DISCIPLINE

The world is preached so much falseness because nowadays
everyone talks about the right of freedom of conscience
without having been subject to any form of discipline.
Mahatma Gandhi

If what distinguishes society of anarchism
is just discipline; precisely discipline
is what determines freedom.
Anton S. Makarenko

Live without discipline
and you will die without honour.
Irish Proverb

Let us start with something obvious: in a world that shows a clear tendency towards leniency almost on the verge of anarchy, discipline is a strongly undervalued concept. Many people even reject the word itself. Yet, sooner or later reality shows us that any pursuit of complex goals – whether they be just personal ones or the goals of an entire culture or civilization – is completely impossible to achieve without discipline. There may be many ways to achieve something; but most things cannot be achieved in just any way you please.

Discipline is not the forced submission to the more or less whimsical will of somebody else. Essentially, discipline is nothing more than a method. A method of doing things or, if you prefer, a procedure.

Contrary to what some military theorists would have you believe, being disciplined does not mean that you have to follow blindly any order given by a superior in command. Precisely expressed, that would only be mere obedience. Essentially, what military discipline teaches is just to obey; to do what you are told as you are told to do it. In a military environment this is necessary, useful and even fundamental. But it is not necessarily nor easily transferred to civilian life.

In broad generic terms, being disciplined is just being methodical and orderly in our actions.  In essence, discipline is only a method of action; a rule of behaviour.

Originally and as a concept, discipline comes from training or instruction and it relates to the process of teaching and learning. The idea behind the concept is that the teacher shows the student a path that the latter has to follow in an orderly manner and by stages in order to reach the intended knowledge or skill.

For over 10.000 years, this has worked reasonably well in the schools of every known culture, and it also works just as well in daily life nowadays. If you do not have any objectives you will live simply drifting along. And if you do not like to go just with the current and you set yourself specific objectives, you will soon learn that most of these objectives cannot be achieved in any way you please.

When you want to do something, there is always a way, a method, a best practice for doing it. Of course, there can be many ways and many paths to follow in order to achieve a given goal. But however it might be, there are not an endless number of paths, and the waypoints are not set at random.

Besides, among all the various and possible methods there is always one which is more appropriate, or more efficient, or which is better suited to our possibilities, abilities and skills. And finally, for a whole series of complex objectives, currently we still have one and only one path for the simple reason that nobody has yet discovered a better one. The good news is that there is a vast space to investigate and discover; several routes remain to be explored. However, the bad news is that investigation, exploration and discovery are not possible without discipline either.

It is true that many times a way can be made just by walking it through. But not by loafing around without proper compass nor destination.

Today discipline is an unpleasant word. To a certain extent, this may come from the system of rewards and punishments that practically is always associated with discipline. The master who guides a student along a path – be he a teacher, a parent or a guide – has no choice but to implement some form of punishment if the student wanders away, and some form of reward if he stays on course. This is specially so when the student is still a child and his reasoning capacities are not yet properly developed. Teaching a two-year-old to stay away and not to touch a hot stove can require – in a well controlled situation of course – that one allows the child to burn his fingers just a little. This does not mean that there is no other way, but given the case, it could well be that it is the most successful and effective.

When our eldest son was about two years old there was a winter during which my wife and I had to be constantly on alert. Every now and then the little scoundrel would insist on trying to touch that blessed stove that gave out such pleasant warmth. Since it seems that stubbornness is inheritable, my son turned out to be at least as bull-headed as his father and there was no way to make him give up. Until one night I had had enough, and I saw the little gnome coming pointing with his small finger at the stove and I said to myself: “if he touches it, he is going to burn his finger. Well, OK, let him burn his finger this time; it is still better that he learns it this way and not by burning his whole hand, or even worse, his face”. So, clenching my teeth, I let him go on. Eva, my wife, looked at me with an expression of “are-you-sure-you-know-what-you-are-doing?” but I reassured her with a confident look (without much success, I admit) and things just followed their course. Well, what had to happen, happened: my son finally succeeded in touching that darned stove and naturally gave out a cry that shook our hearts. But exactly at the same time he was burning his finger I jumped and pulled him away from the thing, and told him just one single word: “Hot!”.

The little rascal ran around for a couple of days showing everybody the blister on his finger and commenting the concept of “hot” in his unique childish jargon. But from that day on, our educational system became notoriously simplified, at least as far as heat risk was concerned! It was enough to show him the iron, the kitchen or the grill and say “hot”. After that, our son would not even dare to touch those objects. We had to let him learn by experience. And he did learn. Admittedly, the hard way; but he learned.

You may argue that the method is cruel. My reply would be that real life can be much crueler. The child who has not learnt to respect fire and heat is a sure candidate to be a child who spills a boiling pot of water all over himself, or a child who starts playing with matches and ends up setting the whole house on fire. And please don’t tell me I am exaggerating. I have been working as a risk analyst for decades and I might have a professional bias just as all colleagues in the field have. I admit it; but these things have happened in the past and, unfortunately, they still do. And much more often than you may think. If you don’t believe me just visit the website of the American Burn Association and take a look at the fact sheet. ([i])  Or get hold of 911 emergency statistics.

The point is that, if you do not abide by discipline, you will expose yourself to getting burned more than once. The discipline demanded by a teacher who teaches methodically – as severe and strict as it might seem – will always be much lighter and less cruel than the pitiless discipline life will end up imposing upon you in one way or another.

Yes, there are many ways to live life. But perhaps the worst and most unsuccessful of all is by constantly surrendering to the moment’s whim.

In order to avoid the unpleasant flavour that discipline has acquired, many are claiming lately that “true” discipline – the allegedly “good” discipline – would be self-discipline, i.e.: the discipline which you willingly impose upon yourself and by which you willingly abide. As for this, my recommendation would be: do not throw away the idea, but don’t get too fond of it either. At the end of the day, this may be just a way of trying to dodge the issue as it becomes quite obvious if you look at it closely. Actually what self-discipline preachers are speculating about is the possibility of avoiding the punishment that comes with indiscipline, being that nobody is so closed minded or so a masochistic as to punish himself (or at least very few people are). If you believe this, you are fooling yourself and you are just turning self-discipline into self-deception.

Of course, nobody can deny that it is theoretically possible to impose upon oneself a method and an order as a rule of behaviour. But whoever thinks this is a “light” version of discipline is really wrong. Given an act of indiscipline, punishment meted out by a superior or a teacher will be a penalty. In the case of self-discipline, the punishment imposed by life is failure.

Discipline has to do with method and order; not with somebody demanding method and order. Whether it is required by a teacher, a higher-ranking individual, or yourself, the essence of the method and order will not change a single bit. And if you behave without method and without order, you will fail in nine out of ten attempts to achieve any goal.

Self-discipline as an arbitrary exercise of personal freedom is a deception then sooner or later, in one way or another, life always punishes those who do not respect it and who think they can fool life by circumventing its rules and laws with tricks. You will never find a more ruthless judge or executioner than life itself when you seriously offend it by contravening its nature.

Consequently, there is no such thing as “bad” discipline imposed by others and self-imposed “good” discipline. Discipline is always one and indivisible, no matter whom imposes it or who demands it. Its intrinsic value is given firstly, by the objectives pursued; and secondly, by the effectiveness and efficiency with which those objectives are achieved.