MASTER, A COOPERATIVE ART

By Master Douglas

As is the want of most involved in the lifestyle, I have been spending many hours evaluating the idea of Mastery and Domination. What does it really mean to be a Master? What impact does a Master have? How does Mastery work?

I have come to the conclusion there are two types of art, productive and cooperative. Productive arts would include people like a leatherworker, painter, woodworker, sculptor, or Dominant. The productive artist takes elements, raw materials, and transforms them into things they would not become on their own. The artisan's interaction in productive art is the sole efficient cause of the result achieved, of what is produced. We take one thing and make it something else. Dominants change things.

There are other art forms which are cooperative in nature. Cooperative arts would include people like a farmer, Doctor, or Master. These artisans take things that exist, and with the aide of the raw material, help them in becoming better. The artist's interaction in cooperative art is an addition to the result that can be achieved by the raw material on it's own. Cooperative artisans take something and help it be something more. Masters add value.

Long before there were farmers, fruits and grains grew wild in nature. The community could gather this bounty with a little luck and a lot of effort. As men became farmers they learned how to help the seeds grow, how to protect them from weeds and unproductive plants, what amounts of water and fertilizers made them grow stronger, and organized them to grow closer to the communities.

Before there were Doctors, people found some way to be healthy and live. The art of healing came into effect as some found the skill to preserve health and facilitate recovery after illness had struck. When Hippoccrates wrote on the art of healing he set rules. These rules were for controlling the lifestyle of patients; the food they ate, the air they breathed, their hours of waking and sleeping, the water they drank, the exercise they did, and so on. Yet, in all these cases, the success or failure of the Doctor's efforts ultimately lay in the hands and nature of the patient.

Before there were Masters, slaves found a way to survive. The art of Mastery was developed as followers found life was nicer if there was a leader and facilitator. Socrates compared teachers to midwives, I find the comparison apt for Masters. It is the mother, not the midwife, that goes through the pains of childbirth and delivery. The midwife merely cooperates with the process, helping the mother in her efforts, making childbirth a little easier and a little more hygienic. To say this another way, Masters, like midwives, are dispensable.

When a person starts to believe they are the sole source of action, knowledge, and understanding of their partner, they are trying to dominate not master. When their art becomes productive, believing they take the clay of a submissive and make it the pot they want rather than taking a human being and helping them become whatever essence already resides in them, they are dominating not mastering. When a man indoctrinates, behavior modifies, coerces a behavior rather than growing, teaching, evolving a human personality, they are dominating not mastering.

A Master asks questions, helping the slave to find their own answers. A Dominant sets rules, making submissives remember the Dominant's answers.

Maslow talked of the highest human need being self-actualization, being fully effective and operational. As a slave personality grows to self-actualize, the inclusion of a Master helps midwife that birth. They can do it on their own but it might take longer, be more painful, and account for a much messier afterbirth.

Masters are dispensable. Masters provide a focus, a centering, an aide in life growth. Mastery is a cooperative art relying on the efforts of the raw material for the beauty of the creation, the Master-slave relationship and the glory of the self-actualized slave.