Conversation, confidence-building and transformative development

Transforming the Art of Conversation (Part #14)

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In response to the global financial crisis, the need for confidence-building is widely discussed as fundamental to the recovery process. It has been presented as a significant factor in relation to the process of nation building in Afghanistan. The above argument suggests an even more fundamental significance to the process of transformative conversation -- effectively a necessary prelude to confidence-building. No conversation, no confidence-building.

In the current global context presumptuous allusions to "universe" are made -- beyond its misappropriation by "university". This is most evident in "universal declarations" -- as with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It has become very apparent that "conversation" within that misframed universe is extremely problematic -- if only as illustrated at the time of writing by the widespread riots regarding an anti-Islamic film. In the absence of understanding of a "multi-verse" or a "meta-verse", it might be asked whether the "universe"-- as misconceived -- is too diverse to converse.

The implications of the prefix "con", and the use of various prefixes in relation to "verse", calls for further exploration of the implications for "confidence", as previously discussed ( Primary Global Reserve Currency: the Con? Cognitive implications of a prefix for sustainable confidelity, 2011). The argument is best highlighted by implicit assumptions regarding conformity within any universe of discourse -- whereby "converse" is conflated with "controverse" as being disruptive of "universe". The process of "conversing" is more fruitfully understood as introducing a counterpoint -- as well recognized in music and dance. Is this the requisite vigilant corrective to any tendency to engender a form of confidence-building indistinguishable from the Ponzi schemes characteristic of the current financial culture?

This is a challenge to "universe" too narrowly conceived. It is necessarily associated with "controversy" with the challenge then being whether "universe" can encompass such diversity. This framing of the dilemma enriches reflection -- as with the remarkable reflections of cosmologists. Whilst the dilemma is presented here in relatively abstract terms, the implications for faith-governance are only too evident at this time. Theology has yet to complexify its explorations in the light of the insights of cosmology (cf. Mathematical Theology: Future Science of Confidence in Belief -- self-reflexive global reframing to enable faith-based governance, 2011).

Expressed otherwise, this is the challenge of the converse in relation to confidence. There can be no confidence without the converse -- inherent in conversation -- extending into the controverse inherent in global conversation.

It is in this sense that, for development to be sustainable, a confidence is required that is sustained by conversation, necessarily allowing for presentation of the converse -- whether or not this is perceived as controverse. The "transformative science of development" -- as in the subtitle of this document -- then requires forms of conversation through which themes are "turned over" as in the various metaphors explored, whether as in light, ploughing, music, dance or drama. The "science" -- as a mode of knowing -- is that carried by conversation in the moment (cf. Towards Conscientific Research and Development, 2002). Conversation is then to be recognized as the "vehicle" of development -- in the light of insights into vehicle offered by metaphor.

The challenge for the individual -- potentially alienated by the complexities of cosmology and theology -- lies in the comprehension and practice of the forms of transformation, however many these may prove to be. Conscious recognition of these transformations -- through familiarity with them in music and games -- could offer indicators of richer forms of conversation by which people could feel empowered.

The point could be said to have been partially argued by Douglas Hofstadter through the musical forms of Bach (such as canons and fugues), which he uses to illustrate a set of patterns in the 20 dialogues of his pioneering study (Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, 1979) regarding self-reflexive cognitive organization as "strange loops",developed in a subsequent study (I Am a Strange Loop, 2007). The challenge for governance and development has been explored separately (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops: comprehension and engagement through aesthetic ring transformation, 2010).

It is curious that education now focuses on literacy and numeracy as the primary enabler of development -- skills that may be even less deliverable in a chaotic future. Strangely there is no sense in which people learn any "pattern of transformations" capable of engendering and sustaining development. In educational terms this may be exemplified by the current focus on teaching the multiplication table or its Chinese equivalent. The question is rather whether a pattern of transformations is indeed a vital minimum of greater priority than conventional understandings of numeracy and literacy -- offering greater capacity to empower with less investment, given how the pattern may be recognized in games, music and drama. Is this the skill speculatively anticipated by "grokking" (Authentic Grokking: Emergence of Homo conjugens, 2003) ? Would such a pattern provide connectivity between the cognitive modalities of games, music, drama, and the like -- a Rosetta Stone of transformation possibilities vital to development?

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