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

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If It's Happening, Choose It

Riverwood Apartments, Napa, California, USA

June 19, 2022

"I don't believe in what I'm doing at all. I have absolutely no belief in what I'm doing. I already know how it's going to turn out. The way it turns out is fait accompli. I mean there's nothing I can do about the way it turns out. I know exactly how it's going to turn out. You know, it's going to turn out exactly like it turns out. It's been doing that for eons. So you say 'But then Werner: what's your motive? What are you working all those hours for?'. I'm not motivated. There isn't any motive. There's no damn vision motivating me. You know, if I stopped doing it tomorrow, it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. And if I keep doing it right to the end, it won't make any difference. The only thing that's going to happen is what happens. But that doesn't fit into our structure. That doesn't fit into our categories."*


...

responding to a hypothetical suggestion that he believes in what he's doing because he's motivated by a vision

This essay, If It's Happening, Choose It, is the companion piece to What Happened As Distinct From The Story About What Happened.

I am indebted to Roger Smith who inspired this conversation and contributed material, and to Dianne Morrison and to Josh Cohen who contributed material.

When there's no transformed listening within which to appreciate its enormous power, there's an almost predictable response to the injunction "If it's happening, choose it" which goes something like "But if I don't like what happens, why would I choose it?" or "But if what happens isn't good, why would I choose it?" or "But if what happens is unfair, why would I choose it?" etc etc.

Something like that is almost always present in a listening from which transformation is absent. In an untransformed listening we almost always and only choose what happens if we like it / have assessed it as good and fair etc etc. In a word, we almost always only choose what happens if we've considered it first and determined it to be agreeable. The trouble with that approach is this: left unchecked, it becomes the roots for a kind of pernicious dichotomy of choice (if you will) which it's my intention to disappear in the course of this conversation (it's the very notion that choice requires an "either / or" that's under the knife here).

Whether it's agreeable or not, is actually not a very powerful place from which to choose what happens. It diminishes our power over what happens by imposing an opinion on it. That's the first thing. The second (to borrow from Werner) is "the only thing that's going to happen is what happens", and so not choosing what happens, is to live outside of reality in a world that only exists as an opinion (in spite of the stock we place in our opinions, that's not a powerful place to live).

In response to Werner's "the only thing that's going to happen is what happens", what'll almost certainly ensue is a "Yeah but ... ?" and / or a "How 'bout ...?" and / or a "What if ...?" which defends our not choosing what happens unless we like it or agree with it. But you don't choose what happens only if you like it or agree with it. I'm sorry, but there's not much power in that either. If you must have a "because" (and any "because" is superstitious at best) you choose what happens because it allows who you really are, to be powerfully present in the face of what happens. And that's a powerful place to live. Let's take a deeper cut at it.

Werner distinguishes what gets in our way of choosing what happens (ie what gets in our way of choosing whatever happens) this way:

<quote>

... THE ONLY THING THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IS WHAT HAPPENS. BUT ... THAT DOESN'T FIT INTO OUR CATEGORIES.

<unquote>

Indeed, that anything "doesn't fit into our categories" doesn't fit into our categories! (it's very Werner). In particular, "... the only thing that's going to happen is what happens" doesn't fit into our categories. And if it did, it would be discovered to be a place to live with enormous power, where who we really are can be powerfully present in the face of what happens, with all of our opinions about what's agreeable or not, taken into account then set aside ie bracketed, and even left out as entirely optional (and given enough time and commitment, all the "Yeah but ... ?"s, "How 'bout ...?"s, and "What if ...?"s in response to that, will be resolved as well).

That's an enormously powerful place to live and deal with whatever happens: that which we like or not, that which we deem to be good or not, that which we deem to be fair or not, that with which we agree or not. We deal with what happens by being powerful in the face of whatever happens by choosing what happens simply because it happens, not just when we have strong opinions for what happens ie when we agree with what happens. And that doesn't fit into our categories. Really.

Click here to listen Werner speaking this quote at archive.org (the internet archive).

Look for and select the 29:37 mark on side 2.

Technical support is unavailable for accessing this audio of Werner.

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