Mastery, Not Control
by Antonio Dias
I put this presentation together last April. I’ve been “sitting” on it, waiting to see how it held up before releasing it. Now seems to be the right time.
This was originally written out as an essay, but after experimenting with different formats, I think it is best suited to the slide show. I use as my inspiration John Boyd (take this site with a grain of salt – stick to what Boyd himself wrote!) not PowerPoint – God Forbid! – recognizing that Boyd has been grievously misunderstood in ways that have led to far worse than Microsoft’s fossilization of his technique.
I see my own goal in this, and these kinds of pieces, to collide Boyd with Ivan Illich and see what comes out. Boyd was the master strategist, Illich the soul. What could happen if they co-pollinated?
I would use the term “self-mastery” – because one can also attempt to master/be master of other people. Control in a psychological sense always seems to be from the point of view of a child who is afraid of being overwhelmed by forces ranged against him, where self-mastery is a quality of maturity.
I agree.
I shortened the term to a single word, mastery, because I feel this is its intrinsic meaning, the other “mastery” mastering, etc. is really just another form of control.
Without self-mastery, which again is different from self-control, there can be no true mastery, and there is no true mastery that doesn’t accept ambiguity and the limits impinging on any attempt to effect outcomes.
In the end, mastery, self-mastery involves gaining the ability to accept what cannot be changed without falling into paralysis or the frenzy and fantasy of chasing after control.
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