Well, my models about the divide between the nurturer/thinkers and the posturers have evolved somewhat. I think there would be a more fair-minded way to categorize these folks. Each group has a different way of reasoning - one group goes out to look for consensuses… especially the consensuses of collegiate types… and the other people think independently, examining the situations and patterns in the world with their own wit and their own eyes, using logic and an ethic of intense observation.

People have to be very careful about the way in which they draw their conclusions about the world. And so people cling tenaciously to whatever method that they have found works for them. The independent thinkers are mature enough to listen to the consensus reasoners without feeling unsure of their footing - but it is not so, the other way around. Those who look for others to listen to and to believe feel very unsure of their own foundations when they listen to independent reasoners talk. These poor souls will be very ill at ease, and even lash out, when they hear these kinds of fresh ideas which are underpinned by premises which are unfamiliar.

So, because one group is intolerant of hearing conversation from the other about the things which are most important to those folks… these other people get very quiet. Even though we think intensely about many subjects, we have learned to be utterly silent about what we have been treasuring up in our hearts. Meanwhile the posturers are very talkative - they have practiced many stories, and many narratives which they bring out and recite for occasion x and occasion y.

These two groups of people are like oil and water. The differences between them are intractable. When people try to strike up a close friendship with a person from the other group, both folks end up feeling maligned - because these folks have different approaches to life. Also when one set is in the minority in any given social situation, they will suffer a lot. The minority ends up acting in a foolish way which isn’t true to themselves, or their own ethics about their approach to life.

So where do posturing and caring come in? These are the only logical outcomes in a person’s life who has chosen the one or the other form of reasoning.

A person who puts together her or his worldview based on a hodge podge of different conclusions reached by groups around her, can never have any comprehensive understanding of how the world works. She hasn’t put the pieces of the puzzle together herself. She just takes it on faith that all of these bits of knowledge fit together into a cohesive whole. A person like that will have no ability to edify her society - to build up the community by strategically doing certain things in certain ways. The best a person like that can hope to do is learn a specialized skill or two and find employment with that skill. So these people posture, because they don’t know how to be transparent; they simply don’t know themselves well enough, and don’t understand their relationship to their society except in terms of these social forms and customs and mores.

A person who has thought deeply and independently about the world, and has figured out how all the patterns work will have also learned about sociology. She or he will understand the processeses by which social trends form and move and influence things… that person understands how people’s lives can be upbuilt, and nurtured. The person understands that her own good goes hand in hand with others’ edification. So these people will always become very caring folks because they, like everybody else, seek their own good; and they see a way forward for providing for their own future through helping others.

Now, certainly the gentleman or gentlelady who works as a scientist or a computer engineer, and can write about all the specific ideas of his or her trade - and has a handle on all the jargon… this is not the kind of type of person I am speaking about here, when I say “independent thinker.”

It’s ironic that those who are the most caring and the most wise find themselves with their hands tied because of the intolerance and even viciousness of those who they would love to help.

What’s the answer? Finding others like yourself - other thinkers and nurturers. Make a way for yourself to live in a town which has an excellent zeitgeist - an excellent attitude… where there are a high concentration of such people. Learn a little temerity, and seek to befriend others who have that same spirit - other quiet ones like yourself. Understand that such people have a lot more in their minds than what they are showing on the surface in their daily lives.

background for this essay: the frame of reference which I am writing this from is this: living in a delightful little tourist town in the usa, observing the people around me here. Earlier this month I was writing from the perspective of my impressions of the facts on the ground in Seattle, a large west coast city. I’m sure the social dynamics I see around me are not the same ones which a person would see in Canada - and things might also be very different in Britain and in New Zealand and other english speaking countries. The division between these two groups manifests itself in those places too, but one might perceive it differently.