BRANCH TENET (Uncatalogued 2001) :
M.O.S.S.
(Move Or Suck Soil)
Where do Tenets come from?
How have they evolved?
Are they just a ‘jot of fun’, a ‘riddle to be solved’?
All Tenets through history, rely on people having ‘opinions’ and expressing them to others.
As soon as opinions are heard, counter-opinions can start to evolve.
If enough people agree on the usefulness of a few Tenets, they can solidify them into a common belief.
If these beliefs are promoted with special icons and rituals etc. they can create a ‘following’.
Your Evolution
But a big problem with this system of fixing ‘opinions’ into ‘beliefs’, growing a ‘following’, then promoting it, lies with the difficulty of keeping the whole belief as flexible as possible whilst trying to cope with new thinking, new discoveries, new communications, new situations and thus new opinions.
We are in a World Wide System that includes billions of fixed ‘beliefs’ and they have been allowed to shape every corner of our lives in every country.
Our Evolvement
This project to illustrate core global tenets started with ” M.O.S.S. (Move Or Suck Soil) ” (image above)
The Artists, Tomlinson and Jesse, blogged nine tenets after an exhibition of their work at Café Surf, Birmingham, UK. Their aim was to uncover and re-lay some original global belief foundations because so many fine beliefs had become entangled in opinionated dust storms through the ages. These had encrusted into useful tenets – many of which started out as just ‘matters of opinion’.
In the words of Tomlinson and Jesse, “By exploring opinions and writing tenets; by laying them bare, and laying a foundation for discussion, online, our aim is to re-visit the ‘eternal truth/s’ and the ‘universal ethic/s’ giving each new day’s thinkers an updating platform.”
Continual ‘input’ maintains the flexibility of Tenets as they evolve. Tomlinson and Jesse place Tenets where they can ‘move or suck soil.‘
move vb. to change.
suck soil vb. 1. a ‘rooted’ action, the opposite of locomotion, in which an idea or person vegetates. 2. the act of doing nothing but existing as is.
Where did the Tenet “Move or Suck Soil” come from ?
In 2001 UK livestock farmers faced a foot and mouth (hoof and mouth) epidemic. The government of the day needed to listen to the opinions of many ‘experts’ . As the size of the problem grew to ‘new’ proportions, they needed to take the right actions, though nobody could guarantee what would be ‘right’.
The virus was free – its own master, so it moved around and changed without warning and without care. (Update 2019: Rather like Covid 19 in 2020/ 2021 … )
We went through a period in the UK called “suck it and see”, killing the infected, isolating stock and disinfecting everything. But still the hoof and mouth epidemic spread to over a thousand farms.
Someone needed to take some action. Someone needed to get up and take control. Someone needed to interact with the moment by moment changes of the hoof and mouth virus. Whilst everyone waited for ‘someone’, the virus had a heyday.
Tomlinson and Jesse had often witnessed situations where millions of thinking people would ‘suck soil’ whilst waiting for ‘someone’ to make a ‘move’ so they ‘evolved’ their own thoughts on their ‘M.O.S.S.’ (Move or Suck Soil) Tenet in three new directions.
“Firstly, due to the frightening reliance on elected representatives and the inability, hesitance or fear to think and act as individuals, we wrote out the Tenet :
G.Y.O.B.
then
E.Y.T.
on
I.T.
which translates as:
Grow Your Own Brain
then
Explore Your Thoughs
on
Individual Thinking
Secondly, due to the long bat and ball innings between the team called ‘wait and watch’ and their opponents, the ‘act fast and now’ team , we wrote out the Tenet :
L.B.W.
and
O.W.T.
meaning …
Look Both Ways
and
Outside Worldly Traps
Thirdly, as the time was ticking by and the UK needed speedy help ( S.O.S. ~ save our stock or send over serums! ) we evolved a Tenet to cover the need to move fast in new situations :
S.O.S.
T.I.C.
T.O.C.
T.B.C.
which stands for:
Stretch Or Sink
Thought Irrigates Capital
Time Outweighs Capital
To Be Continued?
Is there an end?
No.
There is only the next beginning about to start”
From our original geocities site now archived at http://www.oocities.org/hobb_it/entrer/home/7/moss/moss.html
