by Edward de Bono
The Myth of the Monohops
Monohop society was intensely logical. Early in the development of this culture, the sociologists had come to the conclusion that most of society's troubles arose directly from man's ability to attack his fellows and from his ability to run away. The former encouraged agression, the latter crime. It was agreed that if man's mobility could be reduced at an early enough age society would benefit. Therefore soon after birth the left leg was amputated from each monohop child.
With its usual rapid adaptation, society soon organized (1) .......... into a monohop world. Bicycles had but one (2)........ , right shoes were the only shoes ever made, (3) ....... were abolished and replaced by lifts and escalators. (4)......... short so completely did society become monohop that (5) ....... one noticed any inconvenience.
Whenever someone suggested that (6) ...... two-legged society might be preferable, he was not (7)..... by hostility but by puzzlement. Why, they asked, (8)......... we change?
Everything is running smoothly. Wouldn't we (9)....... to go to great expense to make and (10)........ left shoes? Wouldn't our bicycles become useless? And (11) ........ about unemployment among surgeons and lift-makers? What (12)...... agression and crime - we know there would be (13)......... great increase? Besides, can you prove that change (14).......... better, have you collected statistical evidence to show (15)........ two-legged monohops would be better than the usual (16) ........ ?
But, said the revolutionary, is it not obvious (17) ....... a man with two legs can do all (18) ........ a man with one leg can do - and (19)...... as well? That may well be, they said, (20) ...... monohops are clearly the best suited to this (21) ...... world. We are concerned only with getting our (22) ....... to hop as excellently as possible (we (23) ....... exams, you know), not with how much better (24) ....... would be if we had two legs instead (25) ...... one.
Old think
It has been suggested that the three greatest intellectual disasters (26) ..... Western culture were the ancient Greeks, the Crucifixion (27) ...... the Renaissance. I do see the point of (28) ..... suggestion, but I would draw a sharp distinction between (29) ....... extremism, the polarization and the right wrong certainty of the Crucifxion, and Christianity as such which innovated exactly opposing attitudes.
The traditional idiom of thinking, started by the Greek philosophers and nurtured by the Renaissance, suggests (30) ..... somehow, somewhere, an absolute truth is set high on (31) ........ mountain and that with sufficient intelligence and education anyone (32) ........ mount the carefully polished concept steps that lead there. This attitude (33) ...... nicely illustrated by Bertrand Russell in his Nobel Prize lecture: "..the main thing needed (34) ........ make the world happy is intelligence. And this is after (35) ...... an optimistic conclusion, because intelligence is a thing that can (36) ....... fostered by known methods of education."
Is this so? Nearly all (37) ........ conflict situations in history have been brought about by the better-educated people (38) ....... each side. What Bertrand Russell might have meant was that everyone who agreed (39)....... the enlightened way he, Bertrand Russell thought was intelligent and well educated. (40) ...... is the traditional use of the word 'intelligent'. Or he may (41) ....... meant that there was some high level of intelligence which, once achieved, (42) ......... result in everyone coming to the same conclusions. If so, then (43) ......... have no right to assume that known methods of education (44) ........ enable us ever to reach an intelligence that has been (45) ........ obviously unattainable in the past.
In practice it seems that people (46) ......... out with a different way of looking at things and then (47) ........ their intelligence and education to support that point of view. Since (48) ........ old idiom of thinking insists that there is an absolutely right (49) ......... to look at things, then anybody who reaches a way that (50) ....... right to her/him necessarily feels that any opposing point of view (51) ........ be wrong (and hence need altering).
It is certainly not a (52) ........ of intelligence or education that allows people to think in (53) ........ ways - simply the fact that they are living in different worlds furnished (54) ........ different experience, perceptions and emotions.
The more one looks into thinking the (55) ........ one comes to realize that:
1 Everyone is always right
2 No one is ever right
In other words, within your own perceptual world you are always (56)........ , but this is not everyone else's world and certainly not (57)..... absolute one. Once you accept this idea, then the emphasis shifts (58)....... from proving the logical wrongness of the other person's point of (59) ...... on the assumption that you are both looking at the same (60)........... .
There is a story of a man who painted half his car black (61) ....... the other half white. He said he did this because he loved (62) ....... hear the witnesses dogmatically contradict each other whenever he was involved (63) ....... an accident. A wife tries on a new dress and loves (64)........ . Her husband who is with her dislikes it. She is looking (65)..... the colour and shape - he is looking at the price.
(Once you accept this idea, then the emphasis shifts....)
The emphasis shifts (66) ........ proving the other person wrong to exploring what he is really (67) ........ at. And if he does seem to have an inadequate point (68) ........ view then one tries to bring about a change in this, not (69)........ forceful dogmatism but by developing the type of thinking which will allow (70) ....... to switch over and look at things in a different way. Unfortunately (71) ........ traditional idiom of thinking is not good at doing this because it insists (72) ....... logical rightness is absolute. One needs a new idiom of thinking (73) ...... is based not on dogmatic proof but on the creative ability (74) ........ change ideas. It is this sort of change that leads to (75)........ different way of looking at things, and the switch-over to that new way is insight.
An Englishman may learn to speak German very fluently. He may get more and more skilled all the time. But he will never reach a point at which his excellence in German is such that he suddenly finds himself speaking Italian. No amount of excellence in the old idiom of thinking will enable you to suddenly switch over to a new idiom. If you happen to be in Italy, then a few words mumbled in Italian are worth more than any degree of excellence in German.
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