Back to "On the origin of Mind"

These are events that confirm the usefulness of the mind model as outlined in "On the origin of Mind". There is no direct connection between them and the work, and mostly the players would have been completely unfamiliar with Otoom. They could be scenarios played out according to the inherent principles of cognitive behaviour, or they could be statements made by someone through information gained in some context. This section is not intended to serve as a comprehensive explanation of the model.

At last count there were over 220 entries. Not included in this figure are the various confirmations related to the special Parallels sections (is there an award for the most validated mind model?).

Note: entries are placed in descending order of date.

Special Parallels sections:
- What kills a culture
- Notes on the SIGAR Afghanistan Report and WikiLeaks
- Education or Indoctrination - an analysis of a review
- Education or Indoctrination - an analysis
- Circus Copenhagen
- Notes on the Iraq Study Group Report
- Notes on Where is Iraq heading?
- Demographic orientations
- Life expectancies
- Aiding the catastrophe: Africa

The events are grouped as follows -
- Ageing of society
- Astrophysics
- Behaviour
- Behaviour of motorists
- Cluster building
- Conceptual intersections
- Drugs
- Dysfunctional demographics
- Education
- European Union
- Fertility rates
- Gene technology
- Global politics
- Indigenous culture
- Infrastructure
- Iraq war - and now Afghanistan
- Morality laws
- Religion
- Role of governments in society
- Science in general
- Terrorism

Ageing of society:
On a SBS-TV Insight program (screened 19 Apr 05) the federal treasurer Peter Costello talked about the issues surrounding the ageing of Australia's population, with emphasis on welfare policies. He compared the issues facing Australia and indeed the Western world to the dramatic changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. It has been similarly identified in Otoom, where it is placed within the context of a particular significance in relation to the various dynamics affecting society. In Otoom it should be seen as a major contributing factor within the overall resource space defined by the effectiveness-chart.

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Astrophysics:
Australia, astronomers at the Anglo-Australian telescope (leader Dr Russel Cannon) have found that the pattern of existing galaxies conforms to the Big Bang explosion and its sound waves across the expanding universe, also the expansion is accelerating due to some other force. Could this be in line with Otoom regarding the constant and accelerating formation of complexes as the system goes through its cycles? In this case the 'other force' would be the affinity among existing domains, ie autocatalysis writ - really - large, already confirmed in terms of neuronal functional complexes, abstractions, molecular complexes in life etc. (Source: Courier Mail, 13 Jan 05, "Soundwaves prove origin of galaxies")

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Behaviour:
Investigating thought structures (stemming from the neuronal clusters defined by their affinitive states) leads to the discovery of hierarchies in terms of how fundamental a role they play within the entire system of mind. One of the most fundamental of their kind are those configured by genetic and historical precedents, for example those that are gender-based. Although complex systems allow variance at any level of manifestation, sexual differences remain significant. The more inward-looking, protective and nurturing aspects of the female find their opposite in the outward-focused, challenging and aggressive nature of the male. Being fundamental they are subject to relative interpretation and repositioning further down the line (eg, a mother can be aggressively protective, and a male can nurture a comrade). In the West one of effects of feminism has been the transposition of the female mindset into wider society. This has been especially illustrated through the comparison between the Chinese journalist Xinran's account of her attempts to adopt a baby girl she fell in love with, and her failure in the face of China's one-child policy. For Xinran what mattered was the fulfillment of her instincts which she pursued with considerable vigour. On the other side stood the decision by a government that had to deal with the stark reality of curbing a population reaching a billion. Subjective desire vs objective assessment; or, the ego of an individual against the needs of all. As far as our culture is concerned, the "I want it all" stance of Western woman is a world apart from the objective pragmatism of a nation that has to deal with a major problem. The inclusively protective approach has produced results that become more and more significant as time goes on. The veneration of the child led to arrogance and a lack of discipline among youth where teachers leave the profession due to aggression even from primary school children; acts of violence are found in ever-younger age groups having reached the stage where even children's lives are lost at the hands of other children. Mantras such as "all in the interest of the child" (relegating their guardians to a servile role), "if only one child has benefited from [some action] it will have been worthwhile" (continually lowering the bar), or "only the best for our children" (wasting resources and removing the need to learn and improvise) created generations of demanding, attention-seeking brats who are socially inept and prone to self-righteous indulgence. After half a century of this kind of thinking not only are many children rendered dysfunctional, their parents are no different themselves. The definition of a system per see does not necessarily entail the recognition of a problem, since some particular plan may well be executed successfully as such. The question is, to what extent does the modification harmonise or else with the rest. In the case of male and female minds there is more at stake than the short-term gratification of feminists. (Source: Courier Mail-qweekend, 13 Feb 10, "nobody's child")

A research paper just published outlines the gender differences between males and females when it comes to risk taking under stress. While in men the tendency is to increase risks, females tend to become more conservative. The authors associate the differences with the biological role of mothers whose first priority is to protect the young whereas for males the flight-or-fight response is more appropriate. The gender roles are already examined under Otoom in terms of functional behaviour types, starting with the fundamentals as they apply to females and/or males in general and delineating from there to address more complex behaviour patterns that have evolved in human society over the ages. In line with emerging complexity in general the role of progression locks (prerequisite functionalities that from the building blocks but also constraints in terms of the potential options in future more complex scenarios) become apparent as even in our present females tend to be more protective and therefore are likely change the environment in favour of their charges. Males on the other are more likely to modify/teach/compel their charges to adapt to a threatening environment. The fundamental nature of these differences can be observed as far as the gender-specific neurochemical processes in the respective brains. Although behaviour is always subject to modification in complex organisms such as humans, the developments along the evolutionary timeline need to taken into account when speculating about the efficacy of changes under the banner of contemporary fashions. On that note it is interesting to observe the tendentious headline provided by the Courier Mail editors to their article on this research. While the differences related to women are highlighted, when it comes to males their characteristic is circumscribed as "madmen", reflecting the ideological side of feminism. (Source: Nichole R. Lighthall, Mara Mather, Marissa A. Gorlick, "Acute Stress Increases Sex Differences in Risk Seeking in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task", American Psychological Association, Inc., 1 Jul 09; Courier Mail, 2 Jul 09, "Stress sires madmen")

Academic psychiatrist and Black Dog Institute executive director Gordon Parker points to an increasing number of schoolchildren who suffer from wild mood swings, identified as bipolar disorder 2 (unlike bipolar disorder 1 these are not psychotic). His views were supported by Sydney school counsellors at a conference last month. An international survey of principals is presented by Sydney University mental health expert Louise Rowlings where "one in five students needed mental health or emotional wellbeing support". Such statements are the latest in a series responding to a gradual deterioration of young minds. What is particularly disturbing from Otoom's point of view is the type of manifestation: a distancing from an orderly processing of information that puts the owner on a collision course with their surrounds and ultimately with reality. In Otoom (On the origin of Mind) the influence of feminism with its pervasive encroachment of emotional and disparate feedback substituted for more rational discourse has been detailed at great length (and supported by numerous references). Essentially illogical response dynamics unseat the cognitive pattern formation as a true mirror of the outside, and nowhere is this more critical than in the developing mind (but if applied with skill even adults can be brought to the brink of madness). Over the past few decades fathers have become increasingly absent from their children's home, women have their children later in life raising the chances of an ideologically determined home environment, the general media have elevated irrational discourse to a standard whether in the news or in general entertainment, and hysterical responses to incidents of a sexual nature do nothing to contribute to a calm and informed upbringing. The pernicious aspect of that trend lies in the state of denial sponsored by practically half the population based on gender together with its flatterers, and its profoundly fundamental nature. This is not about overcoming a famine, or winning a war against some enemy - it is about succumbing to a cancer that feeds on the very substance needed for survival. Nobody it seems is willing to stand up to such threats; women won't renege on the sisterhood and men are scared of loud shrieks. (Source: Courier Mail, 16 Sep 08, "Mental disorder rises in students")

Amanda Haehner, the incoming president of a British teachers' union, issued a warning at a recent conference. She criticises "middle-class parents" who fail to bring up their children in a challenging atmosphere that teaches responsibility and social know-how. The failure to set boundaries has created a class of "little princes and princesses" who are so spoilt they are unable to behave and accept rules in school. Consequently they think nothing of throwing a tantrum in class. "Anything negative that happens is someone else's responsibility and - if this right to a stress-free existence is questioned - then a doting relative will appear immediately to sort everything out", she said. In the Otoom model a social phenomenon of a wider scope (that is, a general tendency rather than isolated incidents) invites the search for fundamental dynamics, since it is those which would furnish the wider resource base in terms of the contributive elements. The role of the mother, transposed into wider society via the ideological side of feminism, answers the criteria. Generally speaking, the female seeks to correct the environment in favour of her offspring; the male seeks to correct his offspring in order to master the environment. While the former holds for infants, that approach becomes less and less valid the older the child. Neglecting such fundamentals leads to the development of scenarios such as highlighted above - predicted years ago under Otoom. The above comments only add to a growing number of similar assertions, but so far the step has not been made to take a closer look at the basics. Evidently the pressure is not big enough yet. (Source: Courier Mail, 26 Mar 08, "Spoiled brats")

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Behaviour of motorists:
Report on the difference between the genders when it comes to road behaviour, acknowledgment of more spatially oriented behaviour in males, under Otoom this is linked to the more outside-directed mentality of males. (Source: Courier Mail, 13 Jan 03, "Sex drives motorists' accidents behind the wheel")

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Cluster building:
Under Otoom memory represents the latent representative content of some former input that gets modified in terms of additional, affinitive input over the years and is triggered (ie, the memory is recalled) by still other input that is affinitive to that particular cluster (defined by the state of the participating neurons). Latency and recall can also be demonstrated in the OtoomCM program and its versions. Professor Giuliana Mazzoni from Hull University writes in the latest study (reported on 2 Aug 10) that "our most cherished and vivid childhood memories may be nothing but figments of imagination". As Professor Mazzoni says, "Autobiographical memory provides us with a sense of identity and it is usually accurate enough to help us negotiate our lives. But as our study shows, not all that we remember about our past is true. Our research also shows that this phenomenon of non-believed memories is much more frequent than people had imagined. Crucially, if these memories are not challenged by some form of evidence, they would still be considered part of the individual's autobiographical experience". Usually such phenomena are categorised under 'false memory', but according to the Otoom model any memory is essentially a false one since its recall is subject to the notions that evoke it in the first place and since its inception other, more or less affinitive memories have modified it to some degree. The only question is, to what degree has the original representative content been altered. In fact, the very nature of latent representative content requires similar (ie, affinitive) input to be accessed at all. The ramifications are often not recognised for the potentially serious problem they pose. For example, in one experiment, also by Mazzoni, the participants' early childhood memories were tested and successfully modified by a therapist who interpreted their dreams in a negative manner, which in turn prompted the participants to modify their own versions of those memories (the interpretation consisted of being bullied as a child). The result was a fabrication caused by the therapist. In our times tendentious assumptions from the area of psychology or feminism for that matter have seemingly unearthed yet unheard-of trauma in their subjects which are firstly questionable and secondly serve the agenda of the respective ideology.

A study that investigated the income levels of adults and compared them with the degree of popularity they enjoyed during their high school senior year 35 years earlier found a direct relationship between the two; that is, a higher degree of popularity was followed by higher income levels. Popularity was based on the number of friendship nominations received from school mates. Respondents from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) were asked to provide the names of up to three best friends from their class. The researchers identified three main factors that contributed to having friends: the effects of early family life, the proportion of classmates who share similar characteristics with the respondent, and whether they are relatively older and smarter. The ability to establish successful relationships carries over into later life, which in turn results in a higher degree of appreciation by others. Some of those others make the decisions to hire and set the level of income. From the Otoom model's perspective the entire scenario is a function of cluster building, whether inside the mind or within a group. A supportive family environment induces a preference for the development of thought structures that are conducive to behaviour which will be appreciated by others. Individuals tend to form groups in which the members are able to relate to each other in a meaningful way. Older and smarter individuals tend to attract others because the chances of a productive relationship with them are higher. As adults those people are selected for more significant positions (attracting higher incomes) who invite more positive feedback from colleagues including their superiors. The study by Conti et al focuses on content, the actual detail forming the identified characteristics. The Otoom model on the other hand focuses on functionality, behaviour types which through their instantiated patterns give rise to similar conclusions compared to the patterns observed at the beginning. Content analysis is important in order to establish the detail; subsequent analysis based on functionality leads to more productive outcomes since only certain possibilities are explored rather than searching through a general field in a more or less stochastic manner. Hence both have their uses. (Source: Gabriella Conti, Andrea Galeotti, Gerrit Mueller, Stephen Pudney, "Popularity", ISER Working Paper Series, Institute for Social & Economic Research, University of Essex, No. 2009-03 February 2009)

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Washington, released the report Global Trends 2025 - A Transformed World, which analyses the current global state of affairs and presents possible developments on that basis. Under Otoom's perspective the report can be described as being focused on content rather than functionality, since nations and demographics are identified by their name and location first followed by the type of behaviour to be expected, rather than the other way around. Nevertheless, compared with Otoom's 2050: Age of the Silverback there are certain similarities, although 2050 looks further ahead. Most notable is the assertion of growing clusters of common interests, whatever those may relate to; this includes crime syndicates (eg, "Multipolarity without Multilateralism", p. 81, "Proliferating Identities and Growing Intolerance?", p. 86). It results in the emergence of demographics within their own right that can span countries or are restricted to specific locales. In either case they do not answer to the political intent of their host nation. (Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Nov 08, "Global Trends 2025 - A Transformed World")

An affinity between domains causes the emergence of clusters. The link can have various sources, from inherent characteristics to shared experiences, to common desires. A confidential survey by the New South Wales Secondary Principals Council found that white students are leaving the public school system mostly to avoid mixing with Muslims or Aboriginals. For example, the percentage of Anglo-European students has decreased by 42 percent in North Sydney and by 37 percent in New England. According to one principal in the Middle Eastern part of Sydney there are no white kids in his school. Some Asian students are scared off by Lebanese enrolments. The Sydney Morning Herald article quotes the various figures at some length. In the Courier Mail article Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says parents should embrace the racial mix and value their child learning about different cultures. The phenomenon in schools is a sign of people responding to their perceptions about other demographics, and the exposure to international and local affairs must surely play a role. If Aboriginal children have consistently proven to be falling substantially below the standards outside their own demographics, and Middle Eastern countries also have lower incidences of literacy and stability overall when compared with Western societies, an autonomous segregation that affects the choice of schools can be expected. The comments by Julia Gillard demonstrate the ideological bent of many politicians. Since marks in school are not awarded for familiarity with another Muslim or Aboriginal kid but are reserved for something more tangible it is only natural that parents seek out better environments. It happens all the time; above average uni students for example will always attract like for forming teams. After all, who in their right mind wants to waste precious time on problematic contributions? (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 10 Mar 08, "White flight leaves system segregated by race", Courier Mail, 11 Mar 08, "Diverse schools precious: Gillard")

For a number of years Queensland has been the destination of interstate migrants. The 'common wisdom' was that people from the south looked for the opportunities the state offered. In some cases this may well have been so, but there is also another side to the coin. There are people who have been dysfunctional to begin with and are under the impression leaving their problems behind would give them a different life. As the statistics show, this is not so. As the state's south bears the brunt of newcomers it has also emerged as the region with the second-highest rates of child abuse, as well as featuring a growing "trade in and use of the drug ice". The Courier Mail headlines it as "ABUSE SHOCK", but considering the aspect of cluster building under the Otoom model it should come as no surprise. Although the recognition of relatively cheaper house prices attracting a certain market does not need the insight Otoom provides, there are other, more subtle, markers with their own affinities. Demographics of a lower standard manifest themselves in several ways, from the looks of a street to the characteristics of amenities to the mien of a people. For that reason slums grow once they have acquired a certain critical mass that allows them to act as attractors. In the case of southern Queensland the number of child abuse notifications was 1174 per 100,000 during the period 2006/7. As a comparison, in the far-northern region which includes many indigenous communities, the number was 849 per 100,000 - particularly significant since it is usually Aborigines who are the focus of the media. The increasing strain on child services is now the subject of a departmental investigation. (Source: Courier Mail, 10 Jan 08, "Abuse Shock")

A study of the spread of obesity among people has found that social factors outweigh other influences. For example, a person's chances of becoming obese increased by 57% if their friend had become obese during the same time span; among siblings the figure was 40%; among spouses the likelihood increased by 37%. The authors also note, "Whereas increasing social distance appeared to decrease the effect of an alter [a person connected to the ego who may influence the behavior of the ego] on an ego [the person whose behavior is being analyzed], increasing geographic distance did not". The findings agree with the dynamics identified under Otoom regarding cluster building, where functional characteristics allow affinity relationships to emerge which in turn prompt and/or emphasise the existence of a cluster of similarly identifiable functional entities. These entities can be the nodes in the matrix of the computer program (OtoomCM, etc), they can be the constituent elements of thought structures, they can be individuals within a demographic or indeed demographics within a society at an even higher scale. The research into the spread of obesity concentrated on object-related phenomena and is therefore relatively narrow-focused; employing a perspective which uses functionalities as under Otoom allows the range of applicability to be widened considerably. (Source: N.A. Christakis, J.H. Fowler, "The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years", New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 357:370-379, Number 4, July 26, 2007, Number 4)

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Conceptual intersections:
Barack Obama has announced a tentative exit plan for US troops from Afghanistan while at the same time the rhetoric about that nation's internal problems is ramped up. Mounting dissatisfaction among Americans with the war there and the glaring shortcomings by Afghans set the scene for high-complex planning on the American side against the relatively low-complex cognitive environment in their war zone. Although a rational analysis of local demographics would have revealed the precarious nature of any enterprise there from the very beginning, at least the official tone of US reports could point to the newness of the conflict. Now however, after years of engagement and especially an election that was meant to demonstrate Afghanistan's readiness for the democratic process brought the inherent problems to the surface. Ongoing corruption, lack of commitment and poor military skills, let alone an ill-disciplined administration move the idea of a viable democracy right out of the picture. Yet at the same time the US - and many of its allies - want out. Under the perspective of Otoom one can say the ground is being prepared for the moment when the whole adventure can be called off using the inadequacy of Afghan society as a reason and not loosing too much face in the process. In essence this is nothing new: using a particular negativity as an excuse to remove oneself from a disastrous situation - brought about by having neglected that negativity in the first place - has been done before. Although this type of strategy is fraught with danger, nifty verbiage and effective spin can even endow it with a certain amount of success. Bad memory on behalf of your target audience helps.

One glaring example of how the transference of a high-complexity concept into a low-complexity region ends in disastrous results can be observed during and after the recent elections in Afghanistan. The idea of introducing democracy to an ill-suited demographic has been misconceived from the start. A democratic system needs a relatively high-complexity framework. In general terms its prerequisites are: large-scale functionalities of a sufficiently complex nature, a social horizon spanning an entire nation, emotional and filial detachment from - at times even pressing - issues, an organisational conviviality supporting the political process, and an overall stability allowing all of that to unfold in due course. In Afghanistan we find a smaller social horizon, an excessive emotionalism obsessed with tribal and sectarian demands, aggressive mannerisms spilling over into the political domain, and a cauldron of ideals, expectations and frustrations imposing short-term perspectives on daily affairs. The elections, in a proper democracy a straightforward process, has instead dissolved into a thicket of claims and counterclaims. All of this has been predictable if only the understanding of functional activity patterns had been available and applied. (Source: Courier Mail, 10 Sep 09, "Furore on poll fraud")

Conceptual intersections usually relate to the shifting of data, but the same phenomenon can also be observed when it comes to transfer the results of data, such as technology, from one region of complexity to another. Although somewhat easier to observe, conclusions are not always drawn. An example is the ongoing problem with the Queensland rail system. Railway technology comes from outside demographics, many of which have developed a sophisticated infrastructure in that regard. The more compact Queensland society finds it difficult to translate the demands of a modern railway system into the necessary actions. Yesterday a tilt train smashed into a truck on a crossing with lights only and no boom gates. The train reaches speeds up to 160km/h and the road happened to be the Bruce Highway, a major traffic artery. Yet such is the local mentality that surrounding safeguards are not up to scratch. In an accompanying article some of the other failures besetting the system are listed: a derailment when the train was travelling at 112km/h in a 60km/h zone, trains overshooting red lights, dashboard lights failing and therefore instruments cannot be read, drivers mixing up light signals, and an overall "macho culture" preventing the reporting of safety issues. By the way, the tilt train had been introduced in 1998 (to Queensland), is the first in Australia to travel at 160km/h, and it took seven years to make an automatic train protection system work. (Source: Courier Mail, 28 Nov 08, "Rail horror 'in slow motion'", "Safety record causes concern")

Essentially a conceptual intersection refers to the phenomenon of information being transferred from a high-complexity region to a lower one or vice versa. It is also understood that 'complexity' is a more or less generalised description in itself (for example, in economic terms a demographic may be highly complex, but can be lower with reference to another when it comes to family relationships). One core ingredient of human activity systems is identity, playing a major role in the resultant dynamics within such a system. The current development of the Kosovo issue demonstrates the importance of identity together with the change in perception actualised by the transfer of information. The idealising West sees nothing wrong with a relatively small number of people declaring their independence. Serbia, its own conceptualisation based on an identity reaching back to the 14th century, sees such visions differently. Countries like Spain, Russia, and China are also brought to consider their own minorities for whom Kosovo could well constitute a rallying point. Whatever can be said about Otto von Bismarck, the 19th century Prussian chancellor, he certainly was a realist when it came to the assessment of European relationships. His statement, "Watch out for the Balkans", when lying on his death bed in 1898, may have been apocryphal, but it does hint at an understanding of the historical contingencies found in that region throughout the centuries. As history tells us, he was right. US Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice may well feel it is time for Serbia to move on from an event going back 700 odd years, but does not take into account the character of this particular demographic. Editor-in-Chief Michael Fleischhacker from Die Presse in Austria expresses his misgivings about the predominant attitude in the West and particularly in the EU about the Serbs, an attitude that does not recognise how a people's character can mould itself over the ages. High-flying rhetoric in coffee shops is not a substitute for reality. There are times when underlying concerns as to the wider stability of an area should come to the fore. What is the 'freedom' of a small cluster of people worth when considering the implications for hundreds of millions more? 'Freedom' becomes rather meaningless when a new nation can only exist through constant assistance derived from the resources of others, and now playing a part among the multitude of interests imported from elsewhere. Think of East Timor, and the burden its own so-called independence imposes on entities such as Australia and the UN. In overall terms, the validity of such policies can and will be questioned for decades to come. (Source: Courier Mail, 24 Feb 08, "US tells Serbs not to fan flames", 20 Feb 08, "West backs Kosovo", 19 Feb 08, "Vote heralds final Yugoslavia break-up", Die Presse, 24 Feb 08, "So ist er eben, der Serbe"; and of course the entire history of Serbia)

A scenario that provides an abundant set of samples from which to study the effects of conceptual intersections is in the making right now. A report just released, "Little Children are Sacred", details violent behaviour in remote indigenous communities, with emphasis on children as the victims. The report also includes what is legally termed child sexual abuse. Literally within days the - conservative - federal government under John Howard puts a list of measures together targeting indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Generally speaking they involve a ban on alcohol, taking over the spending of welfare payments, the banning of X-rated pornography, and compulsory health checks for all Aboriginal children. Army personnel and "newly sworn police officers" are on the way to one central Australian town of Mutitjulu. The conceptual background is as follows. Firstly, to my knowledge Middle Eastern religions and/or Christianity are the only mindset anywhere in the world that hunts down what it deems to be sexual deviance with a comparable degree of ferocity. The intent has remained the same throughout the ages, only the implementation changed. Once it meant being burned alive, or ten-year-olds having their limbs torn from the sockets, at other times it meant incarceration, or it could be lobotomy or electric shock treatment. Today religion has combined with feminism which, through claiming ownership of the child per se, has found a convenient support for its own fear of unencumbered eros. Both do what they can under the auspices of the modern judicial system. Secondly, by observing demographics around the world it becomes clear that people have different perspectives and hence perceptions, varying degrees of complexity in their world views, and therefore sometimes vastly differing conceptualisations of reality. Indigenous demographics represent an overall mixture that is less complex than that of their surrounds. Love and hate, honesty and lies, honour and disgrace - they all occur in all of us but are used in varying contexts created by the respective culture. Sexual customs are no exception. There are many studies confirming the sheer variety but in today's climate of neo-conservatism are quietly forgotten (a very small sample: B Malinowski, "Sex, culture and myth", Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962; B Malinowski, "The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia", Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982; SF Nadel, "The Nuba", 1947; M Shostak, "Nisa, The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman", Penguin Books, 1981; RC Suggs, "Marquesan sexual behavior", Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966). Violence on the other hand, while following similar parallels with cognitive complexity, has never been a secret in any demographic in Australia and yet has always been treated with relative non-chalance. As far as indigenous communities are concerned, violent behaviour as a compact response to a perceived problem could be observed at any time. The claim by the government that adequate information had not been available before does not fit the facts. Personally I was able to witness such incidents - with or without alcohol - in Fremantle, WA (1972), Roebuck, WA (1986), Alice Springs, NT (1986), Mt Isa, Qld (1974), Townsville, Qld (1972), Longreach, Qld (1986), Brisbane-South Brisbane, Qld (1970), Bourke, NSW (1986), Sydney-Redfern, NSW (1985). As for the sexual aspect, according to data collected by Queensland's Child Safety Department for 2005-06, 0.9 per 1000 indigenous children aged 0-17 years have been sexually abused, whereas for non-indigenous children the rate was 0.6 per 1000; with the rider that the data only relate to instances within the family. Nevertheless, it does seem that violence is neither a newly discovered phenomenon, nor are incidents of sexual abuse as defined by law predominantly restricted to indigenous communities. So here we are faced with a conservative Christian cum feminist ruling class, parochial in its outlook towards other demographics, applying itself to a scenario ill-understood and ill-perceived for decades, acting on impulses from its imagery; confronting a different demographic altogether, its world view and mannerisms derived from an ancient past, possessing virtually no affinity with the contingencies of the moderne, yet represented by individuals straddling two cultures and having no intuition for either; combining together to create an intractable situation filled with chimeras and shadows. According to federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough this initiative has no limit in terms of time and money. Army and police forces activated in the service of wooly idealism to set things right in another culture with no formal plan and closure - sounds familiar? And by the way, there is also a federal election coming up. Follow the developments via The Australian, the Northern Territory News, or the Alice Springs News. (Source: Courier Mail, 22 Jun 07, "Black power grab", 23 Jun 07, "Rudd rebuke raps Beattie", 26 Jun 07, "Howard humbled by abuse", "Statistics show backgrounds don't count", 27 Jun 07, "Premier joins in fight", SBS-TV News, 27 Jun 07)

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Drugs:
In 2001 Portugal decriminalised drugs and now a report commissioned by the Cato Institute and released in April reveals that the policy worked. The nation has the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in the EU, lifetime heroin use in the 16-18-year age group decreased, new HIV infections fell and death related to heroin and similar drugs decreased as well. Furthermore, the money saved on law enforcement was used to fund rehabilitation programs. Glenn Greenwald, who conducted the research is quoted as saying, "Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success". Under the Otoom mind model prohibition works if the reasons given tally with the perception by the target audience; so much so that in such cases prohibition does not actually perform a regulatory role but rather an informative one. If however perception differs then the reasons for the difference need to be taken into account and go as far as mitigating the threat posed by the accompanying judicial process. When it comes to drugs the factors relate to the innate nature of the nervous system, encompassing the desire for pleasure, the attraction of challenge, and the exploratory function of the mind. Pressure by the establishment can actually enhance the significance of those factors depending on the inherent characteristics of a given demographic. Disregarding those dynamics lead to other effects as well: an increased pressure on the resources needed by society at large, a narrowing of political options even if not directly related to drugs per se, and disrespect for the rule of law which, after all, is meant to hold a society together. Under those circumstances the law does not support but constrain, with constantly added resources required to make it work. (Source: Time, 26 Apr 09, Maia Szalavitz, "Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?")

In a book just published John Rainford provides a historical background to legal and illegal drugs, touching upon medical, political, military, financial and moral aspects. The scope allows him to draw connections between a drug's medical purpose, its growing attractiveness to organised medicine, and the eventual capital derived from political character assassinations of certain demographics and the resultant justification construed under moralistic auspices. The historical and financial data speak for themselves, and Rainford uses the evidence to conclude that ultimately perception is allowed to override the facts. The direct relationship between increased illegality and heightened spread and/or increased potency of any drug type becomes clear and leads to the conclusion that a declared illegality does not have the purpose of lessening any negative effects a particular drug may have but serves the interests of those for whom the added value represents an advantage. Those interests reach across society at large, from crime syndicates, militias, professional bodies, to governments. Under Otoom the same case is presented, using the mind model in terms of affinity relationships and cognitive clusters at any scale to demonstrate the growth of particular sentiments that tend to acquire a life of their own. Such dynamics are not based on logic and reason, but derive their sustenance from the principles underpinning such affinities. (Source: John Rainford, "Consuming Pleasures - Australia and the International Drug Business", Fremantle Press, Fremantle, 2009)

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Dysfunctional demographics:
The previous entry concerned the general state of dysfunctionality in a society that should know better. Overall features are a combination of the large and the small, interdependently forming the whole. So, here is a scene observed while sitting at a coffee shop in West End on a weekday afternoon. A young mother walks along with her five or six-year-old son and their dog - nothing else. Still, the kid wears a helmet for protection. As he skips past a table he leans over and starts licking the candle holder put there by the staff of the coffee shop. Now: the little boy is old enough to walk, run, and jump. Yet he is made to wear protective head gear and thus kept in a state of lingering immaturity, such that despite his ability to move around and explore he is stupid enough to lick an object he just happens to come across. Q.E.D.

A Four Corners program, titled "Crime Incorporated", examined the increasing sophistication and international spread of organised crime in relation to illegal drugs. Despite the efforts by police in Australia and overseas the growth of crime has been substantial and the availability of drugs has not diminished, quite the opposite in fact. As Jim O'Brien, former Detective Inspector Purana Task Force, Victoria Police, said on the program, "You'd have to be kidding yourself if you thought you'd be getting any more than probably 10 or 15% off the street". Under the perspective of Otoom none of this is surprising. To begin with, the idea that behaviour officially classified as 'illegal' can be exterminated by a police force is a myth. If such behaviour represents the exceptional action by some individuals here and there police can and do act as a social cleaner, nothing more. On the other hand, should that behaviour pervade a substantial part of society any regulatory force becomes ineffective simply because the resources required cannot be committed (authoritarian regimes have tried and ultimately failed; consider the policies by the Nazis, the East Germans, Stalinist and/or Communist Russia, Pol Pot, etc etc). Either the police force (or whatever it may be called) is too small to penetrate the entire society and therefore niches can and will form that mitigate its attempts at control, or the ratio of police to citizen is so small that the former has become virtually part of the citizenry and is therefore too close to act as its enemy. Add the scale of profits to be made (caused by the drugs' illegality and attractiveness) and the advantage lies with society and its criminals. Furthermore, whatever a society is capable of in terms of sophistication and technology will naturally be made use of by everyone, crime syndicates included; how can it be otherwise. As is common with social problems on that scale, their sources sustaining them are not restricted to the issue per se. Over the last few decades a mind set has emerged that is obsessed with correcting the chronic mistakes made by individuals regardless of the latter's ability to take personal responsibility. At the same time, discipline and achievement have become qualities left aside as largely inconsequential to the overall character of a nation. Combine the two and we get ongoing efforts to pour a continuing stream of resources into areas that are incapable of a response, and those demographics are given the opportunity to continue their destructive influence in our midst while those that do not allow their lives to be destroyed are disregarded. We have arrived at the ironic situation (if that's the word) where the innocent and the productive are increasingly burdened with the effects of dysfunctionality while at the same time society's failures are uselessly supported. The natural weeding-out process in which nature takes care of failures has been stymied. As that process is ameliorated by a society due to its technological power and hence its ability to keep old dangers at bay, it becomes the duty of that society to consciously make room so that the process can take place once again. It is a truth we disregard at our own peril. (Source: ABC1-TV, Four Corners, "Crime Incorporated", screened 30 Aug 10)

A study by the Centre for Work and Life at the University of South Australia and commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions found that the nation's work-life balance was getting worse and what has been termed the "flexibility revolution" has failed. Particularly affected were women. Professional women had a worse balance than men and their situation had even deteriorated with a 10% increase "in the proportion who find that work interferes with activities outside work" between 2007 and 2010. Under Otoom the inherent mindset and therefore cognitive dynamics in women and men respectively have been identified in terms of how each group perceives reality in relation to its own disposition and actualises their life accordingly. Under feminism those essential characteristics have been dismissed and society reconfigured in terms of one all-encompassing ideal. The result is not a composite society oriented towards the male version of perceived opportunities and advantages, but a hybrid that causes increasing stress for women. Such stress means more and more resources are being thrown at a problem of society's own making and the proportionate lack of responses in other areas. (Source: Courier Mail, 4 Aug 10, "Working our way to stress")

When Queensland Health, the entity that looks after public health through the administration of hospitals, the delivery of medicines and other treatment processes, decided to replace their ailing payroll system with a newer one it became clear very quickly that the implementation left much to be desired. Guidelines were not followed, necessary tests were not done, data bases were not matched, all with the results that many staff still are not paid their proper salaries or not getting paid at all, and this for weeks. As can be imagined, the fall-out is considerable with many employees being forced to turn to charities to help them out. Under Otoom much has been said about systems that are of insufficient complexity to meet the demands of added subsystems because the latter are of a complexity not commensurate with the standard of their host. A possible scenario that can be observed at the scale of an individual's mind as well as on the much larger scale of organisations and society. Cases similar to the Health fiasco have occurred with computerised ambulance systems where crews were dispatched to wrong addresses; complaints within the health system were not read for up to five months; the Queensland Police Records and Information Management Exchange System which, at a cost of over $100 million, has become "the felon's best friend"; fire trucks were being recommended for jobs hundreds of kilometers away due to the new dispatch system for Emergency Services; peak-hour commuters trying to buy TransLink tickets with some presenting information in Japanese; and a $40 million Integrated Client Management System for Child Safety Department workers they had to struggle with. Outside IT technicians and managers expressed dismay at the way Qld Health went about installing their new program - software which, by the way, has been used successfully around the world. While the content in all these examples varies, from the perspective of functionalities the analyses would be similar as well as the conclusions drawn. (Source: Courier Mail, 22 Apr 10, "Great leap ahead lost in the matrix"; 29 Apr 10, "Payroll rush slammed")

The financial crisis spreading around Europe is symptomatic of a large-scale system that contains incompatible elements. In the context of Otoom the incongruence is represented by insufficient affinities between the subsystems, a mismatch of high- and low-complex dynamic clusters, and a subsequent lack of communication which under better circumstances would be able to articulate the warning signals. An elaboration on these matters can be found in The social Europe: a formal view, written in 2006. Sadly, the functional problems outlined there have materialised in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. In Germany, the nation which bears the major burden of a bailout for Greece, the reservations about any assistance are mounting. The situation has become a dangerous balancing act with the stability of Europe on one side and the high drain on funds for a faltering economy on the other vying for even a hint of some prescience. In the euphoria to gather as many countries as possible into its fold the European Union overlooked the very characteristics that made its beginnings possible in the first place. A similarity between the original economies, a broadly shared history and comparable demographics allowed the nations to merge. Eventually however the lies and deceptions set in. "We are all Cretans" thinks Jürgen Kaube (Wir sind alle Kreter), alluding to the ancient comment that "all Cretans are liars" - spoken by a Cretan. Do the 'Cretans' in Brussels know about the financial situation of the Portuguese, the Bulgarians, the Hungarians or the Italians? he asks. Actually, they do, he says, but when it comes to the political expediency of spreading welfare across entire continents the impossibility to finance it all remains out of sight. The general standards of demographics as an indirect relation to their tendency for ideological interpretation of their respective realities can be observed anywhere in the world, the only difference lies in the degree. It does not help when language itself, the very medium through which information is passed around, becomes entangled in confusing webs of morphed semantics that prevent issues from being seen clearly. The response, a communal reiterating of fears of what these novel articulations could mean, is mostly ascribed to far-right extremism by most members of the press. Although there are links to past phenomena, the concerns are of today and not so much about what stirred people between the two world wars. Anti-Islamic sentiments about minarets, mosques, the wearing of burqas together with a steady encroachment by medieval values jar against the average modern European mindset. A comprehensive perception of the discrepancy has not set in fully, but when it comes the few billion Euros swallowed by Greece right now will dwarf in comparison.

During the past few weeks significant problems have emerged with the Australian government's home insulation scheme. Under the plan home owners are financially assisted installing insulation bats and/or foils under their roofs. This led to wide-spread rorting. Four installers were electrocuted, improperly installed foils caused dwellings to become short-circuited, 240,000 homes are at risk from faulty installations and 93 house fires appeared to have been caused by sub-standard work. The entire scenario can be described as a system which did possess a framework of checks but did not feature the necessary linkages to allow them to fulfill their role. Essentially we are witnessing a mismatch of subsystems. Australia does have national standards, as a quick glance at the multitude of accreditation bodies confirms (see the lists under "Certified Organisation Search"). Unfortunately, the people charged with the implementation of the plan did not match up. The financial impact is considerable: a program worth $2.45 billion had to be abandoned, not to mention the huge amount of imported glass-fibre products filling warehouses with nowhere to go. Just as the principle characteristics are identifiable through the Otoom model, their scalability is equally evident. Comments have been made about Peter Garrett's choice of words when trying to explain the debacle (he is, or rather was, the minister responsible for implementing the scheme). Actually, the article mentioning Mr Garrett's speech patterns unintentionally confirms that scalability. Bella Counihan, the article's author, compares his current choice of language with his earlier expressions, a time when he was the front man of the rock band Midnight Oil. The song quoted refers to the land rights issue of Australia's indigenous people and demands "Let's give it back". Counihan admires the words' clarity. No doubt they were curt and short, but they lacked semantic precision. "Let's give it back" may be a sincere sentiment but is ultimately meaningless considering the multi-faceted context of modern society. What exactly should be given back and under what circumstances? Mr Garrett is part of wider society, just as his ministry is situated within the wider arena of administrative and organisational entities. Then as now his words should have reflected a congruence between idea and reality. The mismatch represents a functionality in itself and already then hinted at things to come. Functionally speaking we are now in the same mode, only in a different setting (a good thing he hadn't been charged with 'giving it back' - what a debacle that would have been). On a similar note recurring problems with the Queensland health system demonstrate a lack of awareness when it comes to understanding the appropriate relationships between the organisational entities of a society and their underlying intended purpose. Here a pensioner was reduced to pull out one of his own teeth because no dentist was available. NB: to show how simple a process can become once such relationships are taken care of consider the following: (1) the government envisages an insulation rebate scheme for homes across the country; (2) the various trades are identified which possess the necessary expertise to do the job; (3) it is made clear that payment is limited to those companies which have the proper certification. Problem solved. (Additional source: Courier Mail, 27 Feb 10, "Garrett stripped of power")

The United Nations released a report on the state of indigenous people around the globe. Compared to the rest of the world's population their rates of disease, life expectancies, incidences of violence, suicide rates and poverty are far worse. While representing only five per cent of the global population they nevertheless make up about a third of the world's extremely poor rural people. UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Chairperson Vicki Tauli-Corpuz described the report as "very daring" because it identified countries and the conditions in countries within the developed as well as within the developing world. One could speculate on the reason for the label "very daring" on what is essentially a summary of information known for decades if not centuries in one form or another. As reasons for the shortcomings colonisation, dispossession and lack of control over their lives have been cited. Although the report obviously compares the standards of indigenous people with those of others, a similar juxtaposition has not been endeavoured when it comes to the above given reasons. Colonialism did not discriminate in terms of the age of a cultural disposition, nor was the inclination towards attempts to take control over another demographic dependent upon some societal analysis hinting at the possibility of success or otherwise of such a plan by the respective colonial powers at the time. Yet the ultimate outcomes regarding the fate of their target populations can now, with the hindsight of decades and/or centuries, be clearly seen (employing the additional focus on China, Japan, or India for instance). The report does not seem to contain the necessary deeper analysis to find the reasons for the disparate outcomes. Considering the multifaceted nature of a culture, many factors play a part in ensuring its long-term viability and survival. From the intensity of its beliefs to the innate flexibility of the overall mindset right down to the semantic potential of its language, they all determine its fate when pitted against competing counterparts. The current tendency to preserve what has been proven to be dysfunctional can be seen for example in the call to preserve the language of indigenous people, as if a vocabulary of several hundred words and the ambiguous expression of anything involving more than the simplest of numbering has any chance of equipping their users to hold their own in an evermore complex and challenging world. The illogicality of that perspective becomes evident in the description accompanying the report where it says, "Indigenous peoples are stewards of some of the most biologically diverse areas of the globe, and their biological and cultural wealth has allowed indigenous peoples to gather a wealth of traditional knowledge which is of immense value to all humankind". Firstly, that "immense value" has clearly not translated into tangible benefits regarding their destiny; secondly, stewardship implies knowledge and control which a hunter-gatherer society, by its very definition, does not entail; and thirdly, although biological diversity can be identified in many areas, this happens in the laboratory rather than in the context of age-old superstitions or, using the preferred terminology of today, "traditional knowledge and spirituality". The insistence of preserving a way of life incompatible with the demands of the present sits at odds with the complexity required to tackle issues of global proportions. When it comes to the discrimination against indigenous people the mentioning of certain countries such as Columbia and Peru is interesting, nations not noted for their human rights record. Again, the direct relationship between a society's general sophistication and its leaning towards violence and brutality can be seen. That this relationship continues all the way down to hunter-gatherer societies has not been allowed to be recognised. Only when some analysis finally manages to apply its framework consistently and without ideological impediments could the result be called "daring".

It is now believed the attack by a US Army psychiatrist was caused by "a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures". At the same time there has been no evidence that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was steered towards violence or had been meeting extremist groups. Yet such ideological and/or religious pressures do exist in any case. Today's Western society has largely moved away from the more extreme forms of Christianity, it has created protective zones against many of life's dangers, and despite (or rather, because of) globalised mass tourism the opportunity for anyone to realistically engage with non-Western demographics hardly exists. Generally speaking we have therefore unlearned to appreciate the compulsion a profoundly religious mindset exerts on its bearer, and what is left of it under Christian auspices has been integrated into and synchronised with our own history. Add a generous dose of political correctness and hardly anyone dares to question the problematic nature of Muslims in the West. A mindset is a framework of layered thought structures whose content manifests according to the respective times in one's life when they have been created. In addition the priority of emergence of one or the other attitude reflects the scope of the source; for example, religious sentiments embedded in wider societies around the world come before any customs stemming from one's family. This is why Alan Howe, the executive editor of the Herald and Weekly Times, in his article, "Duty to a god and country", points out that no-one, certainly not in the US Army, foresaw the possible result of a clash between god and country in a soldier's mind should both be foreign to each other. In the past the notion of this kind of potential conflict may have been expressed crudely, using expressions such as "bloodline", "homeland", or "tribe". But the underlying principle they tried to address held true then and, as we have seen, still holds true today.

One of the strengths of the Otoom model consists in its ability to draw on functionalities as they are observed within a human activity system. Not only does this lead to a greater appreciation of the sheer complexity of our affairs, it also allows the identification of a single functionality should it manifest in several contexts. The significance of such a dynamic module across the spectrum of wider society thus becomes apparent. Three news items have recently shown their common link, although a superficial glance puts them in different categories altogether. In the UK the loss of British soldiers as they tried to protect the election process in Afghanistan raised the anger about the Western involvement there even further; in Australia a 15-year-old boy died from injuries he received in a brawl at a school in northern New South Wales; and the federal government's Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program is under attack for allocating $672 million with claims not a single house having been built. Policies and/or initiatives are sourced from many strands, but in this case there is one major factor having made itself felt in the West over the past fifty years or so. The ideological side of feminism, transposing the female mind set into wider society, has produced profound changes in our values and priorities. In evolutionary terms a woman is geared towards looking after her young, whereas for a male the first priority is to master an often threatening environment. Put simply, if a young child falls off a bike the mother wants to make the bike safer, but the father trains the child to be better (complex societies have the luxury of diversifying the fundamentals, but the essence remains). Transpose that basic attitude into wider society and the result is a downward spiral of dumbing-down - a set of protective measures followed by a re-setting of standards towards the lower, followed by further attempts of cocooning, which lowers the standards even more, and so on. Although a young child cannot be expected to adjust to the demands of their surrounds, eventually time moves on and the tests begin. Society at large however does not mature at those time intervals; it represents the playing field of adults in the here and now. In principle terms this type of functionality preserves childhood and disowns maturity; it shifts responsibility away from the actor and drops it into the lap of the guardian. Our entanglement in Afghanistan is comparable to the Iraq adventure, already outlined elsewhere ("Notes on the Iraq Study Group Report" and "Notes on Where is Iraq heading?"). In the current context the feminised West imagines a duty to look after the housing, education, infrastructure and political processes of a people who for centuries have demonstrated their incapacity at nation-building. Our lives and billions of our money are being sacrificed to that relocated motherly ideal. The concept of terrorism is used to provide an excuse when a fraction of that effort would be enough to exercise the necessary protection within our borders (starting with more discriminatory immigration policies). The adulation of the Child has led to a deterioration of overall standards within our education system, to the point where teachers leave their profession because they are becoming sick and tired of being hit, spat upon, and subjected to other forms of violence. Yet the response consists in more counselling and demands for more resources in order to change the environment but not the bullies. For a mother her child is always most beautiful and most intelligent, but the reality is different. Such is the profound nature of fundamental functionalities that they influence society in an equally profound manner; to be faced with even dysfunctional primary school children proves just how fundamental the change has been. On a larger scale the attitude of the Australian government towards our indigenous people reflects the nanny-like approach towards a demographic that has consistently remained below the achievement levels of the rest. The latest attempt to close the gap siphons the tidy sum of $672 million off our general resource base to once more replace the vandalised houses with the next generation. It's been done before so many times, and here we go again. In the case of immature youngsters the investment by society in protective shielding is warranted, indeed necessary. However, it is expected for the child to grow up and take the place of the previous contributors. On the other hand, if society itself is now the child there is no replacement and resources do not last for ever. In overall terms energy needs to be spent to advance, not to forever patch up ongoing failures. There is a word for such a state of affairs: decadence. (Source: Courier Mail, 28 Aug 09, "Anger over son lost for 15 Afghan votes"; 31 Aug 09, "Bully Shame"; The Australian, 15 Aug 09, "Henderson survives but put 'on notice'")

Research on the possible link between a person's IQ and general health has found that higher intelligence does indeed have an attenuating effect on risks for poor mental health, long term illness, poor self perceived health, respiratory function, coronary heart disease mortality, and total mortality. When explaining socioeconomic differences, the authors write, more traditionally attention was given to access to resources, physical exposure in the living and working environments, and health related behaviours. However such factors do not explain the differences completely. To quote, 'One novel hypothesis is that intelligence (denoted here as IQ) might be: "the epidemiologists' elusive `fundamental cause' of social class inequalities in health."' Under Otoom the system of mind is described as a composite of functional modules in which they interact with their surrounds in accordance with their respective affinity potential. Any factors and/or influences relating to one's health therefore tend to exhibit the quality ascertainable among the contributing modules. In the article "Life expectancies" the life spans of 4643 individuals across the centuries whose exceptional work gained them an entry into an encyclopaedia were compared against their contemporary peers. The differences in longevity were remarkable. There is also a more insidious reason for being more accurate in such assessments. Although a higher IQ in itself is not necessarily always a determinant, from the general social point of view appreciating its existence would also be fairer. Over the years political correctness has crept into language use leading to a forced circumscription of many characteristics, often at the expense of accuracy. "Socioeconomic" is one word that came to be used to describe a status that actually referred to the intellectual status rather than one's financial circumstances. However, to put it bluntly, being poor does not mean being stupid. A semantic transference has taken place, in which an expression is used to describe a person by using an essentially false label, with the result that the description is now more wrong than ever. At the same time, negative effects through exposure to less than desirable environmental conditions because of poverty does have a general effect on one's health. The label "socioeconomic" as a colloquialism puts the cart before the horse. (Source: G David Batty, Geoff Der, Sally Macintyre, Ian J Deary, "Does IQ explain socioeconomic inequalities in health? Evidence from a population based cohort study in the west of Scotland", BMJ. 2006 March 11; 332(7541): 580-584. doi: 10.1136/bmj.38723.660637.AE)

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Education:
A YouGov online survey in the UK found that nearly one in six children have difficulty learning to talk. One significant factor is noise from the TV because babies find it hard to distinguish words from adults, says Jean Gross, a UK government advisor on speech. Such problems are to be expected according to the Otoom model, since there the mind is first and foremost recognised as a processor of patterns which includes input from the outside. Language, if communicated verbally (which would mostly be the case in very young children), would therefore constitute only one component of the entire sound spectrum received by the young mind. There is no differentiation between noise from a TV and words spoken by the adult, it is the entire package that is laying down the affinity relationships among the brain's neurons. As usual, the representative quality of these states reflects the input. (Source: Courier Mail, 5 Jan 10, "TV hurts kids' ability to talk")

Over some years now a tendency to formally structure the play of children has displaced the more random and ad-hoc environment of earlier times. This is wrong, says Dr Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Temple University, Philadelphia, who emphasises that children need unstructured playtime in order to develop flexible minds. The threat to the cognitive ability of later adults is as serious as global warming, she says. Her remarks came from an interview during her visit to a conference in Brisbane, but her concerns are not new (see for example, Play = Learning, co-authored by Dr Pasek, Oxford University Press, 2006). Under the Otoom model the importance of free play is recognised as the means to establish not only neuronal but also cognitive connections between small- and large-scale concepts, especially during early growth phases. Not only are such pathways essential for the multiplicity of interconnected notions, impediments such as 'progression locks' will also be prevented (under Otoom a progression lock is a cognitive state which prevents further delineations from occurring because of its pre-configured nature; eg, I realise I don't like the taste of some raw fruit and so I'll never bother to try their prepared variety). A further problem with overly-structured play environments is their origin: parents and their society who unlearned to value freedom and risk-taking and have become inward-looking and therefore too much obsessed with short-term rewards of a superficial nature. The environment provided for their children obviously reflects the underlying attitude and won't change unless society changes. (Source: Courier Mail, 25 May 09, "Learning to play a priority for little explorers")

Still on daylight saving: a functional corollary to the above is provided by Paul Williams, lecturer with the Department of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University. Williams (who, it must be said, comes up with astute insights into the field of politics around the nation on many occasions) describes the debate about daylight saving in purely political terms. Its rejection and/or adoption is therefore a matter of voting patterns, constituencies, and past and future election results. Under Otoom his approach demonstrates a cognitive progression lock, where the initial definition of the problem sets the stage for subsequent developments in conceptualisation along the preset theme. Therefore the issue is being addressed without taking recourse to the basic reasons of why it is the saga it has become. Those reasons are to be found in geography and astronomy and they come first, people's reactions come second. The progression lock leads Williams to belittle the fading curtain argument once again and suggest as the "rational option" introducing daylight saving up to the Tropic of Capricorn. The choice of latitudinal marker only comes from the political perspective, indicating as it does the growing opposition the further north one goes. Within that perspective the reasoning is entirely correct and so attracts status, but it still does not address the issue per se - an insidious side effect of progression locks. (Source: Courier Mail, 28 Oct 06, "Time Beattie stopped dithering on daylight saving")

An example of how an ailing education system can manifest itself is to be found in some comments made by Queensland University of Technology lecturer Joanne Jacobs. The topic is daylight saving and whether Queensland should fall in line with most other states and adopt it. The debate itself has raged for years (there was even a referendum against it 14 years ago) but the arguments won't go away. One significant factor could be the ignorance about the underlying geographical issue within the general population and even among persons of higher education. A lack of knowledge does not merely mean knowing less, it also leads to a fool's confidence by not realising when one doesn't know. Peter Ridd, a Reader in physics at James Cook University, argued that the school syllabus has been hijacked by ideologues who care more about their "trendy left-wing mantra" (which basically denounces Western culture) than imparting facts to students. "..they have made little effort to address the concerns regarding their syllabuses of academics at universities in disciplines such as English, geography, maths, physics and engineering", he writes. The ground is already prepared in primary and secondary schools and so we arrive at one consequence coming from geography or the lack of it. Joanne Jacobs is for daylight saving, regarding the opposition as uninformed and referring to the older days by saying, "The two main arguments that are often put forward are the silly Joh (former premier Bjelke-Petersen) arguments that the curtains will fade and the cows won't know when to be milked". Bjelke-Petersen's regime certainly was not exactly enlightened (see elsewhere on this page) but at least as far as the curtains are concerned he had a point (quite possibly milking time and hour of the day are important for cows too). The facts are as follows: the day has 24 hours, a circle has 360 degrees, hence every 15 degrees of longitude account for one hour of time. Starting at Greenwich (0 deg long) we move eastwards until we end up in Queensland, Australia. The state is of considerable width, stretching from 138.00E longitude to approximately 153.32E. Brisbane lies at 27.28S 153.02E. Usually a particular time zone is set by the 15 deg multiple and so the whole of Queensland, lying on both sides of 150.00E, is 10 hours ahead of London. There's the rub. When on the 21st of September the sun dips below the horizon at 18:00 hours on 150.00E, in the capital Brisbane that event has already occurred 12 minutes ago (1 deg equals 4 minutes). In Mount Isa however (120.44S 139.30E) sundown will not happen for another 42 minutes, yet both locations are in the same time zone. 18:00 in the capital means the sun is just about gone, in Mt Isa it still burns your face (up there it does, right to the last minute). Now consider being on daylight saving. If the sun sets at 19:00 geographical time in Brisbane it will be 20:00 daylight saving time, so even an hour earlier it would be quite warm, never mind around 4-5 in the afternoon. But in Mt Isa, being west of 150 deg, the sun still has 42 minutes plus that extra hour to go. For residents out there 4-5 in the afternoon means having not about 3 or 4 hours' worth of a higher sun in the sky like in Brisbane, but around 4 or 5 hours' worth. Which means, assuming they pull the curtains to keep the sun out when they come home, 4 or 5 hours of fading time. In other words, while the people of Brisbane effectively have extra sunlight to the tune of not quite an hour, those out west endure up to two hours of heat, depending on how far west of the 150E they live. QED. It is also interesting to note that on the rare occasion time differences within the state are contemplated, the talk is mostly about latitude, but never to my knowledge about longitude - judging by what's available through the media. For residents at higher latitudes daylight saving is wonderful because of the extra sunlight, but the closer to the equator one gets the less attractive even more sun becomes. On the other hand, from a business' point of view being out of step with southern neighbours adds to the costs. In the case of an area such as Queensland there are very real arguments for and against, but it helps if they are rational. (Source: Courier Mail, 12 Oct 06, "Ideologues hijack education", 21 Oct 06, "Time for councils to see the light"; for the rest a good atlas and a good education system)

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European Union:
Conceptual intersections occur when two or more cognitive frameworks overlap and the resulting intersection is used by one or the other owner of a framework to form their perception; the rest is often discarded. One example is the view generated by such essays as "A referendum on the unknown Turk? Anatomy of an Austrian debate" which considers the attitudes in Austria towards Turkey's attempt to join the European Union. Right in the abstract the text claims, "we examine the history of Austrian attitudes towards Turkey's EU candidacy", but in the next sentence makes it clear that whatever deductions are to follow are based on statistics covering the last decade only. To understand the content of cognitive dynamics (and not merely the nature of their various types) it is necessary to consider their history, and here, on that large scale, the history of Austria. The article mentions Austria's relatively low opposition to Turkey's entry during the 90's and compares it with public opinion on other potential member states. During the later years towards 2008 (the year the article is dated) however their attitude hardened towards Turkey. By 2005 only 10% favoured Turkey's inclusion and 80% opposed it and agreement is now (ie, 2008) at 5%. The article concludes by suggesting a referendum would be a mistake because it would make that level of opposition official. It would bring "international notoriety" to Austria. There is nothing wrong with the cited references; poll statistics are presented, together with extensive quotes by Austrian politicians across the political spectrum. The problem is the narrow basis on which the conclusions are constructed. Austria, in particular Graz and Vienna, can point to a history of protecting Europe from the Ottoman Turks, (1529, 1532, and 1529, 1683 respectively). In Graz alone one can walk through historic streets built around the remnants of the old ramparts, or visit the Landeszeughaus, the largest medieval armoury of its kind in the world. It is an environment that cultivates layers of cultural memory through sight, sound, touch and smell. Add the global developments regarding Islam during the last decade, mix it with personal experiences as a consequence of controversial immigration policies across Europe and nobody tells an Austrian about the potential dangers from having a country like Turkey sharing their wider cultural space. The dismissive comments by so many politicians of the major parties only contribute to a growing feeling of disenfranchisement, manifest in the rise of minor parties labeled as "right-wing" and worse by most commentators. The growth of Jobbik witnessed in April 2010 is only the latest example. It is churlish to denounce the underlying fears as simply a primitive reaction by uneducated peasants. Quite on the contrary, they represent a richness of historical common good that has been shunted aside by contemporary leaderships.

At the end of the European Summit the call for a "Two Speed Europe" was raised once again. Against the background of varying commitments to a unified Europe it has become clear that the move towards that goal is not equally shared amongst member states. To proceed at different speeds therefore seems to be the best compromise, as voiced by Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi and supported by others, such as Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Given the diversity of demographics within the EU such an idea was already outlined under Otoom in 2003, going by that model's focus on - in this case - large-scale affinity relationships between societal domains. There it was termed a multi-tiered, or terraced, approach. (Source: Deutsche Welle, 28 Jun 07, "Calls Increase For a Two-Speed Europe")

At the current European Union summit in Brussels the general consensus is in toughening the EU's expansion policy without preventing those who want to join from doing so. The new attitude is directed towards states which tend to fall short of the required standards. In this context see the paper "The social Europe" in the downloads section. Equally in line with Otoom is the general idea of the Neighbourhood Policy, a scheme in which a closer relationship is built with countries surrounding the EU. The process begins with Country Reports and moves on to ENP Action Plans for each country. The plans cover "political dialogue and reform, economic and social cooperation and development, trade-related issues and market and regulatory reform, cooperation in justice and home affairs, sectors (such as transport, energy, information society, environment, research and development) and a human dimension (people-to-people contacts, civil society, education, public health …)." Since any of those details are not synchronous with each other the initiative is similar to the tiered domain concept outlined in Otoom. Conceptual domains (ie, domains that are representative of a certain concept) are ordered in terms of their degree of affinity with each other. Such an arrangement prevents discrepancies due to mismatching interpretations from endangering a coexistence. The countries covered by that policy are Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. (Source: EuroNews, "EU summit set to toughen enlargement policy", 15 Dec 06; http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/, European Neighbourhood Policy, 4 Dec 06)

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Fertility rates:
Australia, survey regarding fertility rates, shows that overall women in rural areas have higher fertility than those living in urban areas, and younger have lower rates than older women, this ties in with Otoom's view that fertility is - also - linked to the perception people have of their role in society which in this case includes feminism and the differing role of women apart from bearing children (ie, younger and urban women would be more likely to conform to feminist perspectives than those outside the influence), similarly with divisions by state (eg, Qld is more conservative than NSW). (Source: Courier Mail, 8 Nov 02, "Queensland mothers younger than others")

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Gene technology:
In a preview of the near future based on the Otoom model ("2050: Age of the Silverback") the growing ability of science to identify preconditions in humans for the purpose of detailed response policies is seen as one factor determining our living conditions in the coming decades. Geneticists at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have just determined the DNA sequence of a woman. Except for "incidental privacy-sensitive findings" the results will be made public eventually. As the article notes, "this does not include further in-depth bioinformatics analysis", for which a further six months are needed. Apart from studies in other fields the fundamental differences between male and female are more and more explored, and in the process other similar determinants are bound to come to the fore. Add the ever-increasing pressure on resources and therefore the sheer need for efficiency it won't be long before such findings find their way into official policies with a view to organise society. (Source: ScienceDaily LLC, 27 May 08, "First Female DNA Sequenced" [2])

In their article "Epigenetics: A Challenge for Genetics, Evolution, and Development?" Gertrudis van de Vijver and Linda van Speybroeck, both from Ghent University, Belgium, argue that with the increasing presence of complex, dynamic systems as productive concepts in science a shift in interpretation of the term epigenetics is taking place. The gene-centric approach, which does not consider the backward compatibility of situational factors in the life of an organism towards its genome, makes room for a perspective that allows for the interdependency of epigenetic and genetic systems since they too constitute complex, dynamic systems. That particular characteristic has been identified in Otoom within the context of thought structures as well as cluster dynamics in the computer simulation; in fact it is a major contributor to the emergent functional domains there. (Source: G van de Vijver, L van Speybroeck, "Epigenetics: A Challenge for Genetics, Evolution, and Development?", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 981 (1), 1-6)

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Global politics:
A few days ago the Australian Government released a White Paper on defence, Force 2030. Based on current conditions likely global scenarios over the next two decades are assessed with reference to the country's military needs. From a system's point of view under the Otoom model several valid points are being made but there are also a couple of contradictions. To recognise the growing power of China and India as major players is overdue, already heralded in the recent past by - broadly speaking - the two nations' development programs and their significant intellectual achievements throughout history. At the same time the possibility is entertained that the United States will not continue to be able to project the power to the same degree we have become used to. For Australia this would require a heightened capacity to project its influence across the region. The first contradiction consists of affirming the growing need to represent one's interests within the neighbourhood, but at the same time aspiring to enter any other theatre somewhere else to somehow further our aims. Although a balance between the two is mentioned, as the case of Iraq and Afghanistan shows (the latter even specifically referred to) such initiatives can very quickly escalate towards unsustainable levels and would ultimately depend on similar commitments by other nations, something which even over a short period of time remains questionable. As the Paper mentions elsewhere, strategies spanning decades require major mobilisations and therefore possess an innate inertia which mitigate against alterations on the fly. Another contradictory perspective consists in acknowledging the reasons for regional instability here or there particularly in the face of threats such as climate change and the diminishing of resources, but then proposing to counter that instability by increasing levels of investment in those very areas. If sizable populations, against the background of their history to the present day, prove to be ill-prepared for those challenges what would the most likely effect of considerable outside involvement be? Not the golden dawn of an ideal world but rather a measure of perceived interference by outsiders coupled with the very real chance of supplying the infrastructural means for the local powers to continue their cultural customs as usual. Pakistan is a case in point, so much so that at this moment two extreme manifestations of disparate cultures have the opportunity of merging together; the Islamic Taliban on one side and Western nuclear technology on the other. Decades of political blindness have brought us to this point. This seems to continue: as further channeling of our resources towards that nation are deemed necessary, an involvement with its neighbour India appears to be less focused on (moreover, India does not require our 'help'). Another example referred to is Papua New Guinea; despite its vast resources its "basic social and economic indicators are declining". The question has to be asked sooner or later, what are the costs of ongoing assistance programs compared to the costs of protecting oneself against the fall-out of a dysfunctional state? Not only does assistance cost money anyway, the more critical a situation becomes the greater the need to protect such investments - a spiraling escalation with potentially dire consequences. The Paper's acceptance of continuing financial involvement against the acknowledged lack of results in such cases represents another contradiction. All in all the White Paper represents a system that experiences growing awareness of the emerging manifestation of altered conditions that need to be responded to, but also a system that still exhibits the traditional aspects of moralistic maxims so peculiar to Christian cultures - from the Crusades to the White Man's Burden to evangelism. They have dictated our political selectivity ever since.

"What is 'Plan B' if Pyongyang is not willing to abandon its nuclear goals", asks Ted Galen Carpenter, vice-president for defence and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, in his article, A Bold Plan B for North Korea. The traditional support given to North Korea by China does come at a cost, and Carpenter's Plan B involves getting China to change the former's regime by making it worthwhile for the latter. For this to be attractive to China certain readjustments of global politics would have to be made, notably the US commitment to South Korea and concessions regarding Taiwan. Whatever the exact nuclear ambitions of North Korea may turn out to be, the general line of thinking that brings in major powers to, between themselves, resolve a thorn in the side of just about everyone through modifications of the status quo regarding relatively minor players is an interesting one. It may herald the shape of things to come, given the growing significance of lesser disturbances against the background of greater issues affecting the planet. A similarly wider view is presented in the blog "East and West" using the societal dynamics as identified under the Otoom model and through them forming an assessment on that broad basis. To what extent the US would be a deciding factor in any one of those realignments in the future, as suggested in the current article for example, becomes a matter of that nation's ongoing progress along its own route. Nevertheless, the time has come when, in the interest of overall stability, the ultimate significance and cost of minor ambitions have to be questioned. (Source: Courier Mail, 22 Apr 09, "Hope alone a flawed option")

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Indigenous culture:
A few days ago the report "Living apart together" mentioned the current trend to purposefully downgrade Western and/or European culture by a range of contemporary intellectuals, thereby creating an identity vacuum making it that much easier for Islamic extremism to take hold in the minds of young people. It specifically referred to the UK, but the situation is similar in other Western countries. Australia is no exception, and another example of such artificially induced shame and guilt can be observed in the aftermath of a report on indigenous issues in Queensland. The Partnerships Queensland Baseline Report 2006 says about indigenous communities: young people 18 to 24 were 19.4 times more likely top face court; infant mortality was between 1.7 and 2.5 times more likely than non-indigenous babies; indigenous young children from 0 to 4 comprised 40.2 per cent of all hospital admissions in that age group; [indigenous] community children were between 23 and 44 times more likely to need hospital treatment for assault; more than 45 per cent of indigenous students who finished Year 12 English received a low or very low mark, while 58 per cent studying Maths A or B received a low or very low grade; indigenous babies and children were at least 1.7 times more likely to die below the age of 14 than others; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 10 to 14 were between 26 and 34.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection; black adults were 7.8 times more likely to be in detention and twice as likely to die. Apart from the analysis under Otoom regarding the necessary functional elements to reach higher complexity as a demographic, the reaction by indigenous community leaders was predictable. In the face of such broad-based failings against the entire rest of the state, it was the rest who was seen as the guilty party. Without the presumption of automatic duty towards consistently underachieving demographics, coupled with the instilled aura of repugnance towards one's own culture, Queensland would not come to see itself as being quite ready for yet another round of prodigious spending to assuage its guilt. (Source: Courier Mail, 7 Feb 07, "No end to the misery")

A report by an Alice Springs crown prosecutor, Nanette Rogers, lists high levels of violence and sexual abuse against women and children in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. It also identifies Aboriginal culture and customary laws as an obstacle to procuring witnesses in court and victims taking action. The report prompted federal Indigenous Minister Mal Brough to slam the inaction by state governments which allows the situation to continue. The furore erupting as a consequence of such claims and counter-claims within governments and outside highlights the confronting nature of indigenous people in non-indigenous societies. Under Otoom the situation can be described as a low-abstracting demographic being surrounded by a society that is more complex and therefore more demanding. Conceptual intersections from high to low emerge whenever an issue is addressed by wider society and then gets translated into the semantic context of the indigenous culture. Intersections from low to high occur when a scenario within an indigenous community gets redescribed in terms of the multi-faceted agendas residing in its surrounds. Since the wider society is the more advanced, the ultimately affective decisions are those being made in the context and understanding of the higher abstracting society. Lower abstractions also mean a more compact interpretation of life as it is lived day by day, producing outcomes that can range from the simplistic to the brutal. Such demographics also tend to rally around their own identity to the exclusion of anyone else, thereby preventing the kind of openness we in the Western context have come to expect. In Australia there is also the discrepancy induced by the respective religions, with Christianity holding to an essentially antagonistic perspective of the human eros. Middle Eastern moralism is usually not shared by Aboriginal culture, and what is termed 'sexual abuse' under Australian auspices may or may not contain elements of violence but is treated as if it did in any case and the hysteria inevitably rises (for example, responding to the above report Mal Brough claimed that "paedophile rings" were operating in some Aboriginal communities and roundly condemned state governments and other bodies for standing by and doing nothing; yet in the very last paragraph of one of the articles cited here we read, "The most common type of abuse for indigenous children was neglect - with the sexual abuse rate of non-indigenous children higher than for Aboriginal children"; and in any case, the physical violence perpetrated in Aboriginal communities is nothing new, but it took the sexual aspect to arouse such sudden interest). Add to all this the currently prevailing political correctness which imbues indigenous people with a romantic halo while at the same time denouncing Western culture as inherently bad and any report on indigenous issues is bound to be controversial. Although the report focuses on the situation in the Northern Territory, the perspective under Otoom is applicable to the rest of Australia and indeed to any society in the world where indigenous people have to interface with more complex surroundings and vice versa. (Source: Courier Mail, 18 May 06, "Indigenous abuse row fires debate"; 19 May 06, "Abuse cases soar on Cape")

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Infrastructure:
Any human activity system of even minimal complexity needs an infrastructure to process its resources. Failure to maintain the latter leads to a deterioration of the former. Generally speaking, the symptoms of a failing system show up as an inappropriate density of activities within their specific functional space, a lop-sided equation describing the existence and usage of resources, and an inadequate mindset compared to the actual needs of the system. Over the last few days the Courier Mail ran a series of articles on Queensland Health. Hospitals are overcrowded, doctors are forced to work extended hours leading to serious cases of fatigue, and a management style exists that not only discourages critical thinking but seems at a loss to comprehend the severity of the situation (for example, doctors who complain face having their career prospects cut short, suggestions to alleviate overcrowding are dismissed, the official answer to falling asleep during surgery is drinking up to six (!) cups of coffee). As with any large-scale system, once a problem has grown to significant proportions the contributing factors can be found in a variety of functional patterns. From corrupted political processes to organisational dysfunction to a population that has largely unlearned how to look after itself, they form the strands creating the overall fabric. In the blog 2050: Age of the Silverback a scenario in the near future is depicted based on current developments. As can be seen in this particular example the process of degeneration has already begun. (Source: Courier Mail, 7 Sep 09, "Dead Tired", 8 Sep, "Let Them Drink Coffee", 9 Sep, "Coffee 'can't fix sick health system'", 10 Sep, "Doctors' cry for help")

Australia, article by Mark Christensen, director of economic consultancy, in tempore Advisory. He points to the difficulties surrounding the sale of Telstra and sees it as caused by an inherent mismatch between the needs for service across an area and profit considerations in terms of consumer density, something that is a particular problem in a country such as Australia with its large regions of low population density. The issue is not treated from the perspective of functional domains as in Otoom, but raises points addressed in the context of the suggested Bill of Rights with its emphasis on adequate infrastructure as a precursor to obligatory arrangements of a human rights nature. (Source: Courier Mail, 4 Aug 05, "Build it and we'll pay")

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Iraq war - and now Afghanistan:
One major reason why one should tread carefully when engaging with different cultures at a deeper level is the need to be familiar with the manner in which social networks form and are maintained. That goes for any scale. Afghanistan is an example par excellence. Familial, tribal and religious affiliations have a history that can go back centuries, and paired with emotionalism and religious intensity they play a significant role, whether visible at any time or not. In recent days Afghan President Hamid Karzai 'suddenly' turned on the West, that contingent of forces supporting him to the tune of billions of dollars and 126,000 troops. When he accused foreigners of fraud during the elections he caused some consternation in the West, and his latest announcement that he would have to join the insurgents himself if the parliament did not back him did not help. Yet such behaviour is nothing else but the quite common endeavour by someone who plays his cards as promisingly as possible to safeguard his future. The Taliban in the evening news and the fighters the foreign soldiers encounter are but a small part of a wider segment in society, defined by bonds that need no official stamp nor formal description. Even the word 'segment' is not really apt; demographics in which social and/or political connections are forever fluid and pressed into the service of religiosity and honour do not feature the relatively distinct boundaries we are used to in the West. To engage in a war with such a region while at the same time hoping to rebuild it along one's own lines is simply naïve. A comprehensive analysis under the Otoom model would have disclosed the problem from the very beginning. (Source: Courier Mail, 3 Apr 10, "Karzai roasted for poll fraud claims", 6 Apr 10, "US allies again flayed by Karzai")

The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, is quoted as describing the situation there "getting worse". The strategy of the coalition was flawed and hence "destined to fail". Especially interesting are his comments regarding the future of the country, in line with a similar assessment made about Iraq under the light of Otoom (see Notes on the Iraq Study Group Report and Notes on Where is Iraq Heading?). Sir Cowper-Coles suggests the coalition should prepare public opinion to understand that the only realistic solution is for an "acceptable dictator" to rule Afghanistan. Given the nature of the demographics there and in Iraq the need is indeed for a strongman to hold such a region together as a nation; local history only confirms it. Whether that authority will be "acceptable" is another matter. (Source: Courier Mail, 3 Oct 08, "Coalition 'problem'")

Recent reports indicate the situation in Afghanistan is not any better than what unfolded in Iraq. The same reasons apply in principle, except there is no overriding authority as has been the case in Iraq. Tribalism and cultural intensity flourish, displaying the typical outcomes of insular human activity systems that are largely isolated from each other. Therefore we have diminished input from the outside, low creativity because existing cultural norms exist in a straightjacket, and as a result social rules are harsh and unforgiving. These features can be ascertained, analysed and processed because they are visible to even outside observers. For all its resources, a society like the US is unwilling or unable to accommodate reality as it presents itself. Never mind a sophisticated analysis tool such as Otoom - basic history lessons served with a rudimentary understanding of the local geography would teach invaluable lessons. On that note, by now there are generations of Queensland school children who never had history or geography taught in their class rooms. Australian soldiers know their stuff, it is the politicians above them who should know better. For example, the cultural depth of our previous prime minister, John Howard, can be gauged by his tendency to use available free time on foreign visits to watch a game of cricket. Our current counterpart, Kevin Rudd, is a "committed Christian". It showed and it shows. In terms of the military intervention in Afghanistan there is indeed a historical precedent of sorts. In the 19th century British Governor-General Lord Bentinck embarked on a mission to rid India of the Thugis, a Kali sect practising ritual murder. He was successful, but the British maintained a military and administrative presence for a considerable time afterwards. Characteristically, he had less impact on another local trait, sati, the burning of widows. And, not insignificant either, the British presence was sustained through an economic viability the subcontinent was able to provide. This hardly applies to Afghanistan. At best, success is defined by the absence of terrorism and nothing else; but even that remains questionable. (Source: Courier Mail, 26 Sep 08, "US review of Afghan strategy")

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Morality laws:
Under the Otoom model human activity systems are seen as systems in general, situated within their respective environments and therefore subject to the demands and opportunities in place at that time. Subjective interpretations do not come into it. In this context the predictions about the near future focused on the trend in well-off societies to implement actions and policies despite the fact that they incur costs in a wider sense. These costs are, and currently can be, born due to the general wealth and therefore go largely unquestioned. An increase in pressure on resources however creates the additional problem of having to deal with existing activity sub systems that are costly but also have situated themselves within society at large. Removing them or even decreasing their efficacy produces a disturbance in itself. One example is the ramped-up security on airports due to the recent terrorist attempts to blow up an airliner. Full body scans are needed which produce an image of the physical human body, including of course that of children (the reason why, after tens of thousands of years of evolution, humans are still cagey about accepting their physical shape is a subject outside the present scope). Over the last few decades the influence of feminism has created the added concern about the status of children, born out of the innate disposition of the female to put children first, and now transposed into society at large. The related issue of sexuality, straddling as it does Christian antagonism towards the human eros in general as well as the feminist antagonism towards its male aspect, has lead to an emotional layer which obscures more rational considerations on the subject. Nevertheless, systems are subject to the natural laws of sustainability and survival, moral perceptions included. We now have arrived at a situation where fears about showing the physical appearance of children are deemed more significant than preventing the destruction of an aircraft full of people, at least in certain, not uninfluential quarters. Moralists are convinced they are protecting the children, but all they have done is aid the enemy and once again weakened the West. The predictions mentioned earlier are already coming true. Actual dangers are heightened because of a reluctance to let go of the luxury of living in an artificially construed comfort zone, even if some of the underlying elements of the latter border on the psychotic. There are two possible outcomes: either society understands the problem and dispenses with the subjectivity of pressure groups, or the dangers are allowed to exert their influence and run society into the ground as it squanders its resources. (Source: Courier Mail, 6 Jan 10, "Body scanners expose fears")

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Religion:
The current entry does not refer to an event that serves as a direct confirmation of the Otoom model, but is an example of what would not happen if a Bill of Rights such as suggested under Otoom were in place. In short, a Catholic priest conducts his church's rituals in a manner that caused him to be reported to the Vatican. That state's representative in Queensland feels compelled to warn the priest to change his ways otherwise his credentials would be revoked and he would be forced to vacate the church in which the ceremonies are held. If necessary use of the police would be made. An over-arching document such as a Bill of Rights should, if mature enough, prevent religion and other ideology from utilising the resources of the state. In modern-day society with its multi-faceted members this would be essential to maintain a sustainable peace. In this particular case a church may well decide who should and who should not belong to its ranks; but at the same time it is an internal matter and the police has more important things to do than worry about a tiff between what is in the end one phantast against another. If it does come to some confrontation involving public resources it will be interesting to see what type of demographics decide to take part in the melee. Their own predisposition towards make-belief could then be ascertained. (Source: Courier Mail, 13 Feb 09, "Bishop fears he'll go next")

Four books are reviewed, three of them written by Muslim women detailing their experiences with Islam and its culture towards females, and one by an East-Indian woman describing what it is like to grow up inside her demographic in the UK (note, this is not about the books themselves so much as about their reviews). The first three are, "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "Love in a Torn Land" by Jean Sasson, and "In the Name of Honour" by Mukhtar Mai. The fourth is "Shame" by Jasvinder Sanghera. Their respective topics are, having undergone female genital mutilation and fleeing from Somalia, being eventually educated in the West and becoming a campaigner against Muslim oppression of women; being of semi-Kurdish descent growing up in Iraq and having to deal with the country's problems as well as Arab prejudice; born in Pakistan and raped on the order of the local village council, she decided to fight back and take the perpetrators to court, gaining international attention in the process; growing up in an Asian ghetto in Derby, UK, and having her marriage arranged by her traditionalist parents, she escapes the oppression but is disowned by her family and has to endure the ramifications. A number of points are remarkable: (1) each woman succeeded eventually and so was able to present her account, a fate out of reach for millions of others in similar circumstances; (2) it was the interaction with Western values, even if only as onlooker in the rape case from Pakistan, which made the success happen; (3) in every case religion played a fundamental part in the circumstances and in a manner largely unfamiliar to Western suburbanites; (4) the attitude of the women towards their religion reflects their personal understanding and general level of education, from open and courageous hostility to overall submission despite the effects they had to endure; (5) their experiences and the million-fold repetition across those demographics stands in direct contrast to the perception cultivated in the West by political correctness and misguided activists. Under the Otoom model the functionalities of such behaviour forms have been analysed and their repercussions identified, all in line with the experiences of these authors. The current phenomenon of a host society, ie the West, allowing the creation and maintenance of disparate demographics in its midst that are not only antithetical to the achieved insights of the former but act in a hostile manner towards it, represents the typical scenario of a once dominant culture but now entering decay. During the dominance phase the society in question serves as attractor to outsiders, its increased sophistication prevents it from understanding the brutishness of some of the newcomers, and once decay sets in it becomes incapable of defending itself against the undermining of its former strengths. (Source: Courier Mail, 24 Mar 07, "Facing up to a hostile world")

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Role of governments in society:
People living in the here and now often forget how dramatic the influence of governmental initiatives can be when it comes to shifting public perception. In Otoom's terms one can say that a continuous input will change the affinity relationships among the overall system in favour of the former. Representative clusters form that allow cognitive subsystems to emerge which did not exist before. About a week ago Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman decided he will ban smoking in Queen Street Mall, a pedestrian-only area in the centre of the CBD. While he himself would not choose a complete ban he would listen to the 78% of residents surveyed who did support such a measure. Brisbane already has one of the harshest anti-smoking laws in the nation (it's that kind of demographic). It is illegal to light a cigarette within four meters of a public entrance and there is a complete ban in outside eating areas. Over the ensuing years this has led to many people becoming convinced that walking past a smoker constitutes a great deal of suffering. On the other hand, Brisbane does feature cars and trucks and buses, and while the good burghers get in a knot when exposed to a whiff of tobacco smoke in the street they are seemingly immune from the exhaust fumes emitted by vehicles surging past them. There is one sure-fire way to spot the existence of an ideological source when it comes to measures that are deemed to make life safer: if a particular measure is enacted on that basis while at the same time other, much more significant factors exist that impact negatively yet are disregarded, you can be sure that the policy includes the irrational. So, how do the pollutants from smoking compare with those from cars? To find out, three references have been used: The Cigarette is a Major Source of Pollution, Emission Facts: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle, and the Fuel Consumption Guide Database 1986-2003. It turns out that a cigarette emits between 7 and 23 milligrams of pollutants depending on the brand, and when compared with the pollutants coming from car exhausts the latter are more significant by a factor of about 65,000 to 20,000. For the calculations see "Cigarette vs vehicle exhaust comparison" in Downloads. What has not been taken into consideration there are bigger vehicles such as buses and trucks and the overall time periods involved as a person walks through the street or eats at an outdoor restaurant. Including those factors (and a couple of others - see the spreadsheet) would only increase the difference further. This is not to suggest cigarettes should be part of the major food groups, but it does make you wonder how someone can claim to suffer from a few smokers puffing on their cigarettes while at the same time being surrounded by cars pumping out carcinogens at a rate tens of thousands of times higher.

Another example that takes us closer to the scenario described in the blog "2050: Age of the Silverback" can be found in remarks made by the CEO of Origin Energy at a recent conference in Sydney. Grant King predicted that the price of energy would rise to two or three times the present levels by the year 2020. One factor is the cost of coal approaching a "more internationally consistent pricing". The article's author, Terry McCrann, then suggests the current government's plan of a carbon tax would exacerbate the situation while countries such as India and China enjoy the benefits of the relatively cheap fuel. How the perspective on carbon emissions will fare in ten years' time is another topic, but a rising world population, a general pressure on resources and political initiatives do make for an interesting mix. Furthermore, at the moment our prime minister is fighting a major battle for health reform, again underpinned by ever rising costs across the nation. One suggestion being mooted by the government is to substantially raise the cost of cigarettes to wean smokers off their habit and hence lowering the pressure on health care. However, as Adam Smith has already pointed out, over-taxing a product brings its own problems which ultimately result in greater costs to the government. It all points to a manifold pincer movement with the overall costs of living in the middle and mounting demands from all sides. There comes a point when a radical shift is forced upon a system that has run itself into the ground; a typical bifurcation in technical terms. So here is a possible outcome, unthinkable now but far more feasible in 30-40 years' time: life-style induced diseases (think of circulatory failures, depression, obesity, etc) have increased to the extent where essentially terminal cases are no longer treated in hospitals but instead shunted to palliative care using presently illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin. Not only will hundreds of millions of dollars be saved through that measure alone but militant groups around the world will be deprived of their income and therefore rendered inconsequential while at the same time the money remains in the country and becomes available for more productive purposes - another few billions saved. Sounds far-fetched? 40 years ago America and the Soviet Union had nuclear missiles pointed at each other (remember 'MAD'?), today the US and Russia sign on a nuclear arms reduction deal; 40 years ago homosexuals were sent to prison, today Sydney celebrates the biggest gay festival in the southern hemisphere. (Source: Courier Mail, 15 Apr 10, "Future's looking dim")

As the introduction of the Australian government internet filter continues to attract criticism, Luke Pullar, in a letter to the Courier Mail's editor, quotes Adolf Hitler. The filter is supposed to prevent child pornography from being accessed on the net but the list of banned sites is kept secret and there is no guarantee mistakes have not been made nor whether this censorship restricts itself to under-age sex. As pointed out elsewhere on these pages this latest initiative has its roots in the age-old Christian antagonism towards the human eros in general and the relatively recent fury engendered by feminism when it comes to male sexuality. In addition the feminist propensity to elevate the status of the Child out of all proportion has resulted in several policies and public attitudes that already proved disruptive to society in general (examples are increased violence among youth, teachers being attacked even by primary school children, a more unstable home life causing developmental problems in children). As for the internet filter, not only is the technology questionable, censorship generates its own problems regarding antisocial behaviour that is now pushed underground while at the same time establishing a government vehicle for controlling the people. The quote from Hitler: "The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the Government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation". It is worth noting how Wilhelm Reich connected fascism to sexual oppression by the state (W. Reich, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", Doubleday Canada Ltd, Toronto, 1985). Under the Otoom model cognitive functionalities are identified according to their impact on the individual and/or society, the degree of such impact in turn being linked to how fundamental the functionalities are along the evolutionary timeline. Since the propagation of the species is common to any organism on this planet, the associated cognitive elements are as basic as can be. Hence a controlling mechanism that makes use of them is very effective. In this context one advantage of the Otoom model is its ability to allow the analysis of societal maturity be derived from the identified sexual oppression in that society. The less sexual oppression the greater the maturity and therefore a better human rights record, a higher standard of living, a heightened intellectual sophistication - just from that aspect alone. By the way, all this is not to claim Australia is on the verge of becoming a fascist state. Nevertheless, it always helps to find out what bedfellows an ideology has; in this case feminism. (Source: Courier Mail, 7 Jan 10, "Talking Point - Filter will help hide evil")

A law works best only if it deals with exceptional cases of negative behaviour. The associated costs spread across the police force, the courts, and the prison system, as well as society in general, can only be borne within the context of the system if the nature of the system itself is not brought under constraint. Once the behaviour goes beyond what can be circumscribed as exceptional no law or police will be able to control that society. Hence the law is always powerless against uprisings or revolutions. Over the past few decades religious sentiments and feminist ideology have combined to create once more a public hysteria regarding sexual behaviour, this time in the context of the child. The results are making themselves felt when consistent pressure causes the legal entities to respond. In Queensland 6500 child-sex charges were laid between July 2005 and June 2007 alone. The costs are not inconsiderable, not to mention the problems for all the other types of cases. Ideology-based control is always questionable, but this time the coming burden already heralded by climate change, peak oil and tumultuous global politics make such fanaticism a very real enemy of the state. When individuals were identified in those terms in the past under similarly high-pressure circumstances they were often killed by the mob. (Source: Courier Mail, 7 Jul 08, "Abuse cases choke courts")

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Science in general:
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, managed to predict the brain signals in the participants of an experiment just before conscious decisions were made. The team was led by Professor Dr John-Dylan Haynes. It confirms that decisions people are consciously aware of have already been made by the brain. It is in line with the Otoom mind model since the differentiation between conscious and subconscious thought structures (functional entities emergent from the neurons' dynamics) does not merely cover the physicality of the responsible regions, but also the degree of awareness by the individual. Conscious thought structures are sensated, their subconscious counterparts are not; yet the latter are far more complex than the former. The dynamics and ramifications are outlined in "On the origin of Mind". (Source: Max Planck Society Press Release, 14 Apr 08, "Unconscious decisions in the brain")

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Terrorism:
In his book "See No Evil" Robert Baer writes about his experiences as a CIA officer on various overseas postings during the 80s and 90s. His work did not involve sitting behind a desk. He was out there on city streets, in Middle Eastern trouble spots, making contact with locals, agents, and terrorists. He experienced the shift at the highest levels of bureaucracy from a hands-on approach to one where isolated thinking and political correctness had taken over. Written just after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 he makes the point that lack of information from the ground up and unfamiliarity with the Middle Eastern mindset made it impossible to guard against that disaster. The destruction of the World Trade Centre was an act of war waiting to happen. Under Otoom a similar conclusion has been reached. Although not concerned with a content-related analysis - specific individuals, names, events at a certain time and place - the model's focus on functionality makes it possible to ascertain particular mannerisms for their principle nature and transpose them across wider society once a pattern - again in the functional sense - starts to reveal itself. As can be seen going through two major reports on Iraq, one done by the Americans and the other by the British, their conclusions match exactly those reached under Otoom written years before. An understanding of Middle Eastern culture within its own environment does not need trying out some war plan to see what will happen; in terms of the potential an intrusive aggression carries within itself the target's culture reveals a significant range of possibilities. Exactly who will do what and where needs the information at the source once the event is taking place. Given the applicability of functional patterns in society, the influence of bureaucratic theorising and its priority over realism could be ascertained in many other areas as well. Too often it has become the standard, and its followers, lured and sustained by the comfort of far-away offices and the ease with which ideas can be typed out at a whim, have presented us with the results. They include skewed perspectives on ourselves and on others, and they cost us dearly. A case in point is wide-spread public perception leaning towards the Palestinians during the current conflict in Gaza where news reports invite criticism towards Israel but Hamas' role is hardly touched upon. Most people have never been to the Middle East let alone to any Palestinian areas. They could do worse than view a video (Part 1, Part 2) throwing some light on the nature of Hamas. (Source: Robert Baer, "See No Evil", Crown Publishers, New York, 2002)

The British think tank Policy Exchange has just released a report, "The highjacking of British Islam", which details some of the Islamic values propagated through texts available at certain British mosques. Those values are extreme compared to their Western counterparts, such as the stoning of adulteresses, the killing of homosexuals, and the prohibition of Muslims to integrate with their host society or mixing with any "infidels" whatsoever. A significant source of the material comes from Saudi Arabia, a nation capable of disseminating its values throughout the world due to the wealth accumulated on the back of Western technology and its demand for oil. What is particularly interesting from Otoom's point of view is the widening of reference employed in the report. The original perception in the West of Islamic extremists was one of deprived individuals in developing countries; with more evidence becoming available it changed to discontented youth in the West until it became clear that some of the terrorists came from the ranks of well-off professionals; next it was assumed that the language barrier caused the segregation. And now the report makes it clear that the majority of the extremist literature is actually written in English, clearly not designed to appeal to a group kept apart by language. Along with the previous misguided perceptions ran the measures instituted by Western authorities. What those notions did not take into account was the element of identity, a feature made particularly significant against the backdrop of religion and sectarian and tribal cultures. In addition the influence of identity-driven domain-building has led to a considerable power shift over the last century, notably the strengthening of demographics on the back of Western-generated and -exported wealth, groups that did not join their source in terms of cultural alignment. Rather, it reinforced their antagonistic disposition and allowed them to emerge as critical players on the world scene. Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations are now able to play the energy card in a manner not foreseen at the time of the first oil fields. The underlying principles can be observed and analysed for what they are although whether the lessons are being learned is rather questionable. For example, what are the prospects that in another generation or so such demographics as indigenous people in Australia, intensively self-promoting as they are in terms of a specific, separate identity, will equally become an antagonistic player, this time powered by the means derived from the mineral wealth bestowed upon them by their high-tech host society? A scenario that will prove to be remarkably similar to the situation in today's world as it concerns oil, Islam, and the West. Although the geo-political scene is somewhat more complex than this, these features play a significant role and certainly don't make the resultant issues less intractable. (Source: D. MacEoin, "The highjacking of British Islam", Policy Exchange, London, 2007)

To demonstrate what a progression lock can do (which under Otoom means the constraint of choices from a particular point onwards and defined by the nature of pre-established conditions) one only has to consider the current request to Congress by the US military for US$190 billion to continue the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Senator Byrd the war has cost the US$450 billion already. A series of decisions and acted-out perceptions by the US government and the Pentagon has led to a take on reality in which the spending of US$640,000,000,000 (to remain with the US way of defining a billion) is entirely reasonable in order to prevent terrorists from conducting attacks on home soil. In this picture the huge sum is necessary when it comes to stalling single-figure groups of fanatics who seek to infiltrate the US border, organise some explosives, and look for a place to blow up. Such a mindset suggests two possibilities: either the defender is so incompetent that 640 billion must be spent in order to defeat groups effectively half the size of a football team, or the enemy is of so gigantic proportions that only this incredible effort will defeat him. Either way it's off the planet. The really insidious nature of progression locks however is not their visible form; it is the blind acceptance of the status quo because, no matter how lunatic, it now is reality and hence accepted as such. (Source: Courier Mail, 28 Sep 07, "$200b war bill bid")

A report by the New York Police Department, "Radicalisation in the West: The Homegrown Threat", sees the internet as the "new Afghanistan" because it represents a useful arena for the radicalisation of Muslims. The report notes that many of the attacks and identified plots against Western cities were planned by residents in those countries. Terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda are therefore not somewhere distant but their effective influence is local. Under the Otoom model the phenomenon is recognised as a form of clustering, where affinitive characteristics within a population contribute to the forming of groups along particular features. The propensity to cluster needs to be seen within the context of its constituents, whether that be a fad of fashion, an emerging habit, or perspectives taken from religion and culture in general. The role of identity-seeking has been highlighted in the report for good reason: it always forms a major part of the clustering process. Analysing society under such objective auspices away from one's own disposition makes the potential sources for emergent trends clearer. It needs to be realised by society's decision makers that within a nation demographics answer to their own dynamics and individuals may not adhere to what is the commonly perceived standard. (Source: Courier Mail, 17 Aug 07, "Homegrown terror a keystroke away")

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