What works and what doesn’t
Before I get to sharing a conversation here from a reading session with the playing cards, let me offer this preamble. You know that there’s a difference between generations because of the art of refutation. Most young people know jack, but they pretend that they know a lot. The consequence of this is that they hardly ever engage in refuting conjectures. This is another way of saying that they are not very good at prediction. They can’t guess correctly what happens next based on observing reality, so they often end up in a depressive ditch, where they wallow in the attitude that’s called: ‘Others don’t understand me, I’m different’.
In contrast, older people are more capable of filtering information, and because there’s less of it, it’s easier to process information and turn it into applicable knowledge. This means that not only are older people better at figuring out what works and what doesn’t, but they’re also more able to refute the inessential, even when the inessential is part of the attitude that’s called: ‘I’ve always thought this, so there’s no reason to change’.
Of course, there are young people who are intelligent and thus able to navigate their environment, adapting to what is the case and not merely chasing after what isn’t, and there are also older people who are dogmatic and conservative, who never dream of refuting what they once decide is the case.
Once I cast my cards, how to practice the art of refutation was suddenly on my table. Let’s look at what I’ve got here.
The Queen of Clubs zooms in on social relations, suggested by the presence of the 8 Hearts. The Ace of Spades and the Ace of Clubs align with the Ace of Diamonds, our zooming focus, on the vertical axis.
I told the person I read these cards for the following: ‘It’s about refuting. It’s not about what you’re inclined to do by virtue of your pragmatic nature, which is to find a working solution.’
‘Yes, but I’m worried about the people I work with’, she said. ‘They like me to be social and participate in all sorts that the company comes up with for the sake of the well-being of the employees.’
‘What’s your guess here?’ I asked her, and then probed: ‘what would the consequence be, if you simply refuted socializing when you don’t see a sharp purpose to it? Why is it preferable to sit and smile in a contrived way, or pretend to listen and be interested in small-talk?’
She nodded pensively. I ended this discussion with telling her that she was old enough to know the value of honesty, and hence evaluate the pressure from her social environment to play a role that she would rather not.
My judgement here was based not only on what the cards suggested, but also on the context of my own experience that brought me to this conclusion: applying honesty to an environment that cultivates hypocrisy is risky business, but it pays off to think about what you’re good at and hammer that to the table, whether this be the social table or the private expression of it.
Adaptability is not about being nice or being a contrarian. It’s about the ability to predict the odds and act in accordance, even when it’s in your detriment to do so. You can step up to your personal courage, refute what’s not real, and take the fall as a consequence. If you’re not ‘social,’ meaning, you do what everyone else does as a matter of ‘adapting,’ you have slim chances at succeeding in a place where everyone is invested in making everyone else feel good in, spite of what’s actually essential to address.
The question to ask then is this one: who wants to succeed in a place that cultivates false interests? The art of refutation is a subtle representation of knowing your place, and hence of a manifestation of the highest wisdom.
I pointed to the presence of the three aces here, with the Ace of Spades in the position of what is a good idea to do, and concluded the following: refutation goes hand in hand with the concise expression. Saying no is a resolute manifestation of the concise. What the woman here needed to avoid was seeing an opportunity à la the Ace of Clubs when what she was called for instead was to just say no. As an opportunity is not a strong resolve, it is useless to bank on its open promises, when the doors need to close.
The didactic point here is that the 5-card draw that highlights the concreteness of the opposition between what to do and what to avoid, here, the classic Do and Don’t spread, can be used successfully also as a mirror to the very question of what works – and hence do more of – and what doesn’t – and hence do less of, or as the case may also be, refrain, refute, or retract.
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Cards: C.L. Wüst, 1811, Frankfurt, in my private collection.
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