The Principle Of ‘Inside-Outside’ Dynamics

Matthew 23: 25-26

“Woe to you, Scribe and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and plate, that the outside also may be clean”

Everything starts from the inside and manifest outside. Innovation starts with idea and move into product or service. Social systems begin from desires and ideas, flow into relationships and finally settle into institutions. Behaviors begin from desires, dispositions and sentiments that are expressed as conducts. Everything moves from inside to outside.

What is the ‘inside’ that must be made clean? What constitute our inside? First, our desires; then, our disposition. What is the relationship between desire and disposition? Our desire soon becomes our disposition. When we nurture our desires they now define our relationship with the world. That relationship from an internal perspective is our disposition. It is our sensitivity to the world. It is how we are inclined towards the world. A selfish disposition therefore means a disposition to that is ‘inclined’ to look at the world with the ‘eye’ of self-indulgence: ‘what is there for me’. A selfless disposition is one that sees the world from the perspective of self-sacrifice: what can I do to make things better. This sensitivity to the world; this disposition comes from desires that have been nurture to now define the inner life. So, the inside is our desires that have been indulged to the point that they now define our: our disposition

Jesus passes a verdict: we cannot escape our disposition. If we truly want to act different, then we need to be truly different. A fruit is determined by its seed. And a tree is known by its fruit. To change a fruit you change the tree. To change a tree you change the seed. To act differently, we have to reconstitute our inner life. We have to be a different person. And the place to start is not with the outsides: our conducts, our packaging, our appearances and mannerisms. No. We ought to start from the ‘inside’. We start with our desires and change our disposition. We basically alter our social DNA. We begin to desire differently; and soon, as the morning follows the night, our desires constitute a new us.

Even as Christians, our new birth is a result of a new desire. We are asked to set our sight in heavenly things. When we accept the message of salvation in Christ Jesus we reset our desires. Instead of desiring carnal things we now set our affection on things above. The bible uses the world ‘affection’ to underlying the fact of desire. As we continue to desire spiritual things we alter our disposition. Romans Chapter 8 Verses 5 and 6 puts it this way, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace”. To set the mind on something means to ‘desire’ to ‘have affection’ for. So, to have a new life is to reset our affections and begin to nurture the new affection (‘to live according to the Spirit).

The ‘inside-outside’ dynamics has a reverse phenomenon. When we express our inside outwards it creates external environment that reinforces our inside. Our desires, ideas, aspirations and narratives create our conducts, our institutions and our systems and they in turn reinforce our desires, ideas, aspirations and narrative. This constitutes the path-dependency of institutions and systems. They are created by desires and ideas and they in turn reinforce desires and ideas that further reinforce them. The difficulty of social change arises from the fact that status quo is sustained by the inner life and often we attempt to clean the outside without cleaning the inside

How do societies also change? Do they following the principle (yes, you can call the rule) of ‘inside-outside’ dynamics? Yes, they do. If you want to change a society, then change the inside. Start with its desire and then create a new disposition. What a heck is a society’s desire? Its aspirations are its desire. These aspirations are captured by the stories the founders and leaders have embedded in its constitutional documents and policy statements. Feudal societies have different aspirations (desires) from democratic societies. Rent-seeking societies have different aspirations from productive societies. When these aspirations are retold in public discourses they become a disposition. The society is now inclined towards the worldview, the value-system implicated in its narrative. This becomes the character of the society. That is, its ‘inside’. Social scientists may call it ‘social norm’ ‘culture’ or ‘collective norm. it is this norm that shapes the social institutions that define social life. So, so its social institutions define every country. But those institutions are the creation of aspirations that have become social norms through public discourse and narratives by leaders.

The ‘inside-outside’ dynamics is an iron-rule of life. We change from the inside and manifest in the outside. Every personal and social problem can only be solved from the ‘inside-outside’ dynamics. Start from the inside; start from desires and change disposition. Then conduct and behavior will change. Start from aspiration and get narrative. Then new collective norms will change social institutions of poverty, corruption and tyranny. Righteousness, prosperity, innovation and productivity follow this rule. It is simple: first clean the inside of the cup and plate, that the outside may be clean.