Note: With all of the political upset dividing our nation currently, with those on the supposed “Left” attacking those on the supposed “Right”, and vice versa, I decided I would share a few musings about our situation and politics in general. I hope you get something from it…Please read on. MA

I believe that one of the great developments of the last century in the fields of human behavior, psychology, physiology, and even politics, was the discovery of something called the emotional tone scale. The emotional tone scale is just that: a scale of emotions that ranges as follows, from top to bottom:

Enthusiastic

Cheerful

Conservative

Bored

Antagonistic

Angry

Covertly Hostile

Fearful

Grief

Apathy

Dead

The scale as displayed above is not theoretical, but actually is a scientific discovery stemming from the primary law that life is trying to survive. [1]A person succeeding in this quest of survival ascends the tone scale in the order described above, and a person failing at this quest descends in the same order. It was also found that people would settle into their own “chronic” tone which was dependent on several factors, among them the person’s education, his environment and his past experiences, successes and failures. For instance, faced with a heavy loss, such as the death of a loved one, a person will rapidly descend to “Grief” on this scale and after a few days will usually tend to rebound somewhat, if only to “Fear”, which would actually be an improvement.  A few more weeks go by and the person would tend to return to his “chronic” tone of “Bored” or “Conservative” or whatever. Add a few more failures and heavy losses to that person’s life, however, and you might find them descending in their chronic tone to “Antagonistic” or lower.

Through close and minute observation it was established that people at different levels of this scale have predictable behavior patterns. Learning the behavior characteristics for each level of the scale delivers to a person considerable control over ensuring that his personal relationships, business associations and so on are successful. The scale has vast value in this regard. People at the lower levels of this scale chronically tend to be more untrustworthy, less healthy, have more accidents, are more “unlucky”, and in general are more inclined towards the scale’s ultimate bottom: “Death.” If you are able to spot these people you can ensure they are not empowered with key roles in your life and thus you will not be dragged down with or by them. You can also learn how to raise them on the scale.

More germane to the point of this article, the scale above provides much insight into politics and political systems. In the “Note” at the top of this article I made mention of the classic political “Right” and “Left” spectrum which we have been hearing about and using our whole lives, many of us without really understanding what the terms imply. Historically the terms “Right” and “Left” in a political context came from their use in the French Revolution in the late 1700s. Those in the French general assembly who supported the King sat together on the assembly’s right side, while those opposed to the monarchy sat on the left.  As time went on “Right” came to symbolize a conservative maintaining of the status quo, nationalism and, in its extreme form Fascism [2]; while “Left” came to mean what is today considered to be liberal, socialist or socialist leaning and, in the extreme, Communism.  This classic “Left to Right” spectrum would have you believe that “Communism” on the extreme left of the spectrum, and “Fascism” on the extreme right, are diametrically opposed to each other.

Applying the emotional tone scale to this “Left/Right” spectrum demonstrates the truth, however, and gives us the true scale of politics, which looks like this:

Republic (Conservative and above)

Democracy (Bored)

Social Democracy [3] (Antagonistic)

Fascism (Anger)

Communism (Covertly Hostile)

Anarchism (Death)

As you can see from this, the scale is not Left to Right at all, but vertical. Both Communism and Fascism reside in the lower parts of the scale and incline towards death. In reality, in the scale above you have a descent from the top form of political system in terms of survival, a Republic, in which the individual rights inherent in us all are guaranteed by a constitution and law, down into different forms of totalitarianism (Fascism and Communism) and ultimately the society, country or culture dies in the throes of Anarchism.

Today we see this scale at play in our country, the United States. The question then becomes, what do we do about it? In answering this question it is important to understand that our country as a nation is comprised of nearly 320 million unique and individual souls; that we are not a mass  of “the people” as some political philosophies  claim; or a mob to be controlled, as claim others. Each of us has our own story and beliefs. So, let’s start to improve things by trying to grant to each other the rights that are inherently ours by birth. Talk to and LISTEN to the other person, and try to keep your conversation above the tone of Antagonism above, for to fail to do so is a step towards death. And when the other person has completed saying something let them know you have heard them. If you expect them to allow you to have your views, you must then grant the same right to them.

I know this isn’t always easy to do. The real test is to allow someone to sit there and tell you something that to you is so outrageous and unacceptable as to be intolerable, but you still listen, and grant them that right to that belief, knowing the while that it is also YOUR right not to agree.  When you can do this and not have it ruin your day you will know you are making progress.

Ultimately we in the United States will have the government we deserve. If we want that government to be one that sets an example to the world of Freedom, Human Rights and Peace, then we must start displaying these attributes in our relations with our fellow citizens. By doing this we can all help each other to ascend the emotional tone scale, and in so doing our country to ascend the actual scale of politics.

Copyright © 2017

By Mark Arnold

All Rights Reserved

[1] For a complete description of the emotional tone scale please read the books “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” and “Science of Survival” by L. Ron Hubbard

[2] Fascism: often capitalized–a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascist) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

[3]Social Democracy:   a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means and that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices.