Requisite attributes of a mandala relating concord and discord?

Con-quest Aesthetically Reframed via the Concordian Mandala (Part #2)

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The Discordian Mandala can be understood as depicting cycles that are moving not in union, but in resonance, such that even in the discord, there is balance and equilibrium. Detection of resonance offers one reason for an aesthetic emphasis in this argument. The point can be made otherwise through reference to the use of "conquest" in a romantic context, namely widespread appreciation of the possibility of "romantic conquest".

Whilst the deliberate provocation of Discordianism can be deprecated or considered irrelevant, the current incidence of discord and conflict give cause for great attention as an inspiration for so-called "new thinking". With respect to the latter, the point has been variously made (Edward de Bono, New Thinking for the New Millennium, 1990; Luc De Brabandere and Alan Iny, Thinking in New Boxes: a new paradigm for business creativity, 2013; Ton Jö''''''''rg, New Thinking in Complexity for the Social Sciences and Humanities: a generative, transdisciplinary approach, 2011; Kees Dorst, Frame Innovation: create new thinking by design, 2015).

Much has however been made of the incidence of disagreement with respect to issues such as climate change. There has been little effort to study such disagreement with systems tools. Why not, if it is so fundamental? Are the tools adequate for the purpose, when disagreement is so rife within the sciences?

If the Principia Discordia was a provocative effort to frame the The Principles of Strife, a justification for the Discordian Mandala is nevertheless evident from the argument of Nicholas Rescher (The Strife of Systems: an essay on the grounds and implications of philosophical diversity, 1985):

For centuries, most philosophers who have reflected on the matter have been intimidated by the strife of systems. But the time has come to put this behind us -- not the strife, that is, which is ineliminable, but the felt need to somehow end it rather than simply accept it and take it in stride.

Structurally the Discordian Mandala (left-hand image below) is made of five interlaced irregular nonagons, fitted within an overall pentagon, as discussed separately (Cognitive Cycles Vital to Sustainable Self-Governance, 2009). No two nonagons are directly interlinked, but any three adjacent nonagons (for example, yellow, green and blue) are topologically in a Borromean ring configuration.

Discordian Mandala	5 Interlaced pentagons

Interweaving: The Wikipedia commentary suggests the topologically-equivalent structure of 5 interlaced pentagons (on the right above) as being possibly easier to understand visually. Other suggested examples of linked structures with multiple Borromean ring configurations are shown below.

Borromean cross	Borromean chain-mail

Writing at the time of the 2016 Olympic Games, the image on the left can be usefully contrasted with that of the Olympic symbol -- of lower complexity in that its elements do not form any set of Borromean rings.

Symbol of Olympic Games

Author: Pierre de Coubertin (public domain image via Wikimedia Commons)

Cross pattern: The "Borromean cross", contains four Borromean rings configurations such that no two circles are directly interlinked, and cutting the central loop frees the other four circles. As noted by Wikipedia, this could be interpreted as a Christian symbol, since it combines the cross with the Borromean rings (often used as a symbol of the Christian Trinity). However, a similar design (not Borromeanly-linked) is found as a Japanese mon in Handbook of Design and Motifs (1950), and may be occasionally used as a neo-pagan "five worlds" symbol.

Psychosocial implications: It is appropriate to note the contradictions traditionally associated with symbolic use of the pentagon as implied by its use in the Discordian Mandala, as discussed separately (Transforming from Paranoia through Metanoia and Hyponoia?, 2013). The contrast is evident in use of the following image promoted in religious contexts (possibly controversially). The Discordian Mandala, with its multiple Borromean rings, forms a Brunnian link in topological terms (namely removing any ring results in several unlinked rings).

Star pentagram

The cognitive implications of the Borromean knot (or ring), basic to the mandalat, are discussed separately in relation to the work of Jacques Lacan and Francisco Varela (Engendering holistic integration: Borromean knots and Klein bottles? 2010). The Borromean knot also figures -- as basic to the minimal stable concept -- in the work of Gordon Pask on his Interaction of Actors Theory, as extensively summarized by Nick Green (Interactions of Actors Theory, Kybernetes, 2004). Comments relevant to the above argument appear in a recent blog (Borromean Machine-Oriented Ontology, Strange Strangers, and Alien Phenomenology, LarvalSubjects, 24 July 2012).

Such imagery, and the associated arguments, are suggestive of the requisite complexity of any healthy dynamic interrelating paranoia with the other "noias". They are consistent with the self-reflexivity and paradox explored in the work of Douglas Hofstadter (I Am a Strange Loop, 2007) and its collective implication, discussed separately (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops: comprehension and engagement through aesthetic ring transformation, 2010).

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