A way with worlds: 30 - Cycles of Conflict

THE INEVITABCLE COLLAPSE:
Of course, this can't go on. The ethical systems of the out-of-balance mind will eventually collapse out fo realization or drive the person or people who are out of balance to some insane action. At this point, rational thought and perhaps even logical self-preservation are long gone.

Then, coping with what has been done begins. I imagine many a murderer, after a moment of stupidity, wondered just what they'd done - and knew they couldn't fix things now that someone was dead. There's many a leader who looked at a war the same way.

In "Maps of the Mind," this out-of-control process was titled Schizmogenesis, a term originated by Gregory Bateson, originally referring to "splits" or "gaps" in communication. Since it means "generating a split" more or less, I like to use it to refer this entire out-of-control process.

WRITING WITH THIS CONCEPT:
To review, the theory is that the normally balanced human mind can get out of wack when an idea becomes an obsession and the rest of the ethical system of that person (or people) feeds the obsession instead of correcting it. As the ethical system spins out of control, it makes its problem worse by continually justifying actions as opposed to correcting inconsistencies.

When writing, first of all, keep this in mind - people don't just turn evil and do nasty stuff. There are reasons, and that reason is usually a case of the ethical system spinning out of control. The person or people have ethics, have values, have morals - but they've become co-opted to justifying an obsession, then justifying the actions around it.

Secondly, Schizmogenesis does not happen to "bad" people, it can happen to anyone. Ask yourself if the "heroes" in your story aren't suffering from this - maybe on some great crusade and/or totally convinced of their superiority. Maybe one of them is currently in this unbalanced state and will mess up, having to learn and correct themselves.

Thirdly, the obsessive actions of one person or group may result in other persons or groups becoming unbalanced themselves. Trying to cope with the seemingly insane or evil actions of others does not necessarily lead to rational, balanced behavior. You can become the monster you fight all to easily.

Fourth, people may do some pretty nasty things without being out of wack mentally. If you've ever had to face a tough ethical decision, I'm sure you know you can truly think things over, deal with the ethical issues, act - and still feel like scum.

SUMMARY:
I find keeping this concept of Schizmogenesis in mind helps me write a lot. It also helps me write more realistic conflict and characters.

All it takes is one idea going too far and no attempts at correcting the ethical inconsistencies, and you have a conflict.

And its results.

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