Views from the real world : early talks in Moscow, Essentuki, Tiflis, Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Chicago by Gurdjieff Georges Ivanovitch 1872-1949

Author:Gurdjieff, Georges Ivanovitch, 1872-1949 [Gurdjieff, Georges Ivanovitch, 1872-1949]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Philosophy, Philosophie
Publisher: New York : Dutton
Published: 1975-06-17T19:00:00+00:00

Formatory apparatus [131]

constantly looks at herself in the mirror, powders her face and busies herself with her own affairs, for her bosses are seldom there. Often she does not catch exactly what is said, but ab-sentmindedly presses the wrong button which brings out one stereotype instead of another. What does she care—the directors come so seldom!

Just as the directors communicate with each other through her, so they do with people outside. Everything that comes in or goes out has to be decoded and recoded. It is her job to decode and recode all communications between the directors, and then forward them to their destination. It is the same with all incoming correspondence: if it is addressed to one of the directors, it is forwarded by her in the appropriate code. However, she often makes mistakes and sends something in the wrong code to one of them. He gets it and understands nothing. This is an approximate picture of the state of affairs.

This office is our formatory apparatus, and the typist represents our education, our automatically mechanical views, local cliches, theories and opinions that have been formed in us. The typist has nothing in common with the centers, and indeed not even with the formatory apparatus. But she works there, and I have explained to you what this girl means. Education has nothing to do with centers. A child is brought up thus: "If someone is shaking hands with you, you must always stand like this." All this is purely mechanical—in this case, you must do that. And once established so it remains. An adult is the same. If someone treads on his corn he reacts always in the same manner. Adults are like children, and children are like adults: all of them react. The machine works and will go on working in the same way a thousand years hence.i

With time a great quantity of labels accumulates on the office shelves. The longer a man lives, the more labels there are in the office. It is so arranged that all labels of a similar kind are kept in one cupboard. So when an inquiry comes in, the typist begins to search for a suitable label. To do this she must take them out, look through and sort them until she finds the

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