Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
Force, Power, And Three Distinctions Of Me
Napa, California, USA
June 11, 2007
You can't take from me what's me. You can't make me what's not me. Me
isn't take-able nor make-able, no matter how much you may want to.
That's not because I'm particularly good at defending me, or good at
resisting
you taking me from me, or good at
resisting
you making me not me. It's simply because me isn't take-able nor
make-able. Me is share-able. Me is give-able. But me
isn't take-able nor make-able.
That's me.
Who I am
to myself. Share-able. Give-able. But not take-able nor make-able.
You may take from me what's not me. Unlike me which isn't
take-able, you may take from me what's not me. I may
resist
you taking from me what's not me, even though I'd know it's not me
you're taking. When you try to take from me what's not me by force, I
say you don't really want what's not me. When you try to take from me
what's not me by force, I assert you're wanting from me what's me, and
you're wanting for you what's not you. When you try to
take from me what's not me by force, what you really want from me is
me, not what's not me.
That's not me. Everything in my life which isn't me. Not
me is take-able.
There's a third component to Werner Erhard's me and not me
distinction: not not me.
me
not me
not not me
Me is
who I am
to myself. Not me is everything in my life which isn't me.
Not not me is that which isn't me and that
which isn't not me.
Not not me is the context for me and
for everything in my life which isn't me. Not not
me is the realm of the source of power.
When you try to take from me what's not me, that's the realm of force.
What's force? When you yell to get what you want, when you argue or
debate your point of view to convince or to sound convincing or
threatening, when you speak strongly from want, need, or entitlement,
that's force.
Where, in the face of force to take from me what's not me, do I
maintain equilibrium with me?
Not not me is the context for
who I am.
When I stand in the context for
who I am,
when I come from that context (not from me nor from not
me), when I speak from that context, when I true my integrity with that
context only, forgoing everything else, not even being distracted by or
maneuvered into meeting the attack or the threat or the theft or the
force, that's power.