4D Star for Kids
4D Star This special tool helps us navigate our life together. When sailors are at sea, they use instruments to figure out where the ship is and where it’s going. This makes it easier to arrive at the right place. 4D★ is what adults call a “macro-level paradigm.” Those big fancy words just mean it’s a navigational tool like what sailors use. Except 4D★ helps guide us in pretty much everything — not just sailing. You know how a ship’s captain uses a nautical chart to get a complete view of the ocean? 4D★ is a little bit like that. Except this is an “idea” kind of instrument. It helps us remember what’s important so we can set our course. Like a sailor who wants to keep his ship in good condition, we take a responsible attitude. ☆ You see that star with five points? Those points keep five major things within sight, guiding our course — like how the North Star shows direction to sailors. The first point, and the most important, stands for “Human.” Why first? Maybe your parents ask you to do your homework, or your chores, as soon as you get home from school. If you don’t do it first — and you put something else first — what happens? You might forget, right? Well, the same is true for adults. If they don’t put “Human” first, a lot of times they forget. In history, some people were very cruel when they forgot. Humans need a lot of things, but they also do a lot of things. People work hard all day to help other people. Maybe they’re paving a road or planting a garden, and one day someone else will drive on that road or eat those vegetables. Other people see their customers right away — like a nurse or a teacher. Sometimes people also spend quiet time alone, reading a book, praying, or enjoying the creek water as it flows by. Once in a while, we think about the brave people in the military and police who go into danger to keep us safe and free. Most important, we like to spend time with our family or the people who are like family. ☆ Another point on the star stands for a special thing called Freedom. Freedom means your parents and you get to make choices, instead of waiting for decisions from a big building far away. Maybe today you want to jump rope, but yesterday you preferred to read a book. If you decide for yourself, that’s “freedom.” When you grow up, you could be a carpenter, a dentist, or an engineer. Any job that helps other people is a good job, if you enjoy it and it fits you. You are special and you know yourself better than anyone else. You can decide for yourself. Guess what? Freedom also means you can suggest ways to improve things, to help people even more. ☆ Loyalty with élan helps us in many ways. When we are loyal, we remember that people have dignity that we should honor. “Dignity” means other people laugh and cry just like you do, so they are valuable. Élan is a French word. It means to do things eagerly and with energy, taking pride in your own style. Because you are so important, you should love yourself first of all. That means eating good food, learning about this mysterious Universe, and trying every day to be a helpful person. One day you will grow up and maybe have your own children. They in turn could have their own children. That means your neighbor and you could both be grandfathers or grandmothers to the same person, in 50 years. Thinking about that, it’s easy to see how people are not really so separate. So try to help the people in your town, because one day they could be your family. Loyalty also means we remember the brave people who defend our freedom. There may come another time when we need to courageously take a stand, because tyrants don’t care about liberty, but we treasure it dearly. When free people like us are ready and united, aggressive dictators are too afraid to start trouble. But when we’re not prepared, and if we fight each other instead, that’s when they think they can take our freedom away. It’s very sad, but in those countries where the dictators are in charge, they do anything they want. People don’t have rights like we have; they are more like slaves. We never want to live like that, even if it means we have to fight hard to keep our life the way it is. Can you name any ties between Loyalty, Human dignity, and Freedom? ☆ Innovation means we always look for ways to improve what we do. We use our creativity, we do experiments, and we remember our experiences. We think things through again and again; we don’t do things only because it was done that way before. Because we are loyal, we use our freedom to look for innovative ways to help humans. Are you starting to see how the points of the star connect to each other? These are things that will always be linked together. Since we live in a free country, if we find the answer to a problem, we can let everyone know about it. We can also study what other people want and need. ☆ Organization means we work together in a smart way. With teamwork, we use those innovative solutions. Moved by loyalty and élan, everyone enthusiastically cooperates. We eagerly learn about the interesting choices that people make using their freedom, so we can help humans get what they want. Notice that again? You can’t separate these five elements and still get the job done. That’s why 4D★ is so special. As we organize, we have to make sure that we don’t forget about the other points of the star. We need to be smart so we don’t waste any
How do some malevolent regimes foster enthusiastic obedience despite suppressing human dignity and freedom?
Creating Enthusiastic Obedience in a Context of Terror Despite suppressing human dignity and freedom, some oppressive regimes have managed not only to impose obedience, but to foster a degree of zealous compliance. How is this possible within the framework of Malevolent Star — a model recently introduced by the author as the “evil counterpart” to the 4D Star paradigm, which guides decision-making and analysis in free societies? How can this seemingly-strange phenomenon — serving tyranny not just fearfully, but enthusiastically — deepen our understanding of 4D Star? January 2024 Nord Kivu, RD Congo: An entertainer and supporter of a local warlord at his birthday celebration. Click on any photo to enlarge. L’Afrique lafrique.com In terms of the nature of fealty in a tyrannical system, by default, it is obedience through fear, with the exception of regime officials and any others who benefit from corruption and oppression, who are motivated by greed and power. But what about examples such as Imperial Japan (1933 – 1945), when vast numbers of the Japanese military fought to the death, with very few choosing to surrender, thereby demonstrating determined zealotry? What about extremist movements associated with the mass murder of Jews, such as Nazi Germany or the jihadist groups bordering Israel? In those examples too, many true believers fight to the bitter end, despite the destruction of their own societies and overwhelming evidence that their ideologies do not lead to positive outcomes. Perhaps most surprising of all, Joseph Stalin lived to old age, remaining in power for approximately 30 years until dying in 1953, probably of natural causes. He never even faced a serious assassination attempt, even though he regularly murdered his close associates and their family members, as well as tens of millions of inhabitants of the USSR. Left: In Zimbabwe (2005), an activist of Zanu-PF speaks to starving villagers who were forcibly evicted from their homes during the regime’s “Move the Rubbish” campaign. She is nevertheless trying to convince them to support the dictator, Robert Mugabe. Right: In 1957, a cadre of Castro’s Communist rebellion encourages a local militia to join the rebellion, promising rapid elections and moderate economic policies. Both promises were subsequently disregarded after the seizure of power. Masters of Illusion How do tyrannical regimes sometimes benefit from fanatical obedience, despite state betrayal in terms of freedom and human dignity? In short — although they would not articulate it in these terms — they seek to harness the power of 4D Star without actually adopting that model. While imposing a Malevolent Star tyranny, they try to convince inhabitants that they are living in a free society. A representation of a political activist of the Viet Cong or Khmer Rouge, speaking to villagers in the 1960s or early 1970s. These regimes tightly control access to information and try to create the illusion that an innovative state is organized to meet human needs and uphold freedom. “Freedom” is redefined. The term no longer denotes genuine choices, nor the ability to make contributions in one’s own way. Since the only “logical” choice is to support the program of the regime, the concept now equates with submission to state power. In the 1980s, in a jungle base in an indeterminate location, a Soviet advisor encourages insurgents to be ruthless as they struggle to impose a totalitarian regime. Examples of Trickery Many tomes could be written describing the tricks that tyrannical regimes deploy as they seek to tap into some of the power of 4D Star while actually imposing the tyranny of the Malevolent Star model. There is no space in this article for a comprehensive examination of the issue, but to give the reader a general idea of this phenomenon, the author cites several examples below. These examples are organized according to sub-elements enumerated by the author under the “Human” foundation of 4D Star, which illustrates that the paradigm helps to makes sense of the phenomenon. Community & Belonging + Sense of Purpose Autocratic regimes have often used the cult tactic of harnessing the human need for a sense of belonging to a community, in conjunction with the need for a sense of purpose. This is the supposed community-family striving heroically for a humanity-saving or nation-saving cause. Without the common genetics of an actual family, it is the noble struggle that unites the collective as a pseudo-family. Thus the linkage between the two needs must be understood in this context. Probably almost everyone has some vulnerability to this ploy, although risk factors would include an unstable childhood and recent stressful life transitions. Even if the individual himself does not believe in the ideology of the cult-regime, if he does sense that others may truly believe, he has cause to hesitate to organize any resistance, lest a true believer denounce him. Stalin refined deployment of this technique, marrying it to the fear-based foundation of the Malevolent Star. By periodically shifting ideologically to the right or the left, he kept his followers guessing about the idéologie du jour, heightening terror-based anxiety and thereby undermining the psychological resources for any potential regime-threatening centers of power. (Purging top lieutenants and their entourages every now and then served a similar purpose.) For example, as Stephen Kotkin relates in the biography Stalin, the dictator first supported the rightward shift of the New Economic Policy (NEP), purging communists who clung to strict Marxism. The Georgian strongman shifted leftward in the late 1920s, abolishing NEP and imposing brutal collectivization across Soviet Eurasia. He then destroyed the “right deviationists” who failed to shift quickly enough — or who were too closely associated with the former policy. In other words, the sheep were made to nervously focus on shifting their direction as soon as the first signals of a change would emerge. Thus, they lacked the attention or psychological health to consider bigger questions that might threaten the leader. Ultimately, the individual follower is always disappointed in the satisfaction of these needs. In terms of the community-family, no such thing really exists when the parental figure does not care
4D Star: After endlessly retreading the failed ideologies of the 20th century, we have a new strategic model to navigate complex challenges.
4D Star: This revolutionary, evidence-based universal paradigm fosters ethical directionality, strategic orientation, systemic vitality, and the integration of knowledge Ethics, strategy, human systemic functionality, and knowledge integration must be coherently merged into an evidence-based paradigm for any decision or analysis to be suitable. In retrospect, it seems that this should have been manifest long ago — but apparently, the elaboration of 4D Star required an unusual level of insight. The point of departure is the aim of uplifting human dignity, human development, values, and virtues. This entails a broad understanding of our species — including its needs, aspirations, and place in the natural universe. Click any photo to enlarge Without freedom, a system cannot explore new options; thus, it cannot adaptively interface with its changing environment. Furthermore, human dignity cannot be upheld; human development cannot advance. The variation represented by freedom must be met by a force that channels exploration right back toward the needs of the system. Loyalty provides the stability in which freedom can endure. It helps to hold the system together through time and it manifests itself in every aspect of functionality. But for loyalty to lead freedom effectively back to human, it requires organization. This entails structured information, processes, and roles. Loyalty also needs an effective arrangement of resources and channels of informational exchange; otherwise, it cannot shepherd the system all the way to integrative, ethical, and sustainable innovation (IESI). Innovation is a process; it is not a final, ideal end-state. It is dynamic movement, not an oppressive prophecy shouted from a hilltop. Thus, any ethical system demonstrating vitality engages constant feedback, so it can change course as indicated. It requires collective intelligence. It insists on continuous data to respond to threats and opportunities, to harmonize the systemic elements, and to monitor needs and development. For these reasons, the system demands connectivity and communication. These seven elements compose a complex system with innumerable interconnections. When we consider Sustainability Through Time, we find that the system generates emergent properties. These include vitality and its components; i.e., resilience, adaptability, cohesiveness, trust, and diversity; as well as civilization and language. These emergent properties feed back into the system as it moves through time. This continuous reinforcement strengthens the system, equipping it to survive and to thrive as it faces evolving factors of sustainability. These systemic and temporal phenomena occur within a still-larger background frame: Enduring Realities. The eternal or slowly-evolving patterns of history and of nature set the stage for the unfolding of events and the dynamics of the ethical and resilient human system, which is open to and interactive with its environment. January 2024modified: August 2024 Brian Luedke MSN RN L’Europe leurope.com Summary Executive Summary The Four-Dimensional Star (4D Star) model constitutes an evidence-based, solutions-oriented universal paradigm, elucidating the hitherto unidentified synergy of core systemic enablers, apt to facilitate macro-level holistic analysis and strategic decision-making, in view of shaping innovative, harmonious, (spiritual), and ethical societies, organizations, and individuals that sustainably obtain positive outcomes by engaging enthusiastic commitment, freedom to contribute to choices and improvements, efficient structuring of information and resources, effective inter- and intra-personal bonds, and identification of enduring realities. Confusion ➜ Insight Making decisions with naïvely simplistic models — or without reference to a sufficiently broad macro-level paradigm — results in failure to address root causes of problems, or, in the creation of new, unforeseen dilemmas. Contrasting with the author’s 4D paradigm, some models represent concepts as isolated dichotomies or one-dimensional continuums: engaged vs. unengaged (employees), safe vs. unsafe, equitable vs. inequitable, efficient vs. inefficient (processes), etc. A simple model may accurately represent one aspect of reality. Simple models can provide clarity and facilitate promptness and efficiency. Relevant data can be easier to measure and communicate (Mallikarjun, 2021). However, reliance on a basket of simple models – without an over-arching paradigm to organize information – can lead to catastrophic outcomes, a non-cumulative knowledge base, misdirected resources, and misaligned priorities. While a macro-level paradigm inherently presents more complexity than simple models, it can nevertheless simplify analysis and decision making. Heretofore, without 4D Star, siloed approaches have often led to conflict between stakeholders, who advocate for elements in isolation – based on subjective values and experiences – without sufficient acknowledgement that competing priorities frequently connect at the macro-level. Ignorance of macro-level dynamics thus generates confusion, distrust and rivalry, creating a new layer of complication in problem-solving. Simplification of tasks has long been recognized as a primary means of helping to avoid errors (Leveson, 1995). A macro-level paradigm that enables stakeholders to identify how priorities intersect would promote coherence, collaboration, and harmony — boosting systemic performance. One needs to be ever mindful of important variables that may be excluded from simple models (Chowdhury and Turin, 2020). The surest way to ensure inclusion of relevant factors is through consistent reference to a robust and comprehensive higher-level paradigm. A macro-level paradigm with predictive power can facilitate organized action, promote efficiency, enhance communication and teamwork, clarify needed benchmarks and metrics, more fully integrate and engage research findings, enrich education, disseminate insight, strengthen analysis of historical anecdotes, and lend credibility to proposed reforms. Narrow, specialized micro-level paradigms should be harmoniously “nested” within a superior paradigm. The highest-level model should be solutions-oriented and integrate human dignity, virtues, values, core human dynamics, sustainability and success through time, and enduring factors that frame reality. Currently, rather than nesting their models within a superior paradigm, intellectuals, policymakers, and organizational leaders simply allow them to dead-end at a midway point. There is no logical reason for this; indeed, it is profoundly illogical and contributes to fragmentation, inefficiency, and confusion. The fragmented approach that we currently have is perfectly designed for the results that we are getting. We see the negative outcomes associated with this primitive methodology, and no one is content. Yet institutional inertia, intellectual complacency, and self-serving interests in protecting the status quo are all conspiring to delay urgently-needed reform. 4D Star fills a crucial gap and catalyzes logical, strategic, and coordinated action. It facilitates communication and teamwork by providing stakeholders with