The 95 Rules of The Steele Method
Rules for the good-faith use of language.
The following rules are the backbone of The Steele Method (TSM). These rules ensure that language is a good-faith effort to link ideas with physical evidence at the expense of imaginary thinking. In this way, language is optimized for identifying problems and finding solutions.
TSM understands that the primary source of distorted understanding comes from the conflict created by human nature as it interacts with linguistics. TSM deploys its Purposeful Language Model (PLM) to create balance within the system. Distortion is the enemy of any system and TSM preempts this distortion with its 95-rules defining the good-faith use of language. In addition, each rule is understood as both a useful tool and as a destructive weapon used by bad-faith language operators.
For a complete treatment of these 95 Rules, see my latest book, Truth: what is it good for?
Rule 1 – The physical world is in a constant state of change.
Rule 2 – The moment is infinite.
Rule 3 – The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge.
Rule 4 – Truth in the context of change requires a never-ending process.
Rule 5 – All statements must follow the 4-Steps of Discovery:
1) Construct an affirmative statement;
2) Collect relevant physical evidence;
3) Analyze data;
4) Adjust affirmative statement in step one to conform to new data analysis in step three.
Rule 6 – All personal and group agendas outside of a system’s mission statement are prohibited.
Rule 7 – All evidence must pass the 2-Tests of Discovery:
1) Can the evidence be tested?
2) Can this test be replicated by others?
Rule 8 – The Steele Method’s Purposeful Language Model is a system of relationships between the Human Operator, the Linguistic Operation and established Rules.
Rule 9 – Accurate and timely information flow through feedback loops is essential for system sustainability.
Rule 10 – Applied systems thinking requires determining whether a system is open or closed.
Rule 11 – All systems can be divided into either active (purposeful) or passive systems.
Rule 12 – Tension between parts is necessary for creating balance amid change.
Rule 13 – All statements must be built using the 3-Steps of Systems-Thinking: 1) List all the parts of the system; 2) Determine if the system is open or closed; 3) Observe the parts interacting.
Rule 14 – System success in reaching stated goals requires integrity between rules and action.
Rule 15 – Successful human systems use purposefully designed goals to create tension and balance to foster sustainability.
Rule 16 – Human systems must ensure transparency to promote accountability for the purpose of ensuring errors are acknowledged and causes corrected.
Rule 17 – Accounting for all the parts of a system is driven by the tool of wholeness.
Rule 18 – All statements must distinguish between causation and correlation.
Rule 19 – Thou shalt not assume. All assumptions must be analyzed anew to ensure they are in keeping with Change.
Rule 20 – Thou shalt not exploit anything except the sun, wind, gravity and ocean tides.
Rule 21 – Successful human systems have purposefully designed goals that foster balanced sustainability.
Rule 22 – Active systems maintain balanced sustainability by adapting to environmental change.
Rule 23 – Balanced and sustainable systems account for both internal and external costs.
Rule 24 – Centralization within a system that creates imbalance is prohibited.
Rule 25 – There is a cost to ignoring opportunity.
Rule 26 – Altering one part of a system can result in unintended outcomes throughout the system.
Rule 27 – Human experience is a complex system that includes both conscious and unconscious influences.
Rule 28 – The five human senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste provide imperfect information about the individual and surrounding environment.
Rule 29 – Human cognition is a series of imperfect connections between different types of information.
Rule 30 – Memories must be held suspect and independently confirmed before they can be relied upon as the basis of evidence.
Rule 31 – Those humans lacking the ability to experience empathy are disproportionately drawn to positions of power.
Rule 32 – The unconscious mind is skilled and motivated to deceive the individual.
Rule 33 – The human operator of language is influenced by the five basic human needs of psychological health, safety, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
Rule 34 – The human operator of language is influenced by the six basic human emotions of fear, love, joy, surprise, anger, and sadness.
Rule 35 – The human operator of language is influenced by the three basic human wounds of abandonment, shame, and betrayal.
Rule 36 – The human operator is influenced by the seven basic human weaknesses of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.
Rule 37 – The Golden Rule is the primary tool for ensuring integrity and balance between the human operator and the linguistic operation of language.
Rule 38 – Empathy is best managed through the Empathy Maintenance Tools: compassion, forgiveness, and redemption.
Rule 39 – Locke: What we know is learned from birth.
Rule 40 – Nietzsche: Truth is an illusion we have forgotten is an illusion.
Rule 41 – Saussure: A word, or sign, is a system of interacting parts and the relationship between those parts is arbitrary.
Rule 42 – Freud: The human psyche is the product (system) of interacting parts.
Rule 43 – Popper: Knowledge is a finite representation of the infinite experience.
Rule 44 – Derrida: Language is a complex system built around the forces of contrast and opposition for the purpose of creating meaning through difference.
Rule 45 – Language is a social construct.
Rule 46 – All statements must adhere to the rules of logic.
Rule 47 – Logic prohibits appeals to authority where arguments are based on the testimony of an unqualified person.
Rule 48 – Logic prohibits appeals to the people where arguments are based on common beliefs or traditional practices.
Rule 49 – Logic prohibits appeals to consequences where arguments are based on the positive or negative results of acceptance.
Rule 50 – Logic prohibits appeals to emotion where arguments are based on emotional manipulation.
Rule 51 – Logic prohibits appeals to ignorance where arguments are based on a lack of evidence that the opposite is true or false.
Rule 52 – Logic prohibits appeals against the person (ad hominem) where arguments are based on attacking the individual rather than the argument.
Rule 53 – Logic prohibits false cause arguments that are based on correlation in the absence of causation, conflating causation with correlation, including arguments of association, place, and time.
Rule 54 – Logic prohibits oversimplification where arguments are based on proposing a solution without taking into account all relevant factors.
Rule 55 – Logic prohibits slippery slope arguments where claims assert that an idea will inevitably trigger a chain of undesirable events.
Rule 56 – Logic prohibits false dilemmas of either/or where arguments are based on there being only two possible options and where only one of those options can be correct.
Rule 57 – Logic prohibits equivocations where arguments are based on applying two different meanings to the same word.
Rule 58 – Logic prohibits hasty generalizations where arguments assert something is true for the whole by ignoring the exception.
Rule 59 – Logic prohibits false compositions where arguments assert that what is true of the parts is true of the whole.
Rule 60 – Logic prohibits false divisions where arguments assert that what is true of the whole is true of the parts.
Rule 61 – Logic prohibits false analogies where arguments assert that if two or more things are alike in some respects, they are also alike in other respects.
Rule 62 – Logic prohibits circular reasoning where arguments use what they are trying to prove as part of the proof of that thing.
Rule 63 – Logic prohibits straw man reasoning where an argument misrepresents the opposing position.
Rule 64 – Logic prohibits red herrings where arguments sidetrack discussion by introducing a non-related issue that seems relevant as a means of distraction.
Rule 65 – Logic prohibits inconsistency where an argument is based on a set of ideas that simultaneously cannot be true.
Rule 66 – Logic prohibits false compromises where arguments assert that the most valid conclusion is the one that accepts the best compromise between two competing positions.
Rule 678 – Logic prohibits appeals to history where arguments are based on the claim “We should do this now because it’s always been done that way.”
Rule 68 – Logic prohibits appeals to logic where arguments assume that something is false simply because a proof or argument offered for it is invalid.
Rule 69 – Logic prohibits appeals to nature where arguments assume that whatever is “natural” or consistent with “nature” is good, or that whatever conflicts with nature is bad.
Rule 70 – All use of propaganda to exploit emotional weaknesses is prohibited.
Rule 71 – The four legs of propaganda are: divert, deflect, deceive, and deny.
Rule 72 – The use of priming the unconscious to psychologically manipulate perception is a prohibited tool of propaganda.
Rule 73 – The use of social learning theory to manipulate public perception is a prohibited tool of propaganda.
Rule 74 – The psychological manipulation of an audience’s aggression is a prohibited tool of propaganda.
Rule 75 – The use of frequency, prominence, and framing to psychologically manipulate a target audience are prohibited tools of propaganda.
Rule 76 – Using any psychological technique outlined in Joseph Goebbels’ Nineteen Principles of Propaganda is a prohibited tool of propaganda.
Rule 77 – Repetition of an otherwise unsupported idea in support of an argument is a prohibited tool of propaganda called ad nauseam.
Rule 78 – A lie so “colossal” that no one would believe someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously” (Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler) is a prohibited tool of propaganda called The Big Lie.
Rule 79 – Characterizing others as fundamentally different is a prohibited tool of propaganda called The Other.
Rule 80 – A message that dictates what is expected from an audience by eliminating the possibility of choice is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Direct Order.
Rule 81 – The intentional spread of manipulated information is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Disinformation.
Rule 82 – The use of public spectacle to generate emotional exhilaration is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Euphoria.
Rule 83 – Arguments that rely on emotionally appealing words for substance are a prohibited tool of propaganda called Glittering Generalities.
Rule 84 – Arguments that rely on deliberately vague generalities are a prohibited tool of propaganda called Intentional Vagueness.
Rule 85 – Arguments that rely on euphemism to increase the value of a particular idea or dysphemism to decrease the value of a particular idea are prohibited tools of propaganda called Labeling.
Rule 86 – Selectively editing quotes or hiding the source of a quote to change meanings is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Quoting out of Context.
Rule 87 – Relying on favorable generalities to justify questionable acts or beliefs is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Rationalization.
Rule 88 – Projecting responsibility for a problem onto another without cause, in order to distract attention away from the actual cause of the problem, is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Scapegoating.
Rule 89 – Relying on brief and striking phrases (see Labeling) that are emotionally appealing is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Slogans.
Rule 90 – Relying on the arousal of prejudices in an audience by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience should fear, hate, loathe, or find undesirable (see Labeling) is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Stereotyping.
Rule 91 – Redirecting blame or praise away from or toward one group or person is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Transfer.
Rule 92 – Using words in the value system of the target audience to produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Virtue Words (see Transfer).
Rule 93 – Relying on intentionally complex presumptions is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Complex Questions.
Rule 94 – Relying on a conclusion that does not follow from the premises is a prohibited tool of propaganda called Non Sequitur.
Rule 95 – In homage to Martin Luther.
