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Fundamental spiralling controversy evoked by con


Inspiration, Conspiration, Transpiration, Expiration (Part #8)

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In the quest for a "universal" model of conspiracy theory, it is curious to note that inspiration is not a major focus of controversy -- except when people are inspired by what is held to be misinformation and are believed to be misled. It is the reframing of inspiration collectively appreciated which readily arouses assertions of conspiracy and conspiration.

Use of the prefix "con" in conspiracy serves an amazing variety of purposes in English, thereby highlighting the ambiguity of conspiration itself -- contrasted as it is with the prefix "pro" in the identification of "pros and cons". It is fundamental to various processes through which connectivity is established in any "pattern which connects", as originally highlighted by Gregory Bateson in making the point that:

The pattern which connects is a meta-pattern. It is a pattern of patterns. It is that meta-pattern which defines the vast generalization that, indeed, it is patterns which connect. (Mind and Nature: a necessary unity, 1979)

The challenge is the extent to which any such connectvity, as perceived by some, is a form of conspiration as perceived by others. Any such pattern typically excludes consideration of those who perceive matters otherwise, as might be variously framed:

The role of "con" is most obvious in the deperate quest for consensus in a society riven by disagreement -- and the multitude of ineffectual pleas for what "we" should do, in the absence of any meaningful "we", despite the binary framing of "us and them". It is especially appropriate to note the controversy regarding the so-called Washington Consensus -- now widely criticized as a form of conspiration by the Anti-globalization movement and the Occupy movement. With respect to "consensus" can be said to have become the inspiration for widespread "insensus" (Stéphane Hessel, Time for Outrage! 2010).

Any such consensus is in turn vitally dependent on confidence, as widely remarked with respect to a society with a trust deficit of a high order. This frames the widespread concern with confidence trickery, and susceptibility to it, by increasing proportions of the population.

That inquiry followed an interest in the role of "con" in its association with the confluence and consensus sought through conferences in anticipation of an integrative resolution of the crises of the times:

The inquiry was taken further in exploring the cognitive role of "con" with respect to the configuration implied by a consensual mandala beyond the focus on conviction and conquest (Checklist of words prefixed by "con" with frequency of usage, 2016) -- notably from a speculative perspective with respect to the fundamental role of confidence as the basis for any future global currency (Primary Global Reserve Currency: the Con? Cognitive implications of a prefix for sustainable confidelity, 2011).

There is clearly a fundamental sense of integration implied by use of "con". Understood in spiral terms, this is framed by the sense of "being in the loop". However this is primarily experienced appreciatively by those complicit in the associated inspiration. As experienced by those otherwise inspired, that integration is readily perceived as suspect -- as a conspiration.

Matters are more complex is those embodying the integration -- complicit in its dynamics -- frame those who fail to "share the dream" as disruptive unbelievers. Rather than being "in the loop", the sense is more pejoratively offered by "being in a bubble" whose natural rise is be threatened by outsiders (Pricking the Bubble of Global Complacent Complicity: hyperdimensional insights from the physics of bubble blowing, bursting and collapse, 2017). For those experiencing consensus, and the process of "singing from the same hymn sheet", a need for the eradication of unbelievers may be recognized as a vital option (Eradication as the Strategic Final Solution of the 21st Century? 2014).

The peculiar dynamic of which there is limited integrative perspective could be explored in the relation between conspiration, consensus and confidence -- culinating in "confidelity" -- in contrast with the sense of inspiration culminating in "infidelity". Failure to concur with the inspiration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or analogous articulations, frames an "otherness" of inspiration then to be understood as a form of infidelty which is a threat to any consensus. Global modelling has yet to encompass this dynamic in order to enable individuals (and human collectves) to "move on".

Curiously the paradoxes, exemplified in the divisive nature of discourse at this time and the uncertainties of global governance, could be understood as requiring an adaptation of the mode of thinking which gave rise to the oft-cited Uncertainty Principle of fundamental physics and quantum mechanics (Adaptation of the Uncertainty Principle to the social sciences? 2020).

Succinctly expressed, is it a case that within a conspiration of those complicit in a shared inspiration any alternative inspiration is necessarily questionable as a conspiracy? Efforts to achieve global consensus, as with respect to COVID-19, climate change or terrorism, are then  to be recognized as naive in their failure to encompass dynamics of a higher order of complexity.

The theologians of the Abrahamic religions could be seen to have demonstrated this inadequacy over centuries in the light of their respective claims to the unique universal perspective. The simplicity of interfaith initiatives could then be understood as a reflection of this. Framed otherwise, is there a systemic requirement for a requisite diversity of inspirations -- and their complmentary appreciation of each other as dangerous conspirations? (Stephen Prothero, God Is Not One: the eight rival religions that run the world -- and why their differences matter, 2011)

Ironically it could be argued that, as the current threat to global civilization, the protein spikes with which the COVID-19 virus is adorned offer an imaginative visual model of a pattern of psychosocial "spikes" with which the globe is endowed -- whether understood as inspirations or conspirations (Spike-endowed Global Civilization as COVID-19: humanity "bristles" as the world "burns", 2020; Cognitive Engagement with Spike Dynamics of a Polyhedral Coronavirus, 2020). Whereas progress in achieving that visualization in the case of the virus has recently been announced, the social sciences have yet to map any psychosocial analogue (Carl Zimmer, The Coronavirus Unveiled, The New York Times, 9 October 2020).

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