Radical engagement with the environment: beyond tinkering?

From Changing the Strategic Game to Changing the Strategic Frame (Part #7)

As argued separately, citing the variety of approaches in the references below, there is no lack of "theoretical" justification for some such approach (Existential Embodiment of Externalities radical cognitive engagement with environmental categories and disciplines, 2009; Enveloping Development through Cognitive Enactivism: engaging with climate change by changing apprehension of climate, 2009). The question is what are the psychology dimensions of sustainability, as discussed separately (Psychology of Sustainability: embodying cyclic environmental processes, 2002; Alternative Approaches to Security: towards well-being and psychological dimensions of sustainability, 2004). Of interest is the nature of any "radical" cognitive reframing (Post-crisis Opportunities: in quest of radical coherence, 1995).

Classic Zen tale illustrative of the challenge of engaging with the environment
through oneself in order to remedy imbalance

A rainmaker is invited to come to a rural village, to bring rain -- for the village is experiencing drought. The rainmaker requests a cottage far from the village, and asks not to be disturbed. Three days later, rain and snow fall on the village. The rainmaker explains that he did not bring the rain. As he had felt immediately infected by the imbalance of the village people upon arrival, he took refuge to balance himself -- naturally balancing the outside world through that process -- and it rained.

Equally striking, but more "realistic", is the true tale of Don Justo, who has spent his life constructing a full size cathedral from discarded building materials (Don Justo's Self-Built Cathedral: metaphoric learnings for contemporary alternative initiatives, 2003)

The challenge is the nature of the cognitive "missing link" between alternative representations of reality in theory and allusions to such possibilities in folk tales -- with or without a basis in faith traditions. Somewhat ironically there is a sense in which the "missing link" is forced into cognition by the current evolution of technology and the playfulness it enables -- whether in game playing (in virtual worlds) or through music:

In this sense such evolution implies a degree of relatively unconscious "self-remediation" -- bearing in mind the contrasting strategies of "homeopathic" and "allopathic" remedies (Remedies to Global Crisis: "Allopathic" or "Homeopathic"? 2009).

As in many mythical tales, the "marriage" enabled by poetry is the key to that between "North" and "South" -- or between "allopathic" and "homeopathic" -- each perceiving the other to be the "Beast" contrasting with the "Beauty" of its own values (Poetry-making and Policy-making: arranging a marriage between Beauty and the Beast, 1993). The argument can be extended to the conflict in relation to "terrorism" (Poetic Engagement with Afghanistan, Caucasus and Iran, 2009; Strategic Jousting through Poetic Wrestling, 2009). With respect to the values variously articulated at Cancún, the point can be made in terms of the recognition of polyphony (All Blacks of Davos vs All Greens of Porto Alegre: reframing global strategic discord through polyphony? 2007). How would the "voices" assembled there be appropriately integrated into a memorable aesthetic form -- and what new kind of cognition would be required to appreciate it?

The more challenging fundamental embarrassment is any implication that a single coherent approach can be discovered and advocated with any expectation of universal appreciation (Geometry of Thinking for Sustainable Global Governance, 2009). Beyond the requirements for a degree of self-reflexivity are the implications of paradox which only fundamental physics can be said to have taken seriously. It remains unclear how this might play out with respect to global strategy. Hence the case of exploring the psychosocial insights suggested by the topology of the Möbius strip or the Klein bottle (Intercourse with Globality through Enacting a Klein bottle, 2009). The question is the extent to which the individual and collective identity appropriate to the requisite change in the "system of thinking" must necessarily be understood in terms of "strange loops" (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops, 2010).

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