In 1.8 years of COVID isolation, interrupted only by brief, intense periods of work, I
discovered something fascinating about how systems maintain their power. Not through
force or threat, but through perfect circular validation – loops so elegantly self-reinforcing
they appear natural, inevitable, true.
The Moment of Impact
The revelation crystallized after a workplace injury at a home improvement store, where
pandemic pressures created a perfect storm: Angry customers treating retail workers as
obstacles rather than humans. Delivery trucks blocking exits in their rush to unload.
Twenty-five kilogram boxes precariously balanced by harried workers trying to meet
impossible demands. When one of those boxes struck my head, it initiated more than just
physical symptoms – it began an enforced period of observation.
Patterns in Isolation
In the silence that followed, patterns emerged across seemingly disconnected domains.
Each system, whether educational, financial, social, or neurological, maintained its power
through the same elegant mechanism: perfect circular validation.
The Educational Circle
Consider a teacher who sees a student’s socioeconomic status and immediately forms
expectations. These expectations shape:
- Quality of interactions
- Level of support offered
- Opportunities provided
- Attention to performance
Until the student’s actual performance perfectly matches the teacher’s initial prediction.
The prophecy fulfills itself not through magic, but through an elegant system of circular
validation.
The Academic Dance
In academic publishing, “novel” ideas are only considered valid when they come from
familiar sources. An outsider’s innovation, no matter how brilliant, lacks the proper
pedigree. Like Schumpeter’s observation that innovation comes from combining existing
knowledge, the system acknowledges novelty exists – but only when it emerges from
established channels.
The Financial Fortress
Banking systems perform perhaps the most perfect circular ballet: You need credit history
to build credit history. Each rejection adds a “hard inquiry” that makes the next rejection
more likely. Even secured credit cards – backed by the applicant’s own money – get
rejected for lack of credit history. The circle maintains itself with mathematical precision.
The Social Algorithm
Dating platforms create their own reality through diminishing visibility: Fewer matches lead
to reduced profile showing, leading to fewer matches. Each left swipe confirms and
reinforces the initial judgment. The system’s prediction creates its own proof, maintaining
power through perfect self-validation.
Tools of Power: Language and Protection
The genius of protection systems extends beyond actions into the very language they use to
maintain power. Like a teacher whose expectations shape student performance, words
shape how we experience reality. Consider anger: Do we have words for it because we feel
it, or feel it because we have words that define and therefore create it?
This isn’t mere philosophy. When protection systems face challenges, they deploy
language in perfect circular validation:
The Brain’s Response: - Labels new information as “dangerous”
- Creates physical symptoms to match this label
- Uses symptoms as proof of danger
- Language and body create their own evidence
The Protection Paradox
But here’s where it becomes fascinating: Our brains, faced with information that
challenges existing patterns, don’t just resist – they manufacture physical danger to
maintain their programming. During active attacks: - Thoughts flood like incoming fire
- Heart rate spikes dangerously
- Blood pressure reaches crisis levels
- More thought cascades follow
- Physical symptoms escalate
This isn’t system failure – it’s perfect execution of a protection system so sophisticated it
would rather generate real physiological danger than admit its patterns need updating.
Breaking the Circle
Understanding comes in the quiet moments between attacks. Like studying a dictionary’s
circular definitions in calm reflection, we can see how protection systems create their own
evidence only when we’re not caught in their self-validating loops.
This reveals three crucial insights:
- Protection Systems Create Reality
- Through physical symptoms
- Through language that shapes experience
- Through actions that validate predictions
- Through cultural frameworks that maintain power
- Direct Confrontation Fails
- Can’t argue with a perfect circle
- Can’t reason during system flooding
- Can’t fight reality-creating mechanisms
- Can’t use system’s tools to break system
- Interruption Offers Hope
- Physical action breaks thought cascades
- New language creates new possibilities
- Pattern recognition enables intervention
- Understanding reveals points of leverage
The Path Forward
The way forward isn’t through fighting these circles of validation, but through
understanding how they maintain their perfect, self-reinforcing loops. In that
understanding lies the possibility of change – not through force, but through the subtle art
of pattern interruption.
Perhaps most ironically, this very insight about circular validation systems might be
rejected by academic publishers for lacking proper credentials – proving its own thesis
about how systems maintain power through self-validation.
But in that irony lies hope. For if we can see how these circles create their own reality, we
can begin to imagine ways to create new realities of our own.