Trafford Publishing: The Cliffside Journals

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The Cliffside Journals

by William Lippold

120 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0554; ISBN 1-55369-152-0; US$15.50, C$17.95, EUR13.00, £9.00

The freedom to make our own behavioral decisions and lifestyle choices can't be gained by attacking the controlling efforts of others; it can only be realized by minimizing our own wilingness to submit to such controls.

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About the book About the author Table of Contents and Sample excerpts Catalogue info

About the Book

The stories retold in this book were translated by the author from pictographs recently discovered within a group of caves on the side of a cliff in Southern France. Archeologists theorize that Neanderthals occupied the caves some 143,721 years ago.
The similarities between the ancient lifestyles revealed in these stories and that of our own modern way of life are truly amazing. Apparently, many of these ancient people felt their lives were out of control - that they were being pushed and pulled by the demands of their society, that meeting the needs of their friends and family members precluded the meeting of their own needs, and that they were leading lives according to what others determined to be right.
These stone-age stories reveal an interesting and consistent theme that could be found applicable to our modern lives - that although other people control much of our behavior and many aspects of our lives, the source of that control doesn't lie with them, it lies within ourselves. We allow others to direct our behavior by soliciting their approval for everything from the way we comb our hair to our choice of careers. We encourage others to control our lives in order to avoid responsibilities. And we force others to tell us what's right or wrong because we're unable or unwilling to think for ourselves. The freedom to make our own behavioral decisions and lifestyle choices can't be gained by attacking the controlling efforts of others; it can only be realized by minimizing our own willingness to submit to such controls.
The author swears by the authenticity of these stories. He hopes their retelling will help readers see their own lives in an improved perspective and, perhaps, help them gain more control of their lives.

About the Author

William Lippold went to work for IBM as a computer designer in 1961 after earning a Masters Degree in engineering. This was during the time that new employees were given sheet music to the IBM theme song, a divorce could jeopardize a career, and employee family members were referred to IBM-ers. The author tolerated this environment for two years before moving on to engineering, product planning and marketing positions with various other companies within the computer industry.
An early indicator of William's independent nature occurred in the mid-60's when he attended a week-long seminar on "team management". The seminar presenters asked William to leave on Wednesday of that week after he demonstrated to the assembled attendees that team management was an excellent technique for avoiding individual responsibilities.
William bounced around the computer industry for 14 years searching for an arena with rules that he could tolerate. When that quest failed, he created his own arena with his own rules by starting a one-man consulting firm. During the first year William only worked about half-time but earned more than he had the previous year while employed by a large corporation. He felt somewhat guilty about that until he realized how much of his corporate-world time had been spent in meetings and memo-processing in order to build the consensus that seemed so necessary to the making of any decision. In his consulting business, the elapsed time between problem awareness and decision making was generally about five minutes.
Before long, the author's consulting business began addressing management issues more than technical problems. And it was then that the influence of his wife, Mary, came to bear. As an engineer, William believed that if something couldn't be quantified it wasn't real. Numbers were real, but feelings and emotions were not. Mary came from another world - a degree in psychology and a career as a welfare worker, probation officer, and domestic violence counselor. Slowly but surely Mary educated William in the ways of the real world and his consulting business flourished for 23 years.
In 1998, William retired (sort of) and began construction of a small cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia - a ten hour drive from his home in St. Augustine, Florida. The cabin took three years to complete and the author enjoyed every minute of it - the construction challenges, the aching muscles, the solitude, the hikes down the mountain to the river, and the opportunity for intellectual and emotional reflection. It was during this time that the author wrote The Cliffside Journals.

Sample Excerpt and Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction
Approval
External Rules
Internal Rules
Welcoming Control
Dependency
Comfort
Success
Thinking
Acquire Information Carefully
Accept Discomforting Information
Do it Objectively
Change Your Mind
Do it Independently
Accept the Unknowable
Think Beyond the Comfort Level
From the Heart
A Test
Beware of Psychological Overload
Do it Deliberately
143,721 Years Later

Welcoming Control

Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort which it brings.
Walter Lippmann
A Preface to Morals (1929)

It was opening day of saber-toothed tiger hunting season and all the men were assembled in front of Gog's cave before dawn. In anticipation of this day, the hunters had spent weeks sharpening their spear points, shaping the grips on their clubs, and practicing their throwing and swinging techniques. The temperature was cool with a light rain falling, but nobody was going to let a little foul weather dampen their excitement for the hunt. The hunters passed around a flask of fermented elderberry juice to take off some of the chill while waiting for Gog to join them.
Gog was the chosen leader of the clan, primarily because he always seemed to know where to find food and how to keep the fires burning. But he was also very popular. The men liked him since he could belch, fart, and tell dirty jokes with the best of them. The women liked him because he was tall and had great abs.
With Gog leading the way, the group of hunters headed out to a series of watering holes five miles away in the next valley. Gog had told them that saber-toothed tigers liked to hang out at watering holes waiting for other animals to come to drink. Similar watering holes could be found nearby in their own valley, but everyone knew the quality of the hunting territory improved as you traveled further from where you lived.
The hunting party had just reached the top of a hill when a severe thunderstorm came up. They all ran for the cover of trees to keep from getting soaked and that's when poor Mok got fried by a lightning bolt that struck the tree he was under.
The next day, after the clan had ceremoniously sent Mok off to the happy hunting grounds, the guys were sitting around in front of Gog's cave eating some special mushrooms to lift their spirits and telling stories about how Mok was the sort of friend that would give you the antelope skin off his back. After recounting the circumstances of Mok's death for the umpteenth time, they asked Gog to explain where the lightning and thunder came from. He responded by saying, "How the hell do I know?"
But the tragedy of Mok's death weighed on the minds of the clan members and in the days that followed they kept pestering Gog on the subject of lightning and thunder. He ignored them until he overheard a couple of the women saying that maybe he wasn't as smart as they thought and maybe the time had come to think about choosing a new leader for the clan, despite his great abs. Gog realized that he had to come up with some explanation for the lightning and thunder to retain his leadership position. He called a clan meeting that evening after supper.
"OK folks," Gog said, "here's the deal. There's a big guy living up in the sky and his name is Flash. When he gets mad he throws lightning bolts around. His woman's name is Grumble. She gets irritated when Flash does his lightning thing and hollers at him. That's the thunder you hear. Now here's what we have to do to keep from getting zapped by lightning and joining poor Mok in the hereafter. Every Wednesday morning at 11 AM we have to sit around in a circle, hold hands, and chant 'We love you Flash' for one hour. If we do this, nobody will ever get struck by lightning again. And if they do, it will be because they didn't chant with enough sincerity."
The clan loved it. Not only had Gog provided an explanation for a mysterious phenomenon, he told them how to behave to insure they wouldn't end up like Mok. They lifted Gog on their shoulders and paraded him around the community amidst boisterous hoorays and huzzahs.
Gog was so pleased with his enhanced stature in the clan that he came up with explanations and rituals for all sorts of things - the sun, the moon, what time they should go to bed, and why they should never eat woolly mammoth liver.
The clan was so happy and relieved that somebody was telling them what to believe and how to behave that they clamored for more. In response to the need, Gog instituted the ritual sacrificing of sheep and virgins. His real breakthrough, however, was when he convinced the clan that the gods wanted ten percent of everything they hunted and gathered and that he, Gog, had been designated as the collecting agent.
At the next Sophomore Service League's annual Warthog Barbecue and Charity Auction - attended only by those families living in the larger caves near the top of the cliff - Gog's position as leader of the clan came under discussion by two of the clan's most prominent businessmen, Zok and Nar.
"I understand why we need someone to tell us how to behave when we're defending ourselves by attacking another clan before they can attack us," said Zok, "but why do we need someone controlling our behavior and lives by telling us what to believe?"
"Well we all need someone to tell us what to believe," responded Nar. "Otherwise each of us would have to figure out all those things for ourselves and that takes a lot of effort."
"Yeah, you're right," agreed Zok. "I'm busy enough thinking about how to afford a larger cave and a new sports canoe without having to think about whether or not it's a sin to eat mammoth liver."
"And besides," Nar continued, "it's nice living among people who all believe the same things and behave the same way. It's comfortable. If we didn't have Gog telling us what to believe and how to behave, we would have a bunch of smart-aleck intellectuals coming up with crazy ideas of their own and behaving in all sorts of weird ways. You wouldn't want that, would you Zok?"
"Certainly not!" replied Zok emphatically. "So I guess having Gog telling everyone in the clan what to believe and how to behave isn't such a bad thing after all, especially if he continues to accept the wise counsel of those of us living in the large caves near the top of the cliff."
The Point Is...
Gog was the first leader pressured into telling others what they should believe and how to behave, but he certainly wasn't the last. Over the centuries, a steady stream of philosophers, teachers, kings, political leaders and priests have fulfilled the same need for mankind that Gog filled for his clan. When the famous philosophers of ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle, were asked about the origin of the universe, the nature of man, and how one related to the other, they created answers to satisfy the demand. In the same era, a group of philosophers called Skeptics said there were no rational answers to such questions and that Plato and Aristotle were wasting their time thinking about such things. Because we're much more comfortable with knowing than with not knowing, the answers created by Plato and Aristotle have come down through the centuries as works of philosophical genius while the Skeptics have been largely forgotten.
We welcome or force others to control our behavior for several reasons. One is our reluctance to assume responsibility for certain aspects of our lives - we often let others control our behavior with the proviso that they, not we, will be responsible if things turn out badly. Another is our inability or unwillingness to think for ourselves - when a question comes to light, insisting on an answer from someone who should know is much easier than coming up with our own. And a third reason is our discomfort with unanswered questions - we practice self-delusion by insisting on an answer for the sake of having an answer.
To control your life, you must take responsibility for it, you must free yourself from the thinking of others by thinking for yourself, and you must learn to be comfortable with questions that have no answers.

Catalogue Information