Sterling's Indirect Control: The Character-Impression Feedback Loop

 # Sterling's Indirect Control: The Character-Impression Feedback Loop

## Sterling's Precise Formulation

From the texts you provided, Sterling outlines **exactly** how indirect control operates:

### The Mechanism

**Sterling's Explanation:**

> "Our impressions are closely connected to our character. If you reject an impression, then it makes that same type of impression less common and weaker. If you assent to it, it becomes more common and stronger."

**The Logical Structure:**

1. **Direct Control**: Assent choices (completely in our control)

2. **Character Formation**: Repeated assent patterns shape character over time

3. **Impression Generation**: Character influences which impressions automatically arise

4. **Indirect Result**: Better character → better automatic impressions

## Sterling's Detailed Example

### The Anger Impression Cycle

**Sterling's Illustration:**

> "If it seems to me that it would be good to punch someone in the nose for insulting me, and I assent, then it becomes more likely that the next time something annoys me it will seem to me that I should lash out at someone, and that 'seeming' will be more compelling."

**Breakdown:**

- **Initial impression**: "I should punch this person" (value-laden)

- **If I assent**: Strengthens the neural/character pattern

- **Future result**: More frequent and stronger aggressive impressions

- **Cascading effect**: Each assent makes the next similar impression more compelling

**The Reverse Process:**

> "If I refuse to assent, if I tell myself 'hitting them won't solve my problems', then I will have fewer 'I should punch someone' impressions, and they will be weaker (more easily resisted)."

## The Sage as Endpoint

### Complete Indirect Control Achievement

**Sterling's Definition of the Sage:**

> "The Sage is simply someone who has controlled their assents so carefully for such a long period of time that they no longer receive the false value impressions (that externals are good or bad) in the first place."

**The Progression:**

- **Beginner**: Receives many false impressions, struggles to refuse assent

- **Intermediate**: Still receives false impressions but more reliably refuses them  

- **Advanced**: Receives fewer false impressions due to character change

- **Sage**: Character so transformed that false value impressions rarely/never arise

### Critical Insight: Still No Direct Control

**Even the Sage** doesn't gain direct control over impressions:

- They still **cannot choose** which impressions arise in any given moment

- They have simply **trained their character** so thoroughly that mostly true impressions arise automatically

- **When false impressions do arise**, they still must use direct assent control

## Sterling's Two Methods of Indirect Control

### Method 1: Assent Pattern Training

**The Long-Term Strategy:**

- Systematically refuse false value impressions over months/years

- This gradually **reprograms** the automatic impression generation system

- Eventually, fewer false impressions arise naturally

**Timeline**: Sterling suggests this is a **"long process"** requiring sustained effort

### Method 2: Proactive Impression Formulation

**Sterling's Active Technique:**

> "Consciously formulate true propositions regarding the lack of value of external things. As far as possible, do this in advance."

**Examples:**

- **Preemptive**: "Remind yourself that your own life and health are neither good nor evil"

- **Real-time**: "I have pictures here of your wife having sex with another man." Response: "My wife's actions are not in my control. They are neither good nor evil."

**The Logic**: By **actively generating true impressions**, you:

- Practice correct value judgments

- Strengthen true impression neural pathways

- Reduce the space for false impressions to arise

## Critical Analysis of Sterling's Indirect Control

### Strengths of the Framework

**Maintains Classical Purity**: Preserves the absolute control dichotomy while explaining character development

**Explains Practical Experience**: Accounts for why Stoic practice gets "easier" over time

**Provides Hope**: Suggests that even automatic psychological patterns can be changed

**Clear Methodology**: Gives specific protocols for achieving long-term transformation

### Potential Problems

**1. Empirical Questions**

- **Does systematic assent training actually reshape automatic impression generation?**

- **Are there biological/neurological limits** to character-based impression modification?

- **Can trauma, genetics, or brain chemistry override** character-based impression patterns?

**2. Logical Concerns**

- **How do we validate** that new automatic impressions are "true" rather than just different?

- **What prevents self-deception** about having achieved Sage-like impression patterns?

- **Could the feedback loop work in reverse**—false confidence creating false impression patterns?

**3. Practical Difficulties**

- **How long** does significant character change actually take?

- **What percentage** of false impressions can realistically be eliminated?

- **Are there some impression types** (grief, love, fear) that resist character modification?

## The Strategic Brilliance

### Why Sterling Needs Indirect Control

**Without it, his system faces fatal objections:**

- "If I can't control impressions, how can I achieve reliable virtue?"

- "Why do some people seem naturally more virtuous than others?"

- "How can you promise character transformation if automatic responses never change?"

**With it, Sterling can claim:**

- **Complete transformation is possible** (the Sage ideal)

- **The system becomes easier over time** (character improvement)

- **Universal applicability** (anyone can reshape their character)

- **Guaranteed results** (sufficient practice must produce Sage state)

### The Philosophical Engineering

Sterling's indirect control concept allows him to have **both**:

- **Classical purity** (strict control dichotomy)

- **Practical transformation** (character development over time)

This resolves what might otherwise be an impossible tension between **unchanging psychological givens** and **promised radical transformation**.

## Bottom Line

Sterling's indirect control is **essential architecture** for his system's credibility. Without it, he'd be promising transformation while claiming we can't change our automatic responses. With it, he provides a **mechanism** by which sustained direct control (assent) achieves **systemic change** in the very inputs (impressions) that require control.

Whether this mechanism **actually works as described** remains an open empirical question—but the logical structure is **philosophically elegant** and **practically necessary** for Sterling's broader claims.