Contrasting fantasies of singularity and plurality

Law and Order vs. Lore and Orders? (Part #7)

The variety implied by the above considerations is variously apprehended in practice -- in widely contrasting ways which are partially enabled by individual and collective imagination.

Law and order as imagined by government: The processes of governance are necessarily highly entangled with how law and order are imagined, elaborated and enforced by government -- and so framed in engaging with the public.The body of law is understood as a singularity, whether or not it is recognized as a body composed of a multiplicity of laws -- to which additions and modifications are made through the legislative process. It is through such law that order is framed and enforced. For government, law and order is of its own making and the legitimating framework for its action. The withholding of action to those in need may well be framed in terms of the overriding "rule of law".

The framework is typically extended or projected in the power relations between states -- notably in aspiration to greater relative power. This is especially to be seen in collective preoccupation within the US with its identity as a superpower, and how this is to be perpetuated at any cost. The culture of "Being Number One" is used as a justification for ever increasing military expenditure. The underlying belief, echoed in the argument below, is succinctly embodied in the slogan: There can be only one.

This belief is fundamental to a prevalent understanding of leadership, even to be interpreted as its definition. There can be only one leader. Hence the imaginal socio-political fantasies associated with "the most powerful man in the world" -- "Our Leader ! ".

Law and order, as imagined by government, are necessarily much challenged -- if not existentially challenged -- by other ways in which each may be imagined, as suggested above (Cultivating Global Strategic Fantasies of Choice: learnings from Islamic Al-Qaida and the Republican Tea Party movement, 2010). The existence of other forms of "nongovernmental" and "informal" organization may be equally challenging to some countries, as has been the case with respect to "NGOs", "multinational corporations", "liberation movements" and "organized crime" (Interacting Fruitfully with Un-Civil Society: the dilemma for non-civil society organizations, 1996).

Lore and order as imagined by the people: The imagination of the people is variously evoked and evident in the following:

Lore as tradition: As noted above, oral lore is widely recognized as cultural material and tradition transmitted orally from one generation to another in speech (folktales, legends, myths, sayings), songs (ballads, chants) and dance. The fundamental contemporary importance of myth has notably been emphasized by the work of Joseph Campbell (Myths to Live By, Viking Press, 1972; The Power of Myth, 1988) and Karen Armstrong (A Short History of Myth, 2005). The role of lore is recognized in a chapter on History and Stories: The Importance of Symbolic Lore (in: Terrence E. Deal and Kent D. Peterson, Shaping School Culture: the heart of leadership, 1999)
Lore as a behavioural guideline: The lore as tradition may well provide strongly suggestive behavioural guidelines. This is especially evident in some disciplines embedded in a carefully cultivated worldview, as with Eastern martial arts
Lore as ancient wisdom: Whether as tradition, or understood as behavioural guidelines, lore may be appreciated as wisdom and as insight potentially difficult of access (cf. Geoff Ward, Lore and Order: Learning from the Ancients, 2010)
Lore in online role playing: With the well recognized evocation of traditional mythology in modern (online) role-playing, dating from the extensive compilations in support of Dungeons and Dragons, it is not surprising to find that an extremely popular multiplayer online game has a segment devoted to "Lore and Order", notably in German (see: Lore and Order, Lore and Order, as well as a Law and Order Wiki). The development of lore is noted in the development of digital culture by Tanya Krzywinska (World Creation and Lore: World of Warcraft as rich text, 2008). As an exercise for the imagination, World of Warcraft achieved dubious renown as one of the preferred virtual training environments for Anders Behring Breivik in preparation for the massacre of a hundred Norwegian teenagers in 2011, discussed separately (Gruesome but Necessary: Global Governance in the 21st Century? Extreme normality as indicator of systemic negligence, 2011).
Lore as characteristic of working culture: A widely cited historical study of urban culture is that of Madelon Powers (Faces along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920, 1998). The purpose was to understand the role of saloongoers in the urban community, and the "inner dynamics of the working-class saloon" as a working-man's club [review]

Online games, including Battlefield 2, Halo 3, Counter-Strike, and Call of Duty: Black Ops, are notably used by the military to train operatives in conditions resembling those currently so evident in Syria. Some have been developed with financial assistance from the military for that purpose. Millions can engage on a nightly basis in "jihad", "crusades", or their containment -- encouraged, enabled and empowered by online gaming lore.

Arguably there is far greater imaginative engagement with such games throughout the world than with current media coverage of the conflict in Syria. People achieve greater imaginative control over the dynamics and realities of street fighting in "Syria" via such realistic role-playing simulations than through the hypocritical arguments of the leadership of the international community ensuring the supply of arms to that arena.

It is appropriate to note that lore is valuable and meaningful to individuals precisely through the manner in which it gives depth to self-esteem and to personal engagement with experiential psychosocial reality -- however that is interpreted. This may well be associated with fantasies analogous to that mentioned above -- of "being number one".

Lore and orders as a pattern of habit: There is a case for recognizing lore as constituting an unexamined worldview with which engagement is essentially unconscious. As such it conditions behaviour rather than offering guidelines to be consciously recognized -- to be explained as "how things are done", and by implication, "how they ought to be done". Whilst this may be deprecated as a characteristic of tribal society, the role of "lore" in institutional socialization merits careful attention in the light of the arguments of John Ralston Saul (The Unconscious Civilization, 1995). The term could be seen as an appropriate descriptor of what is deliberately instilled, implanted or inculcated in many educational environments and other institutions. As such it may be most evident as an habitual pattern of response to situations -- characteristic of a particular mindset or "style" -- whether of Ivory League universities, military academies, or major corporations.

Such unconscious habitual response is problematically related to authority and the interpretation of "orders" rather than "order". Institutions instil an unquestionable obedience to orders and due process as a desirable trait. The consequence is evident in the fatalities in the extreme cases of Adolf Eichmann, with respect to the Nazi hierarchy, and of Kofi Annan, with respect to the UN hierarchy (Perplexing Symmetries in Obedience to Orders: equivalencies in the moral abdication of Adolf Eichmann and Kofi Annan? 1998).

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Contrasting fantasies of singularity and plurality