general level of internal dissatis-

faction, but this is a fictional example, and the Brans will serve their purpose by being one of

those annoyingly ideal civilizations.

One day, the Brans encounter another civilization called the "Tofans." This civilization is sub-

stantially larger than the Brans, with superior economic and military might. They come into the

Brans’ lands and proceed to set up shop. This, the Tofans decide, requires the Brans to surren-

der their territory, resources, and general autonomy to the Tofans. Being bigger, richer, and

VOLUME 9 ISSUE

May 2015

4

Insight Resources International, Inc. Copyright © 2015

Growing

Human

Potential

One

Worldview

Mailing Address PO Box 2937,

Mills, WY 82644

Nampula

Gurúè

Northern Niassa Province & Lichinga

Tete

Selva

Manica

Mussacumbira

Nhamazara

Chimoio

Beautiful views in Mozambique

Access to some villages are difficult at best

Nichols’ Notes

Mission Activities

May– By the time you re-ceive this Al will have left Mozambique and South Africa (where he held semi-nars in Johannesburg) and returned to the States for a few weeks before heading to Elim, Alaska. He will be there several months, work-ing with the indigenous tribes. Jason is currently at home in Spokane, Washington preparing for his trip to meet Al in Elim, Alaska this summer.

Shopping on line? Your shopping can

benefit IRI. 2 ways to help…..

1. Raise money for Sa-

fari Insight Mission just by searching the Internet with Good-Search.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with Good-Shop.com. WE are still listed as Safari Insight Mission w/ Good Search/Shop

I.R.I. Office: (307)-277-4639 Email: [email protected] I.R.I President: Al Corson Email: [email protected] I.R.I. Secretary: Velma Corson (307) 277-4639 Email: [email protected]

Insight Seminars: Jason Nichols - (307)269-0145 & Vice-President Email: [email protected] I.R.I. Promotions: Jack Harper - (918)355-5523 2631 E. Albany #A, Broken Arrow, OK 74012 Email: [email protected]

Nichols’ Notes cont.

stronger, it isn't hard for the Tofans to take over. The Brans are now a second-class people in their

own homeland.

In this situation, the Brans’ agency is damaged by the Tofans – even if the Brans have a lot of free-

dom, they still have to follow Tofan rule. This loss of agency is at odds with the Brans direct identity

and it's strong expectations of control. Different Brans will respond to this in different ways. First,

there are those who resist the loss of agency. These are the rebels - whether violent insurgents or non

-violent protesters, they attempt to regain their agency from the Tofans. Second, there are the trau-

matized. These Brans are unable to reconcile their expectations with the reality of their situation,

and this tension manifests itself through various negative psychological reactions (depression, anxi-

ety, delusion, etc.). The third group Gives in and accepts the Tofan rule. Real life is much more com-

plex, of course, and there is a lot of overlap between these groups, but this is enough for our illustra-

tion. The main point here is that, over time, this situation changes the Bran society.

The first group, those who rebel, ultimately end up getting knocked down. The Tofans want nothing

to do with such opposition, and simply squash this group to the best of their ability. Thus, those who

have held on to their identity most strongly get removed from the society. The group that experi-

ences cognitive tension will receive help to work through their problems (it turns out the Tofans,

while not interested in accommodating rebels, will help those with mental trauma), but since the

Tofans control the therapy, this group will ultimately be "helped" by being encouraged to conform to

their new social situation. The last group will get by as well as can be expected but their cognitive

habits will change dramatically, and that's where I want to focus on here.

Without the rebels, the two remaining groups must adjust their way of thinking to adapt to the

change in agency demanded by the Tofans. Under this new way of thinking, independent thought

and reasoning (A), which might lead back to a direct identity is strongly discouraged. It either cre-

ates more rebels or mental trauma (because people expect more than they will get), and so is seen by

the Tofans as negative. Eventually it may be seen negatively by the Brans as well, since such people

would be, as a rule, a disruptive force in an otherwise "normal" society. It isn't that the remaining

Brans LIKE their second-class status, in fact, many strongly resent it, but why dwell on things you

can't change? Instead, the focus becomes daily survival and social obedience (i.e. "not rocking the

boat"), which emphasizes the “B” aspect of cognition (habit, details, and working with material

things). In addition, social cohesion and interdependence will probably increase (the C aspect, which

focuses on emotions and relational feelings) since "the only ones we can count on are each other.

Thus, the Brans move from an ABC cognitive pattern with an associated direct identity, to a BCA

cognitive pattern, where their identity comes from their status as a second class people, given to

them by the Tofans (an indirect identity).

Now, two important things have happened. First, the Brans have lost their direct identity. Since the

Tofans are now the source of their identity, the Brans will tend to see the Tofans as the ones respon-

sible for the Brans' lives. Thus, responsibility gets shifted to the Tofans, and the Brans lose their

sense of agency and responsibility, as well as their identity. Second, since the A aspect of their think-

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Al enjoying a snack of sugar cane

ing has been discouraged, the tool which the Brans would use to rediscover their identity, agency, and responsibility has atrophied signifi-

cantly.

This suppression by the Tofans, however, can only last for so long, and eventually (after several generations), the Brans rise up and push the

Tofans out of their homeland. Now the Brans must start the process of rebuilding. Unfortunately, for generations the critical, analytic, con-

ceptual part of Bran culture has been suppressed not only by the Tofans, but also by the Brans themselves. Thus, the tools needed to recover

the Brans’ identity and agency is extremely rusty - and rusty tools often break. As a result, the Brans find, to their dismay, that they are un-

able to recover their civilization even to the level of their ancestors, and they can't figure out why. After all, they have preserved all the cul-

tural traditions (B) they could, and they understand they should stick together (C), so why can't they make things work? Are they really as

dumb and ineffective as the Tofans claimed? Are they really failures?

Well, no. The problem is that the Brans have lost enough of the conceptual/analytical aspect of their thinking that they no longer realize

what they have lost. Other, more conceptual, outsiders look at them and see a "primitive" or "traditional" people, and assume that because

they have been this way for generations, it is simply how their culture works. Not wanting to interfere with the Brans any more, the outsid-

ers refrain from interacting with them too much. While noble in intent, this means that the aspect of the Targetian culture that is lacking

and needs to be restored (A) will be long in coming, since rebuilding an entire history of philosophy, reason, and analysis is much harder

than it sounds. When learning programs are introduced, they tend to focus on facts and specific operational training (B), not restoring con-

ceptual/analytic faculties (A). Unfortunately, educational programs that assume a strong A aspect, but don't focus on teaching it (like many

western teaching programs) will probably not only fail, but only serve to reinforce the existing thinking pattern of BCA, since the program

assumes analysis (A) is happening, and uses specific, rote examples (B) to teach. This means that any cultural recovery for the Brans will be

a long, uphill struggle, especially if critical thinking and reasoning (A) is seen as a Tofan cultural trait - in that case, critical thinking may

even be demonized, as it is seen as a cultural artifact of the enemy.

This is a terrible situation. Cultural recovery can only occur through internal development, which can only occur through conceptual redevel-

opment (A), but the tool needed for such redevelopment has been lost and perhaps even demonized because of prior misuse by the sup-

pressing culture. Here is where a lot of IRI's work happens. We try to reintroduce A elements of thinking with a minimum of cultural bag-

gage (such baggage can't be eliminated completely - it simply isn't possible to think or act without any

reference to your native culture). We focus on developing conceptual/analytical tools and encourag-

ing nationals to engage with and develop their own direct identity. As nationals recover their direct

identity, they experience a corresponding recovery of agency and responsibility. We do not need to

initiate social programs in the places we work - the nationals do that, once they start to recover their

identity and the A aspect of their thinking. Once the nationals have recovered their agency, then out-

siders can help – if the nationals want help.

This is what we work with. This is what Al, and now Leonard, Marie, Cody and others have been help-

ing people recover. The communities we are working with are achieving the kind of direct identity

and conceptual thinking they need to improve their lives and develop their culture and community

their way. This also clarifies the understanding of the Gospel, as the Bible is a conceptural book and

people need conceptual thinking to continually develop our relationship with God. The groups we are

working with are seeing that progress. It is amazing and wonderful to watch, and we thank God for

allowing us to help Him with our ministry.

Jason

Visit us on the web at http://www.insightagentsofchange.com

Insight Resources International PO Box 2937

Mills, WY 82644

Jason Nichols

The greatest thing that you can do for Insight Re-sources International is to actively pray. We believe that Prayer is the corner-stone of this ministry and without it we cannot stand against Satan’s attacks.

Insight Resources International, Inc. PO Box 2937 Mills, WY 82644

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Growing Human Potential One Worldview at a Time

PAGE 4 We need help raising special funds over the regular monthly costs for the upcoming trips

throughout 2015 Al will be in the States for a few weeks before heading to Elim, Alaska. Jason is in Spokane preparing for his trip to Nome, Alaska to meet Al in July Leonard will fly to Elim, Alaska in July, joined by Marie, Cody and Mei from the Philippines to meet with the village elders and conduct workshops Jason will return to the lower 48 states, Leonard to Mozambique, and Marie, Cody and Mei to the Philippines.

Prayer Partners HELP NEEDED

Please pray for all of our IRI team: Al, Leo-nard in Mozambique, Jason in Spokane, Kitty in Hong Kong and Cody & Marie in the Philippines

Contact Us: I.R.I. Office: (307)-277-4639 Email: [email protected] President & Insight Seminars: Jason Nichols (307)269-0145 Email: [email protected]

I.R.I Vice-President: Al Corson Email: [email protected]

I..R.I. Secretary: Velma Corson (307)277-4639 Email: [email protected]

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Transcript of Insight Resources 5 mMay 2015 newsletter