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The 3 Cs and Our Changing World

My youngest daughter Given was having a challenging time last night. She wanted to watch a TV episode online after it was time to be in bed and I told her no. Then something happened between her and her sister and she got mad and was having a less than easy time calming down. Through the process of attempting to help her get calmer, a few insights came to me that I wanted to share here.

In watching Given try to get what she wanted, I noticed a larger pattern of behavior and in the moment realized the importance of my staying present and introducing another option. The basic strategy she was using broke into these three steps:

1) Conceptualize: she had a mental idea of what she wanted that was different from what was.

2) Conceal and or Confuse: She was choosing not to tell me what was bothering her and was attempting to make me angry by throwing things around the room when I wasn’t looking.

3) Conquer: She was attempting to get what she wanted by having me change my position out of frustration.

The basic pattern she was using, I realized, was a universal approach that humans and human organizations have used to gain power and reach goals. I also was aware of the parent in me noticing the obvious downsides of this strategy and the need for my child to learn a different one. In the heat of the moment I introduced a new strategy, one that just seamed obvious once I said it. It broke into these three steps:

1) Connect with you True Feelings: Not just have a mental concept of what you want but be in touch with your emotions and body sensations in the moment.

2) Communicate: communicate openly and honestly your experience and desires.

3) Cooperate: synergize with others to gain what you want.

Of course I said it differently to Given who is 8. I woke around 4AM last night realizing that these basic strategies for humans creating change in the world were at the core of what appears to be massive global changes happening today. For centuries, the first strategy has been used by individuals, governments, private organizations, corporations, pioneers, etc. to create outer change, and for the most part, this strategy has worked for the parties using it. It appears that many of the massive current upheavals in society are due to strategy number one no longer working as well as it did. Examples of this are plentiful and seam to be growing in number over the past 10 years.

Whatever is going on with the overall state of human consciousness appears to have disrupted the ease with which 3C strategy (as I’m calling it) number one has operated for so long. One of the cool things about humans is that when a strategy no longer works, we can use a different one. Could it be that we are at a point where 3C strategy number two will start to produce better economic and political results than 3C strategy number one?

-Andy Harrison

Hi everyone! Come out at and join the Andy Harrison Band for a special Holiday music show at The Mad Greek Deli this Wednesday night from 7–10PM. The Med Greek Deli’s address is:

18450 NW west Union Road, Portland, Oregon 97229

This is an all ages event, bring the kids. We’ll be playing our originals, some brand new songs, some covers and some holiday treats! This is a FREE event. Happy Holidays!

I spent last week performing at Insomnia Coffee in Hillsboro to get the new songs ready for recording. I played solo every day during the lunch hour and it really helped to learn how to sing them, what keys to put them in and hone in on rewrites etc. It’s amazing to me how much more you learn about a new song when you perform them for an audience- there’s something about the communication process that seems to completes the writing cycle. Here’s a video of the new song “Sneaking Suspicion” taken by Erin the owner of Insomnia.

I’ve been writing a lot for the next record and there are about 10 songs so far that I’m feeling are “for sure” songs. For the past 16 years since I’ve been putting out records, I’ve always done all the arranging and performing of most or all of the instruments. This time I’m excited to work with the band on this part of the process.

I brought this one – “Bullet Proof” -to the full band this past Wednesday to see what we would come up with for arrangement ideas and I think it’s going to be really fun! This is us playing through the song for the 2nd time, but I think the basic ideas are pretty cool so far-check it out!