SMCC WEEK 5 FALL 2019

PART 3: THE HABITS OF SOCIETIES
Chapter 8: Saddleback Church and the Montgomery Bus Boycott – How Movements Happen
Rosa Parks. Movement was created by three elements coming together:

1. Starts because of the social habits of friendship and strong ties between close acquaintances
2. Grows because of the habits of a community and the weak ties that hold neighbourhoods and clans together
3. Endures because the movement’s leaders give participants new habits that create a fresh sense of identity and feeling of ownership.

Parks was by no means the first black person to be arrested for breaching segregation rules. The climate was shifting however at the time of Parks’ arrest. And the three ingredients were there to turn it into a movement. Parks had a close church community but also had many, weaker, links to other communities, so word got out. Then Martin Luther King Jr quickly was thrust into the epicentre of the movement, kind of by chance. And he brought the third element. A new set of habits that overwrote the hatred that existed in the black community and created something new.

Case Study of the growth of Saddleback church which used social habits to grow and spread its faith community. Using social methods and approaches, the congregation grew tilk it was too big and had become a bureaucratic nightmare of having to find larger and larger venues. Then changed tack – begin groups in own homes. Social vision of a faith rather than a cathedral congregation. But problem arose about what then was being discussed in homes – was it Christian doctrine or just another social gathering? So created a set of materials that taught new habits that could be used in these groups and participants could practice in their daily routines. Now the church had a way of creating a shared belief, not bound by walls, where habits could grow in communities that would eventually become self-propelling.

Movements don’t happen because everyone suddenly aligns. They begin through friendship, they grow through communities and they are sustained by new habits that change participants’ sense of self.

Chapter 9: The Neurology of Free Will – Are we responsible for our habits?
Two case studies form this chapter. One of the growing problems surrounding someone who became a compulsive gambler, the other noting the case of a man who murdered his wife, seemingly in his sleep during a bout of sleep terror.

The gambler’s habit grew slowly and manageably at first over a period of years. When life got tough she began to lose perspective and the habit loop had well and truly formed. Got into considerable debt until everything was gone. The casinos, who profile each customer and determine for the most frequent ones a “lifetime value” in revenue, used the techniques above (chapter 7) to keep enticing in. more and more offers, lines of credit etc. They allegedly train their managers to be good listeners and compassionate (see chapter 5). Research into the neurology of compulsive gambling has shown that, to a compulsive gambler, a near miss (eg 2 out of 3 hits in a slot machine, or presenting a win as an opportunity to take another gamble) neurologically has the same pattern as a win. Whereas to a normal punter, a near miss looks neurologically like a loss does. Hence, casinos/ bookmakers have complicated the landscape exponentially alongside the growth of information about their customers. Gambling is more profitable than ever before as the industry knows how to exploit habit loops for profit.

The sleep terror case where the man murdered his wife while apparently asleep resulted in the charges being dropped. Even though it was undisputed that he had killed her (he himself did not contest this), the court decided that he was not in control of his actions.

Book compares these two cases and notes the similarities in both in terms of automating the brain. However, one key distinction between the two is made; the gambler could reasonably have predicted the outcome of her habit. The sleep terror case he could not, because despite having suffered from sleep terror all his life, he had never had a sleep terror previously where he had endangered his own, hers or anyone else’s life. Therefore not reasonable to suggest it could have been predicted, nor reasonable to suggest he be held responsible for the crime.

However, the book concludes by suggesting that aside from a sleep-walking murderer’s actions, our lives are filled with habits that we do know exist. And once we understand that habits can change, then we have the freedom – and the responsibility – to change them.