PRC Update

Hello Everyone!

A Quick Update and a Hello to New Readers!

PRC has been around in one form or another since 2001. Over time I converted what started out as English classes into a one-man educational consultancy with a global reach. And though I retired in 2021, I was happy to receive a lot of positive encouragement to keep this page going.

So here we are!

The Writings section is a collection of essays, long and short, and some multi-part entires (one such, CRT? WTF?, is more like an ebook). All of the essays are arranged by category and placed in their appropriate folders.

I thought it would be good to have at least some record of what turned out to be an intensely interesting and extremely exciting experiment, one that attempted to move the participants, including myself, Beyond Technology and into a larger freedom, and to do so by simply asking and answering questions that seemed to all involved to be timely, relevant, and useful.

As with any experiment there were successes and failures, and ups and downs. But that is as it should be. After all, one of the assumptions of PRC is that life is dynamic, not static, and we are imperfect, not perfect. So the only reasonable response to this obvious and easy to verify fact is to make continuous learning, change, and growth the foundation of one's attempt to shape a meaningful life, while embracing the fucked-upness. And that was the whole idea from the beginning behind this consultancy, and not just this consultancy, but my life, of which PRC is simply a cultural extension.

The record of this more than 20 years long experiment can be found in the contents of this website, especially in Writings, which itself grew out of my notes that started in the mid-1980's when I first came into contact in a meaningful way with the Western canon through the guidance and direction of my teachers, the most important being Dr. James David Hauser of the English Deptarment of William Paterson College (now University).

It was Jim who introduced me to the work of the cultural historian and behavioral theorist Morse Peckham who, after my wife Natalia, would turn out the be the most important person in my life. But, as Nietzsche once said, a student repays his teachers badly if he forever remains a student. So launching PRC and starting this website after my retirement was proof, to me at least, that I was no longer just a student, and that it was time I repay Jim, Peckham, and my beatiful Nati, what I owe them for making my life far more meaningful than it ever would have been without them.

But, as to the relevance and usefulness of the ideas in Writings, don't take my word for it. Feel free to read what's offered here and decide for yourself. In a world as busy, as complex, and as unpredictable as ours is, relevance and usefulness are all that one can hope for. As I’ve said many times to PRC partners and students over the years, I don’t expect to be believed, and I’m certainly not interested in being “right.” In fact, when it comes to the question, What would you rather be, right, or happy? I would rather be happy. And since happiness can not be a direct aim, since happiness can only be a by-product, namely, in this case, a by-product of cultural vitality, the best way to achieve that happiness is by testing and using our ideas in the real world where all of us find our home. The irony here is that the more one focuses on happiness as a by-product of cultural vitality, as opposed to the insecure need to believe oneself to be always right, the more reliable one's ideas tend to be, and the more the pride that one might take in that reliability is tempered by a sober gratitude and healthy humility.

Cultural vitality is the proven path to a genuine and lasting happiness.

Join me in the next entry where I'll answer the question, Why PRC?

Until then, and as always, all the best!

Paul Rothwell

Patagonia, Argentina

August 30th 2025