Conclusion

Law and Order vs. Lore and Orders? (Part #13)

The preoccupation of the above argument has been the unfortunate assumptions regarding a singular understanding of "law and order" and the desirability of its acceptance globally -- enabled, if necessary, by "forces of law and order". It has been stressed that this assumption deprecates or ignores the variety of laws and patterns of order. In particular it ignores forms of social order which may be sustained by a degree of psychosocial engagement associated with "lore" -- contrasting with that associated with "law" as conventionally understood.

The "law vs. lore" argument could be fruitfully reframed in terms of the classical sociological distinction between Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft. In an increasingly globalized society enabled by jargon English, these terms then lend themselves to provocative, mnemonic reinterpretation as Ge-Sell-Shaft and Ge-Mine-Shaft. The first offers a reminder of the degree of overt socioeconomic dependence on persuasive "selling" and the manner in which globlization is "sold" as the only viable strategy. The second emphasizes the contrasting covert psychological importance associated with "mine" -- so fundamental to exclusive possession of property, especially intellectual property.

Even more provocatively, both suggest a distinctive warning through the significance of "shaft" in urban jargon -- as widely used by so many to describe the experience of the financial community's impact on their livelihoods in the current crisis (e.g. How Boomers Got Shafted; Shafted Again: financial terrorists keep sticking it to the public).The sense of "mineshaft" does however offer a valuable reminder of the collective potential remarkably articulated by Susantha Goonatilake (Toward a Global Science: mining civilizational knowledge, 1999).

Periods of crisis make especially evident the "force" which may be associated with alternative forms of social order and their lore (Reframing Sustainable Sources of Energy for the Future: the vital role of psychosocial variants, 2006). The Arab Spring revolutions offer a set of examples, as with the Occupy Movement, and the 2013 protests in Turkey. The official framing of the latter protests, as "the action of extremists", exemplifies the failure to appreciate the existence of alternative forms of order (Framing the Global Future by Ignoring Alternatives: unfreezing categories as a vital necessity, 2009; Considering All the Strategic Options Whilst ignoring alternatives and disclaiming cognitive protectionism, 2009).

Prevailing notions of "law and order" may well be experienced by many (especially the young) as psychosocially sterile relative to the appeal of the "lore" of their culture and to meaningful engagement with it -- as exemplified and cultivated in online gaming, for example (Relevance of Mythopoeic Insights to Global Challenges: cognitive integration implied by the Lord of the Rings, 2009; The "Dark Riders" of Social Change: a challenge for any Fellowship of the Ring, 2002). The point is unfortunately emphasized by the roles of "gang lore", "drug lore" and "gun lore" -- and the challenges they represent.

As these examples indicate, any "lore" may well have characteristics deplored from other perspectives -- however psychically supportive they may be to those of that culture. Any form of "tribal culture" may be stultifying to those constrained by it -- as is evident in the preference for anonymity in some urban neightbourhoods as a relief from the invasive pressures of community lore. The schematic above could be elaborated further to reflect dysfunctional potentials including problematic characteristics of the "rule of law" ("red tape", "Catch 22", "Kafkaesque", and the like).

Conventional discourse over years in relation to ongoing conflict can be readily framed as "tired" and "wearisome" -- with little capacity in conventional dialogue to transcend blame-games, finger-pointing and disingenuous denial of complicity (Christopher Hood, The Blame Game: spin, bureaucracy, and self-preservation in government, 2010). Especially unfruitful is the oversimplistic focus on "solutions" based on particular forms of consensus and psychosocial development ("growth") -- in a period when the possibility of consensus, as conventionally promoted, is proving to be a strange delusion (The Consensus Delusion: mysterious attractor undermining global civilization as currently imagined, 2011). Imaginative exploration of disagreement is avoided (Using Disagreements for Superordinate Frame Configuration, 1992).

Ongoing conflicts may well be better framed by recognition of the role of the "tribal lore" (or "religious lore") which variously inspires and empowers them -- each seeking to uphold and defend the "lore" as they see it, especially out of respect for their tradition. The argument also applies to groups advocating "alternatives" (Green lore now treated as gospel, CathNews, 22 January 2007). Understood in this way, concern could be expressed for endangered forms of order, following analogous concern with endangered languages and endangered species. What "force" should be considered appropriate to enable their "security"?

Despite its sophistication, fundamental physics offers indications that the conceptual challenges of reconciling and integrating insights into "order", "force" and "law" -- let alone the psychosocial implications of engagement with them -- have yet to be meaningfully resolved. As suggested above, however, the conceptual process of physics can offer a degree of imaginative guidance through metaphor (Beyond the Standard Model of Universal Awareness: Being Not Even Wrong? 2010).

The questionable assumptions regarding singularity and plurality relate especially to "force" in contrast with "forces". Forces are readily associated with an array of military forces, or shadowy institutional forces "behind the scenes" -- questionably constraining change or distorting it to unfortunate ends. This plurality of forces is not associated with recognition of the variety of patterns of order and the forces they variously exert. Thus "orders" are unfortunately associated with the directives elaborated to impose the singular pattern in an effort to regulate the world -- and resisted for that reason.

Paradoxically appropriate, the singular order there is such explicit effort by authority to impose by force upon the world is complemented by an implicit singularity. That is the personal identity through which each embodies engagement with the variety of that world. The explicit rules of law and order, with which alignment is expected, are transformed by that inner singularity into bhavioural "curves" around it -- engendering a globality of meaningful lore as a protective interface.

As with the singularity of astrophysics however, this presents dangers as a "black hole" -- familiar to the many susceptible to depression -- effectively becoming a "mineshaft" into which one can fall. This suggests the value of exploiting other metaphors (Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: global implications of "betwixt and between" and liminality, 2011; Paradoxes of Engaging with the Ultimate in any Guise: living life penultimately, 2012; â¿ Embodying a Way Round Pointlessness ? 2012).

Potentially more engaging and attractive are intimations of an elusive underlying singular "force", associated with a transcendent unity whose nature is yet to be discovered and comprehended -- a potential celebrated in various forms of "lore", as for instance:

May the Force be with You !

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Conclusion